PA Media Group chief executive Clive Marshall will retire next year after 14 years leading the news agency.
PA Media said he has led its transformation “from national news agency to an international multi-media business with a turnover of more than £110m”.
In a statement, PA added that this growth had been both organic and through acquisitions, while Marshall also led the sale of weather business the Meteo Group for £125m in profit in 2013.
Marshall, 65, said: “It’s been a privilege to lead the PA Media Group over these past 14 years with the support of my hugely talented colleagues and, despite all the challenges our industry faces, build such a successful news and information business.
“This has been a tough decision but it’s time for me to retire from this full-time role and spend more time ticking off the dozens of Scottish Munro mountains I still have left to climb.
“PA has been such an important part of my working life. Its role as a lynchpin and innovator in an ever-changing media industry will continue to be critical. I’ll keep driving this brilliant business forward in the months ahead and oversee the smooth transition to new leadership.”
Marshall has spent 45 years working in the media, including ten years as chief executive at Australian Associated Press immediately before taking on his current role at PA Media Group in February 2010.
His career began in the advertising department of the Southport Visiter, and before leading PA as chief executive he spent a first stint at the business as commercial director between 1993 and 2000.
Marshall will continue in his roles as non-exec chairman of licensing organisation NLA Media Access, as PA’s representative on the Nomination Committee of the Thomson Reuters Trust and as a trustee of the Royal National Children’s Springboard Foundation.
PA Media Group chairman Murdoch MacLennan said: “Clive has been an outstanding leader, steering the company through a challenging media landscape with commercial vision and formidable determination. He will leave the company in great shape and with our sincere gratitude.”
As well as its flagship national news agency, PA Media Group owns marketing services business Sticky Content, social media specialists We Are Hydrogen, sports streaming provider Stream AMG and stock images and video library Alamy. Earlier this month it bought Singapore-based sports data business iRace Media.
Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog
