SPEAKER
Robert Thomson
Chief Executive | News Corp
Robert Thomson is chief executive of News Corp, with global operations across a range of media, including news and information services, digital real estate services, book publishing, and sports programming and pay-TV distribution in Australia.
Mr. Thomson previously served as editor-in-chief of Dow Jones & Company and managing editor of The Wall Street Journal, which became the largest circulation newspaper in the U.S. Before joining Dow Jones, Mr. Thomson was editor of The Times of London, where he presided over a significant expansion of its readership in print and online. Prior to that, he was editor of the U.S. edition of the Financial Times, editor of the Weekend FT, assistant editor of the Financial Times, and foreign news editor. Mr. Thomson had been a correspondent himself in Tokyo and Beijing.
His first job in journalism was at The Herald in Melbourne as a copyboy and a finance and general affairs reporter before becoming the paper’s Sydney correspondent. He is the author of The Judges: A Portrait of the Australian Judiciary, co-author of The Chinese Army and edited a collection of satirical writing, True Fiction.
Mr. Thomson was born in Torrumbarry, near Echuca, in southern Australia, and is married with two sons.
MODERATOR
Jennifer Nason
Chairman Emeritus | American Australian Association
Global Chair, Investment Banking | J.P. Morgan
Jennifer Nason has been with J.P. Morgan for over 30 years having joined the Melbourne, Australia office in 1986. Over the span of her career she has worked in the Project Finance and Mergers & Acquisition groups focused on the Natural Resources sector; the Retail Investment Banking client coverage team as Group Head; and for the last 18 years, led the Technology, Media and Telecommunications global client practice, with a focus on strategic M&A, debt and equity financing. Ms. Nason also co-founded and chaired the Investment Banking Women’s Network at J.P. Morgan in the mid-1990s.
Today as a Global Chairman of the Investment Banking practice, Ms. Nason is responsible for many of the firm’s key investment banking relationships around the world. Over her career, she has been involved in many key transactions including: IBM’s $34 billion acquisition of Red Hat, Scripps Networks Interactive’s $14.6 billion sale to Discovery Communications; 21st Century Fox’s £11.7 billion acquisition of Sky PLC; Verizon Communication’s acquisition of Vodafone’s $130 billion stake in Verizon Wireless; GE’s $18.1 billion sale of NBCU to Comcast; Virgin Media’s $23.3 billion sale to Liberty Global; Facebook’s $16 billion IPO; Nokia’s $15.6 billion acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent; and Frontier Communication’s $11 billion acquisition of wireline assets from Verizon.
Prior to joining J.P. Morgan, Ms. Nason spent three years with the Department of Management and Budget in Australia as an infrastructure project analyst, where she worked on the development of several high-profile projects, including the National Tennis Centre in Melbourne. Ms. Nason is a former Chair and current member of the Board of the American Australian Association. She is also a Member of the Economic Club of New York; the Partnership for New York City Innovation Council; and the Paley International Council.