Cathy O’Connor and Rohan Lund join SCA board

Nathan Jolly

February 27, 2026 9:56

Cathy O’Connor and Rohan Lund join SCA board

O'Connor is joining the SCA board at the end of the month, but will she be the next boss?

Southern Cross Media has added Rohan Lund and Cathy O’Connor to the board, following the exit of former CEO and MD Jeff Howard and the retirement of chair Kerry Stokes.

Lund was group CEO for NRMA for the past decade. He has previously been chief operating officer of Foxtel and Seven West Media, and was the founding CEO of Yahoo 7. He will be appointed as an independent non-executive director, effective March 1.

Cathy O’Connor was most recently CEO of Ooh Media from 2021 to 2025, and was CEO of Nova for 12 years. She will also be appointed as an independent non-executive director, from March 27.

This follows the ousting of former Seven CEO and MD Jeff Howard on Monday evening. Howard was appointed SCA’s CEO and managing director when the merger was finalised in early January, but lasted just over a month.

Howard’s departure came the weekday after Kerry Stokes’ retirement as company chair on Friday — and was announced to the market the night before the group’s half-yearly results were scheduled to be released. Michael Malone, the iiNet founder and previously a Seven director, also stepped down from the SCA board last Friday. Former SCA chair Heith Mackay Cruise was named chair of the merged company this week.

Seven chief financial officer Craig Haskins also left the company when the merger took effect in January.

The board will now be made up of O’Connor and Lund, plus former Seven non-executive directors Ryan Stokes, and Teresa Dyson, and former Southern Cross board members Marina Go, Ido Leffler and Mackay-Cruise.

In an announcement to the market on Friday morning Mackay-Cruise said:

“The Board has been focused on adding the attributes and perspectives that will be needed to optimise our performance and navigate a rapidly changing marketplace.

“We are confident that Rohan and Cathy will make that contribution and that their insights, deep market knowledge and business acumen will be highly beneficial to the Board and our shareholders.”