Natalie Bancroft, handpicked by News Corp to represent Dow Jones’s Bancroft family on its board, is more than qualified. So says News Corp, her dad and well, Natalie herself.

The 27-year-old opera singer in training breaks her silence in Portfolio’s March 2008 issue to defend her two-year term on the board, which pays $195,000 annually.

 ”There’s been people saying, ‘She’s going to be a potted plant and a pushover.’ The last thing I am is a pushover,” she says. “I’m not just some idiotic girl in piggytails yodeling.”

She lists her qualifications:

• reared in Europe
• has a flexible schedule
• sleeps only three to five hours a night
• speaks several languages
• reads foreign language newspapers
• was a tomboy –  “I love camping. I love sailing. I love doing boy stuff.”

Forget all that for a moment and consider how she got the board job in the first place — pulling a Murdoch of her own. Even as the Bancrofts couldn’t get their act together on a board nomination,  a four-line e-mail Natalie sent to the family nominating herself caught Murdoch’s eye.

Bancroft on the discussions: “There were so many negotiations going on, and the family was screwing it up right and left. My focus was more on, Jesus Christ, how am I related to these people?”

What we’d really like know is her views on how a News Corp combination with Yahoo could possibly appease Yahoo shareholders seeking a big payout.

In case you’re wondering as well, News Corp and Yahoo haven’t given up yet, Silicon AlleyInsider reports.

(Photo: Screenshot of Portfolio.com)