James Murdoch

Founder and Chief Executive Officer Lupa Systems

Last Reviewed: September 18, 2026

Executive Summary

James Murdoch is founder and Chief Executive Officer of Lupa Systems, the private holding company he established in March 2019 to invest in media, entertainment and technology across the Americas, Europe and Asia. The company exists because of what preceded it: after two decades running businesses inside his family’s media empire — STAR Group in Asia, Sky in Britain, and finally Twenty-First Century Fox itself — he left following the Disney acquisition and built an investment vehicle answerable to nobody else. He has been a director of Tesla since July 2017 and sits on its audit, nominating and governance, and disclosure controls committees. With his wife Kathryn he co-founded the Quadrivium Foundation in 2013, whose grantmaking has become a significant funder of climate and environmental work, including journalism — a position that has placed him at a visible distance from parts of the media business his family still controls.

Career Highlights

• Founded Lupa Systems in March 2019 as a private holding company investing in media, entertainment and technology across the Americas, Europe and Asia.
• Director of Tesla since July 2017, serving on the Audit Committee, the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee and the Disclosure Controls Committee.
• Chief Executive Officer of Twenty-First Century Fox from 2015 to 2019, after operational and international leadership roles there from 2007.
• Chief Executive Officer of Sky plc from 2003 to 2007, taking the job at 30.
• Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of STAR Group Limited from 2000 to 2003, running the Asian satellite business.
• Has served as a director of Twenty-First Century Fox, Sky plc, GlaxoSmithKline plc, Sotheby’s, and News Corporation from 2013 to 2020.
• Founded Bodhi Tree Systems, a joint venture with former Star India and Disney executive Uday Shankar, investing in Indian media and technology.
• Founded the hip hop label Rawkus Records in the mid-1990s, later acquired by News Corp.

Professional Journey

Murdoch’s career did not start in a corporate office. He attended Harvard University from 1992 to 1995 and left without a degree, going on tour after the Grateful Dead and founding Rawkus Records, an independent hip hop label that became a genuinely respected name in the genre. News Corp later acquired it, which is how he arrived inside the family business — through an asset he had built rather than a post he had been handed.

His first major operating command was STAR Group Limited, the pan-Asian satellite broadcaster, where he was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer from 2000 to 2003. Asia was then News Corp’s hardest and least understood market, and the posting gave him operational experience in India and China that shaped much of what he has done since, including Bodhi Tree Systems two decades later.

In 2003 he became Chief Executive Officer of Sky plc, the British satellite broadcaster, a controversial appointment given his age and family connection that he held until 2007, after which he remained closely involved with Sky while taking on wider operational and international leadership at what became Twenty-First Century Fox. That 2007 to 2015 period spanned the phone-hacking scandal at News International and the parliamentary scrutiny that followed — the most difficult passage of his career and the one that most shaped his standing.

He became Chief Executive Officer of Twenty-First Century Fox in 2015 and held the role until 2019, through the negotiation and completion of the sale of most of the company’s entertainment assets to Disney. That transaction effectively ended the job, and rather than take a position in the merged company or in the remaining Fox Corporation, he left. He also served on the News Corporation board from 2013 until 2020, when he resigned it.

Lupa Systems followed in March 2019. It invests across media, entertainment and technology in the Americas, Europe and Asia, and its most visible initiative has been Bodhi Tree Systems, the joint venture he formed with Uday Shankar, formerly of Star India and Disney, to pursue Indian media and technology. Alongside Lupa he has continued as a Tesla director since 2017, and through the Quadrivium Foundation, which he and Kathryn Murdoch established in 2013, has become a substantial funder of climate and environmental work.

Education

Harvard University

Attended 1992 to 1995; left without completing a degree