Murdoch and Rice Tesla team’s new members

Linda Johnson Rice and James Murdoch have joined Tesla’s board of directors as independent members.

Murdoch, a son of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, is 21st Century Fox (21CF) chief executive officer, while Rice is Johnson Publishing Company chairwoman and chief executive officer.

Rice is also Fashion Fair Cosmetics and Ebony Media Operations chief executive officer, and chairwoman emeritus of Ebony Media Holdings, the parent company for the Ebony and Jet brands.

She has extensive corporate board experience, having served on the boards of companies across a variety of industries, including Bausch & Lomb, Continental Bank, Quaker Oats, Dial Corporation, MoneyGram and Kimberly-Clark Corporation.

Rice is currently serving on the boards of Omnicom Group and Grubhub. She is a trustee at the Art Institute of Chicago, president of the Chicago Public Library Board of Directors, a council member of The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, and board member of After School Matters and Northwestern Memorial Corporation.

Rice is known as a producer for President Barack Obama: The Man and His Journey, in 2009.

British-born Australian-American businessman James Murdoch resigned some of his media positions after British tabloid newspaper News of the World was implicated in a phone hacking scandal.

Murdoch became 21CF chief executive officer in 2015 after holding a number of leadership roles at the company during a 20-year career. He previously served as its co-chief operating officer, chairman and chief executive officer for Europe and Asia, as well as chairman of BSkyB, Sky Deutschland, and Sky Italia, the businesses that now comprise Sky plc.

He also served as chief executive officer of BSkyB and STAR, India’s entertainment leader. In addition to being a key driver of 21CF’s domestic and international expansion, Murdoch has been instrumental in the company’s social impact initiatives, including its decade-long leadership on environmental sustainability. He and wife Kathryn are founders of a family foundation, Quadrivium, which supports initiatives involving natural resources, science, civic life, childhood health, and equal opportunity.