Pay TV player Foxtel has announced that CMO Andy Lark is leaving the business, and named REA Group’s chief marketing and content officer, Kieren Cooney, as his replacement.
Lark (pictured above) joined Foxtel in January, and is leaving the business after the roll-out of its new brand positioning, the launch of Foxtel’s 4K channel and the unveiling of Fox Cricket last week.
Alice Mascia, who most recently was the executive vice president of products and marketing at Sky Deutschland, will join Foxtel to lead its new product and strategy group.
Foxtel said the two new appointments to its leadership team is part of an organisational change to better deliver the company’s strategy. The changes will combine Foxtel’s sales and marketing functions, while creating a new product and strategy group.
Foxtel CEO Patrick Delany said: “I would like to thank Andy for helping shape the company’s future direction. We asked him to do a specific job for us and I am grateful for the major role he played at such a critical time.”
Commenting on his departure, Lark said: “We’ve restored momentum to the Foxtel brand and created experiences that customers are embracing. What the team has been able to achieve over the past year is just the beginning.
“It’s been a wonderful opportunity to have played a part in the future of Australia’s leading home entertainment brand.”
Delany said the realignment of the company’s functional teams ensured it was now structured to better meet its strategic goals.
“By bringing sales and marketing together, and creating the new product and strategy team, we will have clarity of purpose across the business,” he said.
“I am delighted to welcome executives of the calibre of Kieren and Alice, who will both be starting in their new roles within two weeks.”
“Kieren has deep experience with companies at the leading edge of technology and marketing innovation, while Alice joins us from Sky Deutschland, a company much like ours that has met the challenges and seized the opportunities of disruptive times.”
Prior to joining REA, Cooney was the CEO of Interbrand in Australia. He has also held CMO positions with NBN Co and Telecom New Zealand.
Commenting on his new role, Cooney said: “This is a great time to be joining Foxtel. It has energy, unrivalled content and a real determination to reshape itself for the future.”
Under the new combined sales and marketing structure, senior Foxtel executive Marco Miranda has been promoted to the new role of chief revenue officer. His focus will be on all consumer revenue, excluding commercial venues and ad sales.
Mascia’s product and strategy team will have responsibility for planning and building Foxtel’s future product sets to deliver the company’s future strategy.
“Since I started my journey in the entertainment industry in 2002, many of my mentors and colleagues in Europe have come from this market and this company,” she said.
“They transferred to me their passion to challenge the status quo, and for this reason, I am grateful and honoured to be given this opportunity.”
Delany said Foxtel’s executives and their teams will transition into the new organisational structure over the coming weeks.
The new appointments come after Diageo’s former marketing and innovation director, Adam Ballesty, joined Foxtel as its director of sports marketing last month.
