Ian Ward Griffiths (born 1966) is a British businessman. He is a non-executive director of BBC Commercial and a Senior Adviser to Bain Capital. Between 2020 and 2022 he was the CFO and deputy CEO of Kantar Group, a global data analytics and brand consulting company. During this time, he led the restructuring of the business following its acquisition from WPP plc by Bain Capital.

Early life

Ian Ward Griffiths was born in September 1966. After being brought up and educated in North Wales, he gained a master's degree from Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge. He is a qualified accountant.

Career

Griffiths worked for the accountants

Ernst & Young Ernst & Young Global Limited, trade name EY, is a multinational professional services partnership headquartered in London, England. EY is one of the largest professional services networks in the world. Along with Deloitte, KPMG and Pricewaterh ...

for six years, before joining the magazines, radio and business media group

Emap Ascential plc, formerly EMAP, is a British business-to-business media business specialising in exhibitions & festivals and information services. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. History Ric ...

(Now Ascential) in 1994, and was group finance director from 2005 to 2008. He left the group in 2008 following the sale of the business to a combination of the Bauer family and Apax/GMG.

ITV

In 2008, Griffiths joined

ITV plc ITV plc is a British media company that holds 13 of the 15 regional television licences that make up the ITV network (Channel 3), the oldest and largest commercial terrestrial television network in the United Kingdom. ITV plc is listed on the ...

as finance director. Griffiths spent 10 years at ITV during a period of significant transformation. During this time ITV’s market capitalisation peaked in excess of £10 billion. Working alongside Adam Crozier and Archie Norman, Griffiths helped build the international Studios business to complement the UK Commercial Broadcast business, creating an integrated content business less reliant on UK advertising revenue. He was the

COO COO or coo may refer to: Business * Certificate of origin, used in international trade * Chief operating officer or chief operations officer, high-ranking corporate official * Concept of operations, used in Systems Engineering Management Process ...

, CFO, and interim

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 media company

from May 2017 to December 2018, following Adam Crozier's departure after seven years as CEO. Upon the appointment of

Carolyn McCall Dame Carolyn Julia McCall (born 13 September 1961) is a British businesswoman of Scottish and Irish descent. She has been the chief executive of ITV since 2018. She previously served as the chief executive of easyJet from 2010 to 2017. Earl ...

as Group CEO in January 2018, Griffiths transitioned operations to a new leadership team before leaving the business in March 2019.

Kantar Group

Griffiths joined Kantar in January 2020, following its acquisition by Bain Capital in December 2019. He was additionally appointed Deputy CEO in June of that year. In December 2022, it was announced that Griffiths would join the board of BBC Commercial Limited. He was a non-executive director of DS Smith plc from 2014 to 2018.

Awards

In 2013, he won ''FTSE 100 FD of the Year''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Griffiths, Ian 1966 births Living people British chief executives British television executives