Liberty Media chairman on 'important' Maffei: 'Such a great leader'
F1 News
- Cas van de Kleut
Greg Maffei will leave his role as CEO of Liberty Media, the owner of Formula 1's commercial rights, after 2024. The company's chairman, John Malone, thinks it will be difficult to find a replacement. He explained this in an interview with CNBC.
During Maffei's years in charge at Liberty Media, it has grown into one of the largest media, communications, sports and entertainment companies in the world. Formula E and MotoGP are also part of the US company's portfolio.
Chairman Liberty Media praises Maffei
Malone, therefore, has fine words for Maffei: "Watching Greg being interviewed and listening to his presentation this morning, he is a fabulous executive. He's done wonderful things for me and my shareholders. We certainly hope that our futures will come back together at some point when he's rested up. I certainly personally would invest in anything Greg wants to do. So I can't say enough about Greg, positively."
The Liberty Media chairman then talked about what would happen to Formula 1 now that Maffei is leaving: "As you know, I'm effectively the control shareholder of a number of businesses. Through my voting position, I will continue to vote approximately 49% of the votes in Formula One. It ain't going to be easy, but we will find a CEO for the holding company who will continue to support Stefano and the management team."
Malone himself does not see himself as a future CEO for Liberty Media: "Greg has assembled a great group of people at headquarters who will do the burden. At 83 years old, going 84, I'm unlikely to be a highly active CEO. So my role is entirely transitional to support the team".
This article has been created in collaboration with Matt Gretton