NEWS20 January 2020

Former ITV CEO in talks to chair Kantar

UK – Kantar is in discussions with Adam Crozier, formerly chief executive of ITV, to become its chairman.

Crozier led ITV until 2017 and currently chairs online fashion retailer Asos, hospitality firm Whitbread and cinema company Vue International.

Prior to ITV, he was chief executive at Royal Mail and has also been chief executive of The Football Association and joint CEO at Saatchi & Saatchi.

A source close to the matter confirmed that Kantar is in negotiations with Crozier, but that the conversations are not yet complete.

Ian Griffiths, who was previously chief operating officer and chief financial officer at ITV between 2008 and 2018, recently joined Kantar as chief financial officer.

WPP completed its sale of 60% of Kantar to private equity firm Bain Capital in December 2019. Kantar is yet to appoint a successor to chief executive Eric Salama, after he announced that he would be stepping down from the role this year, citing “personal priorities”.

The company has recently appointed Chris Morley as managing director, UK, Ireland and US, for the Worldpanel division, and Dom Boyd as managing director, offer for the UK Insights division.

Kantar declined to comment on the potential appointment, which was first reported in the Sunday Times.