Roger Parry
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Roger George Parry
CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...
(born 1953) is a media and technology entrepreneur based in the UK. He is chairman of a number of companies quoted on the
London Stock Exchange London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Pau ...
including Oxford Metrics plc and
YouGov YouGov is a British international Internet-based market research and data analytics firm, headquartered in the UK, with operations in Europe, North America, the Middle East and Asia-Pacific. In 2007, it acquired US company Polimetrix, and sinc ...
plc. He is the co-founder of the international marketing communications group MSQ Partners and of the television drama production company Chrysalis Vision. He is a visiting fellow of Oxford University. And is the author of five books and writes extensively on the media and associated topics. He was chairman of the trustees of Shakespeare's
Globe Theatre The Globe Theatre was a theatre in London associated with William Shakespeare. It was built in 1599 by Shakespeare's playing company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men, on land owned by Thomas Brend and inherited by his son, Nicholas Brend, and gra ...
for eight years. He is a non-executive member of the
board of directors A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organiz ...
of
Uber Uber Technologies, Inc. (Uber), based in San Francisco, provides mobility as a service, ride-hailing (allowing users to book a car and driver to transport them in a way similar to a taxi), food delivery (Uber Eats and Postmates), package ...
.


Early life

Born in London, he was a pupil at
Sutton Grammar School for Boys Sutton Grammar School (formerly Sutton Grammar School for Boys) is a selective state grammar school for boys aged 11-18 with a Mixed-sex education, coeducational sixth form. Located in South London, the school's main site is in Sutton, London, ...
, and educated at the Universities of
Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...
and
Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
.


Career

His first job in 1976 was as personal assistant to Charles and Maurice Saatchi, the founders of
Saatchi & Saatchi Saatchi & Saatchi is a British multinational communications and advertising agency network with 114 offices in 76 countries and over 6,500 staff. It was founded in 1970 and is currently headquartered in London. The parent company of the agency gr ...
. From 1977 to 1985 he was a television and radio reporter with the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
,
ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
and
LBC LBC (originally the London Broadcasting Company) is a British phone-in and talk radio station owned and operated by Global and based in its headquarters in London. It was the UK's first licensed commercial radio station, and began to broadca ...
. He worked on the ''Today'' programme on
BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...
,
BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadca ...
and
Thames News ''Thames News'' was the flagship regional news programme of Thames Television, serving the Thames ITV region and broadcast on weekdays from 12 September 1977 to 31 December 1992. The news service was produced and broadcast from Thames TV's headq ...
. In the mid-1980s he was a consultant with
McKinsey & Co McKinsey & Company is a global management consulting firm founded in 1926 by University of Chicago professor James O. McKinsey, that offers professional services to corporations, governments, and other organizations. McKinsey is the oldest and ...
. He was there at the same time as
Adair Turner Jonathan Adair Turner, Baron Turner of Ecchinswell (born 5 October 1955) is a British businessman and academic and was Chairman of the Financial Services Authority until its abolition in March 2013. He is a former Chairman of the Pensions Commiss ...
, Howard Davies and Archie Norman. In the late 1980s he was Development Director of the advertising group WCRS which became The Engine Group. In the 1990s he was part of the team that restructured
Aegis Group Dentsu International (previously Dentsu Aegis Network) is a multinational media and digital marketing communications company headquartered in London, United Kingdom, and a wholly owned subsidiary of the Japanese advertising and public relation ...
and built up Carat the media buying network. In 1993 he was appointed the President of Carat North America. From 1995 to 1998 he was CEO of the UK media company More Group plc. In 1998 Parry was appointed as a Trustee of Shakespeare's
Globe Theatre The Globe Theatre was a theatre in London associated with William Shakespeare. It was built in 1599 by Shakespeare's playing company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men, on land owned by Thomas Brend and inherited by his son, Nicholas Brend, and gra ...
having been involved with the project since 1987 when he wrote the original business plan – whilst a consultant at
McKinsey McKinsey & Company is a global management consulting firm founded in 1926 by University of Chicago professor James O. McKinsey, that offers professional services to corporations, governments, and other organizations. McKinsey is the oldest and ...
. In 2005 he was appointed as chairman a post he held until 2013. He was succeeded by
Lord Falconer Charles Leslie Falconer, Baron Falconer of Thoroton, (born 19 November 1951) is a British Labour peer and barrister who served as Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice under Prime Minister Tony Blair from 2003 to 2007. Born in ...
. In 1998 Parry was one of the founding directors of Clear Media which has become one of China's leading outdoor advertising companies. In 2001 Clear Media was floated on the Hong Kong stock market with a value of US$450 million. Parry was Deputy chairman. From 1998 to 2005 he was CEO of Clear Channel International which, at the time, was the World's largest operator in radio broadcasting, live entertainment and outdoor advertising. In 2006 Clear Channel was taken private in a buyout valued at US$27 billion. The live entertainment division was later floated as a new company under the name
Live Nation Entertainment Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. is an American global entertainment company and monopoly that was founded in 2010 following the merger of Live Nation and Ticketmaster. The company promotes, operates, and manages ticket sales for live entertainme ...
From 2001 to 2009 he was Chairman of
Johnston Press Johnston Press plc was a multimedia company founded in Falkirk, Scotland, in 1767. Its flagship titles included UK-national newspaper the '' i'', ''The Scotsman'', the ''Yorkshire Post'', the ''Falkirk Herald'', and Belfast's ''The News Letter'' ...
plc, the UK's largest regional newspaper group. Based in Edinburgh it owns more than 300 titles including ''
The Scotsman ''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until August 2004. Its par ...
'' and ''
Yorkshire Post ''The Yorkshire Post'' is a daily broadsheet newspaper, published in Leeds in Yorkshire, England. It primarily covers stories from Yorkshire although its masthead carries the slogan "Yorkshire's National Newspaper". It was previously owned by ...
''. From 2001 to 2011 he was Chairman of magazine publisher
Future plc Future plc is an international multimedia company established in the United Kingdom in 1985. The company has over 220 brands that span magazines, newsletters, websites, and events in fields such as video games, technology, films, music, photogr ...
(based in London, Bath and San Francisco) which owns more than 100 titles including ''
Total Film ''Total Film'' is a British film magazine published 13 times a year (published monthly and a summer issue is added every year since issue 91, 2004, which is published between July and August issue) by Future Publishing. The magazine was launched i ...
, Digital Camera'' and ''
Xbox Magazine ''Official Xbox Magazine'' (or OXM for short) was a British monthly Video game journalism, video game magazine which started in November 2001 around the launch of the original Xbox (console), Xbox. A preview issue was released at E3 2001, with ano ...
''. In 2007 Parry become Executive Chairman of international marketing communications group Media Square plc which he subsequently took private in a management buy-out in 2011 to create an employee owned business called MSQ Partners. Parry was appointed as non-executive director of
Uber Uber Technologies, Inc. (Uber), based in San Francisco, provides mobility as a service, ride-hailing (allowing users to book a car and driver to transport them in a way similar to a taxi), food delivery (Uber Eats and Postmates), package ...
on 6 April 2018.


Activities

In February 2014 ''The Sunday Times'' reported that Parry along with entrepreneurs Chris Wright And Luke Johnson had founded a company to produce television drama called Chrysalis Vision. In December 2015 they used the innovative crowdfunding platform CrowdCube to raise US$500,000 (UK£330,000) to fund operations. In both 2011 and 2012 Parry was the Chairman of the Global Festival of Media held in Montreux In November 2010 Parry was named by bookmakers
Paddy Power Paddy Power is an Irish gambling company founded in 1988. Its product offering includes sports betting, online casino, online poker, and online bingo. The business is split into two divisions, UK Ireland (UKI) and International. UKI operations ...
as the 11/8 favourite to become the next Chairman of the
BBC Trust The BBC Trust was the governing body of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) between 2007 and 2017. It was operationally independent of BBC management and external bodies, and its stated aim was to make decisions in the best interests of ...
– a role which in fact went to Lord Patten In 2009 he was commissioned by the UK's Conservative Party to write a report on the future of local media. His proposals on local TV were subsequently adopted as Government policy by Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt. Also in 2009 he was appointed as the Chairman of the Local Media Alliance which was a consortium of local newspaper groups lobbying for changes to the UK's competition regulations During 2006 he was linked with a number of private equity bids including one for the retail chain
HMV Sunrise Records and Entertainment, trading as HMV (for His Master's Voice), is a British music and entertainment retailer, currently operating exclusively in the United Kingdom. The first HMV-branded store was opened by the Gramophone Company ...
and another for the British television broadcaster
ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
. He was twice forced by the UK Takeover Panel to deny rumours that he was about to bid for
ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
. Between 2000 and 2005, he was frequently mentioned as a possible bidder for the radio station Capital 95.8 and in 2003 the CEO of Capital said that if Parry did make an offer it would be rejected out of hand. According to
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
newspaper, Parry responded to this by saying: "It would be like
Ann Widdecombe Ann Noreen Widdecombe (born 4 October 1947) is a British politician, author and television personality. She was Member of Parliament (MP) for Maidstone and The Weald, and the former Maidstone constituency, from 1987 to 2010 and Member of the E ...
turning down a date from
Brad Pitt William Bradley Pitt (born December 18, 1963) is an American actor and film producer. He is the recipient of various accolades, including two Academy Awards, a British Academy Film Award, two Golden Globe Awards, and a Primetime Emmy Award. ...
". In 2003 it was suggested that Parry as Chairman of Johnston Press might have agreed to the sacking of the editor of a local paper in Hartlepool who had been critical of his local MP Peter Mandelson at the request of the Prime Minister Tony Blair. Parry was highly critical of the Hartlepool Mail editor in a speech he gave to the Johnston Press Editors' conference. The attack was so pointed that North East Press (a division of Johnston Press) Editorial Director Andrew Smith raised the speech with Chief Executive Tim Bowdler. Mandelson, Blair and Parry had been contemporaries at Oxford University in the late 1970s. All three men subsequently denied the allegation. Hartlepool Mail editor Harry Blackwood subsequently accepted an out of court settlement from Johnston Press. In 2003 as the largest private shareholder in the radio station 102.2 Jazz FM Parry held the casting votes in a hostile take-over by the
Guardian Media Group Guardian Media Group plc (GMG) is a British-based mass media company owning various media operations including ''The Guardian'' and ''The Observer''. The group is wholly owned by the Scott Trust Limited, which exists to secure the financial and e ...
which was opposed by the Jazz FM management. He voted for the sale and was criticised by the Jazz FM CEO. In 1999 Parry and Mark Slater floated a company called Internet Indirect plc on the London Stock Exchange which rapidly achieved a market value in excess of £200 million. In 2000 it was sold to rival technology investment group Newmedia Spark plc with Parry and Slater reported to have made more than £3m In 1998 during a contested bid battle for More Group plc he referred to the Chief Executive of commercial rival JC Decaux and would-be hostile bidder, Jean- Francois Decaux, as being ''two baguettes short of a picnic'' . In 1984 he was named as one of the people behind the highly successful pirate radio station
Laser 558 Laser 558 was an offshore pirate radio station launched in May 1984 using disc jockeys from the US. It broadcast from the Panama-registered ship MV Communicator in international waters in the North Sea. Within months the station had a large audi ...
. Also that year Parry was a member of a consortium including
Jocelyn Stevens Sir Jocelyn Edward Greville Stevens, (14 February 1932 – 9 October 2014) was the publisher of ''Queen'' magazine and a London newspaper executive. Education and career Stevens attended Eton College and Trinity College, Cambridge, and Sandhurs ...
and
Tina Brown Christina Hambley Brown, Lady Evans (born 21 November 1953), is an English journalist, magazine editor, columnist, talk-show host, and author of '' The Diana Chronicles'' (2007) a biography of Diana, Princess of Wales, '' The Vanity Fair Diari ...
which attempted, but failed, to win the franchise for the London radio station
LBC LBC (originally the London Broadcasting Company) is a British phone-in and talk radio station owned and operated by Global and based in its headquarters in London. It was the UK's first licensed commercial radio station, and began to broadca ...
. In 1994 he tried again with London Radio which also involved broadcaster
John Tusa Sir John Tusa (born 2 March 1936) is a British arts administrator, and radio and television journalist. He is co-chairman of the European Union Youth Orchestra from 2014. chairman, British Architecture Trust Board, RIBA, from 2014. From 1980 to 1 ...
and was, this time, successful but sold the station 9 weeks later at a profit of £5 million. Parry was appointed
Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...
(CBE) in the 2014 New Year Honours for services to media and the arts, particularly the Globe Theatre.


Publications

In July 2006 he wrote an article for the ''Financial Times'' about the future of television and the Internet called "A Box to transform the media" which resulted in a lively debate about the convergence of technologies and the effect on broadcast television. He has written numerous book reviews including of: ''Wikinomics'' by Don Tapscott in 2007, ''Crowdsourcing'' by Jeff Howe in 2008, ''Free'' by Chris Anderson in 2009, ''One Click – the biography of Jeff Bezos'' by Richard Brandt and ''The Firm'' by Duff McDonald. His published books are: * * * * *


Personal life

Parry is married to Johanna Waterous.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Parry, Roger 1953 births Living people People educated at Sutton Grammar School Alumni of Jesus College, Oxford Alumni of the University of Bristol BBC newsreaders and journalists British businesspeople Commanders of the Order of the British Empire McKinsey & Company people Writers from London Directors of Uber