Rupert Murdoch's Son takes GlaxoSmithKline role

Chris Tryhorn, Monday 2 February 2009
The Guardian
Oct. 29, 2009

James Murdoch has been appointed a non-executive director at the pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline.

Murdoch, the chairman and chief executive of News Corporation Europe and Asia and chairman of BSkyB, starts in the Ł75,000-a-year post on 20 May.

He will serve as a member of GSK's corporate responsibility committee, where he will help to review "external issues that might have the potential for serious impact upon the group's business and reputation".

"I am delighted to welcome James to the board of GSK," said chairman Sir Christopher Gent, the former Vodafone chief executive. "His experience of global business, marketing and communications will bring a unique and alternative perspective to the board.

"He will also be an excellent addition to the board's corporate responsibility committee, an area where he has shown particular leadership at BSkyB and News Corporation."

Murdoch's fellow directors will include the outgoing Reed Elsevier chief executive Sir Crispin Davis and Sir Robert Wilson, the non-executive chairman of the Economist group.

Murdoch, the son of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, also sits on the boards of Yankee Global Enterprises, the parent company of the New York Yankees baseball club, and the US student magazine the Harvard Lampoon.

He is on the leadership council of the Climate Group, an independent organisation focused on tackling on climate change.