The company is majority-owned by private equity firm Trilantic Europe and has a roster of high-profile clients including Ant & Dec, Holly Willoughby, and Paris Hilton.

Permira Credit and Lloyds Banking Group have hired AlixPartners to conduct a business review of YMU, which employs about 350 people in the UK and US.

Schofield himself is not thought to be a material fee-earner for YMU.

The company's latest accounts are not expected until the autumn.

The company, previously called James Grant Group, was founded in 1984 by Peter Powell and Russ Lindsay.

It was later acquired by Formation, then Gresham, and was sold to Metric Capital in 2014.

In 2022, it was sold to Trilantic and rebranded as YM&U.

The company is currently facing a scandal involving a TV presenter, Schofield, which poses a headache for ITV, the UK's biggest commercial broadcaster.

The CEO of ITV, Dame Carolyn McCall, will appear before MPs next week as part of a hearing examining the company's approach to safeguarding and complaint handling.

Both YMU and AlixPartners declined to comment, and Trilantic did not respond to an email about its portfolio company.