Ade Rawcliffe has been appointed Group Director of Diversity and Inclusion at ITV.

She will report to the Group CEO, Carolyn McCall, and will be a member of the Management Board.  ITV will become the first FTSE 100 company with a dedicated diversity director on its executive board.

Rawcliffe will lead, develop and grow ITV’s D&I strategy to deliver its published targets and will partner with all Management Board leaders, the Commissioning teams, Social Purpose team and the HR team to deliver the ITV Diversity Acceleration Plan.

Carolyn McCall, ITV CEO, said: “Putting this new role on the Board ensures Diversity is part of business discussion and decision making at the most senior level. Ade was the outstanding candidate for this role and I am really pleased she will become ITV’s first Group Director of Diversity and Inclusion.  Her appointment is a demonstration of our commitment to improve diversity and inclusion in ITV.

“Ade brings fantastic experience – in both commissioning and production as well as in diversity and inclusion – and great passion to this role and we will support her to ensure she helps accelerate change in diversity across ITV by creating more opportunities.

She will give focus, coordination and leadership to our plans to create a culture where absolutely everyone, whatever their race, disability, pronoun they use or whoever they love, feels comfortable being themselves.

“I know everyone at ITV will wish Ade well and support her to deliver on our ambitious plans.”

Ade Rawcliffe said: “I am delighted to be appointed as ITV’s Group Diversity and Inclusion Director at this very important time.

“The creation of this new role demonstrates the commitment of the Management Board towards accelerating diversity and inclusion at ITV.

“I feel passionately that all our viewers should see their lives and experiences authentically represented onscreen. I believe that talent is all around us and that opportunities behind the camera and more generally within ITV itself should be equally accessible to all. This is the right thing to do, but there is also a proven business case for greater diversity and better representation.

“I feel particularly excited to take on this role at ITV, the place that gave me my first break, working as runner at Granada Television in the mid-90s.“

Rawcliffe started her career as a freelance producer working across BBC, ITV and Channel 4 on a variety of programmes from Sport Relief to Big Brother.  She then spent four years at BBC Sport as a producer on live major sporting events, including The Olympic Games, The Winter Olympics and The Commonwealth Games.  She spent more than 10 years at Channel 4, latterly as Creative Diversity Manager, where she supported and nurtured the careers of diverse creative talent and sought out and commissioned a slate of developments from new, diverse and emergent companies.

Rawcliffe moved to ITV in 2017 and is currently Director of Creative Diversity where she plays a leadership role in driving diversity and inclusion on and off screen. Rawcliffe implemented ITV’s Commissioning Commitments, which require producers to commit to improving diversity, both on and off screen as part of the commissioning process and improved representation both on and off screen within ITV’s output, including Loose Women, Tonight, Dancing on Ice and in ITV’s soaps Emmerdale and Coronation Street.

ITV published its Diversity Acceleration Plan last month detailing the five key areas of action, which will be delivered over the next 12 months.

Jon Creamer

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