Brief biographies of each of the executive and non-executive Directors and the Company Secretary are set out below.
Roger Parry
Chairman
Roger has been Chairman since September 2001, a non-executive Director since June 1999 and is Chairman of the Nomination Committee. He is also non-executive Chairman of Media Square plc, YouGov plc, Mobile Streams plc and the Shakespeare’s Globe Trust. His experience includes four years with McKinsey, the international consulting firm, seven years as a journalist with BBC TV and radio and directorships at Aegis Group plc, WCRS plc, iTouch plc and More Group plc – later Clear Channel International – where for ten years he was Chief Executive.
Stevie Spring
Chief Executive Officer
Stevie has been Chief Executive since July 2006. She graduated in law, worked in marketing and television before starting a 16-year career in advertising agency management. From 2000 to 2006, she was UK Chief Executive of Clear Channel. She is a Fellow of both the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising and the Marketing Society; one of only three honorary members of the Women’s Advertising Club; a patron of Nabs; and the first externally appointed Chairman for BBC Children in Need.
John Bowman
Group Finance Director
John has been Group Finance Director since November 2001. He qualified as a chartered accountant with KPMG, where he worked for seven years before joining Radio Clyde. He became Group Finance Director at Scottish Radio Holdings plc (later part of Emap, now Bauer) and played a key role in the group’s successful expansion by organic growth and acquisition. His media experience includes commercial radio, outdoor advertising, film, newspaper, online and magazine publishing.
Michael Penington
Senior independent non-executive
Michael has been senior independent non-executive director since 2002 and a director since April 2000. His experience includes 16 years at US investment bank Morgan Stanley, latterly as an Executive Director, Corporate Finance Department. He holds a D. Phil from Oxford University. He is currently a partner in Oxford Technology Management, which manages a £30 million fund investing in early stage technology companies in the UK.
Patrick Taylor
Non-executive
Patrick has been Chairman of the Audit Committee since April 2001, and a Director since the same date. He qualified as a chartered accountant with Coopers & Lybrand (now part of PwC) where he became a partner in 1980, specialising in corporate finance. He was Finance Director of Capital Radio plc from 1989 to 1996 and subsequently Finance Director, then Chief Executive, of GWR Group plc, owner of the UK’s largest commercial radio station, Classic FM. He left GWR in 2003 and is currently Chairman of Centaur Media.
Mark Wood
Non-executive
Mark joined Future as an independent non-executive Director in April 2009 and has been appointed Chairman of the Remuneration committee. He was previously Chief Executive of ITN from 2003 to 2009. He joined ITN from Reuters, where he started as a journalist before going on to become Editor-in-Chief from 1989 to 2000 and serving on the Reuters plc Board. He is now involved in a number of digital and new media ventures in the UK and Germany.
Seb Bishop
Non-executive
Seb joined Future as an independent non-executive director in June 2007 and a member of the Remuneration Committee in November 2008. He is the CEO of (RED) International, the business founded by Bono and Bobby Shriver to fight AIDS in Africa. In 2000, he founded Espotting, the company that pioneered pay-per-click advertising and search marketing in the UK. He expanded Espotting before selling the company to MIVA, a US Nasdaq-quoted company in 2004, and taking up the Presidency of MIVA until 2997. Seb is Chairman of Steak, a fast-growing digital marketing agency, and a non-executive board member of AdJug, a new Internet advertising marketplace.
Mark Millar
Company Secretary & Head of Legal
Mark has been Company Secretary and General Counsel since September 2002. He joined from Allen & Overy following more than a decades’s experience of City legal work, including a wide range of UK and international commercial and corporate finance experience. He also acts as secretary to all Board committees. He chairs the PPA’s Government and Regulatory Committee and is an industry representative on the boards of the Publishers Licensing Society and the Copyright Licensing Agency.
