Fru Hazlitt has been appointed as GCap’s new Chief Executive. The news follows Ralph Bernard's decision in November to quit the company. Fru currently serves as an Executive Director of GCap as Managing Director GCap London.
Hazlett was the favoured replacement from the beginning. Other names thought to have been in the frame included Malcolm Wall, the chief executive of Virgin Media's content division and GCap's Steve Orchard.
GCap Chairman Richard Eyre said: "She has a wealth of experience and is absolutely the right person to lead the company at such an important time for the radio industry. Her breadth of experience in radio and digital media is unparalleled as is her track record in building brands and managing content across analogue and digital media."
Fru Hazlitt said: "I joined GCap with a strong conviction that it has a great future and the 6 months I have spent here have only reinforced this view. We have great people and both locally and nationally we have historic brand equity and a status that will enable us to win within the multiplatform environment."
In GCap's latest trading update released last month, underlying first-half pretax profit fell slightly to 5.6 million pounds from 5.8 million last year. Like-for-like revenues climbed 4.5 per cent to 100 million pounds, excluding the results of selling two Century stations to GMG Radio in October 2006.
Ralph Bernard stepped down from the position in November, though will remain with the group as chairman of Classic FM. On departing from the role, Barnard commented: "25 years is a long time to head up a company and having been at the heart of commercial radio's growth over the years, the time is right to step down as chief executive."