Making good on a pledge to regulators and company shareholders following the "phone hacking" scandal that exploded in 2011, News Corp. announced yesterday that it would be adding five new compliance group heads to its organization. The new compliance leaders include two high-profile additions: John McCoy, the Associate Regional Director of the SEC's Los Angeles Regional Office; and Brian Michael, an attorney currently with WilmerHale who previously served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the US Attorney's Offices for the Southern District of New York and for the Central District of California from 2003-2010.

McCoy will serve as the group chief compliance officer for News Corp.'s L.A.-based film and TV production operation, and Michael will be the GCCO for the the Fox Networks Group, which is also based in L.A. In addition to McCoy and Michael, News Corp. named three other new "group chief compliance officers:"

Lisa Fleischman, a former federal prosecutor already employed by News Corp., will become the GCCO for the company's New York-based news and information businesses. Fleischman will also serve as News Corp.'s deputy chief compliance officer.

Candy Lawson joins News Corp. from Morgan Stanley to become the GCCO in Europe and Asia. At Morgan Stanley, Lawson was anti-corruption counsel for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. 

Keith Wood, a News Corp. accountant in Sydney, becomes the GCCO for the Australia group.

In a memo to News Corp. staff earlier this week, General Counsel Gerson Zweifach stated that the new positions were in response to an April 2011 directive from the company's board to strengthen its global compliance structure. Zweifach stated that he would also serve as Chief Compliance Officer, and that the five GCCOs will each "assume a full-time role ensuring that our businesses operate with the highest level of integrity." Their work will include strengthening News Corp.'s training programs, building on internal controls, auditing the effectiveness of its compliance program and remediating problems quickly and effectively, he stated.

Zweifach himself was brought in to the company in February 2012 to lead the company's compliance efforts. He was previously a partner at law firm Williams & Connolly, where he practiced for more than three decades.

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