ÜExecutives


Dinah Caine Chief executive, Skillset


This influential champion of the small creative business has won the ears of culture secretary Jeremy Hunt and business secretary Vince Cable. Thanks to Caine’s (above) ongoing campaigning, Cable announced in February that 500 businesses would receive funding for apprenticeship schemes. Her work on government advisory panels as well as a Skillset- backed report calling for better train- ing across the creative sectors means that from September, payments of £1,500 will be made by Skillset to employers with fewer than 250 staff, to increase the number of appren- ticeships in the creative industries. Under Caine’s leadership, Skillset has also made great strides in document- ing the status of women – ensuring that stats were pulled out of the 2009 Skillset Census highlighting the loss of 5,000 women from the TV indus- try over a three-year period.


include moving hit BBC school drama Waterloo Road to Glasgow, where Shed is currently beefing up its production operations. It’s a move Scottish Enterprise estimates will create around 230 jobs and generate almost £25m in direct investment over the next two years. Gallagher was awarded an OBE for services to broadcasting in 2010 following her close involvement as chair of Pact in securing new Terms of Trade for independent producers.


Sara Geater Chief executive, Fremantle Media UK


Handed the task of reviewing and overhauling Talkback Thames, Sara Geater has responded with the brave decision to ditch one of the most influential brands in the indie com- munity. Fremantle Media UK, as the super-producer is now known, has been restructured into four distinct labels, in a move designed to put crea- tive talent at the forefront of the busi- ness. Retort, Boundless, Talkback and Thames will be autonomous – with each having its own investment – and have been set up to kickstart growth after a flat period. The company cer- tainly managed to turn up the heat on some shows under Geater’s watch in 2011: Take Me Out may have had some tabloid scandals but is now a key component of ITV1’s Saturday night line-up, and Celebrity Juice has become a bona fide breakout hit with terrestrial-beating ratings. New hits will be top of the agenda in 2012.


Janice Hadlow Controller, BBC2


Eileen Gallagher Chief executive, Shed Productions


A shrewd businesswoman and power ful creative force, as managing director of Shed Media, Gallagher (above) used the success of hits such as Bad Girls and Footballers’ Wives to build up one of the UK’s first super- indies – sold to Warner Bros for £100m in 2010. Gallagher returned to her creative roots at the end of 2008, becoming chief executive of Shed Productions. Recent activities


After a very public dressing down two years ago from director general Mark Thompson, the BBC2 controller came back all guns blazing. Almost every big hitter in the past 18 months has come from Hadlow’s stable, from Brian Cox’s Wonders Of The Universe to The Hour and Miranda.


Unearthing the UK’s top female comic is not her only contri bution to getting women


www.broadcastnow.co.uk | www.screendaily.com Janice Hadlow


Sara Geater


on screen – she can take credit for cultivating a range of female talent including Mary Beard, Amanda Vickery and Lorraine Pascale. Her commissioning nouse is matched only by her intellectual prowess and tena- city – she is one of the few top bods at the BBC to have emerged from the comprehensive education system.


Jay Hunt Chief creative officer, Channel 4


As Channel 4 chief creative officer, Jay Hunt (left) has certainly made an impact in her first year overseeing the entire network’s content. Much of her power comes from having a budget of £450m to spend on UK content. Since joining C4, she hasn’t been afraid to shake things up. After only a year she claimed that C4 had “got its balls back”, a typical example of her straight-talking style. Hunt is prioritising


the creation of a more collegiate atmosphere, enticing a diverse range of suppliers and showing more


mischievous content such as Black Mirror. Her


impact on the channel


Christine Langan


has been significant, with many of the old guard leaving, and there is still more to come as she completes her top management team.


Christine Langan Creative director, BBC Films


With recent BBC Films-backed projects including My Week With Marilyn, We Need To Talk About Kevin and Jane Eyre, Christine Langan might be forgiven for suffer- ing from award season fatigue. Still, she shouldn’t pack away the dresses yet as 2012 looks set to be even bigger, with the hotly awaited film version of Great Expectations starring Helena Bonham Carter and Ralph Fiennes, teenage cancer drama Now Is Good starring Dakota Fanning and Jeremy Irvine, Man On Wire director James Marsh’s spy thriller Shadow Dancer and Dustin Hoffman’s direc- torial debut Quartet all set for release. The BBC Films production slate is also bursting with new projects, including theatre director Rufus Norris’s feature debut Broken starring Cillian Murphy, Ralph Fiennes’ second Dickens project The Invisible Woman and an adaptation of Rose Tremain’s award-winning book about the Danish Royal Court, Music And Silence, to be directed by Lone Scherfig.


March 2012 | The Power List | 5


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20