David Arculus

Who is David Arculus?

Sir David Arculus, is a British media figure, businessman and advisor to Government who has appeared several times in The Sunday Times Power 100, ranked at number 39 in 2005.

Educated at Bromsgrove School and Oriel College, University of Oxford and the London Business School, he started his career as a writer and was a producer for the BBC from 1968 to 1974. He joined EMAP in 1972, and took it from being a small regional newspaper publisher to a large media group. He was involved in launching many new magazines – for instance, Smash Hits, a journal that printed words to pop songs, which went from an initial circulation of 10,000 to one million within a year, which provided the cash which helped Emap to subsequently become a leader in the world of business communications encompassing magazines, events, exhibitions and data products.

As a result of these successes Arculus worked his way up to Group Managing Director in 1989, leaving Emap in 1997. He subsequently became Chief Operating Officer of United News and Media and then became Chairman of IPC Media which at the time was Britain’s largest management buy-out.