21st Century Fox General Counsel Gerson Zweifach to Step Down Following Close of Pending Disney Transaction

21st Century Fox announced today that its Senior Executive Vice President, Group General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer Gerson Zweifach will step down following the close of the Company’s transaction with The Walt Disney Company. Once the transaction is complete, anticipated in the first half of 2019, Mr. Zweifach will return to Williams & Connolly where he spent more than three decades prior to joining 21CF.

Co-Chairmen Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch commented: “Gerson is one of the brightest legal minds in the business and has been instrumental in our growth having successfully led our legal and policy strategies across the globe. We are grateful for his unwavering leadership during a transformational period for our business. We support his decision to depart at the close of the Disney transaction and wish him much continued success at Williams & Connolly.”

Chief Executive Officer James Murdoch added: “Working closely with Gerson these years has been one of the great pleasures of my career at 21CF. His honesty and candor, his quick wit and sharp intellect, and his deep sense of what’s right and what’s wrong — and what can be made better — have made him an invaluable colleague when there’s a bear outside the tent and also when it’s not so clear exactly what manner of beast is coming. He’s brilliant, exacting, and fun; I’m deeply grateful for his enormous contribution to our company, and for his friendship.”

“Over the past six and a half years I have benefited from the staunch support of Rupert, Lachlan, James, and our Board, John Nallen and my colleagues who practice law with me here and around the world,” said Zweifach. “I am going to see our Disney transaction through, and then it’s time for me to end my working sabbatical and return home. I will be forever grateful to Rupert for giving me this opportunity.”