Tuesday 21 November 2017
Britain's biggest multichannel broadcaster, UKTV, has appointed Mary Basterfield as Chief Financial Officer, a lead role in driving the continued successful strategic and commercial growth of the business.
Sitting on the Executive Board and reporting to the Chief Executive, Mary is responsible for all financial decision-making at the third largest commercial broadcaster.
Working closely with the CEO and the management team, Mary will play an active part in influencing the performance and strategic and commercial direction of the business including achieving financial targets, controlling cash-flow and management accounting.
She will work closely with the creative side of the business, ensuring that finance continues to support and nurture innovative growth through investment in new content. Mary will join in early 2018.
Currently Chief Financial Officer for Dentsu Aegis Network UK and Ireland, a global media, digital and creative communications group, Mary brings to the role over 20 years of experience in large, fast-moving organisations where she has developed and led strong finance teams to help drive business performance during rapid growth.
Mary previously held the position of Chief Financial Officer for Hotels.com at Expedia Inc., and Chief Financial Officer Europe, at Warner Music International where she was also Vice President, Strategy and Acquisitions. Prior to joining Warner Music, Mary held the position of VP Financial Planning and Analysis at Sony BMG Music Entertainment.
In addition to her executive role, Mary is also currently a Non Executive Director and Chair of the Audit Committee at the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust, and a Trustee for Students' Union UCL and the National Cancer Research Institute.
Darren Childs, UKTV CEO, said:
Mary's experience working in fast paced, entrepreneurial organisations positions her perfectly to drive UKTV's ambitious growth plans. Her knowledge equips us with the very best financial leadership which will be invaluable as we head into a new era of creating even more original programmes and growing our VOD offering.
Mary added:
I am delighted and honoured to be joining UKTV at such a pivotal point in its trajectory, and very much look forward to working with Darren and the team through the next phase of stellar growth.
Mary takes over from Tom Davidson who has been with UKTV since February 2017 on an interim basis.
For more information, please contact:
Tessa Matchett, Head of Network Communications
Notes to Editors
About UKTV
UKTV is a commercial broadcaster reaching over 40m viewers every month.
The award-winning independent has eleven imaginative brands - UKTV Play, Dave, W, Gold, Alibi, Yesterday, Drama, Really, Home, Eden and Good Food. These include the two most popular non-PSB channels in the UK and account for nearly 10% of the British commercial TV market.
The network delivers inspired channels to audiences through Freeview, Sky, Virgin Media, BT, TalkTalk, YouView, Freesat, Amazon Fire and UKTV Play, and distributes its highly valued original programmes to 200 territories.
Now celebrating over 20 years at the forefront of digital television, UKTV - an independent commercial joint venture between BBC Worldwide and Scripps Networks Interactive, Inc. (SNI) - is proud to be the first British television broadcaster in The Sunday Times top 100 companies list.