ALCS Appoints New Chair of the Board

LONDON, October 24, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

The Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS) is delighted to announce the appointment of Adam Singer as Chair of the ALCS Board of Directors for a three-year term, effective from November 2013.

Adam Singer succeeds Dr Penny Grubb who has stepped down after six years in the post. He brings extensive global experience of broadcasting, telecoms and corporate governance to the role of Chair, having helped to launch both the Discovery Channel and UK TV; filled senior roles at Telewest, Viacom, TCI International and at the MCPS-PRS Alliance, worked closely with regulators including Ofcom for the past three decades; and served as a director for a number of creative organisations.

A regular contributor to the digital debate, Adam Singer has also undertaken coaching and mentoring work, and is passionate about encouraging partnerships, as well as both creating and focusing debate at Board level.

The ALCS Board currently comprises nine Directors, the majority of whom are writers working across the fields of journalism, legal, academia and scriptwriting.  For the past three years ALCS has distributed in excess of £30m each year among over 60,000 of its Members.

Owen Atkinson, CEO of ALCS says of Adam Singer's appointment:

I am delighted that Adam has accepted the challenge of focusing ALCS at a particularly worrying time for writers, with European and UK Governments seemingly believing that copyright is broken and needs changing - to the detriment of creators.  Adam has a history of supporting the rights of creators and at ALCS we believe he is an excellent choice for Chair in the next phase of ALCS' evolution.

Commenting on his new role at ALCS, Adam Singer says:

If you can't feed writers, then you can't feed musicians or app designers, in fact all the creators of today's 'press print' economy. It starts with authors, and that is why the ALCS is the place to be, as its endeavours are a ventricle in the heart of creative Britain. To be given the Chair of ALCS and the opportunity to represent those who live by the written word is a privilege.

Adam Singer will formally take up his new role of Chair at the Annual General Meeting of the Authors' Licensing & Collecting Society, to be held at the Grand Thistle Hotel, Bristol on 21 November 2013.

Editor's Notes

Adam Singer: Biography

Adam Singer has worked in broadcasting and telecoms in the UK, the US, France and Japan.  He launched the Discovery Channel in the UK and Europe and was its first MD.  He helped create UKTV with the BBC and is a former Chairman and CEO of Flextech plc, whose portfolio included the Living, Bravo and Trouble channels.  He was COO of TCI international, looking after John Malone's investments in the UK, France, Japan, and South America, and was CEO of Telewest plc, providing telephone, broadband and TV programming.  Currently he is Chair of the Development Board, and on the Board of Trustees for The Sixteen, one of the UK's leading choral groups. He is Chairman of the British Screen Advisory Council and is also Chairman of Digital Radio UK, and for fun is Chair of Benjafield's Racing Club, which preserves the spirit of pre-war motor racing.

The Authors' Licensing & Collecting Society (ALCS)

ALCS collects fees on behalf of the whole spectrum of UK writers: novelists, film & TV script writers; literary prize winners; poets; freelance journalists; translators and adaptors, as well as thousands of professional and academic writers who include nurses, lawyers, teachers, scientists and college lecturers. All writers are eligible to join ALCS: further details on membership can be found at http://www.alcs.co.uk. ALCS collects fees that are difficult, time-consuming or legally impossible for writers and their representatives to claim on an individual basis: money that is nonetheless due to them. Fees collected are distributed to writers twice a year in February and August. Since its inception, ALCS has distributed over £300 million to the nation's writers. For further information, contact alcs@alcs.co.uk or see http://www.alcs.co.uk