Former
White House communications director
Hope Hicks is moving from politics to media -- and becoming a key executive in the Murdoch media empire.
Hicks is joining
Fox as executive vice president and chief communications officer, which means she will run public relations and other aspects of the television company.
Hicks previously worked in New York for
Donald Trump's presidential campaign, then moved to Washington at the start of the Trump presidency. Before she resigned in February, she was one of the president's longest-serving and closest aides.
Ever since then, there's been speculation that she would take a job in the corporate world, mixed with the occasional rumor about a return to the Trump White House.
Hicks was spotted boarding Air Force One back in August, but has otherwise kept a low profile in her eight months since leaving the White House.
She will be moving to Los Angeles for the FOX role. She will report to Viet Dinh, FOX's chief legal and policy officer. Dinh, in turn, reports to Lachlan Murdoch, CEO of the soon-to-be-formed company.
Lachlan is one of Rupert Murdoch's sons. Hicks' hiring is bound to be intriguing because President Trump and Rupert Murdoch have a complicated and mutually beneficial relationship. The two men are known to speak regularly. And Murdoch's Fox News Channel is a key part of Trump's media machine.
It's unknown if any of that factored into Hicks' decision.
She declined to comment when the announcement was made on Monday.
Related: The unseen power of Hope Hicks
FOX is in the midst of a major corporate transaction. Disney is buying most of 21st Century Fox, including cable channels like FX and the company's movie studio.
But Disney is not buying Fox News, Fox Sports or the company's broadcast network or TV stations. So those assets will be spun off to form a slimmed-down version of Fox, officially named, you guessed it, FOX.
Last week the company announced the new all-caps name and confirmed that Lachlan Murdoch will be the CEO while Rupert Murdoch will be the co-chairman of the new company.
Monday's hiring of Hicks is part of the executive transition. FOX also announced the hiring of Danny O'Brien, an executive at GE, to be the head of government relations.
While Hicks has connections to Trump, O'Brien has roots in Democratic politics as a former chief of staff to several Democratic senators.