MediaWorks director Dalgleish steps down, taking board back to five

Friday 1st July 2016

MediaWorks Investments director Martin Dalgleish has stepped down from the board of the free-to-air television and radio broadcaster, shrinking the board back to five.

The former PBL chief executive left yesterday "given his other business interests", having first joined the board when MediaWorks came out of receivership in 2013, the company said in a statement. His exit comes after New Zealand-based Jack Matthews, a former chief of TelstraSaturn, and Oaktree Capital executive Jonas Mitzschke were appointed directors in April and MediaWorks will keep the current size of the board.

"MediaWorks, like all global media companies, has had to adapt to great changes in consumption, technology and a more global market structure," Dalgleish said. "It has tackled these challenges head-on, and will continue to do so under an excellent management team guided by a first-class board enhanced by the recent addition of Jack Matthews."

The Auckland-based broadcaster's chief executive Mark Weldon stepped down in May, citing the "personal cost" of running the company as being "too high" for the position he took up in August 2014. The company has integrated its radio, TV and digital offerings into a single entity, which acting chief executive David Chalmers has said makes it easier to pitch the business as an integrated offering to both advertisers and its audience.

MediaWorks was taken over by Oaktree Capital in June 2015, and the US hedge fund was happy to pump in $20 million last year to support the broadcaster's growth ambitions. Chalmers has said Oaktree will probably match that investment in the current year.

The board is chaired by Australian businessman Rod McGeoch, and rounded out with former Eyeworks Touchdown boss Julie Christie, who is best known in New Zealand for a string of reality TV series, and former Lion Nathan chief financial officer and McKinsey & Co consultant Paul Lockey.

BusinessDesk.co.nz

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