Patron

Kim Williams, a music graduate of Sydney University and a former student with Peter Sculthorpe and Luciano Berio,  has had a long involvement in the arts, entertainment and media industries here and overseas and has held various executive leadership positions since the late 1970s including as chief executive at each of News Corp Australia, FOXTEL, Fox Studios Australia, the Australian Film Commission, Southern Star Entertainment and Musica Viva Australia and also as a senior executive at the ABC.

 

In his various executive roles Mr Williams pioneered many of the major digital broadcast and media innovations in Australia prior to moving into a portfolio of directorships after resigning from NewsCorp in late 2013.  

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Mr Williams has also held numerous board positions (and chairmanships) in commercial and public life over more than three decades including as chairman of the Australian Film Finance Corporation (which he founded for the Commonwealth Government in 1988); chairman of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and of Musica Viva Australia; and as the chairman of the Sydney Opera House Trust from 2005 until 2013. He was also a commissioner of the Australian Football League (AFL) from 2014 until 2021. 

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He was appointed as a member in the Order of Australia in June 2006 for his services to the arts and public policy formulation in the creative industries. In October 2009 he was awarded a doctorate of letters (honoris causa) by Macquarie University for his contribution to the arts and entertainment industry in Australia and internationally. He is a recipient of numerous other awards and honours in the Australian creative community including the Dorothy Crawford Award from the Australian Writers’ Guild for outstanding contribution to the profession. 

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Kim Williams is a current board member of various commercial and community bodies. Since 2018 he has served as the Chairman of the Thomson Reuters Trustees (who are responsible for the Reuters Trust Principles and their requirement as to independence, integrity, and freedom from bias at the world’s leading news service - Reuters).

 

MUP published his non-fiction book Rules of Engagement in 2014.