Region Media’s executive: co-owner Tim White, group editor Genevieve Jacobs, chief technical officer Ian Oswald, co-owner Michael McGoogan and content director Kim Treasure. Photo: Michelle Kroll.
Region Media, publisher of the RiotACT and About Regional news sites, has drawn on some of the most influential players in corporate Australia to be the first appointments to its new advisory board.
Region Media has sought out inaugural members with a diverse range of high-level skills to provide strategic advice and help guide the company’s growth.
The first appointees – medical services pioneer and philanthropist Glenn Keys AO and former senator and federal minister Kate Lundy – bring together a wide range of experience in the worlds of business, government and technology.
Glenn Keys is among the first appointees to the advisory board. Photo: File.
Mr Keys is a veteran and the founder of Canberra company Aspen Medical, one of the world’s leading providers of outsourced healthcare solutions, employing more than 2200 people and with annual revenue of over $200 million. Prior to founding Aspen in 2003, he had a distinguished career in the Australian Defence Force, both in Australia and overseas.
He is a passionate advocate for social purpose businesses, allocating a percentage of the company’s profits to the Aspen Foundation, which is dedicated to eradicating disease and educating Australians about health, particularly in Indigenous communities.
Mr Keys also sits on a number of boards in the healthcare and disability sectors and for social businesses. He was the 2015 ACT Australian of the Year and is the founder and chair of Project Independence, a unique homeownership initiative for people with intellectual disabilities. In 2017, he was made an Officer of the Order of Australia for both his contribution to the disability sector and promoting social purpose in businesses.
Kate Lundy brings government and technology experience to the advisory board. Photo: File.
Kate Lundy spent 20 years as a federal senator for the ACT, and held several ministerial portfolios across technology, innovation, sport and multicultural affairs. In 2017, the ANU awarded her an honorary doctorate for her “exceptional contributions to advocacy and policy for information communications and technology, for the ACT and nationally”.
Kate is a director of the Cyber Security Research Centre, Electro Optic Systems, the NRMA, the Australian Grand Prix Corporation, National Youth Science Forum, the Canberra Institute of Technology and her own consulting company, Technology Innovation Partners Pty Ltd.
Kate is also a member of the ACT Defence Industry Advisory Board and an industry ambassador with a regional strategic focus on space and cyber-related technologies, simulation, systems integration, services and skills development.
Co-founders Tim White and Michael McGoogan said that despite uniquely challenging times for the industry, Region Media has continued to go from strength-to-strength in an otherwise bleak media landscape.
The independent media operator is wholly locally owned and receives no external funding.
“We are wholly committed to developing a sustainable new business model to fund local public interest journalism across Canberra and surrounding regions,” Mr McGoogan said.
“There’s never been a more important time to serve the community with balanced, independent local stories about where we live.
“We’re delighted to welcome this calibre of founding advisory board members as we tackle the challenges and opportunities of pioneering this new media model.”
Mr White pointed to the extensive network of business partnerships the company has developed across the Capital Region and to Region Media‘s unique technological capacity.
“We’ve created an amalgamated, moderated space for vigorous discussion that brings people together,” he said.
“Region Media has built a virtual town square that gives everyone a chance to take part in their community’s conversation.”
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