Henry Staunton

Born in India on May 20, 1948, Henry Staunton is a British businessman and the former Finance Director of Granada Group and ITV plc.

Named in The Times 2006 Power 100 survey, referred to as "FD Supreme" by Accountancy Age, and rated as one of the magazine's top 50 finance movers and shakers, Staunton is a "well regarded dealmaker" [The Daily Telegraph, 22 September, 2005] with a long history of big corporate transactions [The Business, 25 September, 2005] .

He currently sits on the boards of Ladbrokes, Legal & General, The Merchants Trust plc and Standard Bank.

Granada & ITV

Staunton was appointed to the board of ITV plc on 3 December, 2003 after the merger of Granada and Carlton. Previously he served as the Finance Director of Granada Group plc, which he joined in 1993.

Since then Granada / ITV has :
* acquired London Weekend Television via a £650m hostile takeover (1994);
* acquired motorway catering company Pavilion Leisure (1994);
* acquired Direct Vision Rentals (1994);
* taken over Forte Group via a £3.8 billion tender offer (1996);
* acquired Yorkshire Television and Tyne-Tees TV (1997);
* acquired Anglia TV (2000);
* acquired HTV (2000);
* acquired Meridian TV (2000);
* merged with Compass Group to form Granada Compass plc (2000);
* demerged Granada Media (2000);
* acquired Border TV (2001); and
* merged with Carlton to form ITV (2003).

On 21 September 2005 ITV plc announced that Staunton planned to step down as Finance Director - to the surprise of the analyst community [Marketing, 21 December, 2005] . He resigned from the Board of ITV plc on 29 March 2006 [Regulatory News Service, 30 March 2006] announcing that he planned to "broadly retire" [Business Big Shot, The Times, 9 March 2006: http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/article739003.ece] .

Non-Executive Career

Staunton's board experience includes non-executive roles as Chairman of Ashtead Group plc, a plant hire company (1997 – 2004), and as a director of EMAP plc, a consumer magazine and media company. In 2002, Staunton (who had sat on the Emap board since 1995) was forced to resign after a government ruling that he could not be on the board of both Granada and Emap. [The Daily Telegraph: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2002/06/27/bfmov27.xml]

He has also served on the boards of ITN, a British news broadcaster, and BSkyB - the operator of the UK's largest digital pay television platform.

He was appointed to the board of Legal & General on 1 May, 2004, and sits on the Audit and Nominations Committees [http://investor.legalandgeneral.com/bios.cfm?bio=Staunton33] .

He is also a non-executive director of Standard Bank. [ [http://www.standardbank.co.za/site/investor/ar_2005/financials/directors_report.htm Standard Bank - Annual report 2005 : Directors’ report ] ] Staunton was appointed Chairman of the Board Audit Committee and a director on 1 December 2005.

Staunton was appointed a non-executive director of Ladbrokes (1 September 2006). [ [http://www.ladbrokesplc.com/index.php?id=1&pid=1b Ladbrokes PLC - Home ] ]

In April 2007 The Times reported that Vector, the £2.5 billion hotel real estate investment trust (Reit), was about to unveil a "high-powered set of nonexecutive directors" including Staunton [The Times: http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/leisure/article1701237.ece] .

He was appointed a non-executive director of The Merchants Trust plc (with effect from 1 May 2008) on April 2008 [ [http://moneyam.uk-wire.com/cgi-bin/articles/200804161544164991S.html MoneyAM - Free Share Prices, Stock Quotes, Charts, News, Level2 ] ] .

Earlier career

Staunton began his career in 1970 with Price Waterhouse and was admitted as a partner in 1981, later becoming Senior Audit Partner, looking after a number of its major clients including Reuters and Courtaulds.Before joining Price Waterhouse, Staunton attended Exeter University between 1967 and 1970, reading Economics and Statistics.

Quotes

"He helped steer one of the largest mergers in media history and played a key role in ensuring Granada and its key executives came out on top after the £5.8bn [Granada/Carlton] deal." [Karen Day, Accountancy Age, 29 September 2005]

"He was instrumental in paving the way for the merger through a series of high-profile acquisitions, including LWT and Forte, and outflanked Carlton to buy United and Media’s ITV franchises in 2000, which allowed Granada to grow in market dominance." [Ibid]

"Staunton had been at Granada, and latterly ITV, for 12 years. In this time, he had worked on Granada's acquisitions of Forte, LWT and United News & Media's ITV franchise before taking a lead role in the merger with Carlton. He also handled ITV's break-up, the flotation of the broadcasting arm and the merger of the catering business with Compass - a valuable asset." [Sean Brierley, Editor of Finance Week]

"HENRY STAUNTON was the finance director who helped Sir Gerry Robinson and Charles Allen to take Granada from regional franchise to top dog at ITV... During his tenure Mr Staunton helped the company through the bruising acquisitions of Forte, the hotel and motorway cafe group, and LWT, the London broadcaster. In 2000 Granada outflanked its rival Carlton to buy United News & Media's ITV franchises, before reaching a merger deal to be the dominant force in ITV. A year later the company was broken up and Mr Staunton handled the flotation of the broadcast arm and merger of the catering business with Compass." [Dan Sabbagh, The Times, 22 September 2005]

Other Interests

Outside of his business life, Staunton sits on the advisory board of Xfi, Exeter University's business school. He plays Eton Fives [ [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/money/2008/05/02/ccdiary102.xml PKF says The Plumber Paul Davidson should pipe down with his demands - Telegraph ] ] and golf. His clubs include Walton Heath Golf Club [ The Times: http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/columnists/article1652578.ece] and the RAC.

References

External links

* [http://www.pwc.com PwC website]
* [http://www.itvplc.com ITV plc corporate website]
* [http://www.ashtead-group.com Ashtead Group plc corporate website]
* [http://www.ladbrokesplc.com Ladbrokes plc corporate website]
* [http://www.emap.com emap plc website]
* [http://www.itn.co.uk ITN official website]
* [http://www.legalandgeneralgroup.com Legal & General corporate website]