Roger Parry

Roger Parry
[[File: Roger Parry - Montreux 2012 |frameless|alt=]]
Born	1953 London,
Nationality	British
Education	Jesus College, Oxford, Bristol University Sutton Grammar School for Boys,
Occupation	Businessman, Journalist
Known for	BBC, Clear Channel, Globe Theatre, HMV, ITV, Jazz fm, LBC, YouGov,
Spouse	Johanna Waterous
Children	1 son

Roger Parry (born 1953 in London) is a media entrepreneur based in the UK. He is Chairman of a number of media groups quoted on the London Stock Exchange including Mobile Streams plc and YouGov plc.^[1] He is Chairman of the Trustees of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre.^[2] And a Visiting Fellow of Oxford University.^[3] He was a pupil at Sutton Grammar School for Boys, and educated at the Universities of Bristol and Oxford.^[4] He is the author of four books and writes extensively on the media and associated topics.

Career

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. The live entertainment business was spun out in 2005 to become Live Nation. In 2007 he became Chairman of marketing communications group Media Square plc which he subsequently took private in a management buy-out in 2011.

From 2001 to 2009 he was Chairman of Johnston Press plc, the UK's largest regional newspaper group. Based in Edinburgh it owns more than 300 titles including The Scotsman and Yorkshire Post. From 2001 to 2011 he was Chairman of magazine publisher Future plc (based in London, Bath and San Francisco) which owns more than 100 titles including Total Film, Digital Camera and Xbox Magazine.

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.^[5]

From 1995 to 1998 he was CEO of the UK media company More Group plc.^[6]

In the 1990s he was part of the team that restructured Aegis Group and built up Carat the media buying network. In 1993 he was appointed the President of Carat North America.^[7]

In the late 1980s he was Development Director of the advertising group WCRS which became The Engine Group.

In the mid 1980's he was a consultant with McKinsey & Co.^[8] He was there at the same time as Adair Turner, Howard Davies and Archie Norman.

From 1977 to 1985 he was a television and radio reporter with the BBC, ITV and LBC. He worked on the Today programme on BBC Radio 4, BBC News and Thames News.^[9]

His first job in 1976 was as personal assistant to Charles and Maurice Saatchi the founders of Saatchi & Saatchi.^[10]

Activities

In 2009 he was commissioned by the UK's Conservative Party to write a report on the future of local media.^[11][12] His proposals on local TV were subsequently adopted as Government policy by Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt.^[13][14]

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^[15]

During 2006 he was linked with a number of private equity bids including one for the retail chain HMV ^[16] and another for the British television broadcaster ITV.^[17] He was twice forced by the UK Takeover Panel to deny rumours that he was about to bid for ITV.^[18]

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 newspaper, Parry responded to this by saying: It would be like Ann Widdecombe turning down a date from Brad Pitt ^[19]

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. Mandelson, Blair and Parry had been contemporaries at Oxford University in the late 1970s. All three men subsequently denied the allegation.^[20][21]

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 which was opposed by the Jazz FM management. He voted for the sale and was criticised by the Jazz FM CEO.^[22]

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.^[23] In 2000 it was sold to rival technology investment group Newmedia Spark plc with Parry and Slater reported to have made more than £3m ^[24]

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 .^[25]

In 1984 he was named as one of the people behind the highly successful pirate radio station Laser 558.^[26] Also that year Parry was a member of a consortium including Jocelyn Stevens and Tina Brown which attempted, but failed, to win the franchise for the London radio station LBC. In 1994 he tried again with London Radio which also involved broadcaster John Tusa and was, this time, successful but sold the station 9 weeks later at a profit of £ 5 million.^[27]

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 ^[28] which resulted in a lively debate about the convergence of technologies and the effect on broadcast television ^[29]

He writes numerous book reviews including:

Wikinomics by Don Tapscott in 2007.^[30]Crowdsourcing by Jeff Howe in 2008^[31] and Free by Chris Anderson in 2009^[32]

His published books are:

• Parry, Roger (2011). The Ascent of Media. London: Nicholas Brealey. ISBN 1-85788-570-8. 
• Parry, Roger; George Hazel (2004). Making Cities Work. London: Wiley-Academy. ISBN [[Special:BookSources/0-474-84681-X|0-474-84681-X]]. 
• Parry, Roger (2003). Enterprise:The leadership role. London: Profile. ISBN 1-86197-634-8. 
• Parry, Roger (1991). People Businesses: Managing Professional Service Firms. London: Random House. ISBN 0-09-174661-2. 

References