The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) Monday named Google executive Michelle Guthrie as its new managing director, the first woman to hold the top post at the public broadcaster. The former media and technology lawyer, who has held senior roles at Foxtel and BSkyB in the U.K. as well as Star TV in Asia, is charged with leading the ABC into the digital era after a stormy period of cuts and government criticism. Guthrie will take over one of the biggest jobs in Australian media from Mark Scott in May. "Having grown up with the ABC and having been a professional observer of it over the last three decades, I have profound respect for the important role the national broadcaster plays throughout Australia and internationally," she said. Just before the announcement, former cabinet minister and Liberal senator Eric Abetz said, "The new managing director will inherit an unbalanced and largely centralized public broadcaster [that] has become a protection racket for the left ideology." Guthrie joined Google in 2011 and is currently Singapore-based managing director for agencies in the Asian-Pacific region.
