FT.com - article

Charles Allen is used to a struggle. Born in Hamilton, Scotland, in 1957, he experienced poverty from the age of 14 when his father, a barber, died almost penniless and he could not afford to take up a place at Strathclyde University. He trained in his spare time as an accountant while a management trainee at British Steel and then worked in the audit section of Gallaher, the tobacco company, before joining the hotel operators Grand Metropolitan, where he quickly rose up the ranks. He took part in the management buy-out of Compass, the contract catering arm of GrandMet, organised by his boss Gerry (later Sir Gerry) Robinson, and later followed him to Granada. To the alarm of media personalities – the comedian John Cleese described him and Sir Gerry as "jumped-up caterers" – Mr Allen became chief executive of Granada's television arm and then played his hand cleverly through a period of TV consolidation to run the combined ITV in 2004.But despite cost-cutting that eased some financial burdens, shareholders lost patience with the perceived creative stasis presided over by Mr Allen and he resigned in August 2006, being replaced by Michael Grade. He has since become non-executive chairman of Global Radio, has been an independent director of Tesco since 1999, more recently of Virgin Media and the production company Endemol, and is an adviser to Goldman Sachs. He sits on the board of Locog, the organising committee of the 2012 London Olympics, and received a CBE in 2004 for his community work.