SMG has appointed former Yahoo! UK and Ireland boss, Fru Hazlitt, in a move that will combat Lord Alli’s attempts to take over Virgin Radio after his £100million bid was turned down in February.
Making it a brace of high-profile appointments, SMG has also appointed MT Rainey, who recently stepped down as chairman of WPP-owned Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe/Y&R, as non-executive director. Glasgow born Rainey is one of the most senior women in the ad industry and is also a non-executive director at WH Smith and chair of the Marketing Group of Great Britain. She will now lend her experience to the Glasgow-based media group.
Hazlitt has been poached from Yahoo! to be SMG’s new radio chief. She is on maternity leave from her job as managing director of Yahoo! UK and Ireland, but will join SMG in the late summer as chief executive of radio, looking after Virgin and its spin-off digital stations. She takes over from John Pearson, who left earlier this month.