Chris Derrick departs Southern Cross Austereo

Southern Cross Austereo today announced that their head of digital strategy Chris Derrick will be departing the company.

Derrick has been part of SCA since 2015, and played a significant part in the company’s on-boarding and management of their relationship with VEVO in 2016.

Derrick also negotiated commercial agreements with Google, Amazon and other companies with home connected devices, helping SCA become the first commercial radio company in Australia to launch services on smart speakers.

The announcement comes soon after Radio Today reported that SCA and VEVO’s partnership had come to an end after VEVO chose not to renew any international sales partnerships, with multiple SCA staff losing their jobs in the process.

“Chris has made an enormous contribution to the future strategy of SCA’s digital business,” said SCA COO John Kelly.

Derrick, who also represented SCA on the IAB audio council and on the CRA’s app committee said now is the right time for him to move on.

“I’m proud to have played a role in SCA’s innovation in the digital audio environment but now is the appropriate time to seek a new adventure,” he said.