News Corp’s Adam Suckling resigns to be CEO of the Copyright Agency

Suckling

News Corp Australia’s corporate relations chief Adam Suckling has resigned to take the role of CEO of the Copyright Agency, Mumbrella understands.

Suckling is a former director of policy and corporate affairs at Foxtel who moved across to News Corp headquarters, as head of corporate affairs, under previous CEO Kim Williams.

“I can confirm I have resigned to go and be the CEO of the Copyright Agency,” Suckling told Mumbrella this morning. 

The Copyright Agency is a not-for-profit business which represents the rights of copyright owners, such as journalists and newspaper and magazine publishers.

Suckling refused to be drawn on the reasons for his departure from News Corp who he has worked for since 2002.

He replaces Murray St Leger who announced his departure from the agency earlier this year to move back to the UK for family reasons.

A statement announcing his appointment is expected in the next few hours.

Update 12.23pm: The Copyright Agency has now put out a statement confirming Mumbrella’s report:

Mr Adam Suckling has been appointed as Chief Executive of Australian rights management and licensing organisation,

Mr Suckling is currently News Corp’s Director Policy, Corporate Affairs and Community Relations. He joins the organisation after 20 years’ holding senior commercial, communications and policy roles in the media and telecommunications sector, including working in the Asia-Pacific region.

Mr Suckling’s  experience  includes  running  Optus’  regulatory  division;  working  as  a director  at  Singtel’s  international  finance  group  that  oversaw  the  company’s  overseas investments;  and  running  Foxtel’s  wholesale  division – which  licensed  Foxtel’s digital channels and on-demand services to Telstra and Optus.

In his most recent role at News Corp Australia, he has overseen the company’s policy advocacy, along with other rights holders, for changes to the Copyright Act to enable rights holders to more effectively address theft of their content. 

Copyright Agency Chairman, Sandy Grant, welcomed the appointment. “Adam has a tremendous mix of commercial, content and copyright policy experience. He is well suited to lead the Copyright Agency into its next phase, as innovative business models emerge that offer new licensing solutions.” 

The organisation has launched exciting digital initiatives such as LearningField, an industry solution that provides access to digital textbooks for secondary school students and teachers; and Reading Australia, an online resource which provides teaching material while also promoting Australian literature.” 

Mr Suckling said, “I am delighted to be taking a leadership role at the Copyright Agency | Viscopy, which does such an important job in protecting the rights of authors and artists, and ensuring they are paid for their work. 

“I am looking forward to working with colleagues at the Copyright Agency to build on the innovative solutions the organisation offers business, government and education, and to strongly put the case to policymakers that copyright and intellectual property are at the heart of sustaining Australian creativity and economic activity in the digital economy.”

Mr Grant thanked outgoing CEO Murray St Leger for his outstanding leadership of the organisation for the past two and a half years. “Whilst we are regretful that Murray has had to return to the UK prematurely, we are very confident he has left a well-organised, well-led team as a strong basis for Adam’s arrival.”

Nic Christensen