Ade Rawcliffe has been appointed Group Director of Diversity and Inclusion at ITV. Ade will report to the Group CEO, Carolyn McCall, and will be a member of the Management Board. ITV will become the first FTSE 100 company with a dedicated diversity director on its executive board.

Ade will lead, develop and grow ITV’s D&I strategy to deliver its published targets and will partner with all Management Board leaders, the Commissioning teams, Social Purpose team and the HR team to deliver the ITV Diversity Acceleration Plan. She will also work with key stakeholders in the industry to deliver ITV’s on and off screen diversity ambitions. While ITV’s plan has a focus on supporting those from a Black, Asian and minority ethnic background, ITV remains committed to its other diversity targets and activities – particularly on doubling disability and improving social mobility.

Carolyn McCall, ITV CEO, said:

“Putting this new role on the Board ensures Diversity is part of business discussion and decision making at the most senior level. Ade was the outstanding candidate for this role and I am really pleased she will become ITV’s first Group Director of Diversity and Inclusion. Her appointment is a demonstration of our commitment to improve diversity and inclusion in ITV.

“Ade brings fantastic experience – in both commissioning and production as well as in diversity and inclusion - and great passion to this role and we will support her to ensure she helps accelerate change in diversity across ITV by creating more opportunities.

She will give focus, coordination and leadership to our plans to create a culture where absolutely everyone, whatever their race, disability, pronoun they use or whoever they love, feels comfortable being themselves.

“I know everyone at ITV will wish Ade well and support her to deliver on our ambitious plans.”

Ade Rawcliffe said:

“I am delighted to be appointed as ITV’s Group Diversity and Inclusion Director at this very important time.

“The creation of this new role demonstrates the commitment of the Management Board towards accelerating diversity and inclusion at ITV.

“I feel passionately that all our viewers should see their lives and experiences authentically represented onscreen. I believe that talent is all around us and that opportunities behind the camera and more generally within ITV itself should be equally accessible to all. This is the right thing to do, but there is also a proven business case for greater diversity and better representation.

“I feel particularly excited to take on this role at ITV, the place that gave me my first break, working as runner at Granada Television in the mid-90s.“

Ade started her career as a freelance producer working across BBC, ITV and Channel 4 on a variety of programmes from Sport Relief to Big Brother. She then spent four years at BBC Sport as a producer on live major sporting events, including The Olympic Games, The Winter Olympics and The Commonwealth Games. She spent more than 10 years at Channel 4, latterly as Creative Diversity Manager, where she supported and nurtured the careers of diverse creative talent and sought out and commissioned a slate of developments from new, diverse and emergent companies, which encouraged diversity, risk-taking and innovation.

Ade moved to ITV in 2017 and is currently Director of Creative Diversity where she plays a leadership role in driving diversity and inclusion on and off screen. Ade implemented ITV’s Commissioning Commitments, which require producers to commit to improving diversity, both on and off screen as part of the commissioning process and improved representation both on and off screen within ITV’s output, including Loose Women, Tonight, Dancing on Ice and in ITV’s soaps Emmerdale and Coronation Street.

ITV published its Diversity Acceleration Plan last month detailing the five key areas of action, each of which has a detailed series of supporting activities and each of which is illustrated by lead commitments outlined below, which will be delivered over the next 12 months:

1. Increasing diversity on ITV’s Management Board and senior leadership teams

· creating a new role of Group Diversity and Inclusion Director as well as creating a number of opportunities for new senior leaders in commissioning and production

2. Commissioning to ensure ITV better represents contemporary British life on screen within the next 12 months

· increasing the diversity of presenters of ITV’s highest profile programmes as well as the lead actors in ITV dramas by backing and supporting the careers of talent from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds to land lead roles

3. Improving diversity and career progression in TV production

· ITV’s ‘Step Up 60’ initiative will provide the chance for at least 60 people to step up and secure their first ITV senior editorial and production roles, including directing, writing or producing episodes of ITV’s new and returning drama, factual and entertainment shows

4. Recruitment – taking positive action at entry level as well as middle and senior leadership

· up to 20 new opportunities in middle management and 40 new apprenticeships

· positive action campaign to support under represented candidates

· commitment to advertise all permanent roles and to advertise externally across a wide range of portals to ensure diverse pools of candidates

· use of a variety of candidate selection and assessment tools to reduce unconscious bias

5. Educating and developing ourselves so everyone understands racism and their role in creating an inclusive culture

· mandatory race and inclusion training for all staff and on-screen presenters and commentators

· inclusive leadership training for all managers

· ITV Rise programme which enables minority ethnic talent progression and inclusive culture change

ITV will report on progress on each of these commitments every year. ITV is also establishing a Cultural Advisory Council – a group of independent external advisers who will advise, challenge and counsel ITV on all of its inclusion and diversity activities.