Chief Executive Officer
recruitment

Welcome letter from CLA Co-Chairs

Thank you for your interest in becoming our new Chief Executive; we hope you find the following information on this website useful as you explore this exciting opportunity.

Last year CLA celebrated 40 years of delivering value to the UK’s creative economy and this year we have achieved another record year, generating £109m in revenue. This success has allowed us to distribute over £95.4m via CLA’s members (ALCS, DACS, PICSEL and PLS) and international partners to authors, publishers and visual artists based in the UK and overseas.

Copyright is the lifeline of creativity.  It’s hard to imagine what a society looks like if it doesn’t value creativity. In these changing times, CLA has an essential role to protect and advance copyright for creators and rightsholders. Our industries are not just culturally significant but also a major driver of economic success, contributing an estimated £126 billion to the economy and employing over 2.4 million people. UK creators, through books, plays, films and myriad art forms, have continued to shape and lead creative ideas globally – and CLA plays a key role in recognising and sustaining our creative endeavour.

Looking forward, CLA is embracing the challenges and opportunities presented by the rapid growth of generative AI. While these new technologies offer huge potential for enhanced productivity and creativity, we must recognise and ensure that copyright-protected content is respected. This means making sure that creators and rightsholders receive fair compensation and remuneration when their work is used to train generative AI models and used as prompts in generative AI tools. While AI is likely to remain a key issue in the coming years, CLA must also continue to be agile and innovative, ready to respond with attractive solutions to emerging technological and societal change shaping our industries.

If you share our passion and think you have the skills to lead the CLA in these exciting – and unprecedented – times, please contact our advising consultants at GatenbySanderson for an initial conversation.

We look forward to meeting you through the process.