Ellis Watson returns to showbiz as he quits FirstGroup to join Simon Cowell

• Ellis Watson

Watson, First's marketing and business development director and a member of the Aberdeen group's board, is leaving to run Simon Cowell's music and entertainment business based in London and Los Angeles.

He will become chief executive of Syco Entertainment and oversee the launch of Cowell's X Factor format on US TV network Fox next year.

Watson said: "I've got the most exciting job in entertainment anywhere in the world – it's not a vocation, it's a calling."

Cowell will remain as chairman of Syco, a recently formed joint venture with Sony Music Entertainment. He said: "I'm delighted that Ellis will be joining Syco. His broad experience in TV and media will be a huge asset."

Watson's decision to leave was sudden and will have taken many at the bus and rail operator by surprise. Watson, who has been based in the US for the past six months, will leave the firm in mid-April.

Before his role at FirstGroup, Watson spent four years as managing director of Menzies Distribution where he was credited with revolutionising the business and expanding it following the collapse of rival Dawson News.

Following a ten-year media executive career at the Sun and other News International titles, Watson spent three years in television as managing director of Celador International, leading the commercial exploitation of the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? format. He returned to newspapers in 2004 to be managing director of newspaper group Trinity Mirror alongside its chief executive Sly Bailey.

FirstGroup said Watson's nine months at the firm was a "very productive period in which he has helped refine many of the commercial aspects of the group's operations in the UK and North America". Martin Gilbert, chairman of First, said: "He leaves the group with our best wishes and I am sure he will go on to achieve great success in his new role."