• EXECUTIVE BIOGRAPHY: JAMES MURDOCH
James Murdoch is currently co-chief operating officer of 21st Century Fox, and will serve as the company’s chief executive officer effective July 1, 2015.
James Murdoch, 42, has held a succession of leadership roles over his nearly two-decade career with the company, culminating in his appointment to CEO. Over that period, he has been a key driver of the Company’s domestic and international expansion, having most recently served as co-chief operating officer, and previously as chairman and CEO for Europe and Asia, as well as chairman of BSkyB, Sky Deutschland, and Sky Italia, the businesses that now comprise the pan-European Sky group. His significant operational experience also includes tenures as CEO of both BSkyB and STAR, India’s number one entertainment broadcaster.
As 21st Century Fox’s co-chief operating officer, James Murdoch had a broad purview across the Company’s global portfolio of businesses, and direct responsibility for its cable and broadcasting networks and properties, which reach more than 1.8 billion subscribers every day. From 2011 to 2014 he served as deputy chief operating officer and chairman and CEO, International, and prior to that, chairman and CEO, Europe and Asia since 2007.
James Murdoch has played an integral role in a number of strategic transactions, including the separation of the former News Corp into two distinct companies, the combination of the Endemol Shine Group joint venture, the acquisition of the YES Network, and, through the creation of Sky Deutschland and the combination of Sky Deutschland and Sky Italia and BSkyB, the creation of the European entertainment leader Sky plc.
During his tenure as BSkyB’s chief executive officer (of which 21st Century Fox owns 39.1%) from 2003 to 2007, and its chairman from 2007 until 2012, the company experienced transformative growth, amassing more than 10 million subscribers, and created a full-service residential media and telecommunications company.
James Murdoch led 21st Century Fox’s partial acquisition of the former Premiere AG and from that the creation of Sky Deutschland, which was valued at €6.6 Billion upon its combination with BSkyB and Sky Italia in 2014. In addition, he led the restructuring of the company’s European and Asian businesses between 2008 and 2010, including the separation of its Asian satellite television group, STAR, into India and ex-India operations, and the sale of the company’s Russian and Eastern European media holdings.
James Murdoch became chairman and chief executive officer of STAR in 2000 and led the company’s turnaround and by 2003, the company established itself as the premier content and broadcasting company in India, South Asia and Taiwan. Prior to joining STAR, James Murdoch held a variety of corporate roles at News Corporation between the time he joined the Company in 1996 and 2000, primarily focused on digital businesses.
Before joining the company, James Murdoch co-founded and chaired Rawkus Entertainment, a seminal Hip Hop independent based in lower Manhattan.
James Murdoch serves as a board member of 21st Century Fox and Sky, and of News Corp. In addition, he is a non-executive director of Yankee Global Enterprises, Vice Media, and a member of the Board of Trustees of the Harvard Lampoon and the Ghetto Film School.
He and his wife Kathryn founded their family foundation, Quadrivium, in 2014. Quadrivium supports a variety of initiatives involving natural resources, science, civic life, childhood health, and equal opportunity.
Source: 21st Century Fox