Alex Mahon CEO Channel 4

Alex Mahon describes herself on Twitter as an “insatiable TV watcher, feminist and mother of 4”. Ask almost anyone else in the television industry about the newly appointed chief executive of Channel 4 and they invariably mention that she is good company and has a PhD in physics, not necessarily in that order.

The first woman to head the state-owned company committed to diversity, or indeed any of the big British broadcasters, Mahon is likely to need all her intelligence, charm and contacts to deal with the challenges facing Channel 4.

Born in London, Mahon moved to Edinburgh at the age of five, where she grew up with her mother and stepfather. In a relatively rare interview with the Scotsman newspaper, she talked of a “non-standard household” that eventually grew to nine stepbrothers and sisters and an early job in her mother’s pharmacy.

After studying physics at Imperial College London, she left medical research, becoming first a consultant and then strategy executive for the broadcaster RTL. After six years working with Elisabeth Murdoch at Shine TV, she became chief executive in 2012, overseeing companies that produced hits from Broadchurch to MasterChef.

Channel 4

At Channel 4, we’re more than a public service broadcaster, we’re a unique and distinctive part of life in the UK. Channel 4 is free-to-air and freely available to all of the UK. We have the UK’s biggest free streaming service, All 4, plus a network of 12 television channels. Since Channel 4 was created in 1982, it has been at the centre of national conversations and a catalyst for the creation of a world-beating production sector in the UK. Our purpose is to create change through entertainment. We do this by representing unheard voices, challenging with purpose and reinventing entertainment. Our unique model – commercially-funded but publicly-owned – means that we’re able to offer independent and distinctive, universal content reflecting the interests of different communities across the UK As a publisher-broadcaster, Channel 4 commissions UK content from the independent production sector and currently works with around 300 creative companies across the UK every year.

Our Purpose

To create change through entertainment. We aim to create change in the wider world through all of our activities: from TV, to streaming, social media and film – and our day-to-day roles at Channel 4. It’s the impact that Channel 4 has on society, on viewers, on British culture, on the creative industries and on the wider economy. It’s why Channel 4 is – and will continue to be – different.

 

 

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