Fairfax’s general manager of events, Sarah Pohlman departs

Sarah Pohlman, Fairfax’s recently appointed events boss, is to leave five months after taking over from predecessor, Andrew McEvoy.

Pohlman first joined Fairfax Events as business development director in 2014, and began her role as general manager for events, in June last year.

Pohlman took on additional responsibilities following the departure of Andrew McEvoy

Upon McEvoy’s departure, Pohlman’s role as general manager, events, was extended.

She has also previously held roles at American Express, Coca-Cola Amatil, and Lovell Management.

Pohlman told Mumbrella she was “incredibly proud” of her events team and business.

“I leave Fairfax with the events business in excellent shape and I am truly grateful to my two mentors – Greg Hywood, my boss and Linda Nicholls, our Board Member,” Pohlman said.

“We have over 2.5 million people who eat, drink, run and swim with us across our portfolio of food, sport, parenting, business events and Open Air Cinema.

“The community impact is seen in events such as City2Surf – that has had incredible growth this year and is now the largest fun run in the world.

“We also run Australia’s largest food festival with Good Food Month. And in year two of the Australian Financial Review Business Summit, the event was already creating change, with the PM declaring an energy crisis following a Twitter exchange between Elon Musk and Mike Cannon-Brookes.”

Both City2Surf and Kidtopia are shortlisted at the Australian Events Awards.

Mumbrella understands Chris Janz, managing director of Australian Metro Publishing, will play a more active role in Fairfax Events, and the process for Pohlman’s replacement as general manager is currently underway.

Pohlman will not be looking for a new role immediately. Mumbrella understands she will be travelling for a year.

The news comes a week after Fairfax’s annual results were unveiled, which saw Fairfax return to profit despite annual revenue decline.

It also comes after Fairfax unveiled its new commercial strategy, which will see the publisher move awway from Facebook.