This article is more than 6 years old

This article is more than 6 years old

Fairfax Media has again passed Gina Rinehart over for a vacancy on the company’s board, appointing instead the high-profile adman Todd Sampson.

Sampson is the Australian chief of the global advertising firm, Leo Burnett, but is better known for his regular spot on the panel of the ABC program, the Gruen Transfer.



He will be replacing Sam Morgan, who sold his online auction website, TradeMe, to Fairfax in 2006.



“We are delighted that Todd Sampson has agreed to join the Fairfax board. We believe that he will bring a deep knowledge of media, marketing, advertising and digital transformation to our board,” Fairfax chairman Roger Corbett said in a statement to the stockmarket late on Thursday.



“He will also bring his commercial success as the national CEO of Leo Burnett, one of Australia’s most successful communications companies,” Corbett said.



Sampson said he was “excited” to join the company. “I accepted the role because I think I can make a difference,” he said.



Rinehart’s mining company, Hancock Prospecting, is Fairfax’s largest shareholder with 14.99% of the publisher’s stock.



The mining magnate, who is Australia’s richest woman, pushed hard for two seats on the company’s board in 2012 but was spurned by Corbett and Fairfax CEO Greg Hywood, who said Rinehart’s appointment stalled after she refused to agree not to interfere in editorial decisions.



The founder of restaurant chain Hungry Jack’s, Jack Cowin, considered a close ally of Rinehart, was appointed as an independent director of the company in 2012.



Rinehart’s representatives have been critical of the performance of the board at shareholder meetings.



Fairfax continues to shed staff as it makes a rocky transition into a digital news organisation, announcing in May a further 80 redundancies across its photography and editorial desks.



The company announced a half-year profit of $86.4m in January, despite a slight fall in revenues.

