James Neish to leave GBC after contract expires

James Neish, the chief executive of GBC, is to leave the post when his three-year contract expires in the coming months.

The news was announced on Monday in a joint statement by the GBC Board and Mr Neish and comes after a “transformative” period under his leadership since his appointment in 2022.

Mr Neish has re-energised the broadcaster’s output, focusing heavily on local programming and tripling audience satisfaction ratings across television, radio and news.

The statement said Mr Neish had steered “a massive transformation” of GBC’s output and “the huge positive impact on the community has clearly been felt”.

The GBC Board said it had hoped Mr Neish would extend his contract and had been engaged with Mr Neish in a “thoughtful discussion and mutual reflection” in recent weeks over a potential extension

“Regrettably in the end this has not been possible,” the statement said, adding that Mr Neish had decided not to extend.

“The newly appointed GBC Board is sorry to see James Neish leave GBC,” said Alice Mascarenhas, chair of the Board of GBC.

“His time with the corporation as its CEO has seen vast improvements, the most recent example of which has been the extraordinary coverage of the treaty announcement which was a credit to both his leadership and the staff at GBC.”

“His commitment to engaging the community has been exceptional.”

“The idea of introducing Radio Gibraltar’s ‘Gibraltar Today’ on GBC Television has worked extremely well and proven to be of great success.”

“There is no doubt he is leaving strong foundations for his successor.”

“The GBC Board and I fully supported him staying but we respect his decision and now wish him all the very best in his new endeavours.”

“We know he will keep in touch, and we therefore look forward to seeing what he does next, and to the contributions he will make to GBC.”

“At a personal level, I have worked with James since his first days as an intern at GBC and have closely followed his career achievements over the years, and his move to the UK.”

“Knowing that we both share the same views on the role of ‘community radio and television’ I was greatly looking forward to working with him once again.”

Mr Neish said: “My decision was not taken lightly and follows careful consideration of a range of personal and professional factors.”

“I want to express my sincere gratitude to the GBC Board for their strong encouragement for me to continue in the role.”

In a message to staff, he said: “I am proud of all we have accomplished together, often under extremely challenging circumstances.”

“To each, and every one of you, thank you.”

“I will continue being a fan of GBC and supporting you in any way I can.”

“Likewise, I have offered myself to the GBC Board to assist, if needed, in any way I can in the future.”