BBC Director appointed as Channel 4 Managing Director Nations & Regions

Channel 4 has appointed Sinead Rocks, currently the BBC’s Director of Education, as its new Managing Director, Nations & Regions.

As the new Managing Director, Nations & Regions, Rocks will lead the delivery of Channel 4’s ‘4 All the UK’ strategy and will be the lead executive in its new National HQ in Leeds.

She will report into Chief Commercial Officer, Jonathan Allan and attend Executive group meetings, working with other executives and leaders across the business as a champion for the Nations & Regions.

In addition, Rocks will form a Nations and Regions senior team and take on a wider leadership role for all staff based in Channel 4’s new offices outside London.

Rocks said: “It’s a really exciting time to be joining Channel 4. Their Nations and Regions strategy is ambitious and compelling and I’m delighted that I’ll get to play a key role in bringing it to life and to work with the amazing talent that exists right across the UK.”

This announcement follows on from Channel 4 confirming it is in advanced negotiations to lease space in the Majestic building in Leeds city centre for its new National HQ.

Rocks has been the BBC’s Director of Education since 2016, based in Salford’s Media City, overseeing a range of content across TV, radio and online including the award winning Bitesize.  

She played a key role in the BBC’s move to Salford – migrating the BBC’s Learning department to the North West site, and has been one of the senior executives based there.

She started her career as a journalist at BBC Northern Ireland before joining BBC Children’s to work on the launch of the CBBC channel. She is a former editor of Newsround as well as Executive Producer for BBC Current Affairs where she headed up the Manchester network unit and led the team making content for The One Show, Panorama, documentaries for BBC Three and also launched the ‘Rip Off Britain’ franchise.

Jonathan Allan, Chief Commercial Officer of Channel 4, said: “Sinead has an impressive track record of creative and organisational leadership, as well as a huge amount of experience of relocation through being part of the BBC’s move to Media City.

“I’m thrilled she’s agreed to join Channel 4 as our new Managing Director, Nations & Regions and I know she’ll be a powerful advocate for our staff, new talent and the production sector outside of London.”