Fairfax In Search of Digital Director to Strengthen the Board

Roger Corbett, the chairman of Fairfax Media (FXJ) stated that despite the board of the company is currently very much effective and satisfied; the reconstruction of the company is not going to be complete until it includes another director in the team who has in good experience about the media. The Fairfax chairman said, the recent appointment of three new directors revealed the fact that the media company is part-way through a stage of regeneration which was ignited by the decision taken by John B. Fairfax to vote his 9.7 percent stake, opposing Ron Walker getting re-elected during the annual meeting which was held at November last. Mr. Corbett stated that he was holding talks with a number of candidates from the media sector while many analysts are expecting the board to choose someone with digital experience.

According to the Fairfax chairman, the company needs to strengthen itself in that area despite the fact that it has people like John Fairfax and Brian McCarthy who have good experience in the traditional media sector. He emphasised on the importance of Fairfax getting someone good enough who will help the company to make its way through to the brand new age of the media. The chairman defended the decision of appointing Sandra McPhee, the AGL Energy Director and Linda Nicholls, the chairman of Healthscope who will be chairing the audit and risk committee by saying that their inclusion in the team has added strong governance aspect to Fairfax. It is to be mentioned that both Ms Nicholls and Ms McPhee are believed to be potential company directors but they lack the operational experience which is required to work in the media sector.

A Fairfax investor stated that audit and risk are two major parts of a big company and after hearing Brian McCarthy it felt like it will be better to have someone else out there who will be able to bring the issue of digital growth in the board. According to Mr. Corbett, the inclusion of the founder of New Zealand based auction site TradeMe Sam Morgan have showed that the Fairfax board was ready to support someone young who has the skills and knowledge to deal with that sector.