Former National Party Government minister Steven Joyce has been confirmed as a nominee to become a director – and new independent chair – of NZME in a move that may yet take the heat out of an acrimonious battle for the media company’s board. [...]
Several sources confirmed on Monday evening it was Steven Joyce, who served just over three full terms for the National Party between 2008 and 2018, including stints as Minister of Finance and Minister for Communications and Information Technology.
Crucially, Joyce has an extensive private business and media sector background - after leaving university, he launched his own radio station, Energy FM, with a group of friends in New Plymouth.
He eventually built up RadioWorks to a network of 22 stations and 650 staff and sold the company to CanWest in 2001. Three years later, CanWest amalgamated the radio assets, along with its TV business, to form MediaWorks.
Joyce is also a former chief executive of Jasons Travel Media.
Neither Joyce nor Chapman returned calls on Monday evening.
NZ Herald
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The company said Chapman would step down as chair if Joyce was voted in as a director. If that happened, the company believed that Joyce should be appointed chair.
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