Chief operating officer of News Limited Peter Macourt will depart the company at the end of the year, drawing to a close a 27-year stint.
The news follows the departure of John Hartigan and the appointment of new CEO Kim Williams at the beginning of November.
Macourt joined News Limited in 1983 in the finance department. He was financial controller from 1986 until 1994 when he was appointed chief financial officer and to the board of News Limited. In 1998 he was appointed deputy chief executive and in 2001 he became chief operating officer.
News Limited chief executive Williams said in a statement: “By any measure Peter has been an outstanding executive for News Limited. Over the past decade Peter has been responsible for overall operating management of the company’s complex and diverse operations and he has done so with great distinction.
”As well as providing leadership for our major commercial strategies, strategic planning, budgeting and financial management for the group, Peter has been instrumental in all of the company’s major acquisitions, divestments and a number of new business initiatives over that time.
Macourt said: “I can look back on an incredible career at News with great pride at what we have achieved and enormous satisfaction at the challenges we have overcome on so many fronts. I will leave behind many wonderful colleagues and many fine friends but I believe now is the right time to step aside and allow a new regime to take the company into the future.”
The former chairman and chief executive of News Limited, John Hartigan, said: “Peter became chief operating officer when I was appointed chief executive and in that time he was a consummate media professional. Over the past 11 years no one did more to support me in my role, or more to advance the interests of News Limited than Peter.
During his time at News Macourt has been a director of various subsidiaries and associate companies including Ansett, Independent Newspapers Ltd, Advertiser Newspapers, Fox Studios Australia, Foxtel, Fox Sports, Herald and Weekly Times, Sky Network Television and the NRL partnership.
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