Both employment contracts were terminated with immediate effect by a specially convened meeting of the board with immediate effect.

IMS said that the termination of the employment contract of executive chairman Sylvia Sheridan OBE was a result of the payment to her of unauthorised additional net remuneration of £58,200 which had not been approved by John Reiss, the independent non-executive director, and her failure to make a proposal for the repayment of these amounts to the company.

Pioneer 

Sheridan founded IMS in 1989 after twenty years in ITV educational and social action broadcasting at Thames, Granada, Anglia, IBA, and TV-am.

She was a pioneer in raising sponsorship for charity programming including the first two ITV Telethons in the 1980s, and in 1999 was the first female member to be appointed to The Council of the British Board of Film Classification.

Under Sheridan’s leadership, IMS introduced the subtitling of television commercials to the UK in 1991. She was one of just four recipients who received awards for services to broadcasting in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in December 2001.

The termination of the employment contract of chief executive Melvyn Angell, appointed in August 2007, follows his failure to repay debts of £89,000 owed by him to the company.

Finance director appointed 

The board said it would take the appropriate steps to recover these funds on behalf of the company. Sheridan and Angell will also cease to be directors of the company with immediate effect. 

Reiss has been appointed as non-executive chairman of the company. Mark Robinson continues in his executive role of managing director.

The board also agreed that Jock Rumgay, the company's current financial controller and company secretary, should be appointed as finance director in due course as soon as all necessary formalities have been completed in compliance with the AIM rules.

Rumgay, 39, will continue to act as company secretary. He has served as financial controller of the IMS Group since 2001, having worked in the media industry after qualifying as a chartered accountant in 1995.

He qualified with Nyman Libson Paul as a chartered accountant before joining The Sanctuary Group as financial controller of its Screen Division.

Financial outlook

The board of IMS said it believed that its actions were in the best interests of the company as a whole and all its public shareholders, and provided an opportunity to improve the financial outlook for the company and enhance its earning potential going forwards.

IMS (LSE:IMS) is the UK's leading independent provider of media access services, including subtitling, audio description, signing and translation services.

Related links

• Independent Media Support Group plc