Edinburgh TV Festival & Foundation Name Managing Director

Campbell Glennie has been upped to head the Edinburgh TV Festival (ETF) and its charity arm, the TV Foundation, in the newly created role of managing director, and Stewart Clarke has been tapped for the creative director position.

Glennie, formerly the director of education and talent development, has worked with the organization for the past six years. He has been responsible for the growth of the TV Foundation’s talent schemes, The Network and Ones to Watch, and also introduced new initiatives—including TV PhD and partnering with the Living Wage Foundation—to grow the charity’s outreach to an ever more diverse pool of up-and-coming and untapped talent.

Glennie’s role will bring together both sides of the ETF, overseeing both the festival itself and the work of the TV Foundation, in a restructuring of the organization that also sees the creation of another new role: creative director. Stewart Clarke, former international correspondent at Variety, has been appointed to this newly formed position, with a remit to drive the vision of the festival and build on its heritage of editorial independence and industry-defining moments.

Clarke completes the new senior management team for 2020, alongside Sophie Howard as partnerships and marketing director and Sarah Vignoles as talent schemes director. He joins from Variety, where he has been an international correspondent since 2017, and was previously editorial director of TBI Magazine.

BBC TWO Controller Patrick Holland is this year’s advisory chair and has already set out the festival’s themes for 2020, including the evolving TV ecology, the increasingly global market and the role and response of PSBs within this challenging landscape. The festival will run from Wednesday, August 26, to Friday, August 28, 2020, and passes will go on sale from Monday, February 3.

Glennie said: “Witnessing first-hand the transformative power of the Festival and our life-changing schemes over the past six years, it’s a genuine privilege to lead the organization into the future. I am excited to have a journalist of Stewart’s caliber at the helm of building an unforgettable Festival program with this year’s advisory chair, Patrick Holland, and infusing what we do year-round with fresh ideas and international expertise.”

Clarke added: “The TV world in 2020 is changing, there are unprecedented challenges and opportunities for producers, broadcasters and platforms. Against that backdrop, great British creativity is setting the global agenda. The Edinburgh TV Festival is a place to come together and celebrate that, as well as asking some searching questions, meeting people and, of course, having some fun. I’m thrilled to be joining Campbell and the team and can’t wait to get to it; building on the great work that’s already been done at the Festival.”

The festival’s executive chair, Graham Stuart, said: “Campbell Glennie is the perfect choice to oversee the entire Edinburgh operation of both Festival and TV Foundation. Under his skilled guidance Edinburgh will continue to expand as the definitive home for innovation, creativity, debate and reflection on our ever-evolving industry. Alongside him, Stewart Clarke will bring a vastly experienced and truly global perspective to the Festival in his newly created role. Stewart’s unique vision will undoubtedly make Edinburgh even more unmissable in 2020.”