Alexandra Rose Mahon (born October 1973) is a British businesswoman. She has been the chief executive of

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

since October 2017, succeeding David Abraham as the first female

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

of the channel.

Early life

Alexandra Rose Mahon was born in October 1973 in London. Aged five, she moved to Edinburgh, and grew up there with her mother and stepfather. She was educated at

St Margaret's School, Edinburgh ) , established = 1890 , closed = 2010 , type = Independent , religious_affiliation = , president = , head_label = , head = , r_head_label = , r_head = , chair_label = , chair ...

. She has a PhD in medical physics from

Imperial College London Imperial College London (legally Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom. Its history began with Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, who developed his vision for a cu ...

, awarded in 1998.

Career

In 2005, when working for

Talkback Thames Talkback Thames (stylised as talkbackTHAMES) was a British television production company, a division of Fremantle (part of the RTL Group, which in turn is owned by Bertelsmann). It was formed by the merger of Talkback Productions and Thames Tel ...

, ''

Management Today Haymarket Media Group is a privately held media company headquartered in London. It has publications in the consumer, business and customer sectors, both print and online. It operates exhibitions allied to its own publications, and previously on ...

'' included Mahon in their top 35 women under 35 in the business world. Mahon was CEO of the production company

Shine Group Shine Group was an international television production and distribution group with 26 production companies across 12 countries creating scripted and non-scripted content in the global marketplace. Shine Group companies included award-winning ge ...

, owned by

21st Century Fox Twenty-First Century Fox, Inc., doing business as 21st Century Fox (21CF), was an American multinational mass media corporation that was based in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It was one of the two companies formed on June 28, 2013, f ...

, and then CEO of the visual effects software company

Foundry A foundry is a factory that produces metal castings. Metals are cast into shapes by melting them into a liquid, pouring the metal into a mold, and removing the mold material after the metal has solidified as it cools. The most common metals pr ...

. She has worked with the UK's

Department of Culture, Media and Sport , type = Department , logo = Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport logo.svg , logo_width = , logo_caption = , seal = , seal_width = , seal_caption = , picture = Gove ...

(DCMS), as a member of their advisory panel on the BBC's future direction. Mahon's appointment as CEO of Channel 4 was announced in June 2017 and became effective the following October.

Personal life

Mahon is married to Richard Barker, who works in renewable energy; the couple have four children. The family live in

Paddington Paddington is an area within the City of Westminster, in Central London. First a medieval parish then a metropolitan borough, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965. Three important landmarks of the district are Paddi ...

, London.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mahon, Alex 1973 births Living people Alumni of Imperial College London People educated at St Margaret's School, Edinburgh Scottish people of Irish descent British television executives Channel 4 people