Across the board

Who’s who in the Channel 4 director row

Lucy Frazer, the Culture Secretary, on Monday approved the appointment of five new directors to the Channel 4 board. The move was criticised on diversity grounds by the chairman of the broadcaster as four of them were white. Here are the five new appointments

Sebastian James

Mr James is chief executive of Boots, an old Etonian who went on to study at Oxford and son of the 5th Baron Northbourne. The 57-year-old was a member of the Bullingdon Club, alongside Lord Cameron, and the pair have holidayed together in Tuscany. He was previously boss of Dixons Carphone and holds board positions at Modern Art Oxford and Save the Children.

Dame Annette King

Dame Annette has held a series of top roles in her 30-year career in advertising. She is global head of marketing at Accenture Song, haivng served as chief executive of Publicis Groupe UK and Ogilvy. She chairs the Advertising Association and is a member of the UK Investment Council, having previously chaired the Creative Industries Trade & Investment Board.

Alex Burford

Mr Burford is a record label executive who serves as managing director of Warner Records UK, making him the youngest boss of any major record label in the country, having risen through the ranks at. He was previously general manager of Black Butter, a joint venture music label with Sony, and has worked with the likes of Dua Lipa, Liam Gallagher and Pinkpantheress.

Debbie Wosskow

Ms Wosskow is an entrepreneur with more than 25 years’ experience. She founded home exchange website Love Home Swap, which she sold for $53 million (£42 million in 2017, and Allbright, a women-only networking community. Ms Wosskow serves on the board of the Women’s Prize for Fiction, among others. She was awarded an OBE for services to business in 2016.

Tom Adeyoola

Mr Adeyoola is an entrepreneur who started his career as a financial analyst before founding Metail. He was educated at the exclusive St Paul’s School in London and the University of Cambridge. He is co-founder of Extend Ventures, a charity that helps improve access to funding for under-represented tech entrepreneurs and is chairman of Spoke, a mindfulness app for Generation Z.