Stuart Ells is FRA’s Chief Executive Officer and is based in the firm’s London office. Stuart is responsible for all operational planning, management and reporting of the Group’s business globally. He is a director and member of the Board and Chairman of the firm’s Executive Committee.
Stuart has more than 30 years of corporate experience in the professional services and media & entertainment sectors. Most recently, he served as Managing Director & Chief Administrative Officer for Alvarez & Marsal Europe & Middle East, where he was responsible for the management, effectiveness and efficiency of the corporate support functions in the EMEA region. His role included future proofing the support structure to make it scalable to support the very significant growth of A&M in the EMEA region over the past few years. Prior to his CAO role, Stuart had led A&M’s European Media & Entertainment Corporate Performance Improvement business, during which time he had served as Interim COO of the Global English division of Pearson Plc.
Stuart has served as CFO, COO and CEO in a range of companies involved in filmed entertainment, TV production, recorded music, music publishing, theatre production and theatre management. He served as COO, CFO and Regional Director of EMI Music, managing the day to day operations of the Group, overseeing significant investment in digital alternatives to physical music products and managing two major global restructurings to address the changing market conditions that the global music industry was experiencing at the time. Stuart also served as the EVP and CFO of PolyGram Filmed Entertainment, the global film studio responsible for numerous award winning films including Notting Hill, Fargo and The Big Lebowski, during which time he lived and worked in Los Angeles. Subsequently he served as CFO of Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Really Useful Group and was also a founding Board Director of the Sundance Channel.
An experienced mergers and acquisitions advisor, Stuart was involved in the acquisition or sale of companies such as Motown Records, TVT Records, the Epic film library, ITC Entertainment, the Sundance Channel and the Stoll Moss Theatres Group.
Stuart earned a diploma in accounting before starting his career at Ernst & Young. He is a Chartered Accountant.