Burnette and Chan roles confirmed by Seven

By AdNews | 3 October 2013
 
Tim Worner, Seven West Media CEO

Seven West Media has confirmed that chief sales and digital officer Kurt Burnette's new role is chief revenue officer while Pacific Magazines boss Nick Chan will become chief operating officer, as reported last month by AdNews.

CEO Tim Worner announced details of the Seven's new structure to the ASX this morning.

Worner reiterated that Rohan Lund, who announced his resignation last month, will remain with the company in a transitional role for the time being.

He added that Burnette's new role would go beyond digital "as we expand the company’s presence beyond broadcast television and publishing." Burnette will also be tasked with establishing an incubator unit to develop and monetise new ideas.

Worner said the pace of structural change within media necessitated structural change within the company.

See the announcement below:

3 October 2013 – Tim Worner, the Chief Executive Officer of Seven West Media, Australia’s largest and best-performing integrated media company, today announced a new structure for the business to build on its strengths in content creation across broadcast television, publishing and online and create new opportunities for future growth.

Commenting, Mr Worner said: “We are a story telling organisation. Our greatest strength is our content and the audiences our content delivers. We are focused on building from these strengths to create and deliver more content and commercialise that content across new and emerging platforms. We are placing innovation at the core of our business and bringing each of our businesses even closer together to deliver new revenue streams.

“We have the best people, brands and management in the business. This new management structure harnesses our people and their skills. It focuses our businesses, drives a leaner operating model and enhances our abilities to create and nurture synergies across our businesses,” Mr Worner said.

As part of the new structure, Seven West Media today announced that Kurt Burnette and Nick Chan have been promoted to new roles within the company, with Mr Burnette now Chief Revenue Officer and Mr Chan now Chief Operating Officer. Chief Executive Officer, Western Australia, Chris Wharton, continues to report to Mr Worner, leading the company’s significant market-leading presence in Western Australia. Rohan Lund, who recently announced his decision to resign as Chief Operating Officer, moves to a transitioning role to complete a number of key business and operational undertakings.

In addition to today’s announcement of new roles for Nick Chan and Kurt Burnette, also continuing to report to Mr Worner in their current roles are Commercial Director, Bruce McWilliam; Chief Financial Officer, Dave Boorman; Group Chief - Corporate and Regulatory Affairs, Bridget Fair; and Group Human Resources Director, Melanie Allibon.

Mr Worner said: “We are competing in a rapidly changing and competitive market. We are listening intently to our customers whether they be viewers, readers or advertisers and we are setting up our business for the way it will need to operate in the next few years. We are determined to build on our success. I am particularly pleased that we have been able to appoint to these new positions people from within our company. It is a testament to the depth of talent in Seven West Media.”

Kurt Burnette, currently Chief Sales and Digital Officer for Seven West Media has been promoted to Chief Revenue Officer, responsible for growing the company’s current revenue streams and establishing new revenue opportunities.

Mr Worner said: “Kurt has been enormously successful in creating a culture of innovation within our television sales teams and will now do this across our businesses, leading group sales, data and analytics, Yahoo!7 and our push into Hbb TV and video on demand. He will also be overseeing a number of non-digital initiatives as we expand the company’s presence beyond broadcast television and publishing, and will also have responsibility for the company’s business development process including the establishment of an “incubator” for new revenue opportunities.”

Mr Burnette said: “I have never been more excited about the future of this company and where it is heading.

The leadership, vision and strategy are in place and being implemented. We have without doubt the best and most talented teams in the country and I am proud and honoured to be working with them to achieve our vision for the future.”

Nick Chan, currently, CEO of Pacific Magazines, has been promoted to Chief Operating Officer. This is a new and expanded role with all key aspects of Seven’s content creation and delivery across broadcast television, magazine publishing and online reporting to Mr Chan.

Mr Worner said: “Nick has done an outstanding job of managing a publishing business through the structural headwinds and we welcome him taking on this new challenge as he applies his skills and experience on a much broader scale. Nick’s role extends across Seven West Media’s businesses and he will be responsible for our company’s ability to produce our content more efficiently as well as securing greater utility from that content. Nick will oversee the ongoing reorganisation of our “back office” as well as the implementation of new systems managing our content and revenue.”

Mr Chan said: “I am looking forward to the challenges of this new role. Our great content has been our competitive advantage and the opportunity to work with all our businesses to drive, share and leverage our content is very exciting.”

Rohan Lund moves to a transitioning role from his previous role as Chief Operating Officer, following his decision to resign from Seven West Media. Mr Worner said: “Rohan will remain with us during this transition period to complete what has been a significant contribution to the transformation of this business Rohan has certainly been a huge asset to us during his time at Seven West Media and prior to that, establishing Yahoo!7. I want to take this opportunity to thank him for that and wish him every success.”

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