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Brian Tesler

Brian Tesler retired in 1994 from the Deputy Chairmanship of LWT (Holdings) plc, a position he held from 1992, prior to which he had been Deputy Chief Executive (1974-76), Managing Director (1976-84), and Chairman & Managing Director (1984-92).  He is a Companion of TRIC and past President (1979-80).

He entered television in 1952 as a BBC television producer and in 1954 won the Daily Mail's National Television Award for "Ask Pickles", which he devised and produced. He moved to ITV in 1957 with ATV, where he was the first winner of BAFTA's Light Entertainment Production Award when the Academy was still the 'Society' of Film and Television Arts.

Brian Tesler left production for administration in 1960, when he joined ABC Television as Head of Features and Light Entertainment. He became Controller of Programmes in 1962 and Director of Programmes in 1965 - the first ITV Programme Controller to be appointed to a Board; and when ABC and Associated Rediffusion were merged to form Thames Television in 1968 he was a founder-director of the company as its Director of Programmes.
He joined LWT as Deputy Chief Executive in 1974 and was a founder-director of Channel Four in 1981. He was appointed CBE in June 1986 and in the same year was awarded Pye Television's Lord Willis Trophy for Outstanding Services to Television.

Among other industry roles he is a Fellow and retired Vice-President of the Royal Television Society; he was a Governor and Deputy Chairman of the British Film Institute; a Governor of the National Film and Television School; a member of the British Screen Advisory Council; and a Director of The Services Sound and Vision Corporation.

In his public work outside the industry, he was a member of The Lord Chancellor's Advisory Committee on Justices of the Peace - Inner London 1991-96 and its Chairman 1993-96; a Lay Interviewer for Judicial Appointments 1994-1999; and has been an Independent Assessor for Public Appointments since 2000.