After 27 years at Bauer Media, Deborah Thomas is stepping down from her role as editorial and media director to take up the position of CEO at Ardent Leisure.
Thomas has been a non-executive director of Ardent Leisure since December 2013 and will replace its current chief executive, Greg Shaw, who last night announced his retirement after nearly 13 years in the role.
“It is a great privilege to follow in Greg’s footsteps and be given stewardship of such an exciting group of businesses. Greg has built a great platform of assets and management team on which I will build, with a strong focus on marketing, customer service and product innovation across all of our facilities,” says Thomas.
Ardent Leisure owns and operates more than 100 leisure portfolios in Australia, New Zealand and the United States, including Dreamworld, WhiteWater World, and d’Albora Marinas.
Thomas’ spokesman Tim Allerton told The Daily Telegraph: “Ardent are leveraging off her 27 years experience in the publishing space and her experience in the digital space. Ardent are trying to improve the customer experience and she is well equipped to take that on.”
Thomas will receive a fixed salary of $670,000, with potential bonuses seeing this rise to $1.34 million. Thomas will officially leave Bauer Media on April 2.
During her time at Bauer, Thomas has been the editor of Elle, Cleo, Harper’s Bazaar and The Australian Women’s Weekly, and worked as the director of media, public affairs and brand development.
