Nine Entertainment has appointed Catherine West as the new Chair of the company, following the resignation of Peter Costello over the weekend.
West steps into the role after Costello allegedly “assaulted” journalist Liam Mendes from The Australian in Canberra airport last Thursday evening. Mendes was questioning Costello about former senior news boss at Nine Darren Wick, who has been accused of “alleged inappropriate behaviour” towards female journalists.
Costello had indicated he would resign post-Olympics, after an eleven-year stint on Nine’s board of directors and eight years as Chair. But in a statement on Sunday night, Costello announced he has brought that resignation forward to be “effective immediately”.
“The Board has been supportive through the events of the last month and last few days in particular,” Costello said in his statement.
“But going forward I think they need a new Chair to unite them around a fresh vision and someone with the energy to lead to that vision for the next decade.”
Costello said West is “well placed” to lead Nine and “conclude the process of refreshing the Board”, a process that began last year.
“The new Chair will require full support from all Directors as this is an industry where there is fierce rivalry,” Costello said.
“I do not rate the attacks of a commercial rival. The threat to this industry comes externally from Trillion Dollar technology companies that are competing for its business. To stand still or hope to continue to do things as they always have been done is not an option.”
Who is Catherine West?
Catherine West has replaced Peter Costello as the Chair of Nine. She has been on Nine’s board since 2016 as an independent, non-executive director. She has been the Chair of the People & Remuneration Committee, and a member of the Audit & Risk Management Committee within the company. In September 2023, she was appointed as Deputy Chair of Nine.
West has more than 25 years’ experience in business and legal affairs within the media industry, both in Australia and the UK, including 17 years as a legal director for Sky UK, the broadcaster of the Murdoch media empire.
The new Chair of Nine is also the Chair of the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA). West is also a member on several other boards, including Monash IVF Group and Peter Warren Automotive. She is a director on the boards of the Sydney Breast Cancer Foundation, the NIDA Foundation Trust and the Board of Governors of Wenona School.
West takes over as Chair at a tumultuous time for Nine. Not only is Nine’s share price down 29 per cent over the past year, but the media company is dealing with fresh allegations involving former senior news boss Darren Wick, who is being accused of sexually harassing female journalists.
When these allegations emerged last week, Nine announced it would conduct an external independent review for the news and current affairs team. The executives also said a dedicated hotline to report workplace sexual harassment would be available for employees, and all workers at Nine are now required to completed refreshed sexual harassment prevention training.
In a statement, West indicated she is committed to pursuing these actions.
“We are committed to ensuring, through our cultural review and other actions announced last week, that issues will be appropriately addressed,” West said.
“We want to ensure our people can feel proud of our company and colleagues and work.”
On Monday’s edition of Nine’s mid-morning TV show Today Extra, Sylvia Jeffreys addressed the crisis Nine is facing, encouraging the new Chair to take strong action.
“West has an opportunity to look very closely at why those women over the course of a decade, why those women were not able to raise those concerns internally within the company, and how the systems and structures in this company appear to have failed them,” Jeffreys said.
“That is an opportunity that now sits in front of the board.”