Dawn Airey

Dawn Elizabeth Airey (born 15 November 1960) is a British media company executive. She is currently Chair of the National Youth Theatre, Barclays FA Women's Super League and FA Women's championship and is non-executive member of the boards of Getty Images, Thomas Cook, Grosvenor Estates and Blackbird. Dawn is a veteran of the media industry having worked in television for 30 years, holding senior positions at ITV, as well as the first Director of programmes and subsequently CEO and Chair of Channel 5, the UK television station now owned by Viacom International Media Networks, a division of Viacom Inc. She spent three years as Yahoo's Senior Vice President in Europe, The Middle East and Africa, responsible for advertising. Dawn also worked at BSKYB as Managing Director of channels and services. She was chief executive officer (CEO) of Getty Images for three years from 2015 to 2018.
Early life.
Airey was born in Preston, Lancashire. She was educated at Girton College, Cambridge where she studied Geography. She had attended a local comprehensive, then a boys' private school (Kelly College) which had a mixed sixth form.
Career.
Airey joined Central Independent Television in 1985 as a management trainee under the wing of then director of programmes, Andy Allen. Promotion followed. In 1989 she became Director of Programme Planning at Central and was appointed to the Central broadcasting board. When the ITV Network Centre was established in 1993, she moved to London to become the first Controller of Children's and Daytime Programmes.
In 1994, she became Controller of Arts and Entertainment at Channel 4, chaired by Michael Grade. It was reported in "The Sunday Times" that her forthright manner had earned her the soubriquet "Scary Airey" and "Zulu Dawn".
Airey joined Channel 5 in 1996, the year before its launch, as its first director of programmes. It was during her tenure that she famously agreed with an interviewer that some might think the channel's core strengths were "films, football and fucking" but added it was about a lot more. She was subsequently appointed as chief executive of the channel in 2000.
In 2002, it was widely touted that ITV plc was hoping to recruit Airey as its chief executive. However she surprised the television industry by instead accepting a position at the satellite broadcaster, BSkyB. There she was responsible for running all Sky channels, except Sky Sports, and was placed in charge of programming and advertising sales. In 2006 she was made managing director of Channels and Services whereupon she gained additional responsibility for all third party channels, joint ventures and networked media.
Airey left BSkyB to head up an independent production business backed by private investors however she was only with the company for a total of eight days before it was announced that the venture did not have sufficient cash to continue trading. Soon after, in May 2007, she was reunited with Michael Grade, joining ITV plc as Director of Global Content, running the broadcaster's production and global sales division. But the reunion did not last long.
In May 2008, after eight months at ITV plc, Airey earned Grade's enmity when she resigned to rejoin Channel 5 as chairman and CEO, with a remit to increase profitability and audience share. This she did. RTL's decision in 2010 to exit UK broadcasting and sell the company to Richard Desmond's Northern & Shell saw her elevated to the role of President of RTL-owned CLT-UFA. On 11 August 2010 it was announced Airey would leave Channel 5 to take up a senior post with RTL, its former owners, later in 2010. She left RTL in April 2013.
In August 2013 she joined Yahoo! as senior vice-president of Yahoo EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa). She was in the post until September 2015.
Airey was chief executive officer (CEO) of Getty Images photo agency from October 2015 to 31 December 2018, at which time she became a non-executive director member of its board.
In 2017 Dawn was News International’s Visiting Professor of Media Studies at Brasenose College, Oxford University. She is a Fellow and a Vice President of the Royal Television Society, and in 2018 was given an Honorary Doctorate of Arts by Edge Hill University for her outstanding contributions to the media industry.
In 2019 she joined the board of cloud video platform Blackbird as a non-executive director. Also in 2019 she became chair of a 12-person board overseeing future strategy and policy of women's club football in England.
Airey is a non-Executive Director of Thomas Cook (2010 – ) and Chair of The National Youth Theatre of Great Britain (2011 – ). She is a former non-Executive Director of the airline easyJet and a former member of the Board of the British Library. Airey is also a Vice-President of The Royal Television Society; a Fellow of The Royal Society of Arts and a Governor of The Banff Television Festival.
Personal life.
She lives with her civil partner Jacqueline Lawrence (Founder and Chair of The Elma Trust, a non-profit organisation) in West London and Oxford. They have two children (Dulcie and Matilda) .