National Geographic Channel’s executive VP of programming John Ford will leave the network this summer.

Mr. Ford said on Thursday he wanted to explore other creative and business pursuits, including interactive media, feature-length films and documentaries.

National Geographic President Laureen Ong said a search for Mr. Ford’s replacement will start Friday and that she hoped Mr. Ford would remain a consultant to the company, which would prevent him from working for a competitor.

Under Mr. Ford, the network produced the Emmy-nominated documentary “Inside 9/11” and developed “The Dog Whisperer,” which has emerged as a franchise for the network, which had record ratings in January.

A former top programming executive at Discovery, Mr. Ford joined National Geographic in 2003. He said he has had no talks about rejoining Discovery, which is undergoing a reorganization under new CEO David Zaslav.

(Editor: Horowitz)