PA Media has named Alamy managing director Emily Shelley as its new chief executive.
Shelley, who has worked at PA Media for 25 years, is the first woman to lead the 155-year-old news business.
The publisher described Shelley’s appointment as a “powerful reflection of PA’s record for retaining staff and progressing careers”.
Shelley said: “When I joined PA as a grad trainee in 1999, I knew this was an organisation where I could build my career. It’s a huge honour to be given the opportunity to take charge of an organisation I love and a brilliant team I respect and care deeply about.
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“In the rapidly changing media world PA’s combination of maintaining traditional journalistic excellence and embracing cutting edge technological innovation is, in my view, key to our continued success.”
Shelley will succeed Clive Marshall, who has been chief executive at PA Media, formerly Press Association, for 14 years.
He announced in October he planned to retire this year but would help ensure a smooth transition of leadership.
Marshall said: “I’ve worked closely with Emily for many years and I couldn’t be happier with the board’s choice of her as my successor. I’ll be leaving the ship in safe and talented hands. I wish her and the entire PA team the very best for the future.”
Shelley started at PA as a news production trainee and worked in several editorial roles before launching a showbiz news service as showbiz editor in 2006. She became features editor a year later before moving into commercial and management positions.
PA said she played an “integral role” in the acquisition of content agency Sticky in 2013 and then became its managing director.
In 2020 she took on the same role at stock imagery agency Alamy after that acquisition. She joined the PA Media Group board in 2022.
PA Media Group chairman Murdoch MacLennan said: “Emily’s appointment is a tribute both to her remarkable skills and to the strengths and depth of PA Media Group. That she started her career with the business 25 years ago as a graduate trainee is something of which she and we are enormously proud.
“Emily’s appointment will ensure we build on the success of Clive’s tenure. We wish her every success and thank Clive for his outstanding service.”
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