Elisabeth Murdoch (businesswoman) - WikiMili, The Best Wikipedia Reader

Elisabeth Murdoch (businesswoman)

Last updated

Elisabeth Murdoch
CBE
Nordiske Mediedager 2010 - Thursday - NMD 2010 (4583813556) (cropped).jpg
Murdoch in 2010
Born (1968-08-22) 22 August 1968 (age 55)
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Citizenship Australia
United Kingdom
United States
Education Vassar College (BA)
Occupation(s)Journalist, media executive
Spouses
Elkin Kwesi Pianim
​
​
(m. 1993;div. 1998)​
​
​
(m. 2001;div. 2014)​
​
​
(m. 2017)​
Children4
Parents
Family Murdoch

Elisabeth Murdoch CBE (born 22 August 1968) is an Australian-born British and American media executive based in the United Kingdom. [1] She was a non-executive chairperson of Shine Group, the UK-based TV programme production company she founded in 2001, until the company's parent 21st Century Fox merged its Shine division with Apollo Global Management's Endemol and Core Media production houses, specializing in reality TV, in 2015. [2]

Contents

Early life

Elisabeth Murdoch was born on 22 August 1968 in Sydney. Her father is media tycoon Rupert Murdoch (born 1931), and her mother is his ex-wife, journalist and author Anna Maria dePeyster (née Torv; born 1944). Elisabeth Murdoch was named after her grandmother, Dame Elisabeth Murdoch (1909–2012). She completed her secondary education at the Brearley School in New York City and graduated with a bachelor's degree from Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York. [3]

Career

Murdoch began her career as a manager of programme acquisitions at her father's FX Networks, a cable television unit based in Los Angeles. Operating as EP Communications, on 22 September 1994 Murdoch and her then-husband, Elkin Kwesi Pianim, purchased a pair of NBC-affiliate television stations, KSBW and KSBY, in California on a US$35 million loan secured by her father. [4]

Murdoch moved with Pianim to the United Kingdom where Rupert Murdoch was running BSkyB, which was struggling financially. After Sam Chisholm joined the company to manage the day-to-day operations and build the subscriber base, Murdoch served as his second-in-command and de facto apprentice. By the time Chisholm left the company, BSkyB was the most profitable company in the United Kingdom. As managing director, she oversaw BSkyB's £12 million sponsorship of the troubled Millennium Dome. However, she also faced criticism after brokering her father's failed £623.4 million bid for English Premier League club Manchester United. [5]

After quarreling publicly with Chisholm, she ventured out on her own as a television and film producer in London. She advocated Sky setting up a film and production unit similar to BBC Films and Film4 Productions. However, due to lack of success, this unit closed down. She founded Shine Limited in March 2001, with 80 percent ownership retained by herself, 15 percent by Lord Alli, and five percent by BSkyB. BSkyB signed a deal guaranteeing to buy an agreed amount of Shine programming for two years.

In 2011, Shine was acquired by News Corporation in a controversial deal that raised questions about nepotism. [6]

In February 2013, Murdoch was assessed as the fifth most powerful woman in the United Kingdom by Woman's Hour on BBC Radio 4. [7]

In 2018, Murdoch produced a dating reality show called Phone Swap , that was originally aired on Snapchat. [8]

Murdoch has served on many organizational boards including Afiniti. [9] She is now executive chairman of the global TV and film production and development company, Sister, which is headquartered in London with offices in Los Angeles. [10] She set up her production company Sister in 2019. [11] Her sister production company had a deal with Chris Goldberg and his Winterlight Pictures company. [12] She most recently had a deal with actor Jeremy Strong. [13]

Murdoch was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2022 Birthday Honours for services to diversity in the arts and to charity. [14]

Personal life

Murdoch's first marriage was to a fellow Vassar graduate, Elkin Kwesi Pianim, an associate in the New York corporate finance department of the Rothschild investment bank. He is the son of Ghananian-born economist and financier Kwame Pianim and Dutch-born Cornelia Pianim. The wedding was held on 10 September 1993 at St. Timothy Catholic Church near the Beverly Hills residence of the bride's parents. [15] [16] They have two children, Cornelia Pianim (born 1994 in New York) and Anna Pianim (born 1997 in London). They were divorced in 1998.

Murdoch's second marriage was to public relations executive Matthew Freud, the son of former MP Sir Clement Freud and great-grandson of Sigmund Freud. The couple married on 18 August 2001 in a ceremony at Blenheim Palace. The couple had two children. [17] From 2008, the family resided at Burford Priory in Oxfordshire, where they were key members of the Chipping Norton set. [18] They also owned a home in Notting Hill, London. The couple divorced in 2014. [19]

In 2017, Murdoch married artist Keith Tyson. [20]

Murdoch is a dual national of the United States and the United Kingdom. [1] She currently resides in the St John's Wood neighbourhood of London. [21]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rupert Murdoch</span> Australian-born American business magnate (born 1931)

Keith Rupert Murdoch is an Australian-born American business magnate, investor, and media proprietor. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of local, national, and international publishing outlets around the world, including in the UK, in Australia, in the US, book publisher HarperCollins, and the television broadcasting channels Sky News Australia and Fox News. He was also the owner of Sky, 21st Century Fox, and the now-defunct News of the World. With a net worth of US$21.7 billion as of 2 March 2022, Murdoch is the 31st richest person in the United States and the 71st richest in the world according to Forbes magazine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sky Group</span> British media and telecommunications conglomerate

Sky Group Limited is a British media and telecommunications conglomerate, which is a subsidiary of the American conglomerate Comcast, and headquartered in Isleworth. It has operations in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy. Sky is Europe's largest media company and pay-TV broadcaster by revenue, with 23 million subscribers and more than 31,000 employees as of 2019. The company is primarily involved in satellite television, producing and broadcasting. The current CEO is Dana Strong.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jerry Hall</span> American model and actress (born 1956)

Jerry Faye Hall is an American model and actress. She began modeling in the 1970s and became one of the most sought models in the world. She transitioned into acting, appearing in the 1989 film Batman. Hall was the long-term partner of Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger, with whom she has four children. She was the fourth wife of Rupert Murdoch until they divorced in 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Murdoch</span> British media executive

James Rupert Jacob Murdoch is a British-American businessman. He is the younger son of media mogul Rupert Murdoch and the former chief executive officer (CEO) of 21st Century Fox from 2015 to 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anna Murdoch Mann</span> Scottish journalist and author (born 1944)

Anna Maria dePeyster is a Scottish and Australian journalist and novelist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wendi Deng Murdoch</span> Chinese-American businesswoman

Wendi Deng Murdoch is a Chinese-born American entrepreneur, investor, film producer, and collector of Chinese contemporary art.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elisabeth Murdoch (philanthropist)</span> Australian philanthropist and mother of international media proprietor Rupert Murdoch (1909-2012)

Dame Elisabeth Joy Murdoch, Lady Murdoch, also known as Elisabeth, Lady Murdoch, was an Australian philanthropist and matriarch of the Murdoch family. She was the wife of Australian newspaper publisher Sir Keith Murdoch and the mother of international media proprietor Rupert Murdoch. She was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 1963 for her charity work in Australia and overseas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sarah Murdoch</span> Australian model and television presenter

Sarah Murdoch is a British-Australian model, actress, and television presenter.

Andrews Kwame Pianim is a Ghanaian financier and former government official in the NPP government. He served as CEO of New World Investments, a company he co-founded in 1995. After ten years as a political prisoner, he made a 1996 bid to run for the presidency of Ghana on the ticket of the NPP but lost to the former President J.A. Kufuor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matthew Freud</span> British businessman (born 1963)

Matthew Freud is head of Freud Communications, an international public relations firm in the United Kingdom.

<i>New Nation</i>

New Nation was a weekly newspaper published in the UK for the Black British community. Launched in 1996, the newspaper was Britain's Number 1-selling black newspaper. The paper was published every Monday.

Shine TV is a British media production company and part of Banijay with offices in London and Manchester.

The foundation of the Premier League in English football occurred in the early 1990s. A proposal for the establishment of a new league was tabled at the end of the 1990–91 season. It received the support of representatives of all eighteen First Division clubs, as well as The Football Association (FA) through its "Blueprint for the Future of Football" publication. The Premier League was actualised in stages: the signing of the Founder Members Agreement on 17 July 1991, clubs handing a joint notice of resignation from the Football League, and the final go-ahead from the FA who administered affairs.

The British media company Sky UK has incurred criticism over the years, much of it centred on overcharging, anti-competitive practices, and the business practices and undue political influence of its one-time majority owner News Corporation.

The Chipping Norton set is a group of media, political and show-business acquaintances who have homes near the market town of Chipping Norton in Oxfordshire, England. Chipping Norton is located approximately 75 miles from London. The group gained media attention in the wake of the News International phone hacking scandal, which directly involved members of the group.

The News Corporation takeover bid for BSkyB was a proposed takeover of British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) by News Corporation, the media conglomerate of Rupert Murdoch. The bid was launched in June 2010 but was withdrawn in July 2011 following the News International phone hacking scandal. News Corporation already owned 39.1% of BSkyB and held onto its stake following the collapse of the takeover bid. The takeover was an essential part of News Corporation's business strategy, not least as it would have made possible integration with other entities such as Sky Deutschland and Sky Italia. The Guardian went so far as to say that, "Without a full takeover of BSkyB, News Corp's global satellite strategy would look an unco-ordinated mess."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">21st Century Fox</span> American multinational mass media corporation (2013–2019)

Twenty-First Century Fox, Inc., which did business as 21st Century Fox (21CF), also known simply as Fox, was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate based in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It was one of the two companies formed on June 28, 2013, following a spin-off of the publishing assets of the old News Corporation as News Corp.

Members of the Murdoch family are prominent international media magnates and media tycoons with roots in Australia and the United Kingdom, along with their media assets in the United States. Some members have also been prominent in the arts, clergy, and military.

Sophie Henrietta Turner Laing, is a British businesswoman and media executive. She was chief executive officer of global content creator, producer and distributor Endemol Shine Group from December 2014 until July 2020. Prior to taking up that role, she held a number of senior positions at Sky in the UK, including their director of film and managing director of content. She previously worked for the BBC as the acting director of television and, along with Peter Orton and Jim Henson, was a founder of HIT Entertainment. In March 2022, she was named Chair of National Film and Television School.

Shine Group was an international television production and distribution group with 26 production companies across 12 countries creating scripted and non-scripted content in the global marketplace.

References

  1. 1 2 Luo, Michael (April 2008). "Murdoch's Daughter Hosts Obama Fund-Raiser". The Caucus. Retrieved 18 August 2018.
  2. ↑ Johnston, Chris (1 October 2014). "Elisabeth Murdoch set to quit television production company Shine Group". The Guardian . Retrieved 22 June 2015.
  3. ↑ Ken Auletta (3 December 2012). "The Heiress". The New Yorker. Retrieved 1 February 2022.
  4. ↑ Hay, David (3 June 1994). "Murdoch's Daughter". Financial Review . Retrieved 1 February 2022.
  5. ↑ Folkenflik, David (2013). Murdoch's World: The Last of the Old Media Empires . PublicAffairs. p.  144. ISBN   978-1-610-39089-7.
  6. ↑ Sabbagh, Dan (5 April 2011). "Elisabeth Murdoch lands £153m from Shine buyout". The Guardian .
  7. ↑ "Women's Hour - The Power List 2013". BBC Radio 4 . 16 January 2014. Archived from the original on 16 January 2014.
  8. ↑ "05/08/18: Snapchat's Phone Swap gets a call from Fox TV Stations". Cynopsis Media. 8 May 2018. Retrieved 26 September 2022.
  9. ↑ Cook, James; Dodds, Laurence (2 November 2019). "Inside the mysterious world of AI firm Afiniti which boasts David Cameron and Princess Beatrice as recruits". The Daily Telegraph . ISSN   0307-1235 . Retrieved 5 November 2020.
  10. ↑ "Elisabeth Murdoch, Jane Featherstone and Stacey Snider form Sister" (Press release). Sister Pictures. 1 October 2019.
  11. ↑ Thorpe, Vanessa (28 February 2021). "Elisabeth Murdoch funds film school that says no to nepotism". The Guardian . Retrieved 3 March 2021.
  12. ↑ Andreeva, Nellie (29 July 2021). "Sister Inks First-Look Deal With Chris Goldberg's Winterlight Pictures". Deadline Hollywood . Retrieved 31 July 2021.
  13. ↑ White, Peter (9 November 2021). "Jeremy Strong To Star In & Produce 9/11 Responders Drama From Tobias Lindholm & Sister As Part Of First-Look Deal With 'A War' Director". Deadline Hollywood . Retrieved 10 November 2021.
  14. ↑ "No. 63714". The London Gazette (Supplement). 1 June 2022. p. B10.
  15. ↑ "Engagements; Elisabeth Murdoch, Elkin K. Pianim". The New York Times . 24 January 1993.
  16. ↑ "Weddings; Elisabeth Murdoch and Elkin Pianim". The New York Times . 12 September 1993.
  17. ↑ Sweney, Mark (6 October 2014). "Matthew Freud and Elisabeth Murdoch to divorce". The Guardian . Retrieved 24 September 2020.
  18. ↑ Dewar, Caroline (5 March 2012). "Who's who in the Chipping Norton set". The Daily Telegraph . Retrieved 6 May 2012.
  19. ↑ Gosden, Emily (5 October 2014). "Elisabeth Murdoch and Matthew Freud to divorce". The Daily Telegraph . Retrieved 15 October 2014.
  20. ↑ Sherwin, Adam (9 February 2020). "Elisabeth Murdoch surprise contender to become new BBC Director-General". i . Retrieved 24 September 2020.
  21. ↑ Prynn, Jonathan (15 October 2014). "Rupert Murdoch's daughter buys home in St John's Wood for £38.5m". Evening Standard . Retrieved 18 August 2018.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.