Foxtel CMO gets end-to-end customers under latest leadership shake-up

Foxtel’s chief marketing officer, Kieren Cooney, has gained end-to-end customer experience oversight under a raft of leadership and management team changes confirmed at the company last week.

In an email circulated to staff and sighted by CMO, the pay TV player’s CEO, Patrick Delaney, said Cooney would now be known as chief customer, marketing and sales officer, with end-to-end responsibility for all customer interactions. The extended remit includes service and loyalty, marketing and publicity, creative services and residential and commercial sales.

As part of the change, Lesley Portwain’s customer service division will come under Cooney’s group, allowing a more unified approach to customer experience and service. Cooney joined Foxtel in late 2018 as part of another restructure involving the marketing role.

“This group's shared objective is to maximise revenue from the loyal premium customers of the Foxtel branded business. Kieren will have accountability for management and delivery of this vital revenue to the Group,” Delaney stated.

On the content and products side, the latest leadership changes see Julian Ogrin continue as CEO of Kayo and Binge with responsibility for the new streaming business, but with each business now gaining a leader overseeing brand and growth momentum. These fresh recruits are executive director of Kayo, Ant Hearne; and executive director of Binge, Alison Hurbert-Burns.

Another senior leader gaining a wider remit is Amanda Laing, who’s taken up the position of chief commercial and content officer with responsibility for group-wide entertainment and sports include Fox Sports.  Former Fox Sports leader, Peter Campbell, has switched to the executive director of transformation implementation role, reflecting his former work to transform the sports division. In his stead, Steve Crawley becomes executive director of Fox Sports.

“These changes recognise that entertainment and sports content is core to everything we do and that we are now ‘leveraging’ group assets across the Foxtel, Kayo and Binge businesses to reach more subscribers than ever before and make forward-looking investment and operational decisions,” Delaney commented. 

“So, it is a natural progression to bring entertainment and sports together, so we approach content decisions and investments for the Group's future, without being caught up in structures and silos of the past.”  

Foxtel has also given Brian Walsh group-wide responsibility for leading the newly created Foxtel Originals division, spearheading all local production commissions across Australian drama, lifestyle, factual and entertainment production.

“These organisational changes are designed to unlock the Foxtel Group's full potential,” Delaney said. “The changes create fresh challenges for some of our most experienced executives and new opportunities for the next generation of leaders at Foxtel.”   

Elsewhere, Delaney also confirmed the forthcoming departure of chief product and strategy officer, Alice Mascia, and her partner, Foxtel’s CIO, Mauro di Petro, later this year as they return to Italy.

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