New APN chief has background in banking, media and technology sectors

New APN CEO Brett Chenoweth. Photo / Supplied

New Zealand Herald publisher APN News & Media has appointed Brett Chenoweth as its new chief executive, replacing Brendan Hopkins, who retires at the end of the year.

Chenoweth, 41, is the managing director and head of Asia-Pacific for New York-based merchant bank the Silverfern Group.

An Australian, he previously worked in the media and technology sector with senior and strategic roles at Telecom NZ, ecorp, ninemsn and Village Roadshow pictures.

At Telecom from 2001 to 2005 his positions included head of group strategy and mergers and acquisitions and head of Australian consumer group. He was also a director on several Telecom group company boards.

Chenoweth is a director and founder of Australian IT services company Gizmo Corporation.

APN chairman Gavin O'Reilly said Chenoweth's experience in growing content-based businesses would enable the company to accelerate expansion across a range of media and technology platforms.

Chenoweth said he was excited to be joining the media company.

"APN's quality media assets are positioned with a long runway for growth. We have a foundation of great content and we'll be working to ensure marketers are deriving maximum value from the audiences who enjoy that content."

Yesterday APN also announced the appointment of Auckland-based accountant John Harvey, 58, to its board.

Harvey was a partner with PricewaterhouseCoopers for 23 years and Auckland managing partner from 1998 to 2006. He retired in June last year.

Donal Buggy and Cameron O'Reilly will retire from the APN board on December 31.