Elisabeth Murdoch (businesswoman)
Encyclopedia
Elisabeth Murdoch is an executive in the British television industry and a daughter of international media mogul Rupert Murdoch
. She is the Chairman and CEO of Shine Limited
, a television production company with offices in London and Manchester.
Named after her philanthropist grandmother, Dame Elisabeth Murdoch
, she is Rupert Murdoch's second daughter and the eldest of three children born of his second marriage in 1967 to former employee Anna Torv, a Roman Catholic native of Glasgow
, Scotland. She attended schools in New York City, at one of which she set up an on-campus television station as a student project.
, she became 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.
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, the respected 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, Elisabeth Murdoch oversaw BSkyB's £12 million sponsorship of the troubled Millennium Dome
, to the relief of its Cabinet overseer, Peter Mandelson
. But she earned opprobrium after brokering her father's £623.4 million bid for England's champion Manchester United
team.
After quarreling 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. 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.
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.
In 2011, Elisabeth sold Shine to News Corporation, and will join the board of directors.
investment bank. He is the son of economist and financier A. 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's Roman Catholic Church near the Beverly Hills residence of the bride's parents. Murdoch and Pianim had two children, Cornelia (born 1994 in New York), and Anna (born 1997 in London), but divorced in 1998.
She later married public relations
man Matthew Freud
, the son of former MP
Sir Clement Freud
, and great-grandson of Sigmund Freud
. They have two children: Charlotte Emma Freud, born 17 November 2000 and Samson Murdoch Freud, born January 13, 2007. The couple wed on 18 August 2001 in a ceremony at Blenheim Palace
.
Elisabeth Murdoch's parents, Anna and Rupert Murdoch, separated in 1998. Anna Murdoch received a settlement of some reported $1.7 billion in assets, to which her own three children were the primary heirs, in addition to whatever share each might eventually receive from Rupert Murdoch's estate. Seventeen days after the divorce, on 25 June 1999, Rupert Murdoch, then 68, married Wendi Deng
, then 30, a newly appointed vice-president of Murdoch's STAR TV
. Anna Murdoch was also remarried, in October 1999, to banker William Mann. Elisabeth Murdoch, while her own first marriage was dissolving, made jocular reference to familial divorce in a speech at the time.
In 2008 Elisabeth Murdoch and Matthew Freud moved into Burford Priory
in Oxfordshire
.
Rupert Murdoch
Keith Rupert Murdoch, AC, KSG is an Australian-American business magnate. He is the founder and Chairman and CEO of , the world's second-largest media conglomerate....
. She is the Chairman and CEO of Shine Limited
Shine Limited
Shine Limited is a British media production company with offices in London and Manchester....
, a television production company with offices in London and Manchester.
Named after her philanthropist grandmother, Dame Elisabeth Murdoch
Elisabeth Murdoch (senior)
Dame Elisabeth Joy Murdoch AC, DBE is an Australian philanthropist. She is the widow of Australian newspaper publisher Sir Keith Murdoch, and the mother of international media proprietor Rupert Murdoch. When Keith Murdoch was knighted, in 1933, she was styled Lady Murdoch...
, she is Rupert Murdoch's second daughter and the eldest of three children born of his second marriage in 1967 to former employee Anna Torv, a Roman Catholic native of Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
, Scotland. She attended schools in New York City, at one of which she set up an on-campus television station as a student project.
Career
After graduating from Vassar CollegeVassar College
Vassar College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college in the town of Poughkeepsie, New York, in the United States. The Vassar campus comprises over and more than 100 buildings, including four National Historic Landmarks, ranging in style from Collegiate Gothic to International,...
, she became manager of program acquisitions at her father's FX Networks
FX Networks
FX is the name of a number of related pay television channels owned by News Corporation's Fox Entertainment Group...
, 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
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
-affiliate television stations, KSBW
KSBW
KSBW is a television station in the United States and is the primary NBC affiliate for the Monterey-Salinas-Santa Cruz, California market. The station is owned by Hearst Television. KSBW has its studios on John Street in downtown Salinas, which is mentioned occasionally during commercial breaks...
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.
She moved with her first husband to England where Rupert Murdoch was running BSkyB
British Sky Broadcasting
British Sky Broadcasting Group plc is a satellite broadcasting, broadband and telephony services company headquartered in London, United Kingdom, with operations in the United Kingdom and the Ireland....
after forcing a 1990 merger with BSB
British Satellite Broadcasting
British Satellite Broadcasting was a British television company which provided direct broadcast satellite television services to the United Kingdom...
. The early years of BSkyB saw a haemorrhage of cash from Murdoch's News Corporation
News Corporation
News Corporation or News Corp. is an American multinational media conglomerate. It is the world's second-largest media conglomerate as of 2011 in terms of revenue, and the world's third largest in entertainment as of 2009, although the BBC remains the world's largest broadcaster...
funds. To help turn around the financial fortunes of the company, the respected New Zealand television executive Sam Chisholm
Sam Chisholm
Sam Chisholm is a media executive born in New Zealand. He was a significant figure in Australian media. He ran Kerry Packer's Nine Network for a significant period during the 1980s before moving to the UK to work for Packer's rival Rupert Murdoch in rescuing the newly established BSkyB from...
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, Elisabeth Murdoch oversaw BSkyB's £12 million sponsorship of the troubled Millennium Dome
Millennium Dome
The Millennium Dome, colloquially referred to simply as The Dome or even The O2 Arena, is the original name of a large dome-shaped building, originally used to house the Millennium Experience, a major exhibition celebrating the beginning of the third millennium...
, to the relief of its Cabinet overseer, Peter Mandelson
Peter Mandelson
Peter Benjamin Mandelson, Baron Mandelson, PC is a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament for Hartlepool from 1992 to 2004, served in a number of Cabinet positions under both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, and was a European Commissioner...
. But she earned opprobrium after brokering her father's £623.4 million bid for England's champion Manchester United
Manchester United F.C.
Manchester United Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, that plays in the Premier League. Founded as Newton Heath LYR Football Club in 1878, the club changed its name to Manchester United in 1902 and moved to Old Trafford in 1910.The 1958...
team.
After quarreling 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
BBC Films
BBC Films is the feature film-making arm of the BBC. It has produced or co-produced some of the most successful British films of recent years, including An Education, StreetDance 3D, Fish Tank, Stage Beauty, A Cock and Bull Story, Nativity! and Match Point.It aims to make strong British films with...
and Film4 Productions
Film4 Productions
Film4 Productions is a British film production company owned by Channel 4. The company has been responsible for backing a large number of films made in the United Kingdom. The company's first production was Walter, directed by Stephen Frears, which was released in 1982.- History :Before 1998, the...
. 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
Waheed Alli, Baron Alli
Waheed Alli, Baron Alli is a British multimillionaire media entrepreneur and politician. He was co-founder and managing director of Planet 24, a TV production company, and managing director at Carlton Television Productions...
, 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. Shine Limited is also a supplier of franchise
Media franchise
A media franchise is an intellectual property involving the characters, setting and trademarks of an original work of media , such as a film, a work of literature, a television program or a video game. Generally, a whole series is made in a particular medium, along with merchandising and endorsements...
television to broadcasters
Broadcasting
Broadcasting is the distribution of audio and video content to a dispersed audience via any audio visual medium. Receiving parties may include the general public or a relatively large subset of thereof...
internationally, including the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
, Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
, HBO and the RTL Group
RTL Group
RTL Group is Europe's largest TV, radio and production company, and is majority-owned by German media conglomerate Bertelsmann. It has 45 television and 32 radio stations in 11 countries...
. Her firm has worked closely with Freud Communications
Freud Communications
Freud Communications is a public relations firm based in London. Freud Communications was founded by Matthew Freud, who comes from the Public Relations dynasty of Edward Bernays and is the great-grandson of the famous psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud...
on a number of media deals.
Lachlan Murdoch
Lachlan Murdoch
Lachlan Keith Murdoch 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...
, formerly the deputy chief operating officer at the News Corporation and the publisher of the New York Post
New York Post
The New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor actions...
, was deemed Murdoch's heir presumptive
Heir Presumptive
An heir presumptive or heiress presumptive is the person provisionally scheduled to inherit a throne, peerage, or other hereditary honour, but whose position can be displaced by the birth of an heir or heiress apparent or of a new heir presumptive with a better claim to the position in question...
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
British Sky Broadcasting
British Sky Broadcasting Group plc is a satellite broadcasting, broadband and telephony services company headquartered in London, United Kingdom, with operations in the United Kingdom and the Ireland....
since November 2003, as the only Murdoch scion
Kinship
Kinship is a relationship between any entities that share a genealogical origin, through either biological, cultural, or historical descent. And descent groups, lineages, etc. are treated in their own subsections....
still directly involved with the company's operations, though Lachlan agreed to remain on the News Corporation's board.
In 2011, Elisabeth sold Shine to News Corporation, and will join the board of directors.
Private life
Elisabeth Murdoch's first marriage was to fellow Vassar graduate, Elkin Kwesi Pianim, an associate in the New York corporate finance department of the RothschildN M Rothschild & Sons
N M Rothschild & Sons is a private investment banking company, belonging to the Rothschild family...
investment bank. He is the son of economist and financier A. Kwame Pianim
Kwame Pianim
A. Kwame Pianim is a celebrated Ghanaian business economist and investment consultant. After ten years as a political prisoner, he made a 1996 bid to run for the presidency of Ghana. Switching gears, he found success as a businessman in Accra.-Family:...
(a native of Ghana
Ghana
Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
) and Cornelia Pianim (a native of the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
). The wedding was held on 10 September 1993 at St Timothy's Roman Catholic Church near the Beverly Hills residence of the bride's parents. Murdoch and Pianim had two children, Cornelia (born 1994 in New York), and Anna (born 1997 in London), but divorced in 1998.
She later married public relations
Public relations
Public relations is the actions of a corporation, store, government, individual, etc., in promoting goodwill between itself and the public, the community, employees, customers, etc....
man Matthew Freud
Matthew Freud
Matthew Freud is head of Freud Communications, an international public relations firm in the United Kingdom.-Biography:...
, the son of former MP
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
Sir Clement Freud
Clement Freud
Sir Clement Raphael Freud was an English broadcaster, writer, politician and chef.-Early life:Freud was born in Berlin, the son of Jewish parents Ernst Ludwig Freud and Lucie née Brasch. He was the grandson of psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud and the brother of artist Lucian Freud...
, and great-grandson of Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud , born Sigismund Schlomo Freud , was an Austrian neurologist who founded the discipline of psychoanalysis...
. They have two children: Charlotte Emma Freud, born 17 November 2000 and Samson Murdoch Freud, born January 13, 2007. The couple wed on 18 August 2001 in a ceremony at Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace is a monumental country house situated in Woodstock, Oxfordshire, England, residence of the dukes of Marlborough. It is the only non-royal non-episcopal country house in England to hold the title of palace. The palace, one of England's largest houses, was built between...
.
Elisabeth Murdoch's parents, Anna and Rupert Murdoch, separated in 1998. Anna Murdoch received a settlement of some reported $1.7 billion in assets, to which her own three children were the primary heirs, in addition to whatever share each might eventually receive from Rupert Murdoch's estate. Seventeen days after the divorce, on 25 June 1999, Rupert Murdoch, then 68, married Wendi Deng
Wendi Deng
Wendi Deng Murdoch is a Chinese-born American businesswoman. She is the third wife of News Corporation Chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch, and is leading her husband's Chinese media investments.In 1988 she was sponsored by an American family for a student visa...
, then 30, a newly appointed vice-president of Murdoch's STAR TV
STAR TV
Satellite Television Asia Region is an Asian TV service owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. It is headquartered in Hong Kong, with regional offices in mainland China, Taiwan....
. Anna Murdoch was also remarried, in October 1999, to banker William Mann. Elisabeth Murdoch, while her own first marriage was dissolving, made jocular reference to familial divorce in a speech at the time.
In 2008 Elisabeth Murdoch and Matthew Freud moved into Burford Priory
Burford Priory
Burford Priory is a country house and former priory at Burford in the English county of Oxfordshire.The house stands on the site of a 13th century Augustinian hospital. In the 1580s an Elizabethan house was built incorporating remnants of the priory hospital...
in Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....
.
External links
- Shine Group
- Elisabeth Murdoch: The savvy, skill and style to head up the empire, Ian Burrell, The IndependentThe IndependentThe Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
, 22 February 2011