Head hunters will help choose RTPs new top brass

 In Companies, News

The General Independent Board of Portugal’s state-run television and radio station RTP will be supported in the choice of its new top executives by a specialist head hunting agency Boyden.

The consultants will help select the candidates for the new executive board of administrative which will replace the team led by Gonçalo Reis. The process, says Jornal Económico, will be divided in two phases with candidates having until 23 February to apply.
The information was originally gleaned by Expresso and confirmed by JE from RTP’s director of the Technical Secretariat, Pedro Jorge Braumann, with the process starting today (20 January 2021). The ideal situation is that the new administrators are in place to begin their term of office for 2021-2023 by the “end of the first quarter”.
Although Boyden will assist the GIB (CGI) in sifting through the possible candidates, the final decision will be down to the general board which was set up in 2014.
Boyden was chosen by the public media station after consulting the market. By choosing to use the help of a headhunter, the GIB opens the way for a new method of recruiting RTP top brass, one that is different from the method used in 2015 and 2018.
The GIB began the selection process for the new administrators today, with the conditions required for potential candidates and the necessary terms of the process for their applications posted on the company’s website.
An advert was also published in the newspapers Expresso and Público giving the deadline for candidates to show their interest set for 23 February.
According to Pedro Jorge Braumann, the GIB does not have the ideal profile to define management, but “there exists conditions in relation to the candidate applications and for which aspects will be taken into consideration. The requirements will be made public today.”
RTP’s administrative board comprises three members — a president and two administrative board members. According to RTP statutes, the administrator who ends up as financial administrator will have to have the seal of approval from the Ministry of Finances.
The interested parties applying for the top jobs on the administrative board of RTP will have to present a strategic plan for 2021-2023, which respect the guiding strategy lines of the state-owned TV and radio station predefined by the GIB.
Based on these current guidelines, a provisional version of a potential strategic plan project will have to be presented by the candidates which will include issues such as the restricting of the daily and non-daily programme and daily news formats without prejudging the level of programme quality.
The selection process is complex and since it is dependent on authorisations and reports, a firm deadline for the appointment of the new administrative board has not been set.
The term of office for the current administration headed by the RTP President Gonçalo Reis ended in December 2020, although the team will continue working until the company’s 2020 accounts are presented.
The current administrative board comprises Gonçalo Reis and board members Ana Dias and Hugo Figueiredo. Gonçalo Reis has headed RTP since 2015. In the first term, the board members were Nuno Artur Silva (now secretary of State for Cinema, Audiovisual and Media) and Cristina Vaz Tomé.
The GIB is presided over by José Vieira de Andrade and includes members Arons de Carvalho, Francisco Seixas da Costa, Maria Helena Costa de Carvalho e Sousa, Leonor Beleza and Manuela Melo.