ITVS’s Bleasdale makes Manchester move

A leading ITV Studios (ITVS) executive is leaving to head up the company responsible for managing and developing UK studios The Space Project and The Sharp Project.

Adrian Bleasdale

Adrian Bleasdale will join Manchester Creative Digital Assets (MCDA) as CEO in January 2017.

Bleasdale will leave his role as special projects director at ITVS, where he held a number of other senior positions in the past. He previously oversaw the relocation of ITV soap opera Coronation Street to MediaCityUK and the move of fellow soap Emmerdale’s studios.

MCDA’s current assets include The Space Project, The Sharp Project and One Central Park. The combined sites have in excess of 610,000 sq ft of space dedicated to creative, digital and production businesses.

Bleasdale will lead MCDA through its next phase of growth, developing and physically expanding the assets funded by Manchester City Council to grow the digital, production and creative sectors.

“Adrian has a track record of business transformation and growth which is hard to match,” said Susan Woodward, founder of both The Space Project and The Sharp Project and incoming chair of MCDA.

“This, along with his experience and success in large-scale project delivery, sets him up well for leading Manchester Creative Digital Assets and leaves him brilliantly placed to grow the creative and digital sectors in Manchester, along with helping the City of Manchester identify and make further strategic investments in the sector.”