First female CEO for Fiji TV
‘It’s a great challenge. With my experience and with a great team behind me, it’s an exciting one’
Every challenge put forward to me is a good challenge and I take it positively, says Karen Lobendahn. Ms Lobendahn, 40, has been appointed by Fijian Holdings Ltd as the new chief executive officer for Fiji TV Ltd. This will be effective from June 1, 2017.
The former St Joseph’s Secondary School and University of the South Pacific student is the first female chief executive officer for Fiji TV.
“I think it’s a great challenge. With my experience and with a great team behind me, it’s a positive and an exciting one,” Ms Lobendahn said.
“I’ve been in the industry for 20 years and I am very delighted to be appointed as the first female chief executive officer for Fiji TV.
“I think the whole team at Fiji TV is a young and vibrant team that is really great to work with and I am really happy and very privileged to be given this role and I know it’s upwards from here,” Ms Lobendahn added.
She took over the role on an acting basis from February 1, following Geoffery Smith’s resignation as CEO.
In her role as acting CEO, Ms Lobendahn said: “We’ve majorly turned around our financial performance in terms of improving our monthly revenue, overall revenue targets for the company. We’ve improved partnerships in the market as well as in terms of content suppliers and we’ve done major events and we also have our new home that we’re moving into from July 1, which was a project I was given as well.
“So all these are projects that have been on my plate from February 1. And I am happy to announce that we’ve made investment in new equipment as well,” she added.
A press release earlier this year stated that Fiji TV has made an investment of more than a million dollars to improve their infrastructure and most importantly their equipment.
“So that upgrade in itself is a huge improvement to the service we provide to our advertisers and viewers.”
In her new role, Ms Lobendahn plans to improve their bottom line through new technology and improving their equipment. “Our Fiji TV stream channel, our exposure, for not only within Fiji, but our viewers outside Fiji is a huge component that we have been earmarking and pushing heavily towards.
“And we’ve also got the rugby league coming up in September that we’re looking forward to. All that is in line with the improvements of Fiji TV down the line,” she said. Ms Lobendhan started her career at Fiji TV in the administration department. Three months into her employment, she was given the role of programme scheduler, which gave her exposure to the acquisition and scheduling of content. “This came in as early as 1996 and I’ve grown within the ranks from programming into production and most importantly have been in content acquisition for more than 20 years,” she said.
“I think the experience and the support from the staff as well, I guess that’s why I have grown into the role and I’m looking forward to working with the staff further and improving and growing the company as well.” FHL Group CEO Nouzab Fareed said FHL, as well as investors, had been watching Ms Lobendahn long before she took up the post of acting CEO.
“The organisation has been registering very positive financial performances over the past few months and we see potential growth moving forward with the current team of skilled and talented employees led by Ms Lobendahn,” Mr Fareed said. He said they were proud of Ms Lobendahn’s leadership and performance and she had received a lot of positive feedback from advertisers and stakeholders.
Ms Lobendahn is married to Fernando Lobendahn, a former long time member of the Fiji TV team. They have two children aged 14 and 16.