FD will hope for better future
Troubled magazine publisher The Future Network has reported the appointment of John Bowman as group finance director.
Troubled magazine publisher The Future Network has reported the appointment of John Bowman as group finance director.
Bowman’s appointment, which was announced yesterday, will take effect in November. The new FD is a chartered accountant and began his career at KPMG. He joins Future from Scottish Radio Holdings, where he had been group FD since 1994.
Future chief executive Greg Ingham said: ‘John is a well-regarded media professional, is well-known in the City and has strong financial experience. He has an ideal mix of skills and his credentials will be of great benefit to Future Network. We are pleased to appoint someone of John’s calibre as we move the group forward.’
Bowman will replace Michael Penington, who was interim FD, and will continue with the group as non-executive director. Penington was appointed in March following the resignation of Ian Linkins, who was FD and secretary.
At the time chairman Chris Anderson said Linkins was stepping down after bearing the brunt of Future’s woes, which included accounting errors and overstated profits. He also said he understood Linkins’ ‘desire to move on to another senior role within the company.’ The CIMA-qualified accountant remained with the company as its commercial director
Future, which announces its interim results in two weeks, has had its lion’s share of problems, spilling into its current financial year. In November 2000, the publisher of 134 titles, announced its business forecast for that year was going to be below market expectations.
This was followed by another profit warning in January 2001, in which the admitted to cutting its sales expectations 3%. Then, in February, the company said it was going to ‘streamline’ its business by cutting 20 of its titles, six of them in the UK.
Links
Future FD steps down after results errors Future Network finance chief steps down