Four women are among five new director appointments announced by APN New Zealand chief executive Jane Hastings.
The appointments to the executive management team come as the Australian-headquartered group considers floating the New Zealand operation on local exchanges.
Sandra King has been appointed APN group director of commercial after nine years at Fairfax, where she was head of sales and marketing. Liza McNally moves to group marketing director from News Corp Australia where she was NSW director of marketing and newspaper sales.
Richard Harrison – most recently Myer’s online general manager – is returning to New Zealand as group director for e-commerce and new ventures; Laura Maxwell-Hansen becomes group director for digital media, moving from a role as commercial director for TRN; and Carolyn Luey is named director of strategy and operations.
Hastings says the new team have “a wealth of experience” that will the group to “connect with more Kiwis more often, and in more ways”.
“The focus on the group executive team is to leverage the power of the group audience and eCommerce capabilities,” she says.
“We are building on the strong content foundation of each of our businesses and offering the market new ways to connect with our audiences. You know the strategy is right when your customers are saying ‘this is exactly what we want’.”
Picture: APN/Sarah Ivey