Channel 4 is tearing itself apart over diversity

The chairman of Channel 4 has taken a swipe at the lack of diversity of the latest appointments to its board. The appointees, who join the board for a three-year term, were announced by Ofcom and approved by Lucy Frazer, the Culture Secretary. In a leaked memo to staff, Sir Ian Cheshire hit out at the appointments of four new white non-executive directors which he claimed lagged behind the broadcaster’s own diversity targets. ‘These appointments will improve representation on the board but do not yet meet the levels of representation throughout the organisation’, opined Cheshire. Following the latest round of appointments, 14 of the 15 members of Channel 4’s board are white: that  falls well below the broadcaster’s overall target to draw 20 per cent of its staff from ethnic minorities. Perhaps Cheshire, a middle-aged white man, should do the decent thing and stand down himself, as a way of improving the diversity numbers?

Who then are the non-executive directors at the centre of this row? They include the Boots chief executive, Sebastian James, and the Warner Records UK managing director, Alex Burford – both are guilty of the crime of being white men – which means they score zero or even less in the corporate diversity stakes.