News Corp.’s Murdoch, former Exxon Mobil executive join shale oil company’s advisory board

Murdoch, Renna join Genie Energy advisory board

NEWARK, N.J. — Genie Energy Corp. said Tuesday that News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch and former Exxon Mobil executive Gene Renna have joined its strategic advisory board.

Genie, a division of telecommunications and energy company IDT Corp., said the board will weigh in on strategic, financial, operational and public policy matters related to the company’s shale oil ventures in Colorado and Israel.

Murdoch’s News Corp. holdings include Fox Entertainment, Dow Jones and Co. and the New York Post daily newspaper.

Renna is currently a director of truck rental company Ryder System Inc. He retired from Exxon Mobil in 2002, and had been Mobil Corp.’s president and chief operating officer before the company’s merger with Exxon.