Two professional women join ABC Board

Kirstin Ferguson (pictured) from Queensland and Donny Walford from South Australia have been appointed as non-executive directors to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation Board.

They bring strong business and financial management skills to the positions.

Dr Ferguson is a well-respected independent company director of ASX, private company and government boards who brings corporate experience and expertise in risk and compliance, corporate governance, remuneration and human resources and strategy. She is based in Queensland.

Ms Walford is an experienced non-executive director and CEO of public unlisted companies and community organisations with specific expertise in strategy, finance, strategic marketing and building businesses. She is based in South Australia.

Communications Minister Mitch Fifield congratulated Dr Ferguson and Ms Walford on their appointments:

“It is important that the ABC Board reflects both gender and geographic diversity and the addition of Dr Ferguson and Ms Walford will achieve these objectives.

“The Government’s gender diversity targets are 40 per cent female, 40 per cent male and 20 per cent of either gender on Australian Government boards. With the appointment of Dr Ferguson and Ms Walford, the ABC Board will have a gender composition of four women (44.4 per cent) and five men (55.6 per cent) compared to three women (33.3 per cent) and six men (66.7 per cent) previously.

“The geographic representation is now also better balanced, with new representatives from Queensland and South Australia joining representatives from New South Wales (four members), Victoria (one member), Tasmania (one member) and Western Australia (one member).”

The process for ABC Board appointments set down in the Australian Broadcasting Corporation Act 1983 (the Act) includes an independent Nomination Panel submitting candidates for consideration to government.

The appointments will go some way to redressing the previous gender imbalance on the board. With the appointments, the ABC Board will have a gender composition of four women (44.4 per cent) and five men (55.6 per cent) compared to three women (33.3 per cent) and six men (66.7 per cent) previously.

The minister thanked Steven Skala, who served as a non-executive director for the maximum two five-year terms, for his decade of service to the ABC Board and also Cheryl Bart, whose five-year term as a non-executive director concluded in June 2015.

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