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David Koch (analyst)
Encyclopedia
David James Koch, nicknamed Kochie (ˈkɒʃi ), (born 7 March 1956) is an Australian television personality.
Koch currently presents Seven Network
's Sunrise
morning program each weekday, as co-host with Melissa Doyle
. Koch and Doyle also co-hosted another Seven Network production Where Are They Now. Koch hosted a small business show, Kochie's Business Builders, which airs on Sundays on the Seven Network.
In 1988 he launched trade publishing group Australian Financial Press in a joint venture with Fairfax. AFP went on to create My Business magazine, New Accountant and Money Management newspaper.
Today he provides business and financial commentary for several publications, including Pacific Magazines, Yahoo Finance and the Your Money section of News Ltd newspaper. He was formerly associated with Palamedia, a media organisation devoted to business and financial news.
Koch was a director of the NSW Small Business Development Corporation Ltd. for eight years after its inception in 1996. As a former business owner and operator and now director of Pinstripe Media Pty Ltd, David speaks regularly at corporate events about small business, finance and investment issues.
He also presents the weekly small business program on the Seven Network, Business Builders, which helps private business owners improve their business. The program is produced by Pinstripe Media and recently aired its 100th episode.
in 2004 and 2005 for Best TV Presenter, Koch has helped Seven and Sunrises ratings against the Nine Network
's Today
.
Koch has written several practical books on family and business financial management; he has also published a book of jokes compiled from his daily joke segment on TV, this was parodied in an episode of The Chaser's War on Everything
where reading jokes from "Kochie" was the only thing that got a laugh at a stand-up comedy club. In a survey conducted by Money Management
newspaper, his peers recognised him as one of the 10 most influential people of all time in the financial services industry. There may be a conflict of interest in this recognition he received from Money Management
newspaper given he set up the publication via his trade publishing group Australian Financial Press (see above).
Koch is frequently parodied on the television show Comedy Inc.
, played by Paul McCarthy
. Reader's Digest
listed him in the top 50 Most Trusted Australians.
In 2007, readers of Banking and Finance Magazine voted Koch Australia's Best Finance Journalist while the Council of Small Business Organisations of Australia presented him with the "Small Business Champion award" in recognition of his support of Australian small business.
He was named 2007 Australian Father of the Year
by the Australian Father's Day Council on 31 August 2007.
He appeared on Australian soap opera Home and Away
in 2007 and he appeared on All Saints
in 2004 as an Elvis impersonater.
Koch is currently the joint number one ticket-holder of AFL
team Port Adelaide Football Club
along with Australian model
and actress Teresa Palmer
. and is a shareholder in the Sydney Kings basketball team.
Through a Sunrise campaign, and his involvement in ShareLife, Koch influenced the Federal Government to establish a national authority to oversee Australia's organ transplant system. Previously Australia had the highest level of registered organ donors (per head of population) in the world but one of the lowest transplant rates. The new national authority aims to bring Australian transplant rates up to world's best practice. Koch sits on the Advisory Committee and chairs the audit committee of the Authority.
Koch also played the voice of the "Australian Newsreader" in the 2009 Dreamworks
Movie Monsters vs. Aliens
.
He has climbed Mt Kilimanjaro twice to raise money for charity and walked the Kokoda Track.
in remembrance of Anzac Day
. He was accompanied by his son A.J., his brother, his nephew, fellow news presenter Natalie Barr
's husband Andrew, politicians Joe Hockey
and Kevin Rudd
, and Rudd's son. Their journey was documented for Sunrise and finished with a televised Anzac Day service, during which Koch's group controversially wore t-shirts advertising Seven News
, which were prominently visible in the Sunrise
broadcast. Koch strenuously denied any impropriety and the company which organised the tour said the t-shirt labelling was a safety issue commonly used to identify trekkers.
In May 2006, Koch and Sunrise
co-host Melissa Doyle
were acquitted of contempt of court
charges in a Melbourne Local Court. The charge arose after the name of a 14-year-old boy was published in a case in which the boy sought an irreconcilable differences order against his parents. The boy was painted as the source of the problem in the media, however the findings of Child Protection authorities and the Children's Court of Victoria
that led to the order may not have been available to Koch or the media at the time, due to legal restraints, and have never been aired in the subsequent public debates about this case and the law of irreconcilable differences. The Seven Network
and the show's producer were convicted of the offence.
On 9 May 2006, Koch covered the Beaconsfield mine rescue
live from Beaconsfield when the trapped miners Todd Russell and Brant Webb were rescued. Todd Russell was a fan of Sunrise
, and had been sending messages to Koch while trapped through rescue workers. While being transported to the hospital, Koch claimed that Russell invited him into the ambulance where he was given Russell's Miner's Tag from the safety board at the mine entrance. Koch's claim was verified by the emergency workers in charge of the vehicle. Koch later appeared on the ABC's The Glass House
and talked about the incident, defending his actions.
Koch currently presents Seven Network
Seven Network
The Seven Network is an Australian television network owned by Seven West Media Limited. It dates back to 4 November 1956, when the first stations on the VHF7 frequency were established in Melbourne and Sydney.It is currently the second largest network in the country in terms of population reach...
's Sunrise
Sunrise (TV program)
Sunrise is an Australian breakfast television program, broadcast on the Seven Network. On weekdays the programme follows Seven Early News, and runs from 6am through to 9am.-History:...
morning program each weekday, as co-host with Melissa Doyle
Melissa Doyle
Melissa Jane Doyle is an Australian television personality.Doyle is currently co-host of the Seven Network's Sunrise, The Zoo and Where Are They Now.-Early career:...
. Koch and Doyle also co-hosted another Seven Network production Where Are They Now. Koch hosted a small business show, Kochie's Business Builders, which airs on Sundays on the Seven Network.
Financial journalism
Koch started as a cadet on the business pages of The Australian newspaper before joining BRW soon after its launch in the early 1980s. He was one of the founders of consumer finance journalism in Australia and created Personal Investment magazine, which made him the youngest editor in the Fairfax media group. He then launched Personal Investment magazines in New Zealand and the UK. He produced Britain's first Rich List which started in Money Magazine which he had bought for Fairfax.In 1988 he launched trade publishing group Australian Financial Press in a joint venture with Fairfax. AFP went on to create My Business magazine, New Accountant and Money Management newspaper.
Today he provides business and financial commentary for several publications, including Pacific Magazines, Yahoo Finance and the Your Money section of News Ltd newspaper. He was formerly associated with Palamedia, a media organisation devoted to business and financial news.
Koch was a director of the NSW Small Business Development Corporation Ltd. for eight years after its inception in 1996. As a former business owner and operator and now director of Pinstripe Media Pty Ltd, David speaks regularly at corporate events about small business, finance and investment issues.
He also presents the weekly small business program on the Seven Network, Business Builders, which helps private business owners improve their business. The program is produced by Pinstripe Media and recently aired its 100th episode.
Recognition
Nominated for a silver LogieLogie Award
The TV Week Logie Awards are the Australian television industry awards, which have been presented annually since 1959. Renamed by Graham Kennedy in 1960 after he won the first 'Star Of The Year' award, the name 'Logie' awards honours John Logie Baird, a Scotsman who invented the television as a...
in 2004 and 2005 for Best TV Presenter, Koch has helped Seven and Sunrises ratings against the Nine Network
Nine Network
The Nine Network , is an Australian television network with headquarters based in Willoughby, a suburb located on the North Shore of Sydney. For 50 years since television's inception in Australia, between 1956 and 2006, it was the most watched television network in Australia...
's Today
Today (Australian TV program)
Today and Weekend Today are Australian breakfast television programmes, the show is often referred to as The Today Show. The show has been broadcast live by the Nine Network each morning since 1982...
.
Koch has written several practical books on family and business financial management; he has also published a book of jokes compiled from his daily joke segment on TV, this was parodied in an episode of The Chaser's War on Everything
The Chaser's War on Everything
The Chaser's War on Everything is an Australian television satirical comedy series broadcast on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation television station ABC1. It has won an AFI Award. The cast perform sketches mocking social and political issues, and often feature comedic publicity stunts...
where reading jokes from "Kochie" was the only thing that got a laugh at a stand-up comedy club. In a survey conducted by Money Management
Money Management
Money Management magazine is a monthly personal finance magazine and is published by the Financial Times Group. It was originally launched in 1962 as the Unitholder and later became a part of the FT Business stable...
newspaper, his peers recognised him as one of the 10 most influential people of all time in the financial services industry. There may be a conflict of interest in this recognition he received from Money Management
Money Management
Money Management magazine is a monthly personal finance magazine and is published by the Financial Times Group. It was originally launched in 1962 as the Unitholder and later became a part of the FT Business stable...
newspaper given he set up the publication via his trade publishing group Australian Financial Press (see above).
Koch is frequently parodied on the television show Comedy Inc.
Comedy Inc.
Comedy Inc. was an Australian sketch comedy television series, which ran on the Nine Network from 1 February 2003 to 26 December 2007. The series was produced by Crackerjack Productions. It first premiered in February 2003 in the new wave of Australian sketch comedy shows being launched across the...
, played by Paul McCarthy
Paul McCarthy (Australian actor)
Paul McCarthy is an Australian comedy actor. He is best known for sketch comedy television series Comedy Inc.-Career:...
. Reader's Digest
Reader's Digest
Reader's Digest is a general interest family magazine, published ten times annually. Formerly based in Chappaqua, New York, its headquarters is now in New York City. It was founded in 1922, by DeWitt Wallace and Lila Bell Wallace...
listed him in the top 50 Most Trusted Australians.
In 2007, readers of Banking and Finance Magazine voted Koch Australia's Best Finance Journalist while the Council of Small Business Organisations of Australia presented him with the "Small Business Champion award" in recognition of his support of Australian small business.
He was named 2007 Australian Father of the Year
Australian Father Of The Year award
The Australian Father Of The Year award is an Australian award to honor and showcase a fine example of Australian fatherhood. Spanning over fifty years, the ‘Australian Father of the Year’ has been awarded to high-profile, famous fathers, from prime ministers & politicians to sportsmen and business...
by the Australian Father's Day Council on 31 August 2007.
He appeared on Australian soap opera Home and Away
Home and Away
Home and Away is an Australian soap opera that has been produced in Sydney since July 1987 and is airing on the Seven Network since 17 January 1988. It is the second-longest-running drama and most popular soap opera on Australian television...
in 2007 and he appeared on All Saints
All Saints (TV series)
All Saints is an Australian medical drama which first screened on the Seven Network. The series debuted on 24 February 1998 and concluded its run on 27 October 2009...
in 2004 as an Elvis impersonater.
Koch is currently the joint number one ticket-holder of AFL
Australian Football League
The Australian Football League is both the governing body and the major professional competition in the sport of Australian rules football...
team Port Adelaide Football Club
Port Adelaide Football Club
The Port Adelaide Football Club is an Australian rules football club based in Alberton, South Australia, which plays in the Australian Football League and the South Australian National Football League...
along with Australian model
Model (person)
A model , sometimes called a mannequin, is a person who is employed to display, advertise and promote commercial products or to serve as a subject of works of art....
and actress Teresa Palmer
Teresa Palmer
Teresa Palmer is an Australian actress. She made her film debut in the suicide drama 2:37. Palmer was seen in The Grudge 2 in 2006, in December Boys, alongside Daniel Radcliffe, and in the 2008 children's fantasy Bedtime Stories, with Adam Sandler...
. and is a shareholder in the Sydney Kings basketball team.
Through a Sunrise campaign, and his involvement in ShareLife, Koch influenced the Federal Government to establish a national authority to oversee Australia's organ transplant system. Previously Australia had the highest level of registered organ donors (per head of population) in the world but one of the lowest transplant rates. The new national authority aims to bring Australian transplant rates up to world's best practice. Koch sits on the Advisory Committee and chairs the audit committee of the Authority.
Koch also played the voice of the "Australian Newsreader" in the 2009 Dreamworks
DreamWorks
DreamWorks Pictures, also known as DreamWorks, LLC, DreamWorks SKG, DreamWorks II Distribution Co., LLC, DreamWorks Studios or DW Studios, LLC, is an American film studio which develops, produces, and distributes films, video games and television programming...
Movie Monsters vs. Aliens
Monsters vs. Aliens
Monsters vs. Aliens is a 2009 American computer-animated 3-D science fiction film produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by Paramount Pictures...
.
He has climbed Mt Kilimanjaro twice to raise money for charity and walked the Kokoda Track.
Criticism
In April 2006, Koch walked the Kokoda TrackKokoda Track
The Kokoda Trail or Track is a single-file foot thoroughfare that runs overland — in a straight line — through the Owen Stanley Range in Papua New Guinea...
in remembrance of Anzac Day
ANZAC Day
Anzac Day is a national day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand, commemorated by both countries on 25 April every year to honour the members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps who fought at Gallipoli in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. It now more broadly commemorates all...
. He was accompanied by his son A.J., his brother, his nephew, fellow news presenter Natalie Barr
Natalie Barr
Natalie Anne Barr is an Australian journalist, news and television presenter.Barr is currently news presenter on the Seven Network's Sunrise and presenter of Seven Early News.-Career:...
's husband Andrew, politicians Joe Hockey
Joe Hockey
Joseph Benedict "Joe" Hockey , is an Australian politician and member of the Australian House of Representatives, representing the Division of North Sydney for the Liberal Party of Australia since 1996....
and Kevin Rudd
Kevin Rudd
Kevin Michael Rudd is an Australian politician who was the 26th Prime Minister of Australia from 2007 to 2010. He has been Minister for Foreign Affairs since 2010...
, and Rudd's son. Their journey was documented for Sunrise and finished with a televised Anzac Day service, during which Koch's group controversially wore t-shirts advertising Seven News
Seven News
Seven News is the television news service of the Seven Network in Australia.National bulletins are presented from Seven's high-definition studios in Martin Place, Sydney, while flagship 6pm bulletins are produced in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, and Perth. The network also produces Seven...
, which were prominently visible in the Sunrise
Sunrise (TV program)
Sunrise is an Australian breakfast television program, broadcast on the Seven Network. On weekdays the programme follows Seven Early News, and runs from 6am through to 9am.-History:...
broadcast. Koch strenuously denied any impropriety and the company which organised the tour said the t-shirt labelling was a safety issue commonly used to identify trekkers.
In May 2006, Koch and Sunrise
Sunrise (TV program)
Sunrise is an Australian breakfast television program, broadcast on the Seven Network. On weekdays the programme follows Seven Early News, and runs from 6am through to 9am.-History:...
co-host Melissa Doyle
Melissa Doyle
Melissa Jane Doyle is an Australian television personality.Doyle is currently co-host of the Seven Network's Sunrise, The Zoo and Where Are They Now.-Early career:...
were acquitted of contempt of court
Contempt of court
Contempt of court is a court order which, in the context of a court trial or hearing, declares a person or organization to have disobeyed or been disrespectful of the court's authority...
charges in a Melbourne Local Court. The charge arose after the name of a 14-year-old boy was published in a case in which the boy sought an irreconcilable differences order against his parents. The boy was painted as the source of the problem in the media, however the findings of Child Protection authorities and the Children's Court of Victoria
Children's Court of Victoria
The Children’s Court of Victoria is a statutory court created in Victoria, a State of Australia. The court deals with criminal offences committed by children aged between 10 and 17 as well as with proceedings relating to the care and protection of children....
that led to the order may not have been available to Koch or the media at the time, due to legal restraints, and have never been aired in the subsequent public debates about this case and the law of irreconcilable differences. The Seven Network
Seven Network
The Seven Network is an Australian television network owned by Seven West Media Limited. It dates back to 4 November 1956, when the first stations on the VHF7 frequency were established in Melbourne and Sydney.It is currently the second largest network in the country in terms of population reach...
and the show's producer were convicted of the offence.
On 9 May 2006, Koch covered the Beaconsfield mine rescue
Beaconsfield mine collapse
The Beaconsfield Mine collapse occurred on 25 April 2006 in Beaconsfield, Tasmania, Australia. Of the 17 people who were in the mine at the time, 14 escaped immediately following the collapse, one was killed and the remaining two were found alive using a remote-controlled device...
live from Beaconsfield when the trapped miners Todd Russell and Brant Webb were rescued. Todd Russell was a fan of Sunrise
Sunrise (TV program)
Sunrise is an Australian breakfast television program, broadcast on the Seven Network. On weekdays the programme follows Seven Early News, and runs from 6am through to 9am.-History:...
, and had been sending messages to Koch while trapped through rescue workers. While being transported to the hospital, Koch claimed that Russell invited him into the ambulance where he was given Russell's Miner's Tag from the safety board at the mine entrance. Koch's claim was verified by the emergency workers in charge of the vehicle. Koch later appeared on the ABC's The Glass House
The Glass House (TV series)
The Glass House was a half-hour Australian comedy talk show which screened on the ABC from 2001 to 2006.It was hosted by stand-up comedian Wil Anderson, and co-hosted by fellow television and radio comedians Corinne Grant and Dave Hughes...
and talked about the incident, defending his actions.