ITV confirms Archie Norman is new chairman

18th Nov 2009 07:08

Troubled broadcaster ITV has confirmed the appointment of former Tory party MP Archie Norman as its new non-executive Chairman.He will take up the role in January 2010, when current executive chairman Michael Grade, will stand down and John Cresswell will become interim chief executive. "There are few opportunities that would have tempted me back into the public company arena, but ITV is definitely one of them. It is an irresistible challenge, a great brand, a people business with enormous talent, but facing an imperative for change: the challenge of adapting to compete in a fragmented digital media world," Norman said.Outside of politics, Norman is best known for his role as chief executive at Asda, having been in charge at Kingfisher prior to that.His pay will be made up of a combination of fees and shares worth £300,000 per annum. In addition he has been allocated 1.2m shares at today's value. He will receive 400,000 of these shares each year for the next three years. His first task at ITV will be to find a permanent successor to John Cresswell after ITV's embarrassing failure to land former BSkyB chief Tony Ball as chief executive.