Ironically, the most damning indictment of Mike Sneesby’s tenure as chief executive of Nine Entertainment might have come in the praise he received on Thursday from the media group’s chairwoman, Catherine West.

In her email to staff announcing the CEO’s departure, West lists several of Sneesby’s achievements. But easily his biggest success – starting and building entertainment service Stan into a rare global example of a local streaming winner – occurred before Sneesby stepped into the top job at Nine.