Prash Naik appointed Channel 4 General Counsel

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Channel 4’s Director of Commercial Affairs Martin Baker has announced two changes within the Channel 4 Commercial Affairs team.

Prash Naik, currently Controller of Legal & Compliance, has been promoted to the role of General Counsel – Legal, Compliance & Governance.  In the new role – alongside his existing responsibilities overseeing the Legal & Compliance department, Reversioning, VOD Compliance and Audience Interaction teams – Prash will now also take responsibility for the Corporate Legal team, working on corporate governance, data protection, freedom of information and regulatory issues.  Rebecca Miller, Head of Legal, Governance, Regulatory and Trading, will report into Prash.

Prash has worked in the Channel 4 legal team since 1994 and was previously a solicitor in private practice.  Under his leadership, the Channel 4 Legal & Compliance team won the in-house ‘TMT Team of the Year’ at the 2013 The Lawyer Awards.

John Moran has also joined Channel 4 this week in the newly created role of Controller of Business Affairs where he will be responsible for leading Channel 4’s Senior Business Affairs Managers and their respective teams. He will work closely with Chief Creative Officer Jay Hunt and the broadcaster’s Commissioning team, and alongside Prash Naik.

John joins Channel 4 from the BBC where he held the position of Head of Commercial and Business Development, Rights and Business Affairs, Radio and Music for the past six years. His previous roles at the BBC include Legal Advisor in the Regulatory team and as Senior Legal & Business Affairs Manager for Factual & Learning, Events & BBC News.

Both roles report to Martin Baker, whilst Prash Naik will also have a dotted line to the Chief Executive and Chairman for legal matters in the reference up of programme content.

Martin Baker said: “Under Prash’s leadership, Channel 4’s legal and compliance team are rightly acclaimed as industry leaders and I’m delighted that he is taking on this new and expanded brief.  John joins us with a terrific track record and will be invaluable in ensuring we deliver a first class Business Affairs service to our colleagues in the commissioning team and our independent suppliers.”