Stephen Mayne
| Stephen Mayne | |
|---|---|
Mayne, pictured in July 2010
|
|
| Born |
23 July 1969 Brisbane, Queensland, Australia |
| Nationality | Australia |
| Occupation |
Journalist; Shareholder activist |
| Known for | Founder of Crikey |
Stephen Mayne (born 23 July 1969) is an Australian Walkley Award winning journalist, local government councillor, and self-described shareholder activist.
Mayne worked for a number of media outlets and was a media adviser to the Premier of Victoria Jeff Kennett between 1992 and 1994. In 1997 Mayne appeared on ABC TV's Four Corners as a whistleblower about Kennett's share dealings. In 1999 Mayne started the website jeffed.com devoted to complaints about Kennett in support of Mayne's abortive candidacy in the 1999 election.
He is best known for founding Crikey in 2000, an online independent news service. The combination of gossip and anti-establishment reporting got Mayne into legal (and consequent financial) trouble several times. Despite considerable financial pressures, Mayne persisted and Crikey gradually attracted subscribers and a fair degree of notoriety. It was announced on 1 February 2005 that Crikey had been sold for A$1 million to another independent media operator, Private Media Partners.
Mayne continues to write for Crikey and was a regular business commentator on ABC Radio. Mayne also regularly runs for elections to the board of directors of various Australian public companies to draw attention to issues concerning good corporate governance. He is also a trenchant critic of what he perceives as excessive conflicts of interest in corporate and political Australia.
In October 2007, Mayne launched The Mayne Report – a daily videoblog and subscription newsletter that is focused on shareholder activism and corporate governance issues.
In 1999, Mayne resigned from his job at The Australian Financial Review in order to run against then premier Kennett as an independent protest candidate. After moving to Melbourne and making preparations for the campaign, he discovered he was unable to run because he was not entitled to be enrolled and was not actually enrolled. Years later he tearfully told the ABC's Talking Heads that his father disowned him at this point, telling him not to return until he had got a job. Mayne later ran as an independent in a subsequent Burwood by-election, caused by Kennett's resignation from politics after his 1999 state election loss. Mayne attracted a primary vote of 1,975 votes (6.63%), and Labor's Bob Stensholt won the seat.
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