Seven West Media’s long-serving group chief financial officer, Peter Lewis, has resigned and will quit his post at the end of April.
Lewis has been on the media group’s management team for 15 years, joining as CFO of Seven Media, and has been group CFO of the merged Seven Media Group and West Australian Newspapers Holdings business since April 2011. He was previously the head of business affairs for the Sydney Olympic Broadcasting Organisation and also worked at Network Ten and Galaxy Media.
Lewis was also the president of the Group of 100 from 2009 to 2011, is an associate member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia, and is also a member of the Australian Society of Certified Practicing Accountants and fellow of the Institute of Corporate Secretaries and Administrators.
Seven West Media confirmed the search for a new CFO has commenced. In the interim Seven Media Group’s CFO, Warwick Lynch, will be acting group CFO.
The news comes after Seven West Media reported a 3.4 per cent drop in revenue to $977.9m in the six months to 29 December 2012, along with a net loss of $109.3m, down 167 per cent.
Earlier this week Seven West Media’s MD and CEO, Don Voelte, came out swinging against the government’s proposed media regulation reforms, claiming the legislation will leave print media wholly dependent on the consent of a single individual not subject to any review of appeal.
“The government’s draconian attempt to control the press stands us apart from any other democratic society,” Volte stated. “It is a sobering prospect we face right now: a press whose ultimate judge and jury is the government.
“In one bludgeoning attempt, the government is seeking to neuter, negate and manage what was a free press.”
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