Robert Thomson (executive)

Robert Thomson (born 11 March 1961) is an Australian journalist. Since January 2013 he has been chief executive of News Corp.

Robert Thomson
Born	11 March 1961 Torrumbarry, Victoria, Australia
Occupation	journalist, editor
Spouse(s)	Wang Ping

Life

Thomson was born in Torrumbarry, Victoria, and studied at Christian Brothers College in St Kilda East, and at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.[1][2] One of his ancestors was named Arturo Dell'Oro, and came from Domodossola, in northern Italy.[3] He is married to Wang Ping, the daughter of a general in the Chinese People's Liberation Army.[4][5]

Career

Thomson started work as a copyboy at The Herald (now the Herald Sun) in Melbourne in 1979.[6] In 1983 he became senior feature writer for The Sydney Morning Herald, and two years later became Beijing correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald as well as the Financial Times.[2] Thomson was appointed the Financial Times foreign news editor in 1994[1] and in 1996 became editor of the Financial Times weekend edition.[2] While at Sydney Morning Herald, Thomson wrote a series on Australian judges, which was published as a book in 1987, The Judges: A Portrait of an Australian Judiciary.[7][8][9] In 1998, Thomson became U.S. managing editor of the Financial Times.[6]

In May 2008 he was appointed managing editor of the Wall Street Journal, having previously been the editor of The Times.

He received an honorary doctorate from RMIT University in 2010.[10]

In January 2013 Thomson became the chief executive of News Corp.

Notes

1. Auletta, Ken (4 April 2011). "Murdoch's Best Friend". The New Yorker.
2. "'Rupert has got a crush on you'". The Sydney Morning Herald. 23 March 2013.
3. "Robert J. Thomson all'inaugurazione di Palazzo San Francesco. Donati 50.000 dollari. - Mariano Cattrini". Archived from the original on 29 November 2014.
4. "Rupert Murdoch and Robert Thomson: A Tale of the Tape". New York. 25 April 2008.
5. Private Eye magazine, No. 1189, 20 July - 2 August 2007, p.7
6. Arango, Tim (28 April 2008). "Murdoch's 'Head of Content'". New York Times.
7. Mason, Max (12 April 2019). "Rupert's man: the Victorian 'bush lad' at the top of News Corp". The Australian Financial Review. He wrote a lauded series on Australian judges, which he turned into a book: The Judges: A Portrait of the Australian Judiciary
8. "The judges". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 9 June 2020.
9. Baker, Mark. "ROBERT THOMSON". The Australian Media Hall of Fame. Retrieved 9 June 2020. Thomson proposed an ambitious project – a series of interviews with Australia’s reclusive judges. It led to a book and a Journalist of the Year nomination.
10. Interview conducted by Paul Gough (29 November 2014). "Interview with Robert Thomson: Media Man". RMIT Alumni Magazine. RMIT. Archived from the original on 29 November 2014. Retrieved 29 November 2014.

External links

• Robert Thomson lecture online: From the editorial desk of The Times, RMIT School of Applied Communication Public Lecture series