Sudden leadership change at Seven West Media as CEO James Warburton steps down.
Seven West Media has announced the immediate departure of its Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, James Warburton, following a statement released to the ASX on Thursday evening. According to the announcement, Warburton concluded his role with the broadcaster effective from today, coinciding with a board meeting at the company.
In a shift of leadership, Jeff Howard, the company’s Chief Financial Officer, is set to assume the role of CEO starting tomorrow, Friday 19th April.
Warburton‘s tenure at Seven West Media was notable for several key achievements, including substantial reductions in the company’s debt levels and securing critical long-term broadcast extensions for both the AFL and Cricket. His leadership also saw the successful acquisition of regional broadcaster Prime Television and restored Channel 7 to the top spot in national TV ratings.
Despite these successes, Warburton‘s final weeks as CEO were marred by controversies. These included an expenses scandal investigation by the Sydney Morning Herald and allegations by a former Spotlight producer, who claimed the network funded illicit activities to facilitate an interview with Bruce Lehrmann.
The company’s chairman, Kerry Stokes, along with the incoming CEO Jeff Howard, expressed their gratitude to Warburton for his enduring contribution to the company over his tenure.
“We thank James for his significant contributions to the business over many years,” they stated in a joint acknowledgment.
Furthermore, Seven West Media has named Craig Haskins as the acting CFO until a permanent replacement for Howard is determined.
Good news
Another one bites the dust!
Lols .. the timing, seems like they need to clear the decks and maybe all that was said that they did was true ….
Deserves to go. Back when he worked at Network Ten more than 10 years ago, he was an abject failure and did a lot of damage to the network by axing shows and news division. And James Warburton came to Seven in 2019 and was also an abject failure that time. He often likes to sue the media and sporting organisations for the poor ratings for AFL and Cricket Australia. Warburton has done nothing to come up with different ideas of programming. Instead he often likes to copy other network’s ideas.