Katrina Sedgwick OAM - CEO & Director, Melbourne Arts Precinct, new $1.7 billion cultural project

Katrina Sedgwick OAM is the inaugural Director and CEO of Melbourne Arts Precinct Corporation (MAP Co), commencing the role in early April this year. She will spearhead the $1.7 billion transformation of the Melbourne Arts precinct which will include the construction of the new NGV Contemporary gallery and have responsibility for both Federation Square and a new 18,000 sq metre elevated public park that connects the Arts Centre Melbourne with the new gallery.

In taking on the MAP Co role, Katrina has stepped down as the Director & CEO of ACMI, a role she held from 2015 to April 2022. Over seven years, she led ACMI through a period of expansion and transformation, culminating in a $40m capital project that funded an architectural, technological and programmatic renewal, delivering a multiplatform museum.

Prior to ACMI, Katrina was the Head of Arts for ABC TV from 2012 – 14 where she established the ABC Arts brand.

From 2002 to 2011, Katrina was the founding Director/CEO of the biennial Adelaide Film Festival and directing the AFF Investment Fund – which supported 47 Australian productions – many of which were multi-award winning.

Katrina was a producer for the Adelaide Festival of Arts (1996, 1998 and 2000) and the artistic director of Come Out ‘99 and Adelaide Fringe 2002. She has held many committee and board roles with a wide range of creative industry and arts organisations.

In 2020, Katrina was awarded an Order of Australia Medal for her services to performing arts, screen industries and visual arts administration.

Kim McKay AO - Director & CEO, Australian Museum

Kim McKay’s international career in social innovation, marketing, communications and management spans over 25 years. She is an environmentalist, author and international marketing and communications expert and a regular media commentator. She has worked with National Geographic in the USA since 2000 in a variety of roles, and on returning to Australia in 2005, established Momentum2 Pty Ltd, consulting in social and sustainability marketing and communications.

Kim was senior vice-president Global Marketing and Communications at National Geographic Channels International (USA), an executive director, Discovery Communications Inc (USA) and principal of Profile Communications Pty Ltd (Sydney). She is the co-founder and was deputy chair of Clean Up Australia (1989-2009), and co-founder and deputy chair of Clean Up the World (1992-2009).

Her current not-for-profit roles include board member of the Sydney Institute of Marine Science Foundation, board member of Fairtrade Australia and New Zealand, member of The Genographic Project Legacy Fund and advisory board member and ambassador for the 1 Million Women campaign.

Kim was made an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2008 for distinguished service to the environment and the community. In 2013 she received Australian Geographic’s Lifetime Achievement in Conservation award and was named one of the Australian Financial Review’s 100 Women of Influence. In 2011, Kim was included in the book “The Power of 100…One hundred women who have shaped Australia”, marking the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day. In 2010 she received the UTS Chancellors Award for Excellence and was named a Luminary at the University of Technology, Sydney. She has a BA (Communications) from UTS.

Kim was appointed to the Australian Museum Trust in January 2012. She resigned in February 2014 when she was appointed Director and CEO of the Australian Museum, commencing in April 2014.

Antony Funnell - Presenter, The Future Tense, ABC

Antony is a Walkley award-winning journalist and broadcaster. He is also the author of the newly-released book The Future and Related Nonsense (published by Harper Collins). Antony has been the presenter of Future Tense since 2009; prior to that he fronted Media Report. He also presents the monthly education podcast EdPod for RN.

Over the past two decades he has worked for many of the country's leading news and current affairs programs, including AM, PM, the7.30 Report, Background Briefing and Radio National Breakfast. In the late 1990s he was the senior producer for Australia Television News - ABC TV's nightly satellite news service into the Asia Pacific region.

A wanderer at heart, Antony has travelled and reported for the ABC from a diverse range of places—from the Russian border in Outer Mongolia to the isolated community of Ali Curung in the Northern Territory.

He won his Walkley in 2006 for a documentary entitled The Financial Abuse of the Elderly. The Walkleys are Australia’s premier journalism awards. He was also a finalist in 2003. In that same year he won the United Nations’ Media Peace Prize (Best Radio) for a half-hour program he produced on Aboriginal customary law. He won the same UN award in 2007 for his coverage of issues relating to the then political crisis in Zimbabwe. Other awards include the New York Festival's Silver World Medal, a NSW Bar Association Media Award for coverage of legal issues and a Worldfest Flagstaff International Film Festival Award (USA) for Television production.

For three years in the 1990s he worked for the international humanitarian aid agency CARE. His last role with that organisation was as the director of external relations for the organisation’s Australian branch.

Councillor Jess Scully - Knowledge Exchange Strategist

Jess was the founding director of Vivid Ideas, Australia's largest creative industries event, and has curated creative sector events including Junket, TEDxSydney and Curating Participation. As a knowledge exchange strategist, Jess is a founding contributor to the Sydney Culture Network, launching in late 2017. She is an advocate for the knowledge economy, creative and cultural sector, and encouraging participation in politics, creativity and enlivening our public realm. As a public art curator, her projects included Green Square Library and Plaza. She has served as an arts policy advisor and strategist, directed the Qantas Spirit of Youth Awards and the Creative Cities East Asia project, and began her career as editor of a number of creative industries publications including Yen, Empty and Hotpress. Jess is passionate about cities and city-making, and in 2016 was elected as a Councillor for the City of Sydney.