Press Association

Murdoch MacLennan

Chairman

Murdoch MacLennan has been Non-Executive Chairman of the Press Association’s Board of Directors since March 2010.

Murdoch is Chief Executive of the Telegraph Media Group, a position he has held since October 2004. Prior to this he was Group Managing Director of Associated Newspapers, following a number of senior positions at the Mirror Group, Express Newspapers, the Scottish Daily Record and the Sunday Mail.
From 1997-2003 Murdoch was President of IFRA (the global technical association for newspaper) and he went on to become Vice President of the World Association of Newspapers.

From 2005-2007 he was Chairman of the Newspaper Publishers Association. Murdoch previously held a position on the PA Group board from 1998 to 2004. He is involved in a number of charities including the Journalists’ Charity and NewstrAid, a charity for the wholesale and retail news trade.

Sly Bailey

Sly Bailey joined the board in February 2003 and is Chief Executive of Trinity Mirror.

She started her media career in advertising sales at the Guardian and then The Independent. In 1989 she joined IPC Media Limited as Head of Classified Advertising Sales and joined their Board in 1994 as Advertising Director. In 1997 Sly was appointed Managing Director of IPC tx, the TV listings division. She went on to be appointed Chief Executive of IPC Media Limited in December 1999 and subsequently led the sale of the business to AOL Time Warner.

In November 2009, Sly was appointed non-executive director of Ladbrokes plc. She is also on the Board of The English National Ballet School and is President of NewstrAid, a charity for the wholesale and retail news trade. Sly was previously Senior Independent Director and Remuneration Committee Chairman of EMI plc and a non-executive director of Littlewoods Plc.

Kevin Beatty

Kevin Beatty joined the board in November 2004. Kevin is Chief Executive of A&N Media, which encompasses the consumer publishing divisions of DMGT plc. These include Associated Newspapers Limited, Northcliffe Media Limited, Harmsworth Printing Limited and AN Digital.

Previously Kevin was Managing Director of Northcliffe Newspapers Group Limited. Prior to that, he was Managing Director of The Mail on Sunday, Evening Standard, Metro and Chief Operating Officer of Associated New Media – at that time the digital publishing division of Associated Newspapers.

He is a director of DMGT plc, a council member of the National Publishers’ Association, Member of the Steering Group and Executive Committee & Board of WAN-IFRA. 

Alan Crosbie

Alan Crosbie joined the board in May 2001. Alan is the Chairman of Thomas Crosbie Holdings Ltd and Examiner Publications (Cork) Ltd. A graduate of the Harvard University (O.P.M.) Programme, he has been working in the newspaper industry since 1972. With a background in Advertising Sales and Marketing he was appointed Chairman of Thomas Crosbie Holding and Examiner Publications in March 2001.

Alan was formerly Chairman of the National Newspapers of Ireland and was Vice-President of the European Newspaper Publishers Association, which represents all newspapers in the EU, Norway and Switzerland from 1996 - 1998.

From September 2002 to May 2006, Alan was President of Down Syndrome Ireland. He is on the Board of NIID (National Institute for Intellectual Disability), and is also a Board Member of St. Vincent’s Centre in Cork. He is an adjunct Professor of Family Business at UCC and Chairman of Family Business Network Ireland.

Adrian Jeakings

Adrian Jeakings joined the board in March 2009. Adrian is Chief Executive of Archant. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants and was previously Group Finance Director of The Stationery Office.

Adrian is a graduate of Imperial College, London and worked briefly as an engineer before training as an accountant at BICC plc. After qualifying, he joined the instrumentation division of Schlumberger, where he was Finance Director of a number of business units based in France. Before joining The Stationery Office he was Director – Finance Europe for Dun & Bradstreet Inc.

Clive Marshall

Clive Marshall joined the board and the Press Association as Chief Executive, PA Group, in February 2010.

Clive was previously CEO of Australian Associated Press Pty Limited (AAP), a position he held since 2001. Under his leadership AAP achieved strong and consistent growth in both revenues and profits while building a number of successful stand-alone media businesses which sit alongside the news agency. These include Pagemasters, which provides page production and sub-editing outsourcing services, AAP Newscentre, the news monitoring and intelligence company, and the largest distributor of corporate news and information in Australia, AAP Media Net.

Before joining AAP, Clive spent a total of eight years with PA Group in a number of roles, including Sales Director of PA Group, Managing Director of Two-Ten Communications Ltd and Managing Director of PA Enterprise. Prior to his time at PA Group, Clive worked for Reed Elsevier Plc and Trinity Newspapers Limited.

Steven Brown 

Steven Brown joined the board in July 2007. Steven joined the Press Association in 1995 and was appointed as Finance Director in June 1996. He came to the company with an excellent track record in the integration of newly acquired businesses and the development of management teams. He was appointed as Managing Director of PA Group in February 2000 and was named Finance Director in March 2010.

Prior to joining the Press Association, Steven worked for 12 years in financial management with News International companies. He was Group Financial Controller for News International plc before being appointed Finance Director of News Datacom Limited in 1991.

Jennifer Campbell 

Jennifer Campbell joined the board in May 2008. Jennie joined the Press Association in 1996 when the company acquired Listings Ltd, an independent company supplying page-ready information services to the press. She now heads up MeteoGroup, the weather division of PA Group.

After joining the Press Association, Jennie was appointed as Director of Press Association’s Enterprises Division and also a Director of the Press Association WeatherCentre. In 2004 she took on the role of Managing Director of Press Association Entertainment, the division that brings together the company’s TV, showbiz and entertainment content for print, web and mobile platforms. Jennie retained her role as a Director of the WeatherCentre throughout this period and with the acquisition of Meteo Consult in 2005 she took over as Managing Director of the entire weather group.

Jennifer started her career at Newpoint Publishing, later part of Reed International, progressing to the role of Production Manager before joining the newly-formed Listings Ltd as General Manager in 1989.

Tony Watson 

Tony Watson joined the board in January 2007. Tony joined the Press Association in 2003 and was appointed Editor-in-Chief in 2006 and Managing Director in 2008. Tony is responsible for the strategic and commercial development of the Press Association, including the core news agency, entertainment and editorial services and is focused on ensuring the business can maximise opportunities in the growing digital markets.

Prior to joining the Press Association, Tony spent 13 successful years at the helm of the Yorkshire Post. During his time in charge, the Post picked up numerous industry awards including ‘Newspaper of the Year’ at the Regional Press awards and ‘Team of the Year’ for its coverage of September 11th.

Tony Watson first joined the Yorkshire Post as a reporter in 1984. He then joined Granada TV’s ‘World in Action’ before returning to the Yorkshire Post as Deputy Editor in 1988. He was appointed Editor a year later.

Tom Mockridge

Tom Mockridge joined the board in 2011 and is Chief Executive Officer of News International; he is also non-executive director of BskyB and a member of the Supervisory Board of Sky Deutschland.

Tom started his career in New Zealand as a journalist before moving to Australia. In Australia he worked for the Sydney Morning Herald, Canberra Federal Parliamentary Office and Australian Treasurer Paul Keating.

Tom joined New Corporation in January 1991 and in 1997 he was appointed CEO of Foxtel. In 2000 he moved to Hong Kong where we was at the helm of a company owned by News Corporation and HK Telecom and then held several key strategic roles at Star TV.

Tom was also Chief Executive of the publicly-listed New Zealand company, Independent Newspapers and Chairman of Sky New Zealand. He joined News International from Sky Italia, where he was CEO since its launch in April 2003. In May 2008 he was also appointed CEO of European Television of News Corporation and was responsible for overseeing News Corporation's television operations in Europe.