ABC board - wikipedia ABC board `` ABC board '' redirects here. For the controlling entity of liquor stores in certain US states, see Alcoholic beverage control state. The ABC Board is the body responsible for the operations of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. It is made up of five to seven directors chosen by the Australian government and a Managing Director who is appointed by the Board itself. At various times, ABC staff have been granted rights to elect a nominee for appointment to the Board ; and as of April 2013 staff elected a nominee - director. Contents 1 Members 1.1 Appointment 1.2 Key people 1.2. 1 Board members 1.2. 2 Management 2 Criticism 3 References Members The Governor - General, on the recommendation of the Federal Government, appoints members, as specified in the Australian Broadcasting Corporation Act, 1983, commonly called the ABC Act. The ABC Act specifies that Directors must be experienced in broadcasting, communications or management, or have expertise in financial or technical matters, or have cultural or other interests relevant to the provision of broadcasting services. Each director serves a term of five years, with eligibility for reappointment at the end of this term. Directors are expected to follow the ABC Board Protocol, which stipulates responsibilities, expectations, rights, and benefits. Current Board members are : Name Functional role Term start Notes / Reference Vacant Chair Vacant Managing Director Jane Connors Staff Elected Director 1 May 2018 Kirstin Ferguson Acting Chair 12 November 2015 Joe Gersh 11 May 2018 Vanessa Guthrie 23 February 2017 Peter Lewis 2 October 2014 Georgie Somerset 23 February 2017 Donny Walford 24 November 2015 The board maintains an Advisory Council, which advises it on matters concerning the Corporation 's programming. The Council is made up of twelve members, broadly representative of the Australian community, which serve staggered four - year terms. Vacancies are advertised in September -- October each year. The Advisory Council 's current Chair is Dr Jane Munro, Head of International House at the University of Melbourne. Appointment The Minister for Communications nominates candidates to the Governor - General for appointment to the ABC Board ; based on a shortlist prepared by an independent nomination panel. As of April 2018, members of the panel were former Treasury Secretary and Westpac Chair, Ted Evans AC ( Chair ) ; company director and lawyer, Dr Sally Pitkin ; public relations media director and former broadcaster, Anne Fulwood ; and former Australian Public Service Commissioner and departmental secretary, Helen Williams. Appointments to the board made by successive governments have often resulted in criticism of the appointees ' political affiliation, background, and relative merit. From 2003 the Howard government also made several controversial appointments to the ABC Board, including Albrechtsen, a prominent critic, Ron Brunton, and Keith Windschuttle. During their 2007 federal election campaign, Labor announced plans to introduce a new system, similar to that of the BBC, for appointing members to the board. Under this new system, now in place, ABC candidates are considered by a panel established `` at arm 's length '' from the Communications Minister. If the Minister chose someone not on the panel 's shortlist, the Minister would be required to justify their selection to Australian Parliament. The Chairman of the ABC is nominated by the Prime Minister and endorsed by the Leader of the Opposition. Key people Board members Chairman / Chairperson Order Name Term start Term end Notes / Reference Sir Charles Lloyd Jones 1932 1934 William James Cleary 1934 1945 Sir Richard Boyer KBE 1 April 1945 5 June 1961 Died in office Sir James Darling CMG OBE 1 July 1961 May 1967 5 Sir Robert Madgwick OBE 1 July 1967 30 June 1973 6 Professor Richard Downing ! July 1973 10 November 1975 Died in office 7 Sir Henry Bland July 1976 December 1976 8 John D Norgard 1976 1981 9 Dame Leonie Kramer AC DBE 1982 30 June 1983 10 Ken Myer AC DSC 1 July 1983 1986 11 David Hill 1986 Resigned as Chair to take up appointment as Managing Director 12 Bob Somervaille 1991 13 Professor Mark Armstrong 1991 23 July 1996 1996 14 Donald McDonald AC 24 July 1996 31 December 2006 15 Maurice Newman AC 1 January 2007 31 March 2012 16 James Spigelman AC QC 1 April 2012 31 March 2017 17 Justin Milne FAICD 1 April 2017 27 September 2018 Notable directors Name Term start Term end Notes / Reference Janet Albrechtsen 24 February 2005 18 February 2010 John Bannon AO 24 July 1994 July 1999 Cheryl Bart AO 3 June 2010 present Neville Bonner 1 July 1983 Ron Brunton 1 May 2003 30 April 2008 Quentin Dempster Elected by staff John Gallagher QC 9 December 1999 23 February 2008 Di Gribble AM Earle Hackett 1973 Peter Hurley Ramona Koval 2002 2006 Elected by staff Michael Kroger 1998 February 2003 Michael Lynch March 2009 Ian Macphee AO 9 December 1994 Professor Julianne Schultz AM 1 October 2014 Steven Skala AO 6 October 2005 present Dr Fiona Stanley AC FAA 30 June 2011 present Keith Windschuttle June 2006 Management Order Title Name Term commence Term end Reference General Manager Sir Charles Moses November 1935 January 1965 Sir Talbot Duckmanton 26 February 1965 1 July 1982 Keith Jennings August 1982 Managing Director Geoffrey Whitehead 23 January 1984 31 December 1986 5 David Hill 25 February 1995 6 Brian Johns 17 March 1995 17 March 2000 7 Jonathan Shier 17 March 2000 31 December 2001 8 Russell Balding 29 May 2002 25 March 2006 9 Mark Scott 5 July 2006 29 April 2016 10 Michelle Guthrie 1 May 2016 24 September 2018 11 David Anderson ( Interim ) 24 September 2018 present Criticism Past appointments have been associated directly with political parties -- five of fourteen appointed chairmen have been accused of political affiliation or friendship, including Richard Downing and Ken Myer ( both of whom publicly endorsed the Australian Labor Party at the 1972 election ), as well as Sir Henry Bland. David Hill was close to Neville Wran, while Donald McDonald was considered to be a close friend of John Howard. In the past, appointments of commissioners and directors also drew criticism. In the 1932, a majority of the commissioners were publicly conservative. This continued to 1942, when the Curtin and Chifley administrations appointed a more ' politically balanced ' commission. Once elected to power, Labor prime minister Whitlam replaced the entire board -- appointed by Liberal governments over the previous 23 years -- with supporters of the Labor Party. His successor, Malcolm Fraser, attempted unsuccessfully to take similar action by replacing the board with politically conservative commissioners in 1976, but was only able to make new appointments by adding two extra director positions onto the board. In 1983, Minister John Button referred proposed board appointments to an all - party committee for the first time. This practice was discontinued before the end of Paul Keating 's government. Alan Ramsey, in a 1996 article for The Sydney Morning Herald noted that : `` `` 12 came from overt political backgrounds, among them a former Labor premier, a former Liberal senator, a former Liberal Cabinet minister, four trade union activists, four advisers to various State Labor administrations, and Labor 's former opinion pollster, Rod Cameron. '' In short, `` less than half Labor 's ABC appointments over the years have had obvious party political connections, while two of them came from among the ranks of its political opponents. '' '' A 2006 restructure of the ABC board, undertaken by the Howard government, abolished the position of staff elected director. The elected director was previously nominated and elected by employees of the ABC. Nominees for this director office were to have been employed at least 24 hours a week by the ABC and the term of office was two years with eligibility for re-election to a second term. An elected director was not eligible for a third term of office. Broadcaster Ramona Koval had occupied the position for the previous four years prior to its abolition amid ongoing intense controversy. This drew criticism from the Labor Party, Australian Greens, and the Democrats, who saw it as a ' revenge measure ' taken against the Corporation. In July 2007, Labor announced plans to make the system of appointments to the board independent of the Minister for Communications ; and also reinstate the staff election of a nominee director. Initial members of the independent panel were Gonski, Smith, Allan Fels and Leneen Forde. In September 2018, there was criticism raised by Labor 's Shadow Communications Minister Michelle Rowland about ABC 's `` independence and integrity of Australia 's most trusted news organisation risk having been compromised '' following discussions within the ABC board about an email instruction from John Milne to Michelle Guthrie in May 2018 to sack senior presenter Emma Alberici, on the basis that what was reported by Alberici did not agree with the government. On 24 September 2018, John Milne announced to ABC staff that Managing Director Michelle Guthrie was sacked following discussions with the ABC executive and directors. Milne then announced his resignation on 27 September. Communications Minister Mitch Fifield has directly appointed a majority of the current members of the board, some of whom were rejected by the nomination panel. References ^ Jump up to : `` Establishment of Australian Broadcasting Corporation Board ''. ScalePlus. Archived from the original on 30 May 2006. 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ABC Board Current members Vacant ( Chair ) Vacant ( MD ) Connors ( Staff elected ) Ferguson ( Acting Chair ) Gersh Guthrie Lewis Somerset Walford Past notable members Albrechtsen Bannon Bland Bonner Boyer Brunton Darling Dempster Downing Gallagher Gribble Hackett Hill Hurley Koval Kramer Kroger Jones Lynch McDonald Macphee Madgwick Milne Myer Newman Schultz Spigelman Windschuttle Past management Balding Duckmanton Guthrie Hill Jennings Johns Moses Scott Shier Whitehead Australian Broadcasting Corporation ABC Board David Anderson ( Acting Managing Director : 2018 -- present ) Kirstin Ferguson ( Acting Chair : 2018 -- present ) ABC Television Current channels ABC ABC HD ABC Comedy ABC Kids ABC Me ABC News Defunct channels ABC Kids ( 2001 -- 03 ) Fly TV Australia Plus Stations ABC New South Wales ( ABN ) ABC Victoria ( ABV ) ABC Queensland ( ABQ ) ABC South Australia ( ABS ) ABC Western Australia ( ABW ) ABC Australian Capital Territory ( ABC ) ABC Northern Territory ( ABD ) ABC Radio & Regional Content National stations ABC Classic FM ABC News ABC Radio National Triple J ABC Local Radio ABC Radio Sydney ABC Radio Melbourne ABC Radio Brisbane ABC Radio Perth ABC Radio Canberra ABC Adelaide ABC Radio Darwin 1233 ABC Newcastle ABC Radio Hobart Digital - only stations ABC Jazz ABC Country ABC Radio Grandstand ABC Extra Double J Triple J Unearthed Streaming - only stations ABC Classic 2 International stations Radio Australia ( managed by ABC International ) ABC Innovation ABC NOW ABC iview ABC Online ABC International Radio Australia Australia Plus ABC Commercial ABC Events ABC Music ABC DVD ABC Magazines ABC Licensing ABC Classics Departments ABC Sport ABC Rural ABC News History History of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation Australian Broadcasting Company Lange v. ABC See also Boyer Lectures Symphony Australia Freeview Commonwealth Broadcasting Association Subscription television in Australia Television in Australia Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=ABC_Board&oldid=862578914 '' Categories : Board members of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation Australian Broadcasting Corporation Hidden categories : Articles containing potentially dated statements from April 2018 All articles containing potentially dated statements All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from October 2007 Talk Contents About Wikipedia Add links This page was last edited on 5 October 2018, at 08 : 34 ( UTC ). Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike License ; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia ® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization. About Wikipedia

Question: who are the board members of the abc
Answer: Jane Connors