ITV has announced that the Micro Focus (LON:MCRO) director Chris Kennedy will become the group’s new chief financial officer (CFO).
Kennedy, who is the former easyJet CFO, has been at Micro Focus since January and will be leaving to join ITV in February.
McCall was the previous CEO at the budget airline.
Kennedy commented: “This is an exciting time to be joining ITV. I’m looking forward to working with the team to execute the strategy and deliver value for shareholders.”
Kennedy will receive an annual salary of £660,000 and a pension allowance of 9% of salary.
Sir Peter Bazalgette, Chairman of ITV, said: “Chris was the stand out candidate in a very strong short list and the Board are really pleased that he will bring his experience and expertise to ITV. He has a great media background from his 17 years at EMI and he has built on that as a CFO of three FTSE 100 companies.”
AJ Bell investment director, Russ Mould said: “The appointment of Chris Kennedy may initially look a bit odd given he presided over a major profit warning at his current employer, software firm Micro Focus.”
“But given that said warning occurred just two months into his tenure, blaming him would equate to shooting the messenger.”
“Instead shareholders may be enthused by his previous experience at technology firm ARM and EasyJet where he, alongside his new boss Carolyn McCall, presided over strong returns for shareholders,” he added.
Shares in ITV (LON: ITV) are trading at 155,45 (1220GMT).
