Gina Rinehart has quit the board of Channel Ten after a four-year stint, citing an increased workload at her company Hancock Prospecting.
According to the Ten Network’s 2014 annual report, Rinehart did not attend any one of the 11 board meetings scheduled in the last financial year.
She was represented by her right-hand man John Klepac at 10 of them and fellow board member and Hungry Jack’s owner Jack Cowin at the remaining one.
But Australia’s richest person will retain her 10% share in the struggling company and Klepac, who is the chief development officer at Hancock, will join the board as her replacement.
Ten’s executive chairman and managing director, Hamish McLennan, said he looked forward to Rinehart’s ongoing commitment.
“It has been a very great pleasure working with Mrs Rinehart and I have appreciated her commitment and our discussions,” McLennan, who was appointed during Rinehart’s tenure, said.
In statement, the board said Rinehart had “expanding responsibilities in the Hancock Prospecting group, in particular, the financing and development of the Roy Hill project, currently one of the largest construction undertakings in mainland Australia”.
“Mrs Rinehart said she enjoyed working with the management of Ten and wished the board and its staff all the best.”
Rinehart’s tenure has been marked by turmoil, falling ratings and revenue.
McLennan, Ten’s fourth CEO in three years, was elevated to executive chairman in March when Lachlan Murdoch resigned after three years to run the Murdoch empire News Corp.
When Rinehart bought shares in Ten in November 2010, News Corp columnist Andrew Bolt hinted that she was keen to reform the media industry which was dominated by an anti-mining ethos.
“Rinehart is on a mission,” Bolt said. “Channel Ten is just the vehicle. In fact, I believe this deal may be the start of an attempted shake-up of one of the three big free-to-air TV stations, by a woman rightly alarmed that people in the eastern states have got complacent, living fatly off industries they despise and in their ignorance now threaten.”
At the recommendation of Rinehart, who is a big fan of the right-wing journalist, Bolt was given his own political soapbox on Ten on Sunday mornings in 2011. The 30-minute slot was expanded to an hour-long show in 2014 and is produced by News Corp Australia for the Ten Network.
The mining magnate is Australia’s richest person by far, with a little more than a $20bn fortune.
