Who we are

John Doyle is currently an Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Adelaide. He was Chief Justice of South Australia from May 1995, until his retirement in June 2012. John was the 1967 Rhodes Scholar for South Australia and practised at the Bar in Adelaide. He was appointed a Queen’s Counsel in 1981 and Solicitor-General for South Australia in 1986.

He was a member and then Chairman of the Legal Services Commission of South Australia, as well as President of the Bar Association of South Australia, and Chairman of the National Judicial College of Australia.

John was member of the Council of Flinders University from 1986 to 2001 and Pro Chancellor of the University from 1988 to 2001. He was also Chairman of Directors of Flinders Technologies Pty Ltd, a company established by the University to promote the commercial development of intellectual property originating from Flinders University. John Doyle was appointed as a public member of the Press Council in August 2013 and Vice-Chair in October 2013.

Jennifer Elliott is a senior executive who works with Boards and Executive Teams to drive performance and transformational change. Jennifer is the former Managing Director and Regional Head of Moody’s Asia-Pacific. She first worked with Moody’s in the Sydney office as an analyst in the Structured Finance Group. In 1996, Jennifer was transferred to the London office, where she was a Vice President – Senior Credit Officer. In 1999 she was appointed head of Moody's Australia. From 2005-2007 she was Chief Human Resources Officer in New York, after which she took over the company’s Asia Pacific operations.

Prior to joining Moody's, Jennifer worked as a banking and finance lawyer at Clayton Utz in Sydney. She received her BA in English Literature and LLB from the University of Sydney and earned an MA in Southeast Asian Business Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies, London University. Jennifer was appointed as a public member of the Press Council in May 2015.

Dr Felicity-ann Lewis retired in 2014 as the Mayor of the City of Marion in suburban Adelaide, after holding the position since 2000. She was President of the South Australian Local Government Association from 2009-2011 and President of the Australian Local Government Association from 2012-14. She is the South Australian of the Year for 2014. Felicity-ann was previously a school teacher for more than twenty years and retired in 2016 from her role as a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Education, Humanities and Law at Flinders University, where she had worked since 2007. She is a Doctor of Education and has written numerous articles on health and education issues, including in relation to Indigenous people.

She has been closely involved over a number of years with the Health Development Foundation, the Public and Environmental Health Council; the Board of Flinders Medical Centre, Reconciliation SA; the Migrant Resource Centre; the Natural Resource Management Council; and as Community Patron for SA Police. Felicity-ann Lewis was appointed as a public member of the Press Council in August 2014.

Dr Suzanne Martin is a veterinary surgeon and an active member of her rural community in northern Tasmania. She has worked as a private practitioner in New Zealand and Scotland, as well as in Tasmania, the Northern Territory and Western Australia. Suzanne has held a number of positions on a wide range of government and industry boards and committees. She is currently a director of The Skills Institute, a board member with the Tasmanian Racing Appeals Board, and a member of the Legal Profession Disciplinary Tribunal.

In 2010 Suzanne was an executive member of Tasmanian Women in Agriculture and has represented the organization on a number of rural boards and committees, including the Rural Industries Training and Education Board and Primary Employers Training Board. She was the recipient of Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation’s Community Leadership Scholarship in 2009.

Suzanne Martin was appointed as a public member of the Press Council in August 2013.

After graduating in Economics from Queensland University, Lyn spent the first half of her career in the Prime Minister's Department in Canberra, specialising in micro economic and trade policy. A highlight was her deep involvement in advising on the major reforms to the Australian economy in the 1980s particularly with regard to transport, communications, industry and resources.

After a short stint in banking, Lyn returned to economic public policy, working primarily on issues of government administrative efficiency. She became executive Deputy Chair and then Acting Chair of the Australian Broadcasting Authority and led it into a merger with the telecommunications regulator. She chaired the new body (The Australian Communications and Media Authority) as a full time executive for its first 18 months until a long-term Chair was appointed.

Lyn later became the CEO of Australia's Antarctic program, which has responsibility for managing the logistics for, and operation of,Australia's four permanent stations in the Antarctic and sub Antarctic. Since retiring from executive positions in 2011, Lyn has served on not-for-profit boards in screen funding and land conservation and is a member of the Advisory Board of the Economics faculty of Queensland University. Lyn was appointed as a public member of the Press Council in August 2019.

Mohamed el Roubi is a General Counsel with extensive experience in a range of multinational companies and is currently working remotely for Cairo corporate law firm Adsero – Ragy Soliman & Partners. Based in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), Mr el Roubi is a Director and member of the Audit and Risk Committee at Mental Illness Education ACT. He has lived and worked in the Middle East, US and Europe, and is bi-lingual in English and Arabic. He has broad legal, governance, risk and compliance experience across a range of industries and is a Fellow of the Governance Institute of Australia and a Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. He is also a licensed Attorney and Counsellor at Law in Massachusetts and the District of Columbia.

Dr Sid Vohra is Director of Medical Services and Chief Medical Officer at Orange Health Service in NSW, with responsibility for Orange Hospital, Australia’s largest regional health facility. He has extensive experience in developing and managing stakeholder relationships at a community, State and Federal level in matters relating to health care systems and rural and regional health care. Dr Vohra's general management covers full executive level management of all specialised medical services at the hospital. He has over 200 doctors reporting directly to him. Previously, he worked as a Medical Consultant at CommInsure and was a Consultant at McKinsey & Company. He is a specialist medical practitioner and Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Medical Administrators (FRACMA). He is also a Fellow of the Australasian College of Health Service Management (FCHSM). Dr Vohra’s qualifications include an MBA from INSEAD France; Master of Health Management from the University of NSW and he is also a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD).

Diana Nestorovska is a governance and legal professional with extensive experience working across diverse sectors and industries in Australia and overseas. Ms Nestorovska is a former Australian diplomat, speaks multiple languages and understands the workings of government at an international, State and Federal level. She is currently employed as the General Counsel for eCommerce business New Aim Pty Ltd. Based in Victoria, she is a non-executive Director of the South Gippsland Water Corporation and is a current MBA candidate at the Melbourne Business School. She is a sessional academic at Monash University’s Department of Business Law and Taxation and a Member of La Trobe University's Human Research Ethics Committee. She is a Member of the Association of Corporate Counsel Australia and the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Dave Braithwaite is the Head of Editorial Operations for Nine’s Metro Publishing, with extensive experience in newspaper, digital and cross-platform journalism. Previously, he held positions of Head of Video at Fairfax, Digital Editor of the Sydney Morning Herald and Online News Editor of The Age.

Dave is a digital content and strategy specialist who has also worked as an Executive Producer for Digital News and Current Affairs at the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS), and then Managing Editor, Online, overseeing digital content across the network.

Lachlan Heywood is executive editor of Daily Mail Australia, with more than 20 years of experience in newspaper and digital publishing. He is a former editor of Queensland’s The Courier-Mail and The Townsville Bulletin as well as a former deputy editor of The Sunday Mail.

As a young reporter, Lachlan spent several years at regional dailies and also worked as a political reporter for News Corp in the Canberra press gallery. During his tenure at The Courier Mail, Lachlan delivered rapid growth in digital subscribers and audience. Until recently, he was a member of the Queensland Premier’s Special Taskforce on Domestic and Family Violence. Lachlan joined Daily Mail Australia in late 2017.

Erik Jensen is the founding editor of The Saturday Paper and editor-in-chief of Schwartz Media. He has previously worked at The Sydney Morning Herald, where he won the Walkley Award for Young Print Journalist of the Year and the United Nations Association of Australia’s Media Peace Award. His first book, Acute Misfortune: The Life and Death of Adam Cullen, won the Nib Prize for Literature and was shortlisted for the Walkley Book Award and the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards. A film of the book, for which he cowrote the screenplay, won The Age Critics Prize at the Melbourne International Film Festival. He is also the author of On Kate Jennings and Quarterly Essay 74: The Prosperity Gospel. Erik was appointed as a small publisher Member of Press Council in August 2019.

Matthew Ricketson is an academic and journalist, appointed in 2009 as the Inaugural Professor of Journalism at the University of Canberra. From mid-2006 to early 2009, he was Media and Communications Editor for The Age. Matthew has worked at The Australian, Time Australia magazine and The Sunday Herald, among other publications.

He was appointed by the federal government in 2011 to assist the Finkelstein Inquiry into the Media and Media Regulation. He is a chief investigator on two Australian Research Council projects investigating the impact of mass redundancies on Australian newsrooms and the reinvention of journalism. He is the author of three books and editor of two, and he is President of the Journalism Education and Research Association of Australia.

Glenn Stanaway is National Executive Editor for News Corp Australia. Previously, he held the posts of Executive Editor of News Corp’s Sunday newspapers; Executive Editor, Deputy Editor and Digital Editor of The Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph; Executive Editor (Olympics) of The Daily Telegraph; Assistant Editor and Chief-of-Staff of The Daily Telegraph.

Glenn has also been News Corp’s European Bureau Chief and Parliamentary Bureau Chief in Canberra, and The Courier-Mail’s Canberra political correspondent. He has also been an editor at the China Daily in Beijing.

(Brian) Hartley Higgins was appointed as representative for Country Press Australia on 11 December 2020.

Hartley Higgins is chairman and managing director of Provincial Press Group, a fourth generation regional and special interest publisher. Provincial Press Group publishes regional, rural and special interest newspapers in Victoria and New South Wales, and industry wine, viticulture, forests and timber journals in South Australia.

Hartley is a former director of a Lloyds insurance broking and risk management firm, the regional broadcaster 3NE/Edge FM, and digital property portal realestateview.com.au His special interests are regional development, tourism and snow sports. Qualifying and an Associate of the Australian Insurance Institute, he is a former Fellow of the Australian Insurance Brokers Association and Fellow of the Institute of Directors of Australia.

He is a past president and current a director of the Victorian Country Press Association Ltd.

Professor Peter Greste is an Australian-born journalist, author, media freedom activist and academic. He is founding member of the advocacy group, the Alliance for Journalists' Freedom, and UNESCO Chair in Journalism and Communication at the University of Queensland. Before joining the university in January 2018, he spent 25 years as a foreign correspondent, starting with the civil war in Yugoslavia and elections in South Africa as a freelance reporter in the early 90s, before joining the BBC as its Afghanistan correspondent in 1995. He went on to cover Latin America, the Middle East and Africa for the BBC.

He hit the headlines himself in December 2013, when he and two colleagues were arrested in Cairo on terrorism charges. They were convicted and sentenced to seven years in a case that drew international condemnation as attack on press freedom. Under pressure, Professor Greste was released, and he went on to become a champion of press freedom around the world. His stance has earned him numerous international awards, including the Australian Human rights Commission Medal, the RSL's 2016 ANZAC Peace Prize, and the Australian Press Council's 2018 Press Freedom award. Peter was appointed as an independent journalist member of the Press Council in August 2019.

Julie Flynn is a retired journalist and media executive. During the transition from analogue to digital television, Julie was CEO of Free TV Australia, the industry body representing Australia’s commercial television stations. Julie joined Free TV after a distinguished career as a journalist and media executive. She was a senior executive at Radio 2UE but is best known for her work as a reporter and commentator in the Canberra Press Gallery with the ABC, the National Times and 2UE.

Julie has won a Walkley Award for Radio News reporting and was President of the Canberra Press Gallery. She has served on a range of Boards and Committees including the Walkley Awards Advisory Panel, the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Advisory Board, the Public Service Medal Committee, the National Breast and Ovarian Cancer Centre Board and the Ronald McDonald Hospital Charity Board. Julie has undertaken some media consultancies in her retirement.