Elisabeth Murdoch (businesswoman)

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For other people named Elisabeth Murdoch, see Elisabeth Murdoch (disambiguation).

Elisabeth Murdoch /ˈmɜːrdɒk/[1] (born 22 August 1968) is an Australian television industry and international media executive. She was nonexecutive chairperson of Shine Group, the UK-based TV programme production company she founded in 2001, until the company's parent, her father's 21st Century Fox on 1 January 2015 merged its Shine division with ApolloGlobal Management's Endemol and Core Media production houses, specialising in reality TV.[2]

Biography

Early life

Elisabeth Murdoch was born on 22 August 1968 in Sydney. Her father is Rupert Murdoch and her mother, Anna Murdoch Mann (born 1944). She was named after her grandmother, Dame Elisabeth Murdoch. She attended schools in New York City and graduated from Vassar College.

Career

She started her career as a manager of program acquisitions at her father's FX Networks, a cable television service 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. Within 18 months, the couple re-organised and re-sold the stations at a $12 million profit.[citation needed]

She moved with her first husband to England where Rupert Murdoch was running BSkyB after forcing a 1990 merger with BSB. The early years of BSkyB saw a haemorrhage of cash from Murdoch's News Corporation funds. To help turn around the financial fortunes of the company, New Zealand television executive Sam Chisholm was brought on board to manage the day-to-day operations and build the subscriber base, with Elisabeth Murdoch as his second-in-command and de facto apprentice. By the time Chisholm left the company, BSkyB was the most profitable company in the UK. As managing director, she oversaw BSkyB's £12 million sponsorship of the troubled Millennium Dome, to the relief of its Cabinet overseer, Peter Mandelson. However, she also faced criticism after brokering her father's failed £623.4 million bid for England's champion Manchester United team.[3]

After quarrelling publicly with Chisholm, she veered out on her own as a television and film producer in London. She advocated Sky setting up a film and production unit that is similar to BBC Films and Film4 Productions. However, due to lack of success, this unit closed down, and 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. An agreement in principle has been reached to sell Shine to News Corporation.[4] Shine Limited is also a supplier of franchise television to broadcasters internationally, including the BBC, Channel 4, HBO and the RTL Group. Her firm has worked closely with Freud Communications on a number of media deals.[citation needed]

Lachlan Murdoch, formerly the deputy chief operating officer at the News Corporation and the publisher of the New York Post, was deemed Murdoch's heir presumptive before resigning from his executive posts at his father's company at the end of July 2005. That surprise departure left James Murdoch, chief executive of the satellite television service British Sky Broadcasting since November 2003, as the only Murdoch scion still directly involved with the company's operations, though Lachlan agreed to remain on the News Corporation's board.[5]

In 2011, she sold Shine to News Corporation.[6]

In February 2013 she was assessed as the 5th most powerful woman in the United Kingdom by Woman's Hour on BBC Radio 4.[7]

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 economist and financier Andrews Kwame Pianim (a native of Ghana) and Cornelia Pianim (a native of the Netherlands). The wedding was held on 10 September 1993 at St. Timothy Roman Catholic Church near the Beverly Hills residence of the bride's parents.[8][9] They had two children:

  • Cornelia (born 1994 in New York)
  • Anna (born 1997 in London)

They divorced in 1998.

Murdoch's second marriage was to public relations man 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. They divorced in 2014.[10] They have two children:

  • Charlotte Emma Freud, born 17 November 2000
  • Samson Murdoch Freud, born 13 January 2007.

From 2008, they resided at Burford Priory in Oxfordshire, where they were key members of the Chipping Norton set.[11][12] They also owned a home in Notting Hill, London.[13] In 2008, they hosted a fundraiser for Barack Obama.[13]

Ancestry

Family of Elisabeth Murdoch (businesswoman)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 16. James Murdoch
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 8. Patrick John Murdoch
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 17. Helen Garden
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 4. Keith Murdoch
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 18. George Brown
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 9. Annie Brown
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 19. Mary
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 2. Rupert Murdoch
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 20. William Henry Greene
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 10. Rupert Greene
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 21. Fanny Covett
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 5. Elisabeth Greene
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 22. Robert Forth
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 11. Marie Grace de Lancey Forth
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 23. Anne Thomson Ware
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1. Elisabeth Murdoch
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 24. Taniel Tõrv
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 12. Jaan Tõrv
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 25. Ann Köösel
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 6. Jacob Tõrv
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 26. Jakob Tõnisson
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 13. Anna Tõnisson
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 27. Anna Jürgens
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 3. Anna Torv
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 7. Sylvia Braida
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

References

  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ Elisabeth Murdoch set to quit television production company Shine Group, Chris Johnston, Guardian Media, The Guardian, London, 1 October 2014. Retrieved 22 June 2015.
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Elisabeth Murdoch lands £153m from Shine buyout, Dan Sabbagh, The Guardian, 5 April 2011
  7. ↑ BBC Radio 4, Woman's Hour Power list
  8. ↑ Engagements; Elisabeth Murdoch, Elkin K. Pianim, The New York Times, 24 January 1993.
  9. ↑ Weddings; Elisabeth Murdoch and Elkin Pianim, The New York Times, 12 September 1993.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Michael Luo, Murdoch’s Daughter Hosts Obama Fund-Raiser, The New York Times, 1 April 2008

External links

New home in St Johns Wood

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