James Murdoch

James Murdoch
Murdoch in 2008
Born
James Rupert Jacob Murdoch

(1972-12-13) 13 December 1972 (age 51)
Wimbledon, London, England
Citizenship
  • United Kingdom
  • United States
EducationHarvard University (dropped out)
Board member ofTesla, Inc.
Spouse
(m. 2000)
Children3
Parents
FamilyMurdoch

James Rupert Jacob Murdoch (born 13 December 1972) is a British-American businessman. He is the younger son of media mogul Rupert Murdoch and the former chief executive officer (CEO) of 21st Century Fox from 2015 to 2019.

He was the chairman and CEO for Europe and Asia of News Corporation until 2013 when it was split into News Corp and 21st Century Fox. He was formerly a director of News Corp and was a member of the office of the chairman.

Until April 2012, he was the chairman and CEO of Sky plc, Europe and Asia, where he oversaw assets such as News International (publisher of The News of the World newspaper), Sky Italia, Sky Deutschland, and STAR TV.

Murdoch was executive chairman of News International from 2007. He previously held a non-executive chair at British Sky Broadcasting, in which News Corporation had a controlling minority stake. In April 2012, he was forced to resign as chairman of BSkyB in the wake of the ongoing phone hacking scandal, in which he was implicated and severely criticised in a parliamentary report. He was reappointed chairman of the company following its merger with its Italian and German sister companies to form Sky plc.

In July 2020, he resigned from the board of News Corp due to disagreements with its editorial content and strategic direction.

In 2021, Murdoch set up the Indian arm of his family office, Lupa Systems India, as a joint venture with businessman Uday Shankar.

As of September 2024, the whole Murdoch family is involved in a court case in the US in which James, his sister Elisabeth and half-sister Prudence are challenging their father's bid to amend the family trust to ensure that his eldest son, Lachlan, retains control of News Corp and Fox Corp, rather than benefiting all of his six children, as is specified in the "irrevocable" terms of the trust.