Michelle Guthrie (born 1965) is an Australian business executive and lawyer. Guthrie was born in

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

in 1965, was educated at Brigidine College Randwick and Kambala Girls' School, and studied arts and law at the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's si ...

. She joined the law firm Allen, Allen & Hemsley as a media and technology lawyer in Sydney and Singapore, then moved to London as a corporate counsel for

News International News Corp UK & Ireland Limited (trading as News UK, formerly News International and NI Group) is a List of newspapers in the United Kingdom, British newspaper publisher, and a wholly owned subsidiary of the American mass media Conglomerate (c ...

. She remained with the News Corporation group of companies for thirteen years, returning to Australia for an 18-month stint as director of legal and business development for

Foxtel Foxtel is an Australian pay television company—operating in cable television, direct broadcast satellite television, and IPTV streaming services. It was formed in April 2018, superseding an earlier company from 1995. The service was establi ...

, then to Hong Kong to replace

James Murdoch James Rupert Jacob Murdoch (born 13 December 1972) is a British-American businessman, the younger son of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, and was the chief executive officer (CEO) of 21st Century Fox from 2015 to 2019. He was the chairman and CEO fo ...

as the CEO of

STAR TV Star TV may refer to: * E! (Canadian TV channel) (formerly Star!), a Canadian entertainment news channel * Las Estrellas (Spanish for The Stars), the Mexican television network * Estrella TV (Spanish for Star TV), the American Spanish-language net ...

. In 2007, she became managing director of

Providence Equity Partners Providence Equity Partners L.L.C. is a specialist private equity firm, private equity investment firm focused on media, communications, education, technology investments across North America and Europe. The firm specializes in growth-oriented pri ...

in Hong Kong. In 2011, she joined

Google Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...

as managing director of partner business solutions, and later was managing director for agencies for the Asia-Pacific region, based in the company's Singapore office. In December 2015, it was announced that Guthrie would become managing director 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 ...

(ABC), replacing Mark Scott who retired in April 2016. Guthrie assumed the ABC position on 2 May 2016. She has been criticised for her lack of understanding of public broadcasting and journalism. On 24 September 2018, ABC Chair

Justin Milne Justin Trevor Milne, , (born 19 November 1952) is an Australian business executive and company director known for his roles as Chairman of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, chief of broadband services at Telstra, and CEO at OzEmail, as w ...

announced that Guthrie had been sacked from the role of managing director of the ABC after the board of directors had concluded it was not in the best interests of the organisation for her to continue. After her dismissal, Guthrie took legal action against the ABC for unfair dismissal. In March 2019, Guthrie and the ABC reached a settlement on the matter, with Guthrie receiving $730,000 to drop the legal action. Guthrie is married to Darren Farr, a chef and restaurateur who runs The LoKal restaurant in Singapore, and has two daughters.

References

1965 births Living people Australian chief executives Managing directors of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation Women television executives Google employees Australian women chief executives Businesspeople from Sydney Lawyers from Sydney Australian women lawyers Sydney Law School alumni University of Sydney alumni Australian people of Chinese descent People educated at Kambala School {{Australia-business-bio-stub