SCOTTISH media veteran Richard Findlay is stepping down as chairman of STV Group after playing a key role in its turnaround.

He will be replaced by the experienced Margaret Ford, Baroness Ford of Cunninghame.

Mr Findlay, formerly chief executive of Scottish Radio Holdings and the founding chairman of the National Theatre for Scotland, has served six years with STV after joining the board in February 2007.

During that period he has overseen the sale of non-core assets such as Virgin Radio and cinema advertising arm Pearl & Dean, while helping STV return to its roots as a Scottish-based broadcaster and producer of content.

Also during this period, the balance sheet has been successfully rebuilt with debt reduced and core operations performing solidly. That resulted in a £9.1 million pre-tax profit for 2012.

The company also provided strong signals at its recent annual meeting that it should be in a position to begin paying dividends again at some point within the next two years.

Mr Findlay, 69, initially trained as an actor at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music & Drama before building a career in business.

He is understood to have no plans to retire and will maintain his portfolio of non-executive positions across a number of sectors.

He said: "Significant progress has been made in transforming STV into a profitable growth company with a strong balance sheet and a clear strategy to create value.

"The focus is now on execution of the growth strategy and I am confident that, led by Margaret Ford, the strong board and capable and motivated management and staff team at STV will continue to fulfil the exciting potential of the company."

Scots-born Lady Ford started her working career in the late 1970s with the Scottish Development Agency, helping to rebuild the North Ayrshire economy following the closure of steelworks there.

Since then she has held roles at accountancy firm PriceWaterhouse, Lothian Health Board and the Scottish Prison Service.

As chairwoman of housing and regeneration agency English Partnerships, Lady Ford helped to sell the Millennium Dome to become the O2 Arena.

She was made a life peer in 2006 and sits in the House of Lords as an independent peer.

As well as setting up two successful consultancies, she was formerly a senior adviser to Royal Bank of Canada, chairman of the Olympic Park Legacy company and had non-executive posts at Serco, Thus and OFGEM.

At the moment, she chairs utilities group May Gurney – which counts Scottish infrastructure group Turriff among its subsidiaries – as well as nursing group Barchester. She also holds a non-executive role at residential housing group Grainger, data centre and industrial property firm Segro, and Taylor Wimpey.

She said: "I am conscious of what an excellent job the board has done since 2007 and look forward immensely to working with Rob Woodward and the board in taking the company to the next phase of its development."

Rob Woodward, STV chief executive, paid tribute to Mr Findlay's "exemplary leadership, insight and wise counsel" and said he was looking forward to working with Lady Ford.

He added: "Under [Richard's] stewardship, the future prospects of the company have been transformed as he has steered the business through challenging times and successfully overseen the implementation of a growth strategy designed to deliver shareholder value."

Lady Ford joins the board from June 1, with Mr Findlay stepping down on August 31.

Shares in STV were up 2.5p at 137.5p.