THE regional director of ITV in the North-East is to leave the company at the end of next month.

Graeme Thompson, who has been with the company for 20 years, plans to set up a new venture in the region.

Mr Thompson has held a number of roles at Tyne Tees, including head of news, director of broadcasting and managing director.

He said: “I am enormously proud of the team producing North-East Tonight for Tyne Tees and Lookaround for the Border region.

“I feel very fortunate that, over the past two decades, I’ve been able to produce and commission so many terrific programmes for the regions and the network.”

Mr Thompson, who studied journalism at Darlington College and whose early career included a stint at BBC Radio York, is a trustee and regional chairman of the Royal Television Society, a role he will continue.

Catherine Houlihan will continue as ITV Tyne Tees and Border’s head of news and will report to Neil Thompson, who takes up the new role of director of Yorkshire, Tyne Tees and Border and Anglia as part of a restructure of ITV’s regional management team.