Dawn McCarthy-Simpson MBE

Dawn is an international development expert with over 25 years of experience in the broadcast industry (television and radio); this includes Managing Director, Commercial Director and Broadcast Development Director roles at local, national and international television channels.

As a pioneer of local Television, she launched one of the first local terrestrial TV channels in the UK, where she remained for a further two years as Managing Director.  Dawn then went on to be involved with the launch of a second channel, which was the UK’s first short film channel which aired on the Sky platform. In her final year she successfully launched the channel brand into a further seven European countries.

Not satisfied with having experienced both in TV & Radio, she also ventured into the literary world when she became a published author with her best-selling non-fiction book in June 2006.  Since 2018 she has a colomn for global magazine Makers.

Dawn is currently the Managing Director of global strategy at Pact, the UK trade body representing approximately 500 production companies in the UK.  She is responsible for developing the export strategy for the UK TV industry, opening up new markets, developing trade partnerships and co-production opportunities around the globe.

She sits on a variety of industry boards, including the government’s Creative Industry International Trade Board which is responsible for developing a 5 year trade strategy for the UK creative industries

About Pact

Pact (Producers Alliance for Cinema & Television) – the UK’s trade association that represents and promotes the commercial interests of independent feature film, television, animation and interactive media companies.  Pact represents over 550 companies across the UK who are known for some of the worlds most iconic TV shows.