Zillah joined the Board on 15 June 2023 and is Chair of the Nomination Committee. Zillah brings a wealth of experience across media and technology businesses, including having most recently been Chief Executive Officer of Future plc, a global platform for specialist media. She has extensive experience as a board member and currently serves as Chair of Trustpilot Group plc. She has served on the boards of Future plc, Flutter Entertainment plc and GoCo Group plc.
Zaid joined the Board on 16 May 2024. He brings an extensive track record of advertising and marketing leadership, managing global teams and brand-building expertise. Most recently, he was Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) at Channel 4. Previously he was CMO Channel 4 from 2019, Chief Brand & Marketing Officer of BT plc, where he led the BT, EE, Plusnet & Openreach brands. He also spent 20 years at Procter & Gamble, in marketing and commercial roles, including as Managing Director of the Health & Beauty division for the UK & Ireland.
Simon joined the Board on 1 July 2024. He is an experienced CFO, having held several executive and senior management roles across a range of UK listed companies. His former positions include CFO of Reach plc and McColl’s Retail Group plc. He has also held senior managerial roles in the finance functions of Tesco plc, BT Group plc and COLT Telecom plc. He qualified as a chartered accountant with PricewaterhouseCoopers in 2001.
Dame Heather Rabbatts joined the Board on 22 January 2024 and is the Board’s Senior Independent Director. Heather has extensive experience as a board member having held a number of executive and non-executive roles including in local government, infrastructure, media and sports. She currently holds a broad range of Non-Executive Directorship roles across companies and organisations including Associated British Foods plc (where she is also Senior Independent Director), Times Up UK, and Soho Theatre. She has previously been a Non-Executive Director of Kier Group plc and Grosvenor Britain & Ireland. She was the first woman on the Board of the Football Association in over 150 years.
Colin Jones joined the Board on 3 February 2020 and is now our Audit Committee Chair. He is currently Non-Executive Chairman of Centaur Media Plc, the market intelligence company, having joined in 2018 as a Non-Executive Director. Colin is also a Non-Executive Director of The City Literary Institute, the adult education college and a Non-Executive Director of Datatec Limited, an international information and communications technology company. Colin previously spent over 20 years as Finance Director of Euromoney Institutional Investor Plc, the FTSE 250-listed media company, until he retired in 2018. Colin began his career at Price Waterhouse where he qualified as a chartered accountant.
Georgina brings to us a wealth of fantastic and diverse experience having held several non-executive and senior independent director roles across a range of UK listed companies including Capita, Britvic, Superdry, McColl’s Retail Group, Big Yellow Group and William Hill. As well as her significant corporate experience, she also brings many years of executive level experience in advertising and media, having previously held MD roles at Trinity Mirror Group, Wallpaper Group and IPC Advertising. Georgina will join the Audit & Risk and Nomination Committees and become chair of our Remuneration Committee in the new year.
Chris joined the Board on 15 June 2023. He was previously the Deputy Group Finance Director of WPP Group and is currently a Non-Executive Director at TPX Holdings plc and Unlimited Marketing Group, a private equity-owned marketing services group. Chris will serve as a representative of AdvancedAdvT Limited and Vin Murria who hold in aggregate 27,237,985 ordinary shares in the Company, representing 22.2 per cent. of the Company's issued share capital. Accordingly, Chris will not be considered to be independent. Chris will be entitled to remain on the Board provided AdvancedAdvT Limited and Vin Murria retain an aggregate interest of at least 11.5 per cent. of the Company's issued share capital.