ITV taps Film and TV Charity Chief Alex Pumfrey as director of strategic partnerships

U.K. commercial broadcaster ITV has hired Alex Pumfrey as director of strategic partnerships, reporting into Martin Goswami, group strategic partnerships and distribution director.

Alex Pumfrey, currently CEO of the Film and TV Charity, revealed last week that she was stepping down after almost six years in the role. She will remain in the role through May and join ITV in June.

Pumfrey replaces Lynette Kewley, who was director of strategic partnerships and moved over to ITV’s streamer ITVX as director of commercial and propositions last year.

At ITV, Pumfrey will be responsible for developing relationships across national media players such as BBC, BT, Sky and Virgin Media and international tech giants including Apple, Amazon and Samsung.

Pumfrey started her career in TV at Channel 4 developing the broadcaster’s early digital strategy. She subsequently worked for the public service broadcasters at Digital U.K. (now Everyone TV) where she led the delivery of the UK’s £1 billion ($1.2 billion) digital TV switchover program before developing the long-term strategy for the U.K.’s free-to-air TV platform and managing its central operations.

At the Film and TV Charity, Pumfrey re-focused the charity’s efforts on mental health and wellbeing support in addition to financial and later life support, for example launching a 24-hour help line, setting up a mental health taskforce and publishing guidance such as the Whole Picture Toolkit to ensure mentally healthy productions.

Pumfrey said: “I am thrilled to be joining ITV at such a key moment in the delivery of its 2026 vision to become a leader in UK streaming and an expanding global force in content. I’m looking forward to working with our strategic partners to create shared value for the long term, and supporting the wide industry ecosystem in which we all operate. ITV understands that its success is contingent on building trust-based and strategically-aligned relationships that deliver for both ITV and our partners. My aims are to develop the positive partnerships we already have, maximise the value of these for both parties, and embed a culture of partnering at ITV.”

Goswami added: “Alex has exceptional experience in working with broadcasters and platforms and is perfectly placed to drive ITV’s strategic partnership activity. ITV connects with millions of people every day and this role plays a vital part in ensuring we do that as well as possible as a key part of achieving our More Than TV Strategy. I’m delighted that Alex is joining us at a really exciting time for ITV and look forward to welcoming her.” Variety