Nine settles 'fracture' fears with top appointment

Mar 02, 2021 at 06:24 pm by Staff


Nine Entertainment has settled the uncertainty over who will succeed Hugh Marks, naming Stan boss Mike Sneesby as its chief executive.

The announcement - made at a hurriedly announced event at Nine's headquarters this morning - follows reports the TV-and-publishing business was being fractured by the lack of a decision.

Sneesby takes over on April 1, a day after current chief executive Marks finishes his term and almost four months after Marks announced his resignation. Marks "will remain available to assist with a handover" in the following months, the company says.

Beyond its TV, BVOD and streaming interests, Nine owns the metro newsmedia mastheads of the former Fairfax Media, having sold off community and New Zealand titles it acquired in the process. Former Fairfax executive Chris Janz had been among frontrunners to succeed Marks, along with Sneesby and external candidates.

Speaking this morning, chairman Peter Costello said Sneesby was "well placed to continue to drive Nine's transformation as a digitally-led business which is actively adapting to meet the contemporary media consumption habits of Australians."

Sneesby (pictured) has led Stan Entertainment since its inception, having previously been chief executive of Microsoft/Nine ecommerce joint venture Cudo until its sale in 2013.

He set up Dubai's invision IPTV service for the Saudi Telecom/Astra Malaysia joint venture lntigral, and prior to that was corporate strategy and business development chief at ninemsn in Australia, establishing the MSN New Zealand start-up. He is also credited with leading Optus' ADSL broadband roll-out. He holds an honours degree in electrical engineering from the University of Wollongong and an Masters of Business Administration from the Macquarie Graduate School of Management.

Costello paid tribute to the "remarkable tenure" of Hugh Marks who, he says, inherited a legacy television business with a market capitalisation of around $1.3 billion in 2015. "Through the combined strength that came from the Nine-Fairfax merger, our current market capitalisation has grown to just over $5 billion."

He thanked Marks for the "remarkable turn-around" and his work for Nine. "His time as CEO has seen Nine make a number of key strategic decisions, which not only redefined Nine but changed the wider media landscape in Australia."

Sneesby said it would be "be the honour of a lifetime" to lead Nine's family of journalists, technicians, producers "and so many dedicated to their craft".

Sections: Digital business

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