Adam Crozier

Adam Alexander Crozier (born 26 January 1964) is a Scottish business executive and chairman of Whitbread and BT Group. He was formerly the chief executive of ITV plc. After a career at Saatchi & Saatchi culminating in the role of joint chief executive in 1995, he came to wide public prominence as the new chief executive of The Football Association in 2000, before in 2003 becoming the chief executive of the Royal Mail Group until 2010.

Early life and education Crozier was born and raised on the Isle of Bute on the west coast of Scotland in 1964. His father was a manager for Lord Bute, and his mother was secretary to the managing director of The Scotsman. Crozier went to a school in Ayr, before moving to Graeme High School, a comprehensive school in Falkirk.

Career

Early career Crozier joined Pedigree Petfoods as a graduate trainee in 1984. In 1986, he moved to The Daily Telegraph to work in media sales. He replaced Graham Kelly. In his short tenure from 2000 to 2002, the FA relocated headquarters from Lancaster Gate to Soho Square, appointed the first ever foreign England national team manager, Swede Sven-Göran Eriksson, and became a more commercial organisation, maximising its revenues. He also reduced the average age of the FA's staff from 55 to 32, progressed the Wembley Stadium redevelopment, and reduced the FA's ruling body from a 91-member FA Board to a committee of 12.

Royal Mail Crozier became the chief executive of the Royal Mail Group in February 2003. Entering the post, Crozier described his remit as the "biggest corporate turnaround programme in the UK". While at the Royal Mail, Crozier's salary, one of the largest in the country for the head of a publicly owned body, was criticised in light of the changes being made to the Royal Mail workforce. Post Office officials knew about the bugs as early as 2002, but chose to continue with the prosecutions regardless.

In May 2024, the Financial Times reported that Crozier had received letters from at least four Members of Parliament about problems with the Horizon system, and their consequences for sub-postmasters, while he was at the Royal Mail. This was despite Crozier having testified under oath at the on-going Post Office Inquiry that he "was not aware of the tragic situation for Post Office sub-postmasters and their families during my time at Royal Mail."

ITV Crozier left the Royal Mail in 2010 to become the chief executive of media group ITV plc.

ITV plc is one of three partners within ITV Network Limited, the not-for-profit organisation which runs the ITV television network, the United Kingdom's first commercial network effectively created under the Television Act 1954. Crozier was replacing Michael Grade, who announced his intention to leave in April 2009.

Other roles Crozier was also a board member of Camelot Group, the former operator of the UK National Lottery, and the Debenhams retail chain, before it was liquidated. He is also member of the President's Committee of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI).

Crozier was the chairman of Vue Cinemas from 2017 to 2020, and the chair of ASOS plc from 2018 to 2021.

In February 2020, Crozier was appointed non-executive chairman of Kantar Group. In December 2021, he became chairman of BT, replacing Jan du Plessis.

Personal life Crozier is married to Annette, whom he met while working for Saatchi and Saatchi, and has two children. Despite having taken on high-profile jobs involving pressing through major upheavals, he is described as "softly spoken" and has previously said of the spotlight, "I hate it, absolutely hate it. The bizarre thing about the last three jobs I've done is that I don't like [the public profile] at all. I will go to enormous lengths not to do public things – because it is just not me."