I have worked in educational publishing for over 30 years, across all educational sectors, from pre-primary to post-graduate and research. I was Managing Director of Thomson Learning (now Cengage) in Australia for 7 years and was CEO of Thomson Learning’s International Division based in London from 2003 to 2008. I am now a director and largest shareholder of a local school publishing business, Matilda Education, which we started in 2019. We are a small but committed educational publisher, determined to retain a strong Australian presence in a market that is dominated by overseas-owned businesses.

I have been an active member of the Australian Publishers Association. I have served on the schools, tertiary and copyright committees and was President of the Association in the early 2000’s.

The Copyright Agency is a key player in the creation of Australian content. The income that flows to creators and publishers from the Statutory Licence and how the Copyright Agency manages the distribution of that income have become critical for the sustainability of Australian content creation.

As our markets move toward dynamic digital models for the creation and the distribution of content, and as the public seems less aware of the value of local, original creativity, the role of the Copyright Agency will become increasingly important. Copyright legislation needs defending and strengthening and the interests of all Australian creative industries need to be supported. If elected to the board of Copyright Agency, I would work vigorously towards these goals.