Andy Duncan (executive)

Andy Duncan (born July 31 1962) is the chief executive of Channel 4 television in the United Kingdom. He was previously Director of Marketing, Communications and Audiences at the BBC.

Duncan graduated with a BSc in Management Sciences from UMIST in Manchester.

In 1984 Duncan joined Unilever and worked his way up through various divisions of the company. In 1995 he was appointed Van Den Bergh Foods Business Unit Chairman and Marketing Controller for spreads and margarines. He was responsible for the sponsorship of the London Marathon by one of his brands, Flora. He also built the I Can't Believe It's Not Butter brand.

In 1997 he became Van Den Bergh Foods Marketing Director, and between January and December 1999 he was chairman of the Tea Council.In December 1999 he became European Category Director for Unilever's Foods and Beverages division, responsible for over 10% of the corporation's global profits.

In 2001 Duncan joined the BBC as Director of Marketing and Communications. In July 2003 his title changed to Director of Marketing, Communications and Audiences. In this role he became a member of the BBC's executive committee.

While at the BBC he was nicknamed "The Implementer" and was known for his informal style. He supervised the expansion of the BBC's digital output and became chairman of Freeview, which took over the UK's digital terrestrial television service after the financial collapse of ITV Digital. To the surprise of many, Freeview became a fast-growing brand and in twenty months reached 4 million homes. Much of the success of Freeview is credited to Duncan.

On July 1, 2004 Duncan was appointed as chief executive of Channel 4 - the first person in that role not to have a background in television programming. He took up the position on July 19, 2004.

Andy Duncan presided over the Celebrity Big Brother racism controversy, which provoked a record number of 45,000 complaints to Ofcom, the UK television watchdog.

Ofcom, found that Channel 4 made "serious editorial misjudgements" in its handling of the incidents involving Indian actress Shilpa Shetty [ [http://www.ofcom.org.uk/tv/obb/ocsc_adjud/channel4_cbb/ Adjudication of Ofcom Content Sanctions Committee - Channel Four Television Corporation in respect of its service Channel 4 | Ofcom ] ] .

Labour MP Keith Vaz, who led protests in Parliament over the celebrity big brother racism row issue, has called for Andy Duncan to resign. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6687091.stm BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Big Brother rapped over race row ] ]

External links

* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/3857405.stm BBC news article on the Channel 4 appointment]
* [http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/media/story.jsp?story=537283 "The Independent" news article on the Channel 4 appointment]

References