Life and times of Lachlan Murdoch (original) (raw)

Lachlan Murdoch is a 33-year-old tattooed father-of-one who has decided to go home.

Or he is the 34th most powerful person in the US who is returning to the country where his family's global media empire was born but outgrew and largely left behind.

In his statement today Mr Murdoch said he was looking forward to "returning home to Australia with my wife Sarah and son Kalan, in the very near future".

And while Rupert Murdoch's eldest son still calls Australia home he is very much a world citizen. Lachlan Murdoch is London-born but Manhattan-bred, a legacy of his mother Anna's desire to leave London after attempts were made to kidnap the family.

His most recent involvement down under, in the land from which his father's global empire sprang from just one afternoon newspaper in the sleepy South Australia state capital of Adelaide, was many months fighting Australian investors who rejected News Corp's plan to exit the country's stock exchange and move to the US.

And in 1999 when Lachlan married Australian ex-Wonderbra model actress Sara O'Hare, neither world capital was chosen for the nuptials. Rather a discreet ceremony was held at Cavan, the sprawling family-owned sheep station situated by the banks of the Murrumbidgee River. Now the couple have an eight month-old son.

Rupert Murdoch has been devolving the management of the group to Lachlan for years. His eldest son was educated at the exclusive Aspen County Day School in Colorado and earned a bachelor's degree in philosophy from Princeton University, working in the family businesses during the holidays.

His first job was at Queensland Newspapers, which publishes the Courier-Mail in Brisbane, going on to become publisher of Australia's first national paper, the Australian.

He moved quickly through the ranks. In 1995 he was appointed the deputy chief executive of News Limited and executive director of News Corp in 1996, then senior executive vice-president from 1999 to 2000 when he became the deputy chief operating officer. He has been chairman of STAR, the Asian satellite service, for the past decade.

The One.Tel affair

But the episode his News Corp career might be best-remembered for was not a happy one: the collapse of Australian telecoms company One.Tel in May 2001 owing A$600m (£259.59m) to creditors, making losses of A$1bn for the Murdoch and Kerry Packer-controlled companies and leaving 1,400 people unemployed.

Lachlan oversaw News Corp's A$575m investment in One.Tel, was a non-executive director of the company along with James Packer, son of Australia's richest man - Kerry Packer - and his younger brother James.

The backing of the two media heirs in 1999 attracted considerable media attention for One.Tel but Lachlan was criticised for his part in he handling of the business and what some commentators saw as a cavalier "rich brat" attitude.

Last year Lachlan was deemed the joint 34th most powerful person in the US - jointly with his brother James, now BSkyB chief executive - according to glossy magazine Vanity Fair's annual Establishment List. His father was knocked from the top slot by Wal Mart's Lee Scott.

· To contact the MediaGuardian newsdesk email editor@mediatheguardian.com or phone 020 7239 9857

· If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".