Mel Karmazin wants to be pope.
No, not the Vatican-dwelling head of the Catholic Church, but the boss of New Jersey’s post-Sandy hurricane recovery effort.
“I would be the czar or the pope of the Jersey Shore,” the former chief executive of SiriusXM said in an interview yesterday when asked if he was looking for work.
Karmazin, who served as president and chief operating officer of Viacom prior to moving to SiriusXM, said he didn’t see any corporate challenges that attracted him — but then quickly added that leading the recovery effort in New Jersey was interesting.
When CNBC’s David Faber reminded Karmazin that he prickled at being a second banana and that NJ Gov. Chris Christie would be a vocal boss, the 69-year- old media veteran lightheartedly noted, “The scenario would be the pope of the Jersey Shore, so there’s no checks and balances.”
Faber said it sounded like an MTV show — but Karmazin said he probably wouldn’t offer it to the Viacom-owned network.
Christie’s office told The Post it already has co-heads of its recovery efforts — Mary Pat Christie, the state’s first lady, and Marc Ferzan, the head of the Governor’s Office of Recovery and Rebuilding.
Karmazin owns a home in Rumson, NJ, and told Faber his guest house was lost during October’s Hurricane Sandy.
He said he’d like to work for a publicly traded company with an independent board but hadn’t found such a thing.
Karmazin exited SiriusXM in December after clashing with Liberty Media, which was trying to gain majority of control.