Seven’s James Warburton new boss of Ten; James Packer resigns from board
Seven’s sales boss James Warburton has been named as CEO of Network Ten with major shareholder James Packer resigning his seat on the board.
Warburton, previously chief sales and digital officer at Seven, replaces Grant Blackley who was sacked by the board last week. He will start in the new role on July 14. Board director Lachlan Murdoch last week stepped in as acting CEO.
Warburton will be on a basic salary of $2.2m a year with a performance bonus of up to a further 50%.
There was no immediate word on why Packer has resigned as director, although he remains a major investor However, the move has made room for Warburton on the board.
guess that means Leckie will be around for a while…
“However, the move has made room for Warburton on the board.” What is this supposed to mean? Room for Warburton was made by the departure of Grant Blackley.
Hi Peter,
Grant Blackley wasn’t on the board.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
Smart move by Ten. Have worked with James before……..He’s a great operator! The Sales team better be ready to lift their game dramatically or they will find themselves on the scarp-heap very very soon!
I meant ‘Scrap-heap’
Strong move by Ten. Great move for James (Congratulations by the way).
Will be interested to see who he appoints to head up sales & how he develops Ten’s counter strategy to SMG Red (which he has driven so successfully for the past 3 years & openly stated as providing real competitive advantage to Seven) & Nine Entertainment Co’s Powered.
Does that make room for Hamish McLennan at Seven!
Bet Kurt B has an opinion on that…
Could be amazing if he can bring some vision to Ten.
Predicting big changes once he’s settled.
$2.2 Million a year?!! That’s ludicrous.
I’m sure he’ll be more important to the company’s fortunes (good or otherwise) than others on a higher salary
I too have worked with James and found him to be a smart operator and quite polite. I think he’ll do very well.
I say they should try to launch a comedic variety/talk show like Nine has done a few times…hmm maybe they should not!
I have had the opportunity to work with James as a client, an employee and a agency partner – he is a great operator………good luck in new gig!
James is a good person – he’ll do so well! 🙂 So lucky to have worked with him.
I worked with Jimmy back in the day at DDB – he was a nice bloke and congrats to him