The challenge for

As Channel 4’s new CEO, Andy Duncan, takes the hot

seat, Maggie Brown examines the team he has inherited
and asks if they can maintain their winning streak
Hemera/Jamieson

W
hatever happened to “gardening leave?” Chan-
nel 4’s new chief executive, Andy Duncan, joined
Channel 4 in a super quick transfer on Monday,
19 July, in time to influence the final debates with
Ofcom over the second phase of the public service broad-
casting review – the important stage.
While much is made of Dun-
When Duncan arrived at the BBC, he was careful to qui-
etly take a measure of the organisation before making his
moves. He’s given no guarantees to anyone at C4. He may
decide to expand or adjust the executive board to bring in
fresh faces and new skills. The broadcaster is committed to
diversity, but you’d never guess it from the top team’s white,
male composition.

Duncan believes can’s lack of television pro- Most notably, since David Brook, director of strategy, left
BBC

gramming experience, he does in Thompson’s purge two years ago, there has been no mar-

several things conform to type in one area.

C4 has never produced a chief
keting expert on the board – a bit of a gap – and there may
be other skills needed.

are not 100% executive from its own ranks.

Duncan, as with Grade,
Chairman Luke Johnson says he appointed Duncan as
“someone who can lead a team, and devise and execute a

right at the
Michael Jackson and Thomp- strategy to maintain the relevance [of C4] and ensure we
son, has made the leap from are not marginalised, squeezed between the BBC, ITV and

channel. One of the early

the BBC’s top tier. The BBC BSkyB”.
could hardly insist on a cool- When Duncan’s appointment was announced Scott
ing off period, after Grade pointed to his top-flight marketing background and the tri-
things C4 must think had whisked Mark Thompson umph of Freeview – noting they were complementary skills
away. to those already in place at the channel. In the past chief
through… is the further But these regular imports executives have heavily involved themselves in programme
of new chief executives have matters.
development of Freeview fostered a degree of manage- Duncan, for all his friendly image, was schooled in the
rial continuity at C4, through hard world of Unilever, which he joined after a degree in
and free satellite the creation of a small, strong
executive team.
management science, at Manchester’s Umist; he went to the
Whitgift School, Croydon, a top-performing boy’s public day
(Above) C4 CEO They are, currently, deputy chief executive David Scott, school and he lives nearby in Surrey, where he is a regular
Andy Duncan one of the original founders of C4, Andy Barnes, who joined attender at his local church.
in 1991 as it prepared to sell its own advertising for the first At Unilever he was its UK marketing director, subsequently
time, Kevin Lygo, who rejoined last year as director of tel- put in charge of strategy for fast-moving consumer goods
evision, and Rob Woodward, the increasingly powerful com- across Europe, which meant two days a week in Rotterdam
mercial director, recruited from UBS Warburg in 2001. – not ideal for a committed family man, with two g page 10

Television September 2004 9

09-11 C4 - Brown 1 5/8/04, 8:27 am