Sinead Rocks, architect of Channel 4’s move to Leeds, is to leave the broadcaster after seven years.
Since becoming the organisation’s managing director of nations and regions in 2019, Rocks delivered its ‘4 All the UK’ strategy, which moved its headquarters to Leeds and established new and expanded regional bases in Glasgow, Manchester and Bristol.
She also forged links with indies in the nations and regions and oversaw 4Skills, C4’s programme to plug the skills gaps outside London, which has supported more than 180,000 professionals across the UK to date.
“It’s hard to know when to leave a job you love but my time is now,” Rocks said. “I joined to lead what became the biggest structural change in Channel 4’s history — relocating the organisation’s centre of gravity out of London and into the nations and regions.
“We established a new HQ in Leeds, creative hubs in Glasgow and Bristol, and grew our presence in Manchester. Now hundreds of colleagues are based in these offices.
“We drove a step-change in investment, enabling us to better reflect the full diversity of all four nations.”
Rocks previously spent two decades at the BBC, where she helped launch CBBC and steered BBC Learning’s move to Salford.
Newly-appointed C4 chief executive Priya Dogra said Sinead “championed the creative and economic case for the nations and regions at every level to ensure that our expanded footprint translated into real opportunity”.
Dogra added: “We are now more firmly rooted across the UK than ever before and that is in no small part down to Sinead and the brilliant teams that she has led.”
