By Stephen Brook and Kishor Napier-Raman
Speculation about who will run the ABC is, for newspaper columnists, what speculation about an election date is for political editors: an old and faithful friend.
Nevertheless, CBD has learnt that former Nine Entertainment chief executive Hugh Marks has emerged as a contender for the role of managing director of the ABC, which David Anderson is vacating just one year into his second five-year term.
Former Nine chief executive Hugh Marks.Credit: James Brickwood
Headhunter Spencer Stuart has cast the net far and wide in ABC chair Kim Williams’ search for the right stuff, even as far as Google.
Marks led Nine (publisher of this masthead) from 2015 to 2021. He left after revealing he was in a relationship with another Nine executive.
Marks then set up Dreamchaser, a production house with former Endemol Shine Australia boss Carl Fennessey, and this gig has taken him everywhere from Japan to the Commissioner’s Room at the AFL grand final at the MCG where he was last spotted by CBD. Alas, Marks, who is overseas at the moment, did not want to comment.
Meanwhile, another name in the frame, SBS managing director James Taylor, was approached by the headhunters but is not interested, we heard on the media grapevine. And why would he be? Why upgrade your salary and stress levels to run the ABC and face the parliamentary headkickers at Senate estimates in search of clickbait? In his SBS role, Taylor can, like his SBS predecessor Michael Ebeid, treat estimates much like a gathering of the parliamentary friends of Eurovision fanclub. Taylor declined to comment.
Will Sky get its guy?
Meanwhile, outgoing 2GB broadcaster Ray Hadley continues his dance with Foxtel and Sky News Australia, getting them all excited.
Daily Mail Australia reported the big fella recently spent an hour “in deep conversation” with Sky News chief executive Paul Whittaker and head of programs Mark Calvert.
Think of it – your own TV show, plus all those NRL games to call.
Radio broadcaster Ray Hadley.Credit: James Brickwood
“Despite what might have been written, I have not signed a deal with anyone,” Hadley told us.
Not even a handshake? “No.”
But life can spin on a dime and if Hadley does sign up, who in the vaunted After Dark line-up is going to move aside? That would be a right royal Game of Thrones scenario involving Sharri Markson, Peta Credlin, Andrew Bolt, Chris Kenny and Paul Murray.
As GoT OG Cersei Lannister once put it: “When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die. There is no middle ground.”
And should Sky News ever extend its remit to Westeros, CBD would like to think Lannister herself would be a shoo-in for a prominent After Dark presenting slot. Maybe Sundays at 8pm.
Out of favour in Africa
Peter Holmes a Court is out of Africa. Or more precisely, out of The Latitude Hotels group, the swank accommodation chain he joined a few years back as deputy chairman.
Sacked, he says.
Peter Holmes a Court.Credit:
The son of late corporate raider Robert Holmes a Court and philanthropist and arts patron Janet Holmes a Court, and the older brother of impact investor and teal wave enabler Simon Holmes a Court, Peter lives in Nairobi, Kenya, with his second wife, Alissa Everett.
He moved to Africa a while back after being a former part owner of the South Sydney NRL Rabbitohs, as well as running a theatrical production company and owning Australia’s largest cattle farm.
The Latitude Hotels group, which operates several award-winning luxe accommodation venues in Africa, can’t have been thrilled when the businessman republished the press release announcing his appointment on LinkedIn with a massive red “TERMINATED” across it.
He wrote he could “outline thirteen concerns relating to financial malfeasance, systemic abuse of African employees”, and a cover-up of abuse. Instead, he was sacked.
“The issues I raised were significant enough for me to report my concerns to the Ugandan authorities, but they may also relate to potential violations of English law, under the Modern Slavery Act 2015, Greenwashing provisions caught in the Company’s Act 2006, in the Finance Act 2021 and Criminal Finances Act 2017.”
Holmes a Court declined to comment to CBD ahead of a meeting with lawyers this week. Latitude did not respond to requests for comment.
Life in London town
Spotted: NSW shadow environment minister James Griffin (aka the last Liberal fighting on the northern beaches) in London, attending a wedding. But never pass up a chance to burnish your conservative credentials.
The Griff was spotted hanging out with former Sky News Australia boss Angelos Frangopoulos, who now runs the upstart conservative TV station GB News.
On LinkedIn, Griffin described Frangopoulos as a “great mentor and friend” and a “fantastic supporter of mine since I first entered politics”. Griffin isn’t the only state Liberal Frangopoulos has supported. CBD recently reported he gave a job to former Victorian MP Tim Smith, who relocated to London after crashing his Jaguar into the fence of a suburban home while drunk, prompting him to quit politics and change careers and continents.
CBD hears that in between attending the nuptials and associated events, Griffin also made time for some political insiders, meeting conservative tactician Isaac Levido, who helped Scott Morrison win the 2019 miracle election, before playing a key role in former British PM Boris Johnson’s victory later that year. He couldn’t repeat the feat for Rishi Sunak, who was thrashed by Labour and Keir Starmer earlier this year.
Could Griffin, often talked about as a future Liberal leader in NSW, be hoping to bring some of Levido’s electoral wizardry home before the next state election? Well, 2027 is eons away, but right now, the NSW Libs need all the help they can get.
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