Michael Grade CBE

Vice President IFYC

Born in London in 1943, Michael Grade was educated at Stowe and St Dunstan's College. A sports columnist on the Daily Mirror from 1960 to 1966, he spent the next seven years as joint managing director of the London Management talent agency. In 1973 he became head of entertainment and director of programmes at London Weekend Television, leaving in 1981 to move to the USA to become president of Embassy Television. He joined the BBC as controller of BBC1 in September 1984 and, in conjunction with this role, became director of programmes in June 1986 and managing director designate in 1987. He spent nine years from 1988 as chief executive at Channel Four Television, leaving in June 1997 to become executive chairman of First Leisure Corporation. In October 1998, on the appointment of a non-executive chairman, he became chief executive and oversaw the restructuring of the company, leaving at the end of 1999.

Since leaving First Leisure, Michael Grade has become executive chairman of Pinewood and Shepperton Studios and is also chairman of Hemscott plc, a leading supplier of business and investment information over the Internet. In January 2002 he became chairman of the Camelot Group, operators of the National Lottery. He is Chairman of the Royal National Theatre's Development Council and is a member of the council of the Royal Albert Hall. He is a trustee of the National Film and Television School. In 1990 he became a director of the Gate Theatre in Dublin.

In 1989 Michael Grade was asked by the Home Secretary to chair the Working Group on the Fear of Crime and from 1994 to 1996 he was a member of the National Commission of Inquiry into the prevention of child abuse. Michael Grade was awarded a CBE in the 1998 New Year's Honours.

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last modified: 20 April 2004