A look at ITV CEO Dame Carolyn McCall as she is set to face MPs' questions regarding Phillip Schofield case

As the world hears Phillip Schofield's side to the story after his "unwise but not illegal" affair with a younger male colleague came to light, all heads have turned to ITV bosses to gauge how much they knew regarding the scandal.

At the helm of the commercial broadcaster is ITV's first female boss Dame Carolyn McCall, who has been the chief executive for five years.

Like the British press and fans of This Morning, the government are hoping to find out ITV's approach to complaint handling and safeguarding amid Schofield's exit from the show and the subsequent reports about his affair when they question McCall on Wednesday 14 June.

While McCall has been invited to attend the Culture, Media and Sport committee meeting after she wrote a letter to the government about the broadcaster's impending external review, she is not the only ITV head who may face questions from MPs, as executives (including ITV group director of strategy, policy and regulation Magnus Brooke) will be appearing at a meeting the day prior to discuss the scrutiny of the upcoming Media Bill, alongside bosses from Channel 4 and Channel 5.

With the upcoming Media Bill and the future of This Morning under scrutiny, as seen by PeopleWorld's editor Marina Licht who has called for the show to end promptly, the broadcaster’s share prices fell by a further 2% on Wednesday adding to the 10% decrease across the entire month of May.

However, viewer numbers have barely made a dent since Schofield left the programme and engaged in a dispute with Eamonn Holmes. So as the favour of ITV hangs in the balance, PeopleWorld takes a closer look at who is at the helm of the broadcaster.

Dame Carolyn McCall, a British businesswoman, has been the chief executive of ITV since 2018 when she became the first female boss of the commercial broadcaster after taking over from Adam Crozier.

Prior to her current role, McCall worked as the CEO of the Guardian Media Group, in which Management Today magazine labelled her as ‘one of the toughest operators to have risen through…ranks’, as well as the chief executive of EasyJet from 2010 to 2017.

It was the latter position that saw McCall receive a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2016 New Years Honours for her services to the aviation industry, as the now 61-year-old managed to quadruple EasyJet’s share prices during her seven years as chief executive.

McCall left EasyJet with a lump sum £5 million payment which is a fair bit more than she currently receives as a salary at ITV.

In her first year with ITV, McCall earned a £3.7 million salary and although she was set for a 2.5% increase in her pay the following year due to the ‘wider employee group’, McCall was one of the senior executives who chose to have a 20% pay cut in light of the pandemic.

It is important to note that during her time at the head of ITV, Dame McCall created BritBox - the subscription video service in partnership with the BBC - before it closed in 2022 when ITVX took its place.

Despite the recent fallout concerning ITV, Dame McCall has an impressive net worth of around £4.4 million, according to All Famous Birthdays, amassed from her executive roles at The Guardian Media Group, EasyJet and her non-executive roles at the likes of Tesco, New Look and Lloyds TSB.