Channel 4 CEO Alex Mahon to Step Down This Summer After 8 Years

Channel 4 announced on Monday that CEO Alex Mahon has decided to step down from her role later this summer after almost eight years leading the British public broadcaster.

In her place, COO Jonathan Allan will serve as interim CEO while a replacement is found. Mahon became Channel 4‘s first female CEO when she joined in 2017.

“Working at Channel 4 has been a lifetime privilege because Channel 4 is the most extraordinary organization. What we get to do here is much more than television because we reflect our country with humor, creativity, grit and care. We try our best to challenge convention and to change conversations. And we do it with a kind of irreverent brilliance that simply doesn’t exist anywhere else,” she said in a statement.

“I feel lucky beyond belief to have had the chance to lead Channel 4 for nearly eight years – through calm seas (very few) and stormy waters (more than our fair share). From navigating the threat of privatization (twice), to shifting out of London, to digital transformation, lockdowns, political upheaval, advertising chaos – there has never been a dull moment,” Mahon continued. “But through every twist and turn, there’s been one constant: the astonishing calibre, resilience and creativity of all my colleagues at Channel 4. Together, I hope that we have evolved what Channel 4 means and what it stands for. We’ve protected the brand, even as we reinvented it. We’ve stayed risky, relevant and relentlessly new – with 60% of our shows fresh each year. And through it all, it’s been the programs – and their impact – that have brought me the most joy and pride.”

The channel pointed to shows and movies such as “It’s a Sin,” “The Piano,” “Channel 4 News,” “The Zone of Interest,” “The Banshees of Inisherin,” “All of Us Strangers,” “Poor Things” and their Paris 2024 Paralympic Games coverage as programs that flourished under Mahon’s leadership.

Channel 4 interim chair Dawn Airey added: “Alex is a great figure in British television. She has been one of the most impactful CEOs since Jeremy Isaacs’ founding of Channel 4 more than 42 years ago. She is business-minded and has also been transformational both culturally and creatively, proving time and again her extraordinary ability to inspire and drive positive and meaningful change. Under her leadership, Channel 4 has moved with the times and driven the times.”

“Her commitment to Channel 4’s public service mission has been unwavering. She has backed entertaining, shocking, interesting telly, never playing it safe and her grit and resilience more than met the rough-tough challenges of recent times,” she further noted. “She leaves a strengthened and well-run Channel 4 that will continue to flourish, with its Fast Forward strategy reengineering the organization for the future.”

In announcing her upcoming exit, Channel 4 also celebrated Mahon for championing women’s health and disability representation in the workplace, as she launched U.K. media’s first menopause and pregnancy loss policies.

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