Seven West Media CEO James Warburton has topped the Mediaweek Power 100 at a lunch of industry heavyweights yesterday at Crown Pearl Ballroom in Sydney.
The trade event hosted by Nine’s Belinda Russell was attended by James Warburton, Jackie O, Beverley McGarvey, Sonia Kruger, Danny Bass, Beau Ryan, Imogen Hewitt, Nat Barr, Matt Shirvington, John Kelly and more.
James Warburton said, “Businesses are about people and over there on table seven, of course, is incredible bunch of people, both behind the camera and in front of the camera, who are just the most extraordinary people, and I get the great honour to stand in front of them as CEO and to kind of lead them…wonderful, wonderful people that love to tell stories and connect with Australia.
“I think for us, I’m very privileged that Kerry Stokes and the rest of our board support us and they support us not just during the good times, but through the really, really shit times. They believe in your vision. They back you, they back you when it gets tough, and that is really, really important.
“But for us, when I think about what we do as an industry it’s absolutely quite extraordinary. Television, I got into by accident, with David Leckie over a drink in 2003 and I’ve never really looked back even though I’ve been in and out of television within that time.
“For me, when I think about what we do, you hear all the time… I heard in 2003 and I hear it every week and every time – there’s a lot of social media, that television is dead, it’s under pressure. In FY20 the television industry in totality put out $1.2 billion of profit, that’s the television industry combined. So we’re not going anywhere. We’re a very, very strong industry. Yes we’re changing and we’re changing very rapidly but we’re a very strong industry.”
These were TV names in the Top 20:
1. James Warburton Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Seven West Media
2. Mike Sneesby Chief Executive Officer, Nine Entertainment Co
4. Patrick Delany Chief Executive Officer, Foxtel
5. John Kelly, Southern Cross Austereo
7. Beverley McGarvey, EVP & Chief Content Officer, Head of Paramount+, Paramount ANZ
13. Kylie Watson-Wheeler Senior Vice President & Managing Director, The Walt Disney Company Australia & New Zealand
14. Paul Whittaker, Chief Executive Officer, Sky News Australia
15. Jarrod Villani, Paramount EVP, Chief Operating and Commercial Officer & Regional Lead, Paramount ANZ
16 Amanda Laing, Chief Commercial and Content Officer – Foxtel Group, Managing Director – Binge
17 Julian Ogrin Managing Director, Kayo Sports
19 Michael Stephenson, Commercial Director, Nine Entertainment Co
20 Kurt Burnette, Chief Revenue Officer, Seven West Media
A couple of other noteworthy entries:
24. James Taylor, Managing Director, SBS
34. Angus Ross, Chief Content Officer, Entertainment Programming, Seven
35. Michael Healy & Hamish Turner, Director of Television, and Director 9Now & Programming at Nine Entertainment Co
57. Alison Hurbert-Burns, Executive Director, Binge & Commissioning and Content for the Foxtel Group
68. Daniel Monaghan, Senior VP Content and Programming, Paramount ANZ
83. Tanya Denning-Orman, Director of Indigenous Content, SBS
You can see a full list here.
A Star Power list of talent was topped by Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O.
Amongst the TV names:
1. Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O Henderson
3. Sonia Kruger
4. Hamish Blake and Andy Lee
5. Allison Langdon
8. Natalie Barr and Matt Shirvington
9. Karl Stefanovic and Sarah Abo
10. Abbie Chatfield
You can read more here.
Trent Thomas, Mediaweek Managing Director & Publisher said: “Mediaweek 100 celebrates Australia’s world-class talent across the media and advertising industry. After spending months of discussion and research, the Mediaweek team is excited to announce the list of the most powerful, influential and effective executives in the media industry and within media and creative agencies. While the awards recognise individuals, their inclusion is a reflection on the success of their companies and is a celebration of the industry as a whole.”