The Channel 4 Board today announced the appointment of Alex Mahon as the next Chief Executive of Channel 4.

Alex is currently CEO of Foundry, a global technology business delivering visual effects and virtual reality for the entertainment industry. She was previously CEO of Shine Group until 2015.

Charles Gurassa, Channel 4’s Chair said: “Alex is an outstanding leader and a highly experienced CEO who has developed and grown major international businesses in both the creative and technology sectors. She brings an impressive combination of relevant experience and is brilliantly placed to help steer Channel 4 through the competitive challenges and opportunities ahead.

“She is a great enthusiast for Channel 4 and its unique public service remit and her recent work with government will be valuable in facilitating constructive dialogue with the new administration.”

Alex Mahon said: “Channel 4's unique remit to innovate and to appeal to young and diverse audiences make it an essential part of British culture. There is nowhere in the world like Channel 4 and, in these changing times, its mission is more important than ever. I'm incredibly proud to be joining Channel 4 and bring to it experience both of leading creative organisations at scale and dealing with an environment of constant technological change."

Alex will join Channel 4 in the autumn, with an exact start to be confirmed in due course. She succeeds David Abraham, who announced his intention to step down in March and will continue in post as Chief Executive until Alex starts at Channel 4.

Alex Mahon biography
Alex is an experienced Chief Executive with a track record of strategic, commercial and creative leadership in the media and technology sectors.

Since 2015 Alex has been CEO at Foundry, a leading global developer of software to deliver high-end visual effects, 3D, virtual and augmented reality. It has offices in the UK, USA, China and Ireland – and works with clients across the entertainment, design and digital sectors including Disney, Sony Pictures, Facebook and Google.

She was previously CEO of Shine Group, departing in 2015 after successfully contributing the company into a joint venture with Endemol to form Endemol Shine Group owned by 21st Century Fox and Apollo Global. She joined Shine as Managing Director in 2006 and built the group through M&A and organic growth into an organisation with 27 creative labels in 12 countries and £700m revenues. Prior to this she had a career in media organisations across Europe, as Chief Operating Officer at Talkback Thames, Director of Commercial Development and Strategy at FremantleMedia and as a Senior Strategy Executive at RTL Group. She began her career as a PhD Physicist working in the NHS before joining strategy consultants Mitchell Madison Group as an internet retail expert.

Alex currently serves as a Senior Non-Executive Director of Ocado Plc, a Non-Exec Director of the Edinburgh International Television Festival charity and Chair of the Royal Television Society Programme Awards. Alex was a member of the Government’s most recent advisory group on the BBC Charter Review. She is also Appeal Chair of The Scar Free Foundation a national charity funding pioneering and transformative medical research into disfigurement.

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Notes to editors:
Alex Mahon is Channel 4’s seventh Chief Executive in its 35-year history. Previous Chief Executives were David Abraham (2010 to present), Andy Duncan (2004 to 2009), Mark Thompson (2002 to 2004), Michael Jackson (1997 to 2001), Michael Grade (1988 to 1997) and Jeremy Isaacs (1982 to 1987).