Who is Peggy Johnson? Veteran tech dealmaker and CEO could make a magic leap to Fox Corp.’s board

Last week, Rupert Murdoch announced that he will be stepping down as chairman of News Corp. and Fox Corp. and named his eldest son, Lachlan, as his successor. At 52 years old, it’s clear that Lachlan intends to diversify the board with people who can help future-proof Fox’s relevance as technology progresses.

This is likely part of the motivation behind his most recent move, announced Friday, of nominating Peggy Johnson to Fox’s board of directors. While the nomination won’t be official until it’s considered by shareholders later in the year at the Fox Corporation Annual Meeting, this is typically considered a formality. 

This nomination shows that Murdoch is trying to welcome more high-ranking members of the tech industry into Fox’s orbit as the parent company of Fox News faces technological challenges on multiple fronts. Here are a few things to know about Johnson. 

She’s a known dealmaker in tech

Johnson has a decades-long background in the tech industry, where she’s held high-level positions at impressive companies. Since 2020, she has been working as the CEO of Magic Leap, a company that makes augmented-reality headsets. 

Prior to her role at Magic Leap, she was in business development at Microsoft, where she was a part of the company’s $26.2 billion acquisition of LinkedIn. She also launched M12, which is Microsoft’s venture capital firm. She came to Microsoft from Qualcomm, the wireless tech company, where she spent more than two decades.

She’s an engineer

Before moving to the business side of big tech companies, Johnson was an engineer for General Electric’s military electronics division. According to her LinkedIn, Johnson got her bachelor’s degree from San Diego State University in electrical and electronics engineering. Business Insider listed her as one of its 26 “most powerful female engineers” in 2016. 

She’s super connected

Her professional career has spanned beyond the companies where she’s worked. Johnson has acted as a board member for BlackRock and Live Nation Entertainment Inc., which is an investment company that manages more than $8.5 trillion in assets and a live events ticketing giant, respectively. Johnson also represented the United States on the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Business Advisory Council.

She’s a noted marathoner

As reported by the Wall Street Journal in 2018, Johnson has run numerous marathons in New York City, Berlin, and elsewhere.