Nepotism, Succession and the Mamamia Meltdown: What Every Business Owner Should Take From It

A CEO announcement. A congratulations comment. And within 24 hours, half of LinkedIn was doing a deep dive into succession planning, gender equity and family business governance, all before their morning coffee had gone cold.

What actually happened

Mamamia, Australia’s largest independent women’s media company, appointed Luca Lavigne as its new CEO. Lavigne had spent over a decade at the business, most recently as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Product Officer, and led the company’s shift to a dual advertising and subscriber model. He also happens to be the son of Mamamia co-founders Mia Freedman and Jason Lavigne, and he’s 28.

He replaces outgoing CEO Nat Harvey, who is leaving after roughly two years in the role to become Chief Revenue Officer at Southern Cross Austereo.

A fairly standard leadership transition announcement, on paper. Then executive coach Mel Hopkins posted a congratulations comment praising the appointment as proof that leadership was “moving beyond gender.” People and Talent Manager Brad Cowling replied pointing out that this was a family succession inside a privately owned business, and asked how many experienced female executives had actually been considered for the role at a company that markets itself as Australia’s largest women’s media business.

From there it went exactly where you’d expect. Podcaster Leigh Sales weighed in defending her friend Mia Freedman. Commentary split into camps. Someone brought Michael Jackson eating popcorn into it. And what started as a two line LinkedIn comment turned into a genuine debate about nepotism, meritocracy and what “earned” really means when your parents own the business.

This isn’t Mamamia’s first rodeo either

This is not a one off. Mamamia has been here before.

• In 2024, Lavigne’s $300,000 salary as COO was leaked to media, sparking internal fury among staff who felt underpaid relative to leadership.
• Employee reviews have repeatedly flagged favouritism and a “mean girls” culture at the executive level, alongside complaints about work hours creeping well beyond the right to disconnect.
• Leadership has churned. Harvey was only appointed CEO in 2024 and has now already left. Freedman herself took an extended sabbatical from the business last year.

None of this makes Lavigne unqualified. A decade in the business and genuine commercial runs on the board is a real track record. But it does mean this appointment landed inside a business that was already under scrutiny, which is exactly why the reaction was so loud.

Our hot take: this is basically Succession, minus the ambiguity

If you’ve watched Succession, you know the game. Logan Roy spends four seasons dangling the throne in front of his kids while everyone pretends the company is a meritocracy. The tension in that show never came from whether the kids were talented. It came from nobody being able to say out loud that talent wasn’t really the point.

Mamamia’s situation is the same shape, just with the quiet part said out loud on LinkedIn instead. Lavigne might be brilliant at the job. He’s also the boss’s son in a business the family still owns. Both of those things are true at once, and pretending otherwise is what actually fuels the backlash. Cowling’s original point wasn’t that nepotism is automatically bad. It was that calling it purely “earned” ignores the access that got him in the room in the first place.

That’s the bit founders miss. It’s not the succession decision that gets you into trouble. It’s the story you tell about it.

The business lesson for every owner reading this

Most HR Gurus clients aren’t running a media empire, but plenty are family businesses, or businesses where a founder’s partner, sibling or adult child works in the business and will one day be in line for more responsibility. This story is a useful mirror, not just a media industry sideshow.

1. Family succession isn’t the problem. An undefined process is.

There’s nothing wrong with a family member stepping into a leadership role, provided the same standard applied to everyone else was actually applied to them. If you can’t clearly answer “what was the selection process” and “who else was considered,” that’s the gap that gets exploited when things go wrong, whether that’s a LinkedIn pile on or a genuine grievance from another staff member who was overlooked.

2. Be ready to explain the appointment before you need to.

Mamamia’s leadership had the facts on their side, a decade of experience, a track record on the commercial side of the business, and a documented transition plan. What they didn’t have ready was the framing. If your succession plan can’t survive a plain English explanation of why this person and why now, tighten it up before you announce it, not after.

3. Perception debt compounds.

This wasn’t really about one appointment. It was about a business that had already had a leaked executive salary, staff culture complaints and high leadership churn. Every prior story becomes context for the next one. If your business has unresolved culture or fairness issues sitting under the surface, know that the next leadership change, restructure or promotion will be read through that lens whether it’s fair or not.

4. Get the governance paperwork sorted before there’s an audience.

A clear succession plan, a documented promotion or selection process and a genuine record of how internal candidates were assessed protect the business and the person stepping up. It’s not about ticking a compliance box. It’s about being able to stand behind a decision when someone, staff, media or otherwise, asks you to.

How HR Gurus helps with this

One founder we worked with was preparing to hand day to day management to their adult daughter, who’d been in the business for six years. The plan was sound, but there was no documented process behind it, which left the founder unable to answer basic questions from long standing staff about why she was the right pick. We helped build a clear succession and promotion framework, including selection criteria and a communication plan for staff, so the transition landed as a considered business decision rather than a family favour.

If you’re planning a leadership transition, promoting a family member, or just want your succession plan to hold up to scrutiny, that’s exactly the kind of thing we help business owners get right before it becomes a problem, not after.

FAQs

Is it illegal to promote a family member into a leadership role?

No. There’s nothing unlawful about appointing a family member to a senior role, including CEO, in a privately owned business. The risk isn’t legal, it’s reputational and cultural if the process isn’t clear or consistently applied.

What should a business have in place before promoting a family member?

A documented selection process, clear criteria for the role, and a rationale you can explain plainly to staff. This protects both the business and the person being promoted.

Does nepotism only become a problem when things go wrong?

Often, yes. A family appointment that performs well rarely gets scrutinised. Problems tend to surface when there’s already unresolved culture or fairness issues in the business, or when the appointment coincides with other leadership instability.

How can a business protect itself from perception risk during succession?

Have the succession plan documented and ready to explain before you announce anything. Be upfront about the process, acknowledge the family connection rather than avoiding it, and be ready to point to the track record that supports the decision.