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Lachlan Keith Murdoch (born September 8, 1971) is the eldest son of media mogul Rupert Murdoch and his former wife Anna Torv. He resigned from his executive positions at News Corporation on 29 July 2005. Lachlan is, however, still on the Board of Directors at NewsCorp and is a company consultant.^{[citation needed]}

Early life

Murdoch was born in London, England, but was raised in a wealthy New York City neighborhood, where his father owned the New York Post. He received his education at the exclusive Aspen Country Day School in Aspen, Colorado as well as at the Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. He earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Princeton University.^{[citation needed]}

Career

At the age of 22, Murdoch was appointed general manager of Queensland Newspapers, which publishes The Courier-Mail in Brisbane.^{[citation needed]} One year later, he became publisher of Australia’s first national paper, The Australian. In 1995, he was appointed Deputy CEO of News Limited, Executive Director of News Corporation since 1996, Deputy Chief Operating Officer since 2000, Senior Executive Vice President from 1999 to 2000, and Chairman of STAR since 1995.

Lachlan has been criticised as a "rich brat" for his "poor handling" of Murdoch interests in One.Tel,^[1] which lost the empire millions of dollars. In this venture, Lachlan worked with Australian businessman James Packer, the son of Kerry Packer. Lachlan has also been attacked for trying to "Americanise" Australian newspapers.^{[citation needed]} He has also publicly supported the idea of Australia becoming a republic.^[2]

Murdoch has a strong personal interest in Australian rugby league. On March 30, 1995, Lachlan Murdoch was at the first Super League meeting in the Atanaskovic Hartnell offices in Sydney. He and former Brisbane Broncos chief John Ribot signed up leading Bulldogs players on documents which were not legally effective. Murdoch has been the Broncos' number one ticket holder.^[3]

For the year 2001, Murdoch earned a salary of A$2.59 million.^[4] In June 2005, Murdoch received the Press & Outdoor Advertising "Media Person of The Year" award in Cannes.^[5] Lachlan is one of the founding patrons (along with Anthony Pratt, Peter Lowy and Lisa Fox of an organization called "Advance", formerly known as "YAPA" (Young Australian Professionals in America).^[6]

On July 29, 2005, Lachlan announced that he would be resigning from executive roles with News Corporation and moving with his family to Australia, although he would retain his seat on the board.^{[citation needed]}

After his resignation, Roger Ailes, the chairman of Fox News Channel, was named chairman of News Corp.'s group of television stations. The abrupt and unexplained departure of the 33-year-old Lachlan Murdoch apparently dashed News Corp. Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch's hopes that his son would one day take over as CEO of the global media empire, which includes the Twentieth Century Fox movie studio, the Fox television network, several satellite broadcasters, and newspapers in Britain, Australia, and the United States.

In the weeks after his resignation, however, he began a new venture, lodging applications to set up a new Australian company called Illyria Pty Ltd, in which he acts as sole director and secretary.

As of February 2007, Murdoch is taking part in a joint venture with swimmer Ian Thorpe in the hopes of aiding the HIV epidemic in Papua New Guinea.^{[citation needed]}

Lachlan is interested in adventure sports and he is a very good sailor (having competed in Sydney to Hobart race), skindiver and spearfisher.

On 21 January 2008, Lachlan and James Packer announced that their companies, Illyria Pty Ltd and Consolidated Press Holdings would seek to privatise Consolidated Media Holdings which owns holdings in the Nine Network, Foxtel and Australian Consolidated Press.^[7]

On January 24 2008 Lachlan, along with Manoj Badale and Suresh Chellaram under the banner of Emerging Media successfully bid for the Rajasthan Royals franchise in the inaugural Indian Premier League for US$67 million.^{[citation needed]}

Between December 7th and December 8th 2009 Lachlan sold 2,289,316 shares of News Corporation common stock, at a weighted average price of $12.29 per share (the shares were sold in multiple transactions for prices of between $12.01 and $12.47 per share).

Personal life

Murdoch married Australian model/actress, Sarah O'Hare in 1999. They have two sons, Kalan Alexander, born on 9 November 2004 , and Aidan Patrick, born on 6 May 2006 ^[8] On October 8, 2009 the pair announced they were expecting their third child. Prior to 2003, Lachlan and Sarah were owners of "Berthong", a house in Elizabeth Bay, Sydney, which was subsequently bought by Russell Crowe.^[9] In November, 2009, Murdoch bought a mansion formerly owned by the French consulate in Victoria Road, Bellevue Hill, New South Wales. The mansion was acquired by Murdoch for $23 million. The house had also been inspected by Russel Crowe, who did not take part in the bidding.^[10] From time to time, Lachlan and Sarah host fundraising dinners for the charity Murdoch Children's Research Institute.^[11] Lachlan is considered to be a friend of Australian actress Nicole Kidman,^[12] New Zealand actor Russell Crowe and director Baz Luhrmann. Lachlan Murdoch is also the co-owner of the Indian Premier League franchise team the Rajasthan Royals[1].

Medical Development

Murdoch has pursued a keen interest in Medical Development following his work on HIV Aids. Murdoch reportedly indirectly owns a stake in Australian biotech company Fermiscan following wife Sarah's breast cancer advocacy work and has a number of medical development projects underway.

Quotations

By Lachlan

• "Good journalism is good business practice; good business supports great journalism." (Andrew Olle Media Lecture, 18 October 2002)
• "You can see here that the Australian media elite define their club through standards designed only to exclude." (Andrew Olle Media Lecture, 18 October 2002)
• "One of the problems with American newspapers is that the design, the look, and the feel lack any sort of vigor, that's a pity." ^[13]

About Lachlan

• "He (Lachlan) was a gentleman, and he called to be sure that the contretemps last week was between him and the New York Daily News, not between him and me." — (Ken Auletta, writer for The New Yorker, after a story that the New York Post was losing $40 million a year)^[14]

External links

• Some information about Lachlan
• Biographical article about Lachlan
• Detailed profile of Lachlan (Editor And Publisher Journal, December 16, 2002 by Joe Strupp
• Lachlan Murdoch - Libertarian from Advocates for Self-Government website
• [2] SEC filing, listed on News Corporation website pertaining to sale of shares by Lachlan between December 7th and December 8th 2009

Decision to leave News Corporation

• Detailed article from the New York Magazine (September 19, 2005 by Steve Fishman) reportedly written with Lachlan's co-operation.
• Melbourne Age article
• Guardian article (August 1, 2005)
• USA Today article

Speeches

• Lachlan Murdochs "Andrew Olle Media Lecture" 18 October 2002
• National Press Club of the U.S., 21 September 1999

References

This article contains content from the defunct wiki, HierarchyPedia, used here under the GNU Free Documentation License

Articles

• Kirkpatrick, David, "Murdoch Gets a Jewel. Who'll Get His Crown?" New York Times, December 28, 2003.
• Milliken, Robert, "Lachlan Murdoch; Heir to the Sun and Sky," Independent (London), May 7, 1995.
• Pappu, Sridhar, "Lachlan Murdoch, Spiky Punk Heir Right for Post?" New York Observer, November 24, 2003.
• Salamon, Julie, "Television: An American Story; A Family That Tried to Be Both Rich and Good," New York Times, October 1, 2000.
• Neil Chenoweth, The Australian Financial Review, August 5, 2005, on Lachlan's involvement in Australian Super League shenanigans.

Books

• Wendy Rohm Murdoch Mission (2002). Interviews with various Murdoch family members
• Neil Chenoweth Virtual Murdoch (2001). Mainly about Rupert Murdoch
• Paul Barry, Rich Kids, Bantam Books, 2002, ISBN 1-86325-338-6