The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) has just announced that the successor of Ingrid Deltenre as Director General will be: Noel Curran!
Noel Curran has had a succesful career at Irish broadcaster RTÉ, among his proudest achievements there is restructuring RTÉ in his role as Director General at the end of 2008, during the financial crisis, and also making RTÉ a firm digital media organisation. He is also an award winning journalist and producer.
President of the EBU, Jean-Paul Philippot about the appointment:
“We are delighted to welcome Noel Curran as the new Director General of the EBU. Noel was the candidate of choice in what was an extremely strong list of candidates. He impressed us with his sound public service values, his operational experience and his understanding of the public service media ecosystem within today’s rapidly evolving media environment. His leadership experience as Director General of RTÉ will be invaluable as the EBU moves towards the next chapter in its history. I am confident he will do a very good job for the EBU, for all our Members, and for public service media.”
A very enthusiastic Curran himself told the world:
“There is now, more than ever, a compelling case for what public service media does, and what the Members of the European Broadcasting Union do, day in, day out. The EBU represents some of the finest media organizations, content-makers and journalists in the world. The position of DG is a huge honour, and I will work with the membership to seize every opportunity and to move ahead with the changes necessary to secure the future of public service media. I look forward to working with Jean-Paul, with the EBU team and with our Members, from all regions in the EBU, to serve our audiences’ needs.”
Curran has strong links to the Eurovision Song Contest itself as well: He was the Irish head of delegation during the 90’s, including the year Eimear Quinn won. The year after, when Ireland hosted the contest in Dublin, he was the executive producer for the event. The ties with the contest don’t stop there as Noel Curran is married to… Eimear Quinn! They have two daughters together.
Noel Curran succeeds Ingrid Deltenre who has held the position since 2010 and he is expected to take up the duties at the beginning of September this year.
