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Alex Mahon resigned as Channel 4 chief executive almost eight years later, seeking a chair, and at the same time triggering a search for a new boss for UK public sector broadcasters.
Mahon has been on the channel since 2017, joining as the first female CEO since 2017, and will leave for the summer. She has been in a new role, but Channel 4 declined to comment on where Mahon is heading next.
Her departure comes after cutting down Channel 4’s work and costs in the wake of the worst recession in advertising revenue since the 2008-2009 financial crisis.
The broadcasting station is also looking for a permanent chair, after Ian Cheshire, the outgoing chair, announced last year that he would also be pausing. The search is being carried out by headhunter Russell Reynolds, and the appointment will be overseen by the media regulator Ofcom but approved by the UK Secretary of State.
Dawn Airey will serve as a chair until a permanent appointment.
The new chair is responsible for appointing the next CEO, Mahon said in a note to staff. She added that it was “an unusual quiet moment in the end” and that she would leave there.
She added: “A new chair is here and it’s the right time to appoint a CEO who will lead Channel 4 to the next chapter.”
Mahon’s overall wages on commercially funded but public broadcasters fell by £993,000 last year from about a third of its kind. She is also a non-executive board member of fashion group Chanel.
Channel 4 is in the middle of a shift in business model from a decline in linear television business of online streaming and social media models with more viewers to a social media model with more viewers.
Channel 4 revenues fell from £11 billion in 2023 to about £1 billion in 2023, leaving a pre-tax deficit of £52 million from a £3 million surplus in 2022, according to recent figures.
During her tenure, Mahon helped the conservative minister secure the future of Channel 4 as a public sector broadcaster following his attempts to privatize the channel. She also led some moves in the organization’s business outside London, bringing Victoria headquarters to market.
Rather than outsource production to independent sectors, Channel 4 secures the right to create its own television program for the first time in its 40-year history.
In a note to staff, she said: “We protected the brand even if we reinvented it. We kept it dangerous, relevant and obsessively new.”
Mahon will be temporarily replaced by Channel 4 Operations Chief Jonathan Allan as interim CEO, and the board will search for a permanent exchange.
Also, on Monday, the BBC announced that the workplace culture review found no evidence of toxic culture within public sector businesses. However, some staff warned that “a small number of people in the BBC could have acted acceptable without being addressed.”
