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Fiona Cameron quits Screen Australia to join ACMA

Fiona Cameron.

Chief operating officer Fiona Cameron will depart Screen Australia later this year to become a full-time member of the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA).

Her departure will be a big loss to the agency where she has worked since its inception in 2008. She will remain at Screen Australia for three months and start her five-year term at ACMA on July 23.

“I’ve enjoyed the role immensely, its diversity, its creativity and its people,” Cameron tells IF. “It has been rewarding and challenging and it’s ever changing. I love change and in these times the role at ACMA hits the spot.”

The self-confessed “policy wonk” has been an invaluable asset to CEO Graeme Mason. Had she stayed she may well been a candidate to succeed him.

After overseeing the merger of the Australian Film Commission, Film Finance Corporation Australia and Film Australia to form Screen Australia, she developed and delivered some of the sector’s most successful programs including Gender Matters, Enterprise and Multiplatform.

Before that she was a general manager with DMG Radio Australia where she was responsible for launching the Nova brand in Melbourne.

Previously she worked across state and federal government in portfolios as varied as education, regional development and communications.

Announcing her appointment the government said: “She brings a wealth of knowledge from her experience in executive roles within the communications industry, including in commercial radio and television, as a general manager of DMG Radio Australia and director of the Australian Film, Television and Radio School.”

Creina Chapman has been named ACMA’s deputy chair and CEO. Currently the head of regulatory affairs and corporate communications at Southern Cross Austereo, she will begin her five-year term on June 11.

Chris Jose, currently a consultant on competition regulation and trade at Herbert Smith Freehills, was also appointed as a full-time member and James Cameron was reappointed for three years.

The government said the appointments implement the recommendations of the ACMA Review to strengthen the organisation’s governance.