News Corp. appointed on Wednesday former advertising executive Hamish McLennan Executive Vice President, Office of the Chairman, placing him directly under CEO Rupert Murdoch and COO Chase Carey.
McLennan will oversee global brand partnerships for the media conglomerate, splitting his time between New York and Sydney.
The new hire will try to forge "marketing alliances" and bolster the market position of the company's movie studio, cable networks and other properties. To do so, his focus will be on global growth and on further monetizing the company's core assets in the digital space.
"As we grow our international footprint we see a real opportunity to bolster the value of our brand partnerships and I am convinced that Hamish’s considerable industry experience, coupled with a unique and wide-ranging strategic vision, make him the right executive to deliver the insights we need to maximize our global media investment," Murdoch said in a statement.
McLennan was previously Chairman and CEO of Young & Rubicam, a global advertising firm with 6,5000 employees across 186 offices in 81 countries.
He stepped aside last year, and some of his major clients included Goldman Sachs, Ford, Xerox and Land Rover.
McLennan's appointment continues a series of recent high-level staff changes at News Corp., which saw its communications chief, Teri Everett, exit earlier this month and Matthew Anderson, a close ally of Murdoch's son James Murdoch, exit in late January.
