Jonathan Fraser Shier (born 18 October 1947) is an Australian businessman and media executive. He was educated at Barker College,

Geelong Grammar School Geelong Grammar School is a private Anglican co-educational boarding and day school. The school's main campus is located in Corio on the northern outskirts of Geelong, Victoria, Australia, overlooking Corio Bay and Limeburners Bay. Establ ...

and Monash University (LLB BEcon). During the years 1978 to 1999, Shier lived in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

and the Netherlands and was a director of

Scottish Television Scottish Television (now legally known as STV Central Limited) is the ITV (TV network), ITV network franchisee for Central Belt, Central Scotland. The channel — the largest of the three ITV franchises in Scotland — has been in operation si ...

, a director and deputy managing director of

Thames Television Thames Television, commonly simplified to just Thames, was a franchise holder for a region of the British ITV television network serving London and surrounding areas from 30 July 1968 until the night of 31 December 1992. Thames Television broa ...

, the CEO of the Pay TV company Nethold Central Europe and the commercial director of the Scandinavian and Baltic broadcaster TV3. Shier returned to Australia in 2000 and is best known there for his controversial tenure as

managing director A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

of the

Australian Broadcasting Corporation The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is Australia’s principal public service broadcaster. It is funded primarily by grants from the federal government and is administered by a government-appointed board of directors. The ABC is ...

from March 2000 to December 2001. Shier attempted to implement many reforms, which led to the replacement of several senior management personnel. The conservative Howard government was accused by some of having Shier appointed to action a "hit list" of staff seen as critical of government policies. Others saw Shier as addressing a perceived left-wing bias at the ABC by establishing programmes such as '' Insiders'', which were intended to embrace a wider range of political views. Shier introduced ''Australia Talks'', a current affairs program. Shier resigned from the ABC in December 2001 when he felt he could no longer work with the government-appointed chairman, Donald McDonald, and it was clear that a majority of the board would support the chairman. When Shier left the ABC, he was given a million-dollar payout.Extra $500,000 payout
/ref> Since 2002, Shier has been the chairman and CEO of Continental Ventures (Australia). From 2008 until 2011, Shier was also the executive chairman of Fox Legal, a company that intended to acquire some eighteen specialist law firms and float them on the Australian Securities Exchange. The other directors of the company were Mark Avery, Jeffrey Goss and Miles Hedge. The timing of the

2008 financial crisis The 2008 financial crisis, also known as the global financial crisis (GFC), was a major worldwide financial crisis centered in the United States. The causes of the 2008 crisis included excessive speculation on housing values by both homeowners ...

required the float and associated $75 million capital-raising to be aborted. Shier now lives in Melbourne.

References

External links

Interview with Shier
on

Sunday Sunday (Latin: ''dies solis'' meaning "day of the sun") is the day of the week between Saturday and Monday. Sunday is a Christian sabbath, day of rest in most Western countries and a part of the Workweek and weekend, weekend. In some Middle Ea ...

After the storm
from

The Age ''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria (Australia), Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Austral ...

Jonathan Shier's plan comes unstuck
1947 births Living people Managing directors of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation Monash University alumni People educated at Geelong Grammar School Australian expatriates in England Australian expatriates in the Netherlands {{australia-tv-bio-stub