Mr Kim Williams AM, Chair of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, will Address the National Press Club of Australia.
Kim Williams will discuss the arguments for a renewed ABC as a vital source of national strength in an era of deepening global hostility to democratic values. He will argue that one of Australia’s reliable and best defences against the global problems of misinformation and disinformation is investment in the ABC as a source of reliable information that reinforces democratic values and Australian content that will nurture the creative genius of the Australian people and strengthen social cohesion.
Kim Williams has had a long involvement in the arts, entertainment and media industries here and overseas and has held various executive leadership positions since the late 1970s including as Chief Executive at each of News Corp Australia, FOXTEL, Fox Studios Australia, the Australian Film Commission, Southern Star Entertainment and Music Viva Australia and also as a senior executive at the ABC.
Kim was the Chief Executive of FOXTEL for the decade up until November 2011. At FOXTEL he pioneered many of the major digital broadcast innovations in Australia and received the 2012 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Australian subscription television association ASTRA for his diverse contributions.
Kim has also held numerous Board positions (and Chairmanships) in commercial and public life over more than three decades including as Chairman of the Australian Film Finance Corporation (which he founded in 1988); Chairman of each of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra; Musica Viva Australia; and the Sydney Opera House Trust from 2005 until 2013.
He was appointed as a Member of the Order of Australia in June 2006 for his services to the arts and public policy formulation in the film and television industries. In October 2009 he was awarded a Doctorate of Letters (Honoris Causa) by Macquarie University for his contribution to the arts and entertainment industry in Australia and internationally. He is a previous recipient of the Richard Pratt Business Arts Leadership Award from the Australian Business Arts Foundation and the Australian Writers Guild’s Dorothy Crawford Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Profession. His first book ‘Rules of Engagement’ was published by Melbourne University Press in 2014.
Previous roles have included serving as a Chair of the Cranlana Centre for Ethical Leadership, Chair of Copyright Agency and the Richard Gill School; Co-chair of the State Library of NSW Foundation; and as a board member of Myer Family Investments; Executive Channel International; Wine Australia; the University of Western Sydney Foundation; the Myer Foundation; a Trustee of Thomson Reuters Founders Share Company (which he has chaired since 2018); and as a Commissioner of the Australian Football League.
He was appointed in January 2024 by the Honourable Anthony Albanese, Prime Minister of Australia, as the twentieth Chair of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, with effect from 7 March for a five year term.
