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Date:  4 June 2007

James Murdoch speaks at Jewish Care breakfast

James Murdoch, CEO of BSkyB and son of media tycoon Rupert Murdoch, was the guest speaker at Jewish Care’s 53rd business breakfast, held at the Jumeirah Carlton Tower in Kensington on Monday 4th June. The event was sponsored by KPMG and raised £34,000 for the charity’s work in the community.

Addressing an audience of 265 business men and women, Mr Murdoch described the charity as “a wonderful cause” and saluted its work: “You draw on the tradition of tzedakah – charity – which is a fundamental tenet of Judaism. The theme of giving and contributing to society is something which is as relevant to a company as to a charity like Jewish Care.”

He spoke of the changing world of television since Sky first started operating in 1989. “The conventional view was that we were an unnecessary intervention in a system that had not really changed since the 1920s. What we were doing was quite revolutionary.” He rejoiced in the number of channels viewers may watch “from the mass market to the niche, these are now available to millions.”

He called the recent vote by the university and college union to boycott links with Israeli academics “an outrage. It was anti-democratic and worse, because it comes from a group of people who we would expect to cherish open debate and academic freedom. A society that rejects the diversity of views and debate does so at its peril. We in the UK should never take support for open discussion for granted.”

The vote of thanks was given by Jewish Care chairman Stephen Zimmerman. Afterwards, Howard Leigh, chairman of Jewish Care’s business breakfast committee, said: “James Murdoch gave an inspirational talk on how he has built his business up and at the same time, giving something back to the community.” Mr Leigh added that it was “quite fun” having Mr Murdoch introduced by Sir Michael Rake of KPMG, who is the future chairman of BT, one of BSkyB’s major competitors.

Jewish Care chief executive Simon Morris described the event as “excellent.” He added: “Good leadership can galvanise an organisation, and to have so many people here supporting Jewish Care is fantastic.”