David Abraham appointed as new chief executive of British Channel 4

January 25, 2010

According to The Independent and The Telegraph, British television channel Channel 4 appointed David Abraham as the new chief executive of the channel on Friday. Abraham has been chief executive of UKTV, an organisation owned between BBC Worldwide and Virgin Media Television, since April 2007. He was also famous for creating the marketing slogan for the television channel Dave: "Everybody knows a bloke called Dave." As well as this, David was previously the general manager and president of The Learning Channel, which is currently owned by Discovery Communications.

Abraham was given the appointment as chief executive of Channel 4 after the previous chief executive of the channel, Andy Duncan, departed from his position in November 2009. At around the same time that David Abraham becomes chief executive of the channel, Luke Johnson's time on the channel is due to come to an end, after it was reported in November 2009 that Lord Terence Burns was confirmed to take over his position as chairman of Channel 4. When Abraham was appointed, both Burns and Johnson were part of the interview panel.

"David is a rare commodity as a broadcaster in that he has an exceptional track record as an innovative leader, both creatively and commercially," Lord Burns noted about Abraham. "At all stages of his career he's led creative teams and commissioned creative output of the highest quality in a commercial environment. It is that experience, we believe, that so well qualifies him for the challenge of running a commercially-funded, public service broadcaster like Channel 4."

David Abraham commented: "I look forward to leading the whole organisation through its next period of growth and innovation, both creatively and commercially. What I bring...is idealism, versatility and a record of leading creative organisations through change."