Tony Faure

Sought-after digital media advisor and investor.

Profile

Tony is a digital media advisor and investor. A founding member of the Australian digital media industry since its inception in 1997, Tony is a sought after speaker on digital media, marketing and leadership. Currently, Tony invests in and advises several offshore and local enterprises. Tony’s longevity in the Australian Digital Media Industry is matched only by his passion in utilising digital technology to deliver better media products and marketing services.

Throughout his career Tony has presented in front of a varied audience. His natural presentation style is more like a personal conversation than a ‘talk’. Having had extensive experience interacting with audiences both individually and on panels, Tony is the ideal candidate for communicating with a high level audience.

Current work

Highly regarded in the local internet industry, Tony now heads up his own independent consultancy – T-4, operating both locally and abroad. Through this he holds active board roles in advertising, marketing, strategy and sales initiatives in the digital media industry in Australia. Tony is a true believer in the collaborative nature of success in business and as such is often used sounding board and a conduit to contact the right people.

Previous experience

Yahoo!: After more than a decade in magazine publishing in the UK, Tony launched Yahoo! Australia & NZ in July 1997 and developed the local operation into one of the Australia’s leading Internet businesses.

In 1997 the Australian Internet Media Industry didn’t really exist. Yahoo! was one of the first web media players to launch locally. Under Tony’s guidance Yahoo! Australia & NZ built a huge audience, established itself as a powerful consumer brand on a shoestring budget and quickly became profitable. Tony was a founding member of the Australian Internet Advertisers Industry Association and through Yahoo! introduced several new products to the industry, including permission marketing. Growing such an enterprise through the Dot.com boom Tony lead a skilled team in an incredibly dynamic environment. Yahoo! Australia & NZ under his guidance went on to partner and invest in other Internet based businesses such as Seek Ltd (SEK.AX) and Carsales.

Homescreen: In early 2006 Tony left Yahoo! to establish his own start up – Homescreen – a leading edge recommendation driven consumer subscription platform business. Tony independently raised the capital to build and deliver the HomeScreen product. Once again the marketing budget was tight and bringing new product to an uninitiated market, a challenge – however the company was sold to QuickFlix at a profit.

Ninemsn: From 2006 – 2008, Tony held the position of CEO of Ninemsn – the joint venture between Microsoft and PBL Media. Ninemsn another leading digital media business in Australia, encompasses search, mail and messenger products, has 350 staff and an active consumer base of 8.5 million users. Tony’s management lead ninemsn through a period of innovation in both their content strategy (the fix) and their advertising products. Ninemsn is now holds the leading position in targeting and response based advertising solutions. Throughout Tony’s time at ninemsn he held many board positions including Seek, Onedigital, iSelect, Internet Advertising Bureau, Internet Industry Association and The Starlight Children’s Foundation.

Chairman: Tony has also been chairman of the Australian Independent Business Media group – publisher of Business Spectator and the Eureka Report. Additionally, he has held a directorship of MyTickets, and been Chair of Torque, a marketing segmentation and optimisation company run by Oliver Rees.

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