\n\t\t\t\t\tJust days after Kerry Stokes’ retirement as Chair, Southern Cross Media removes Jeff Howard as CEO, effective immediately.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Southern Cross Media has removed Jeff Howard as Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer effective immediately.<\/p>\n
The bombshell move comes just days after Kerry Stokes\u2019 retirement from the Board, succeeded by Heith Mackay-Cruise. Mr Mackay-Cruise will now assume the role of Interim Executive Chairman and all business unit leaders and corporate services will report to him.<\/p>\n
John Kelly, who ran Southern Cross regional TV assets, will assume the role of Interim Chief Executive Officer \u2013 TV and Audio.<\/p>\n
Jeff Howard was appointed CEO at Seven in December 2023 following James Warburton, having previously been Chief Financial Officer.<\/p>\n
The shock move also comes a day before Howard was due to present financial results to market.<\/p>\n
In its announcement to the ASX, Southern Cross Media stated, \u201cThe Board is pleased to announce the appointment of Scott Butterworth as Chief Financial Officer of the Group from today. Scott Butterworth will succeed Craig Haskins, who as previously disclosed to the ASX on 7 January 2026 will be retiring after a short period of transition, with his final day being Friday, 27 February 2026.<\/p>\n
\u201cMr John Kelly will assume the role of Interim Chief Executive Officer \u2013 TV and Audio. Mr Kelly\u2019s responsibilities will include driving the integration of the TV and Audio assets.<\/p>\n
\u201cToby Potter will assume the role of Chief Transformation Officer \u2013 TV and Audio, following a period serving as Interim Chief Financial Officer for the company. Toby Potter has been part of SCA\u2019s business for over a decade including as Head of Commercial Finance and Head of Business Transformation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese changes are effective from Monday, 23 February 2026.\u201d<\/p>\n
SCA Interim Executive Chairman, Heith Mackay-Cruise, said: \u201cAs the company accelerates the delivery of its strategy, SCA\u2019s newly constituted Board has determined it is the appropriate time to appoint new leadership to take the Group forward and execute on our plans.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn behalf of the Board, I would like to thank Jeff for his efforts across the period of transition, with the successful implementation of the Scheme of Arrangement and creation of a market-leading, multi-platform media company now complete,\u201d Mr Mackay-Cruise said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a CFO, Scott Butterworth has extensive experience in large-scale, multi-disciplinary leadership roles with significant focus on customer engagement. He has the right skillset, transformation capability, and proven track record for our business. On behalf of the Board, I\u2019d like to welcome Scott and express our gratitude to Craig for his guidance across the recent transition period.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Board is confident in our team\u2019s capability to apply the financial discipline and industry leading expertise to drive scale and performance for Southern Cross Media Group going forward,\u201d Mr Mackay-Cruise said.<\/p>\n
The Company\u2019s financial results for 1H 2026 will be released to the ASX on Tuesday, 24 February 2026. An investor presentation will be held at 9:00am AEDT and will be attended by Mr Mackay-Cruise, Mr Potter and Mr Kelly.<\/p>\n
The Board has appointed an executive search firm to undertake a global search for SCA\u2019s next CEO.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Just days after Kerry Stokes’ retirement as Chair, Southern Cross Media removes Jeff Howard as CEO, effective immediately.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":297978,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[156,111,139,69,437],"class_list":{"0":"post-297977","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-newzealand","11":"tag-nz","12":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=297977"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297977\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/297978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}