Lachlan Murdoch

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Lachlan Murdoch
Born	Lachlan Keith Murdoch (1971-09-08) 8 September 1971 (age 41) London, England, United Kingdom
Spouse(s)	Sarah Murdoch (1999-present)
Parents	Rupert Murdoch Anna Torv

Lachlan Keith Murdoch (born 8 September 1971) is the eldest son of Australian-American media mogul Rupert Murdoch and his second wife Anna Torv. He resigned from his executive positions at News Corporation on 29 July 2005. He is currently the Non-executive Chairman of Network Ten,^[1] Executive Chairman of DMG Radio Australia, and on the board of News Corporation.^[2]

Biography[edit]

Early life and education[edit]

Murdoch was born in London, England but was raised in a wealthy New York City neighbourhood where his father owned the New York Post. He received his education at the exclusive Aspen Country Day School in Aspen, Colorado (U.S.), Trinity School in New York City as well as at the Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts (U.S.). He received his BA from Princeton University in 1994.

Career[edit]

In 1989 Rupert Murdoch brought Lachlan Murdoch, then 18 years old, to Australia while on business, to have Lachlan trained for three months at the Daily Mirror. At that time the Printing / Publishing departments were situated at Surry Hills Sydney, entrusted to a printer named Arthur Violatzis. Together they created a good working relationship. At the end of Lachlan's third month, Rupert Murdoch returned to the U.S taking Lachlan with him. Although trainer and student vowed to keep in touch, they have not contacted or seen each other since.

At the age of 22, Murdoch was appointed general manager of Queensland Newspapers, which publishes The Courier-Mail in Brisbane.^{[citation needed]} One year later, he became publisher of Australia’s first national paper, The Australian. In 1995 he was appointed Deputy CEO of News Limited, Executive Director of News Corporation in 1996, Deputy Chief Operating Officer in 2000; he was made Senior Executive Vice President from 1999 to 2000, and has been Chairman of STAR since 1995.

Murdoch has been criticised as a "rich brat" for his "poor handling" of Murdoch interests in One.Tel,^[3] which lost the empire millions of dollars. In this venture, Murdoch worked with Australian businessman James Packer, the son of Kerry Packer.

Murdoch has a strong personal interest in Australian rugby league. On 30 March 1995, Murdoch was at the first Super League meeting in the Atanaskovic Hartnell offices in Sydney. He and former Brisbane Broncos chief John Ribot signed up leading Bulldogs players on documents which were not legally effective. Murdoch has been the Broncos' number one ticket holder.^[4]

For the year 2001, Murdoch earned a salary of A$2.59 million.^[5] In June 2005, Murdoch received the Press & Outdoor Advertising "Media Person of The Year" award in Cannes.^[6] Murdoch is one of the founding patrons (along with Anthony Pratt, Peter Lowy and Lisa Fox) of an organisation called "Advance", formerly known as "YAPA" (Young Australian Professionals in America).^[7]

After his resignation, Roger Ailes, the chairman of Fox News Channel, was named chairman of News Corp's group of television stations. The abrupt and unexplained departure of the 33-year-old Murdoch apparently dashed News Corp. Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch's hopes that his son would one day take over as CEO of the global media empire, which includes the Twentieth Century Fox movie studio, the Fox television network, several satellite broadcasters, and newspapers in Britain, Australia, and the United States.

In the weeks after his resignation, however, he began a new venture, lodging applications to set up a new Australian company called Illyria Pty Ltd, in which he acts as sole director and secretary.

On 21 January 2008, Murdoch and James Packer announced that their companies, Illyria Pty Ltd and Consolidated Press Holdings would seek to privatise Consolidated Media Holdings which owns holdings in the Nine Network, Foxtel and Australian Consolidated Press.^[8]

On 24 January 2008 Murdoch, along with Manoj Badale and Suresh Chellaram under the banner of Emerging Media successfully bid for the Rajasthan Royals franchise in the inaugural Indian Premier League for US$67 million.^{[citation needed]}

In November 2009, Illyria purchased 50% of dmg Radio Australia's interests and Lachlan Murdoch became Chairman. Dmg operates the NOVA radio stations in every mainland capital, Star FM in Gosford, and talk radio station FIVEaa in Adelaide.

In 2010, after James Packer bought a large number of shares in Network Ten, Murdoch approached Packer to buy some of his shares, causing Ten to offer both men seats on their board, an offer which both Murdoch and Packer accepted.^[9] In February 2011, Murdoch was appointed acting CEO of Ten Network Holdings after the company's board terminated the contract of CEO Grant Blackley.^[10] In February 2012, the Ten board appointed Murdoch non-executive chairman of Ten Network Holdings.^[11] Although the network was already in some financial difficulties before Murdoch became CEO, by late 2012 he had lost $110 million of the original $150 million he had invested since 2010. The share price had fallen by about 80% and network profits had dropped by over half. 160 people had also lost their jobs at the network. The problems were mainly attributed to falling advertising revenues and restructuring at the network which Murdoch had overseen. The program Masterchef was also repurchased from the Murdoch family’s Shine production company at three times its original cost.^[12]

Personal life[edit]

Murdoch married British born Australian model/actress, Sarah O'Hare in 1999. They have two sons, Kalan Alexander, born on 9 November 2004, and Aidan Patrick, born on 6 May 2006.^[13] On 12 April 2010, the couple had their third child, and first daughter, Aerin Elisabeth, named for his sister and grandmother.^[14] Prior to 2003, Murdoch and Sarah were owners of "Berthong", a house in Elizabeth Bay, Sydney, which was subsequently bought by Russell Crowe.^[15] In November, 2009, Murdoch bought a mansion formerly owned by the French consulate at 93 Victoria Road, Bellevue Hill, New South Wales for $23 million. From time to time, Murdoch and Sarah host fundraising dinners for the charity Murdoch Children's Research Institute.^[16]

Medical development[edit]

Murdoch has pursued a keen interest in medical development following his work on HIV/AIDS. Murdoch reportedly indirectly owns a stake in Australian biotech company Fermiscan following wife Sarah's breast cancer advocacy work and has a number of medical development projects under way.^{[citation needed]}

Speeches[edit]

• Lachlan Murdoch's "Andrew Olle Media Lecture" 18 October 2002
• National Press Club of the U.S., 21 September 1999

References[edit]

This article contains content from the defunct wiki, HierarchyPedia, used here under the GNU Free Documentation License

Further reading[edit]

• Wendy Goldman Rohm Murdoch Mission (2002). Interviews with various Murdoch family members
• Neil Chenoweth Virtual Murdoch (2001). Mainly about Rupert Murdoch
• Paul Barry, Rich Kids, Bantam Books, 2002, ISBN 1-86325-338-6
• Kirkpatrick, David, "Murdoch Gets a Jewel. Who'll Get His Crown?" New York Times, 28 December 2003.
• Milliken, Robert, "Lachlan Murdoch; Heir to the Sun and Sky," The Independent (London), 7 May 1995.
• Pappu, Sridhar, "Lachlan Murdoch, Spiky Punk Heir Right for Post?" New York Observer, 24 November 2003.
• Salamon, Julie, "Television: An American Story; A Family That Tried to Be Both Rich and Good," New York Times, 1 October 2000.
• Neil Chenoweth, The Australian Financial Review, 5 August 2005, on Lachlan's involvement in Australian Super League shenanigans.

External links[edit]

• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Lachlan Murdoch on Charlie Rose

• Lachlan Murdoch collected news and commentary at The New York Times
• Detailed profile of Lachlan, Joe Strupp, Editor & Publisher Journal, 16 December 2002
• [2] SEC filing, listed on News Corporation website pertaining to sale of shares by Lachlan between 7 and 8 December 2009

Decision to leave News Corporation

• Detailed article from the New York Magazine (19 September 2005 by Steve Fishman) reportedly written with Lachlan's co-operation.
• Melbourne Age article
• Guardian article (1 August 2005)
• USA Today article