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

Geelong Grammar School , motto_translation = 1 Corinthians 1:30: "For us, Christ was made wisdom"(1 Corinthians 1:30: Christ, who has been made for us in wisdom) , city = Corio, Victoria , country = Australia , coordinates = , ty ...

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 Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

and the Netherlands and was a director of

Scottish Television Scottish Television (now, legally, known as STV Central Limited) is the ITV network franchisee for Central Scotland. The channel — the largest of the three ITV franchises in Scotland — has been in operation since 31 August 1957 and is the ...

, a director and deputy managing director of

Thames Television Thames Television, commonly simplified to just Thames, was a Broadcast license, franchise holder for a region of the British ITV (TV network), ITV television network serving Greater London, London and surrounding areas from 30 July 1968 until th ...

, the CEO of the Pay TV company Nethold Central Europe and the commercial director of the Scandinavian and Baltic broadcaster

TV3 Channel 3 or TV 3 may refer to: Television *Canal 3 (Burkina Faso), a commercial television channel in Burkina Faso *Canal 3 (Guatemala), a commercial television channel in Guatemala *Channel 3 (Algeria), a public Algerian TV channel owned by EPTV ...

. 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 central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

of the

Australian Broadcasting Corporation The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is the national broadcaster of Australia. It is principally funded by direct grants from the Australian Government and is administered by a government-appointed board. The ABC is a publicly-own ...

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

Global Financial Crisis Global means of or referring to a globe and may also refer to: Entertainment * ''Global'' (Paul van Dyk album), 2003 * ''Global'' (Bunji Garlin album), 2007 * ''Global'' (Humanoid album), 1989 * ''Global'' (Todd Rundgren album), 2015 * Bruno ...

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 is the day of the week between Saturday and Monday. In most Western countries, Sunday is a day of rest and a part of the weekend. It is often considered the first day of the week. For most observant adherents of Christianity, Sunday ...

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 the United Kingdom Australian expatriates in the Netherlands {{australia-tv-bio-stub