Discover our Board

Sir Ian Cheshire – Chair

Joined the Board on 11 April 2022. His appointment runs until 10 April 2025.

Sir Ian is currently Chair of Spire Healthcare plc, Chair of the environmental investment trust Menhaden plc, and a non-executive director of BT plc. He is also Chair of the Prince of Wales Charitable Fund, and of the Mental Health at Work Leadership Council.

Previously, he has also served as Chair of Barclays UK, the British Retail Consortium, Debenhams plc and Maisons Du Monde SA, and as Senior Independent Director at Whitbread plc.

In public service, he was lead non-executive director at the Cabinet Office, he has chaired the Ecosystem Markets Task Force, the Economy Honours Committee and currently chairs the independent Food Farming and Countryside Commission. He has won a number of awards, including lifetime contributions to retailing, green business and the Fortune WEF award for leadership in the circular economy.

Lord Christopher Holmes MBE – Non-Executive Deputy Chair

Joined the Board on 5 December 2016. His appointment runs until 10 June 2024.

Lord Holmes MBE is Britain’s most successful Paralympic swimmer, winning nine gold medals including an unrivalled six at a single Games. He was also LOCOG’s Director of Paralympic Integration, responsible for leading the team that planned and delivered the London 2012 Paralympic Games.

In 2013, Chris entered the House of Lords. His areas of interest include diversity and inclusion, the digital opportunity, culture, media and sport. He has been a member of Select Committees on Digital Skills, Social Mobility, Financial Exclusion, Artificial Intelligence and currently Intergenerational Fairness and Provision. He is also Co-Chair of the all-party groups on Assistive Technology and Blockchain, Deputy Chair of the all-party groups on fintech and AI and a founding member of the group focusing on the 4th industrial revolution.

Chris is Director of a niche change, insights and innovation consultancy. He is also Diversity Adviser to the Civil Service and Chancellor of BPP University.

Chris was Non-Executive Director at UK Sport, where he helped to develop the Mission 2012 strategy which led to Great Britain’s Olympic and Paralympic success at London 2012 and Rio 2016. At UK Sport, he also chaired the audit committee for seven years. He was also a lawyer at a leading City firm where he specialised in pensions and employment law.

Dawn Airey – Non-Executive Director

Joined the Board on 6 December 2021. Her appointment runs until 5 December 2024. Dawn’s career includes roles as Chair and CEO of Channel 5, Managing Director of Channels and Services for BSkyB, Managing Director of Global Content at ITV and Senior Vice-President of Europe, Middle East and Africa at Yahoo. She is currently Chair of the National Youth Theatre, Barclays FA Women's Super League and FA Women's championship.

Paul Geddes – Non-Executive Member

Joined the Board on 5 December 2016. His appointment runs until 3 September 2023.

Previously, Paul was Chief Executive Officer of QA and Director of QA subsidiaries, the UK’s leading technology, technology training and talent provider. He also held the position of Chief Executive Officer of Direct Line Group (DLG), having led through an IPO as part of the divestment from RBS in 2012, and into the FTSE 100 in September 2014. He is a former Deputy Chairman of the Association of British Insurers.

Prior to this, Paul was CEO of RBS Group’s mainland UK retail banking business including NatWest, following a successful career in multi-channel retailing and marketing at leading companies such as Kingfisher, GUS and Procter & Gamble. He read Philosophy, Politics and Economic (PPE) at Oxford.

Sir Roly Keating – Non-Executive Member

Joined the Board on 5 December 2016. His appointment runs until 3 September 2023.

Sir Roly Keating has been Chief Executive of the British Library since September 2012. In his tenure so far, he has overseen a series of significant developments including: the launch in 2015 of Living Knowledge, an ambitious new vision and strategy; a major expansion of cultural and learning activities, including landmark exhibitions on Magna Carta and Harry Potter; new pan-UK partnerships with public libraries including the successful Business & IP Centre national network; digital initiatives including Save Our Sounds to preserve the UK’s audio heritage; the creation of the Knowledge Quarter, an innovative partnership of knowledge-based organisations near the Library’s London HQ; and the initiation of major new capital projects in London and Yorkshire, including full-scale renewal of the Library’s Boston Spa campus and creation of a major new public space in Leeds.

Sir Roly joined the Library after a long and successful career as a programme-maker and broadcasting executive at the BBC, where he played key roles in the launch of UKTV, as its first Head of Programming, and BBC Four, as its launch Controller in 2002, before moving on to become Controller of BBC Two and Director of Archive Content, with editorial oversight of the BBC's online services including BBC iPlayer.

Sir Roly is a Trustee of the Clore Leadership Programme, the British Library Trust, the American Trust for the British Library, the Gilson Trust, the Friends of the National Libraries and the Busby Trust and he chairs the Conference of European National Librarians.

Sir Roly holds Honorary Doctorates from the Universities of Lincoln, Warwick and York.

Andrew Miller – Non-Executive Director

Joined the Board on 1 June 2020 as Non-Executive Director and Chair of Channel 4's Audit Committee. His appointment runs until 30 Sept 2026.

Andrew is Chief Executive of Motability Operations plc. An accountant by training and a leader in digital transformation, Andrew has also held senior executive positions at a number of multinational consumer and media groups. These include CEO of Food Folk Holdings – owner of the McDonalds’s licence for the Nordics Scandinavia, CEO of Guardian Media Group and AutoTrader, taking the latter from a print magazine to a digital platform. Prior to this, Andrew held senior finance roles at Frito-lay Europe, Procter & Gamble and Bass. He has also held Non-Executive Director roles and was Audit Chair at the AA plc and Ocean Outdoor Media plc.

Andrew is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland and sits on the Advisory Board for Sarah Brown's Theirworld charity.

David Kogan OBE – Non-Executive Director

Joined the Board on 6 December 2021. His appointment runs until 5 December 2024. David’s career began in newspapers. Following a stint as a producer at the BBC, he spent nine years at Reuters Television, latterly as Managing Director Global. He went on to become CEO of strategy and commercial rights negotiator Reel Enterprises, which specialised in advising television, newspaper and sports companies.

Michael Lynton – NON-EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Joined the Board on 25 April 2022. His appointment runs until 24 April 2025.

Michael is currently Chair of Snap Inc, a position he has held since 2016 having joined Snap’s Board in 2013. He has also been Chair of Warner Music Group since 2019.

Previously, Michael served as Chair and CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc from 2004 until 2017, and additionally as CEO of Sony Entertainment Inc and Sony Corporation of America from 2012 to 2017.

Prior to joining Sony, he has worked at The Walt Disney Company – where he started Disney Publishing and subsequently served as President of Disney's Hollywood Pictures; Pearson plc – where he was Chair and CEO of Penguin Group; and Time Warner – where he was CEO of AOL Europe, President of AOL International, and President of Time Warner International.

Michael is also currently a member of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian, the Council on Foreign Relations, the RAND Corporation, and serves on the Board of Trustees of the Tate.

Sarah Sands – Non-Executive Director

Tess Alps – Non-Executive Director

Joined the Board on 6 December 2021. Her appointment runs until 5 December 2024. Tess began her career in advertising before joining global media buying agency PHD, where she became UK Chair. She spent over 14 years at Thinkbox, the marketing body for commercial television in the UK, as its CEO and eventually its Chair. Tess is currently a council member of the Advertising Standards Authority.

Alex Mahon – Chief Executive

Alex Mahon became Chief Executive of Channel 4 in October 2017 and is the first female Chief Executive of a major UK broadcaster. Prior to this, Alex was the CEO of international software firm Foundry.

From 2012-2015, Alex was CEO of global producers Shine Group, where she oversaw the build-and-buy strategy of building up 27 production labels over 12 international territories and was responsible for all content strategy, including the launch of global scripted divisions and the rollout of formats internationally. Between 2007 and 2012, Alex was President at Shine Group based in LA and then London.

Alex began her career as a PhD Physicist and became a consultant and then part of the strategy team in Luxembourg at European broadcasters RTL Group followed by working at FremantleMedia and then Talkback in the UK.

Jonathan Allan – Chief Operating Officer

Jonathan was appointed as Chief Operating Officer in 2020, following two years as Chief Commercial Officer and seven years as Sales Director at Channel 4.

Jonathan graduated in Economics from Newcastle University and immediately joined a full-service agency, Cravens Advertising, in the City.

He joined the TV department at major London media agency OMD UK in 1995 and then was appointed to the Board as TV Director in January 2000. He subsequently moved into communications strategy and new business for a number of years and was appointed Deputy Managing Director in February 2005 and, in January 2007, he became Managing Director.

Ian Katz – Chief Content Officer

Ian joined Channel 4 in January 2018. He has overall responsibility for the creative output of Channel 4's portfolio of channels and its on-demand viewing service, All 4.

Ian is an experienced creative leader with an award-winning track record in both broadcast and newspaper journalism. At Channel 4 he has been responsible for greenlighting critically acclaimed shows ranging from The Big Narstie Show to Brexit: The Uncivil War and recent hit, It’s A Sin. He was editor of BBC Newsnight from 2013 to 2017, a period which saw the show collect awards for exposing the Kids Company scandal, covering the Grenfell fire and investigating the massacre of Rohingyas in Myanmar.

Previously, Ian worked in a wide range of roles at the Guardian, including features, foreign reporting and launching the paper on the internet. Between 2010 and 2014, he was Deputy Editor of the Guardian, overseeing the paper's coverage of the WikiLeaks data dumps and phone-hacking.