Alan Esslemont
Director General – TG4
Company profile
TG4 is Ireland’s national publisher-broadcaster commissioning Irish language content from independent creative companies throughout Ireland. We are one of the most important sources of employment in the creative industries outside the Dublin/Wicklow area. Arts and cultural strands are also a key part of TG4’s primetime schedule with live coverage from the Fleadh and Oireachtas na Samhna. ‘Cruthaím’ is our celebration of Cruinniú na n-Óg which showcases the creativity of young people and we schedule comprehensive Arts programming in TG4 primetime on Culture Night. Feature-length arts documentaries are a recognised strength of TG4, including ‘Cumar – A Galway Rhapsody’ and the multi-award winning ‘Samhlú’, shot in Roundstone, Connemara. In addition 2022 sees the welcome return our highly lauded Arts series, ‘Imeall’
Personal/Professional Profile
Alan was born in Scotland and holds an MA in French from Edinburgh University and a postgraduate MBA from the Open University. After working in France, Switzerland and the Isle of Skye, he moved to Ireland in 1984 to a teaching position at University College Galway. In 1989 he became a member of the start-up team for Telegael, the pioneering audio-visual company in the west of Ireland.
Alan was appointed in 1995 to the senior management group of Teilifís na Gaeilge which launched TnaG in October 1996. He was a founding board member and treasurer of the Irish Film and Television Academy (1997-2000) and played a key strategic role in the successful re-launch of TnaG as TG4 in 1999.
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 to undertake the chief executive role as Director General at TG4 and in 2019 he was elected to the position of Chair of the Celtic Media Festival. Alan is a non-executive Director with CREW, Creative Enterprise West.
Other board Positions
Ex-officio Director, TG4.
Chair, Celtic Media Festival.
Non-executive Director, CREW