Dawn Airey, the ‘fearless’ TV veteran charged with protecting the arts | Arts Council England

When dawn iri While running Channel 5, she described the channel’s core strengths as the three Cs: “movies, football and sex”.

The comment from the veteran TV executive, who has just been appointed chairman of Arts Council England (Ace), has set a career path defined by audacity and commercial instinct.

Airey will replace Nicholas Sirota in August, with a new mandate to do more to support, nurture and protect the arts. Her appointment follows an independent review by her Labor counterpart Margaret Hodge, who warned that the independent public body must ensure funding is protected from politicization and the application process is streamlined.

Airey called her appointment “an honour” and said the Council’s importance in championing arts and culture “has never been more needed because the sector has never been more important to our nation”. It also identified artificial intelligence as a key challenge.

She is familiar with navigating organizations under pressure. For more than three decades, she has held some of the most important roles in British radio broadcasting, often in moments of turmoil or renewal.

She made her name in the 1990s as part of the founding team of Channel 5, before heading up the channel and developing a reputation for decisive leadership, business savvy and an instinct for popular programming.

After leaving Channel 5 in 2002, she continued to hold senior roles at Sky, overseeing channels and services, and at ITV as managing director of global content. She then moved into international and digital roles including senior vice president of Yahoo! and CEO of Getty Images.

Her non-executive and cultural leadership roles include chairing the National Youth Theater and the Women’s Premier League. She also served as interim Chairman of Channel 4 and continues as Deputy Chairman of its Board of Directors.

“She’s an amazing person. She’s the best thing that could happen to the arts in England,” said Ben Fenton, a veteran media consultant who worked with Airey at Channel 4 and at its independent production company Moon&Back. “It offers an incredibly fresh vision, it moves slowly and it breaks things that need to be broken.

“She’s not someone who breaks things for the sake of it; she thinks carefully about what can make something better, whether that’s women’s football, or Channel 4, or Channel 5.”

Fenton said Erie’s extensive experience gave her a “wonderful perspective” of the world. He added: “She may not be a pure artist, but she is one of the arts. When I heard that she would take the job, I was crossing every finger on my hand.”

Peter Bazalgetti, the former head of ITV and head of Ace from 2013 to 2017, described Irie as “smart, absolutely fearless, and a joy to work with, because she is relentlessly optimistic.”

He said: “When you take over Ace, you will have some ups and downs. There will be arguments about where the funding is going, whether too much is going to London, and there will be the occasional debate.” a reasonHe’s famous. You need a constitution of steel. She’s not the type to let those occasional buffets get her down.

Bazalgette said Airey’s background made her well-suited to a cultural sector that is increasingly viewed alongside the broader creative industries. “Dawn understands arts, media and sports,” he said. “And it was given, as far as we can see, a very big agenda from Margaret Hodge.”

Born in Preston, Airey was a national judo champion as a schoolgirl before studying geography at Cambridge University and embarking on a television career. By the age of 26, she was a member of ITV’s all-male network of planners. She spoke openly about working in what she described as a boys’ club culture. “I was subject to, frankly, things that everyone would get fired for today,” she told Diva magazine.

At Channel 4, she earned the nicknames “Scary Airey” and “Zulu Dawn” for her outspoken style, although she later insisted the reputation masked a softer personality. “The truth is, I’m a bloody cat,” she said. “But I’m resilient and a fighter. If you cross me or see injustice, I won’t take it.”

Her former colleagues attest to her energy and work ethic, and during the launch of Channel 5, she was reported to be sleeping in the office. On one occasion, she continued working after she fell on an escalator and severely injured her leg. “She was a bundle of energy, a great motivator,” David Elstein, former CEO of Channel 5, once said. “Place Five was a joyful place. It was a positive, powerful force.”

In 2000, Airey fell in love with Jackie Lawrence, a television producer, and the couple entered into a civil partnership in 2007. They have two daughters.

“I’ve done a ridiculous amount of stuff,” Airey said in 2024. “My career is like a Salvador Dali painting. I have an amazing ability to work. I have to be busy all the time.”