Marc Fennell - Creator of No.1 global podcast hit 'Stuff the British Stole' & Walkley-winning journalist

Marc Fennell is a Walkley-winning journalist & documentary maker.

A 5-time medallist at the New York Festivals TV and Radio Awards, Marc has been nominated twice for Europe’s prestigious Rose d’Or. He is a recipient of America’s coveted James Beard Foundation Award, an Asian Creative Academy National Award, and Webby Award Honors. The Times (UK) has called Marc the “cheerful Aussie version of Louis Theroux”.

Marc is the creator of the popular, award-winning television series & podcast Stuff the British Stole for ABC Australia and CBC Canada. He is also seen each weeknight as the quizmaster of SBS TV’s iconic game show Mastermind.

Marc has fronted groundbreaking docs like the Logie & AACTA nominated School That Tried to End Racism (ABC 2021), The Kindom (SBS 2023) The Mission (SBS 2023) Rose d’Or shortlisted art-heist docu-series Framed (SBS 2021) as well as the hit Audible Original Podcasts It Burns (2019) Nut Jobs (2020) and House of Skulls (2023)

Marc anchored SBS TV’s national current affairs program The Feed for 9 years (2013-2022). He has reported around the globe from the 2019 Hong Kong protests to food crime in California to survivors of ISIS torture. Marc’s one-on-one interviews with the likes of Al Gore, Tom Cruise, Julian Assange, and Jennifer Lawrence have generated over 30 million online views.

A well-known voice on ABC Radio, Fennell has presented the technology program Download this Show since 2012 and was triple j’s Movie Guy from 2006-2017.

Marc has written 2 books and has also appeared on ABC’s The Drum, Network Ten’s The Project, SBS’s Dateline and Insight, and heard on top-rating ABC Radio Sydney.

Marc is the dad of 2 kids and lives in Sydney, Australia. He also helped found the not-for-profit advocacy group Media Diversity Australia.

Marc had an unusual path into journalism. He won an AFI Outstanding Young Film Critics Award back in high school. His broadcasting career began as the film critic for Sydney community radio station FBi 94.5. At 19 years old, Marc was recruited to SBS's rebooted version of The Movie Show (2004). He then jumped to the ABC's national youth broadcaster triple j to present film content across its radio, television and print arms. For 11 years, Marc was Australia's most listened-to film critic - better known to over 3.1 million triple j listeners as ‘That Movie Guy’. He also hosted the largest short film festival in the world Tropfest 2014-2016

Marc was a presenter and producer for all 3 seasons of ABC TV's ground-breaking journalism experiment Hungry Beast (2009-2011) under Executive Producer Andrew Denton.

Away from the camera, Marc has been an art director, web developer, magazine and newspaper writer and oh-so-briefly a hand model. Ask him about it sometime.

Chris Janz - CEO, Huffington Post (Australia)

Chris Janz is the CEO of HuffPost Australia, a joint venture between The Huffington Post and Fairfax Media. 

The Huffington Post is a Pulitzer Prize-winning source of breaking news, features and entertainment, as well as a highly engaged community for opinion and conversation.  It is the No.1 news site in the US and publishes editions in 14 other countries.  More than 214 million unique browsers read the title each month. 

Janz has 20 years' experience building market-leading digital media businesses. He was the founding CEO of Allure Media, one of Australia’s largest independent digital publishers, and responsible for launching Business Insider, Gizmodo, Kotaku, Lifehacker, POPSUGAR and ShopStyle in Australia. 

Janz's previous experience includes senior roles at News Corp and production company Endemol Southern Star.

Aaron Michie - Director, Guardian Labs

Aaron Michie is the director of The Guardian’s commercial branded content division, Guardian Labs.

Aaron, previously chief innovation officer at ZenithOptimedia.

Aaron is responsible for growing revenues and overseeing content delivery in Australia.  

Aaron Michie has been in the advertising business for over 18 years and has worked in digital, creative, media and content businesses in Germany, Spain and Australia. He has held a wide range of roles including IA/UX, concepter, project manager, suit, strategist, creative strategist, digital planner, CD, managing partner, board member and most recently, chief innovation officer. 

Aaron’s work has won a range of awards around the world, but he’s most proud of being involved in ocean preservation projects like Catlin Sea View. Aaron also holds a biochemistry degree and spends most of his free time underwater.

Fiona Phillips - Executive Director, Australian Copyright Council (ACC)

A highly regarded advocate with a life-long interest in the arts, Fiona Phillips has spent over 20 years advising government and the private sector on copyright law and policy issues. She brings to the Australian Copyright Council (ACC) a unique combination of commercial pragmatism, government experience and is one of the most knowledgeable copyright practitioners in the country. 

Prior to leading the ACC, Fiona was Special Counsel at independent commercial law firm Banki Haddock Fiora and remains a consultant with the firm.  

From 2007 to 2011, Fiona was an Assistant Deputy General Counsel at the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), including responsibility for major litigation in the Federal Court and Competition Tribunal of Australia.  While this role enabled Fiona to maintain an interest in copyright (overseeing the ACCC’s involvement in two matters in the Copyright Tribunal) she advised on infrastructure and regulatory issues in relation to industries as diverse as telecommunications, post, grocery, water, petrol, and energy. 

Her life-long career in the law commenced with an associateship with the Hon Justice Gaudron in the High Court of Australia.  Fiona then worked as a solicitor in the intellectual property group at Mallesons Stephen Jaques (now King & Wood Mallesons) acting for key commercial on a range of advisory and litigious matters. She was called to the Victorian Bar in 1996 and practised in intellectual property, constitutional, native title and general commercial law, appearing in the Supreme, Federal and High Courts. 

In 1999 Fiona joined the Australian Attorney-General’s Department (AGD).  There she worked on the Copyright Law Review Committee’s reference on the Jurisdiction and Procedures of the Copyright Tribunal, Copyright and Contract and Crown Copyright references.  She was also instrumental in a number of major reforms including the Copyright Amendment (Moral Rights) Act 2000, the USFTA Implementation Act 2004 and the Copyright Amendment Act 2006.   

In recognition for her work with AGD, Fiona was a joint recipient of an Australia Day Award. During this time she also represented the Australian Government on copyright issues at major international meetings of WIPO, APEC and in free trade agreement negotiations.  She has continued to play an active role in international matters since joining the private sector, leading a WIPO mission in 2013 and attending the Marrakesh Diplomatic Conference.  

Fiona has been a member of a number of Government committees, notably the Advisory Committee to the Australian Law Reform Commission for its Copyright and the Digital Economy Reference.  She has been a member of the Intellectual Property Society of Australia and New Zealand since 1995 and was the Victorian chairperson and translational committee member 1997-1999, during which time she was also Secretary of the Equality Before the Law Committee of the Victorian Bar. 

She has also been a member of the Copyright Society of Australia since 1999 and was responsible for organising the highly successful Copyright Law & Practice Symposium in 2014 and 2015.  Fiona has been published in the Australian Intellectual Property Journal and numerous other journals and is editor of the Copyright Reporter. She is also an experienced conference speaker and media commentator.  

Fiona holds bachelors of Arts and Laws from Monash University and a current New South Wales practising certificate.