Alan Esslemont
Director General, TG4
Alan was born in Braemar in Scotland and holds an Masters degree in French from Edinburgh University and a postgraduate Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from the Open University.
Alan moved to Ireland in 1984 to a teaching position at the University of Galway. In 1989 he became a member of the start-up team for Telegael, the pioneering independent audio-visual company in the west of Ireland. Alan was appointed in 1995 to the senior management group of Teilifís na Gaeilge which launched the Irish language television channel, in October 1996.
He was appointed Director of Television for TG4 in 2000 and then in December 2007 Alan returned to Scotland to help set up and successfully launch BBC ALBA, the Scots Gaelic television channel, where he was Head of Content for almost nine years.
In October 2016 Alan came back to work in Ireland as Director General at TG4 and in 2019 he was elected to the position of Chair of the Celtic Media Festival.
Under his leadership TG4 has developed a very successful Irish language cinema brand, Cine4, leading to the Oscar nomination for Best International Feature Film for ‘An Cailín Ciúin/The Quiet Girl’ in March 2023. TG4 is also making much progress as a provider of non-linear and social media digital content, especially focusing on younger audiences and, in September 2023, launched a dedicated channel for children, ‘Cúla4’. TG4’s national audience share in Q1 2024 was its highest since 2007.
In November 2023 the University of Galway conferred an honorary Doctorate of Literature (DLitt) on Alan for his commitment to the advancement of Irish language media and cinema.
Alan will be rapporteur in the European City Exemplars session on Wednesday 29 May.
