Our People

Our Board

The Board is the body elected by members to set policy for, and oversee the affairs of, the Community Broadcasting Association of Australia. 

The responsibilities of the Board include setting and reviewing the CBAA strategic direction, monitoring organisational performance, appointing the CEO, and deciding on key policy positions to take on behalf of the community broadcasting sector.

The Board will comprise: (i) not fewer than seven (7) Member Elected Directors; and (ii) up to two (2) Appointed Directors. The Board appoint the President, and Vice President annually. The procedure for the appointment of directors can be found in our Constitution and Bylaws. Find out more about our governance, including our Constitution, here

Jacquie Riddell

Jacquie Riddell

President

Jacquie has an extensive career in radio and television in Australia and New Zealand. She started her media career as a producer and announcer, and then station manager of a large community radio station in New Zealand. She then served as the inaugural Director of the National Association of Student Broadcasters. Moving to Australia, she then worked in management roles at the ABC (primarily on Triple J), SBS, and Foxtel. She has also held executive leadership roles at Barangaroo, the Art Gallery of New South Wales, environmental NFP Take 3 for the Sea and numerous advisory and governance appointments.

She is experienced in not-for-profit governance, having worked both as a board director and alongside high-profile boards throughout her career, and a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Peter Rohweder

Peter Rohweder

Vice President

Peter is the Manager of the 4MBS Silver Memories service. Peter has a Bachelor of Business (Management), a Graduate Certificate in Professional Accounting and over 25 years’ experience within the community media sector. He also provides governance and strategic planning advice to community organisations. Peter has more than 20 years of community radio station management experience as he was the Station Manager at Radio 4EB (2002-2018) and prior to that he was the Station Manager at 4ZZZ (1999-2002)

Gavin Brett

Gavin Brett

Director

Gavin has been involved in community radio for nearly 14 years and has held several senior roles in community radio governance; currently he is a board member on 4 regional community stations.

He started his community radio career at Hope Media Ltd as Group Sales Manager and established the national sponsorship platform Media Sales Australia. Serving as its Executive Officer for approx 5 years.

Gavin is now the CEO of the Christian Media Hub which partners with and manages currently 5 community stations across regional Australia.
He has also served on the CBAA Audience Research Advisory Group for two years.

Gavin is committed to local community radio that is relevant, sustainable and professional.

Quinn Glasson

Quinn Glasson

Director

Quinn Glasson has been the General Manager of Curtin Radio in Perth since 2005. Quinn is a qualified accountant and worked in the fields of financial management in the tertiary sector before commencing at Curtin Radio. He was elected to the Board of the CBAA in November 2018 where he is also Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee. Quinn believes in the difference that community radio makes to the broader Australian community and is committed to assisting the sector in improving its ongoing financial sustainability. He is also Chair of the Perth Digital Radio Company.

Louisa Graham

Louisa Graham

Director

Louisa Graham has extensive experience in not-for-profit management and governance. Louisa began her career in journalism at Network Ten and has worked in community broadcasting at 2XX and 2SER. She has been the CEO of The Walkley Foundation for Journalism and the Australian Leadership Hub and has held senior leadership roles for the Australian Institute of International Affairs, the Sydney Writers' Festival and UNWomen. Louisa has also served on the Australian Republic Movement, Alliance for Journalists' Freedom, Media Diversity Australia, Taikoz and the Copyright Council boards, and is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Dave Houchin

Dave Houchin

Director

Currently Station Manager at Melbourne's 3RRR, Dave has experience working within metro and sub-metro community broadcasters in Victoria and Western Australia, starting as a volunteer presenter in 2000.

Dave has been a Not-for-profit CEO and Director since 2007. He is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, and holds Bachelors Degrees in Commerce and Arts.

Dave is passionate about the work of not-for-profits, independent media, music, arts, culture, education, community engagement, and public spaces.

Sewar Mitanis

Sewar Mitanis

Director

Sewar has over eleven years’ experience in community radio and is currently a member of the Aramaic Language Group at Radio 4EB FM, Brisbane’s ethnic community radio station. Sewar served on the Board of Directors and the Governance Sub-Committee at Radio 4EB for a period spanning 3.5 years.

Having migrated to Australia over 18 years ago Sewar is committed to the empowerment of diverse communities through community broadcasting and engagement. She is also an active supporter of the Ethnic Communities Council of Queensland.

Through her experience and background, Sewar has established a rapport with diverse language groups and has acquired a strong knowledge of the community broadcasting sector, as well as of various local communities’ cultures and values. As a result, she has developed a reputation as being a committed and approachable member of the community.

Hannah Rogers

Hannah Rogers

Director

Hannah holds a BA Hons English and Journalism, and a Masters in Social Work. She was formally the Station Manager of Hobart's Edge Radio where she worked for 5 years. Hannah has volunteered in community radio since 2014. She has also been a radio producer at ABC for 2 years. Hannah also creates media as a disability support tutor and content producer via the award winning X-Press radio program.

Jessica Tapp

Jessica Tapp

Director

Jessica Tapp is the Community and Engagement Manager at First Languages Australia.

She has spent nearly 20 years as an apolitical multimedia journalist and producer, and impartial senior communications and media manager working in the not-for-profit and government sectors in New South Wales, Victoria and the Northern Territory.

Ms Tapp draws on her lived experience in regional areas as a proud queer, neurodivergent, Aboriginal woman to connect with others. She champions the voices of diverse and rural communities and First Nations and migrant languages, including during her time at regional, national and international organisations.

Ms Tapp has returned to the NSW mid north coast to live on Country to apply her governance, risk and emergency management skills to roles that help her local community.

Laura Bacon

Laura Bacon

Observer

Laura Bacon is a Senior Policy Adviser at the Australian Institute of Company Directors, with expertise in
governance, ESG, corporate law and regulatory affairs.

Laura is responsible for developing the AICD’s public policy agenda, advocacy and contemporary governance
practice initiatives, engaging with government and regulators, legal experts, directors and senior leaders
from both the private and public sector.

Prior to joining the AICD, Laura provided corporate law and board advisory services at KPMG and began her
career as lawyer at Gilbert & Tobin and Russell McVeagh (NZ).

Laura has experience in both for-profit and not-for-profit governance and community services, as a current
board member of Bendigo Bank – Milton & South Coast Community Bank and former Chair of Kogarah
Community Services in Sydney. Laura is also a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Megan Williams

Megan Williams

Women and Gender Diverse People's Representative

Megan has been in community radio since 2018 in a variety of paid and volunteer capacities. They were Station Manager at 2DRY FM in Broken HIll for 2.5 years and oversaw tremendous growth in membership, programming, volunteers, and revenue. They are now a project officer at the CBAA assisting small stations register as charities and reside in Orange NSW.
Megan strongly identifies with the struggles of both women and gender diverse people and they are passionate about understanding and addressing the barriers to participation for all members of our community.

Our Senior Staff

Jon Bisset

Jon Bisset

CEO

Jon is passionate about the non-profit and charity sector having spent more than 30 years as a Chief Executive and non-executive director.
 
Jon is currently Chief Executive Officer of the Community Broadcasting Association of Australia (CBAA) as well as CEO for Disability Media Australia, the peak body for the Radio Reading Network, community media empowering Australians with a print disability. The CBAA and Disability Media Australia's member stations actively broadcast nationwide to an audience of over 5 million people per week.
 
Jon is also a Non-Executive Director of the Community Council for Australia; a Non-Executive Director of Spots and Space Pty Ltd and the Chair of the Local Independent News Association.

Diana Burnett

Diana Burnett

General Manager

Diana has a wealth of experience in Australia's arts and creative industries, including work as a Studio Manager at Animal Logic and over a decade of experience supporting the arts sector nationally at Screen Australia and the Australian Directors’ Guild.  

Declan Kelly

Declan Kelly

Head of Development

Declan has worked in the radio industry for over 10 years. Starting his career at SYN, he has since worked at community stations such as JOY and 2XX as well as commercial networks ARN and SEN. He is known as a radio income specialist working with direct businesses and agencies. He is the winner of 2 ARCAS for Best Station Sales Achievement (Metro). 

 

Talk to Declan about: Partnerships, collaboration and grants for the CBAA. 

Heidi Martin

Heidi Martin

Head of Strategy and Impact

Heidi brings to the CBAA over 15 years' experience working with organisations such as the NSW Government, ABC, SBS, Yahoo7 and more, helping these organisations grow through better understanding of their audiences and data-driven decision making. 

Jerome Fink

Jerome Fink

Head of Finance

Jerome joined the CBAA in late 2021 and has quickly become an integral part of the CBAA team. Jerome's role involves him in all aspects of the organisation from payroll to annual budgets and everything in-between. He has extensive experience in Head of Finance roles in not-for-profits. 

Reece Kinnane

Reece Kinnane

Head of Advocacy and Communications

Reece is Head of Advocacy and Communications for the Community Broadcasting Association of Australia. In this role he leads public affairs for the community broadcasting sector. He is a strong advocate for community-owned enterprise and diverse and independent broadcast media. His career has involved working in roles in South Australian Government, Federal Parliament, and as an advocate for leading NGOs and socially responsible business groups. Reece has experience working in the fields of international development, climate change, co-operative enterprise, small business innovation and industry policy. 

Talk to Reece about: Advocacy for the community broadcasting sector and public relations. 

Matt Field

Matt Field

Project Director - Powerd Media

Matt is passionate about the power of media to increase social cohesion through authentic portrayals of diversity. He has extensive experience in community television, having served in a variety of roles including General Manager at C31 Melbourne and Secretary of the Australian Community Television Alliance. 

Andrew Khedoori

Andrew Khedoori

AMRAP Manager

Andrew Khedoori is the manager of the CBAA’s AMRAP initiative where he oversees distribution of new Australian music to community radio stations nationwide along with Australian music radio programs and initiatives. AMRAP has also produced various collaborative projects, including First Sounds with First Nations Media Australia, a series providing resources and pathways to airplay for First Nations music artists; On The Road Again with Creative Victoria – a series of live music events curated by community radio around Victoria – and Global Beat: Australia, a radio series showcasing diverse and contemporary Australian music on influential LA radio station KCRW, co-presented by Andrew. Andrew was previously Music Director at 2SER in Sydney where he co-created and oversaw an eclectic music programming schedule, nurtured new shows and designed live music events and series.   

Projects:

Andrew Morris

Andrew Morris

Online Services Manager

Andrew Morris has over 20 years of experience across the radio industry in commercial and community broadcasting. Andrew is leading the strategy for multiplatform innovations like Community Radio Plus, smart speaker skills, websites, audio streaming and podcasting solutions and monetisation tools  

Dan Callaghan

Dan Callaghan

Infrastructure and Technology Manager

Dan has worked as a professional technologist across broadcast and online media and creative industries for over 15 years. Before joining the CBAA, he was a production coordinator at Brisbane station 4ZZZ. 

Eleanor Zurowski

Station Development Manager

Eleanor is a dedicated and insightful supporter of community broadcasting and the CBAA's members and is a big believer in people powered media. 

Jane Liang

Jane Liang

Brand and Marketing Lead

Jane brings nearly a decade of experience in marketing and communications having previously worked in the Victorian Government, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC/Radio-Canada) and L'Oréal. 

Jane started her journey in the community broadcasting sector volunteering at Radio Mansfield, SYN Media and Channel 31. She's passionate about inclusion, diversity and raising up underrepresented voices.

Jeremy Graham

Jeremy Graham

DAB+ Service Development Manager

Jeremy is a strong believer in the power of community media to empower individuals to share their unique stories of personal growth. He is the Secretary of North-West Sydney station 2RRR and previously hosted the program Quiet Fire. 

Projects:

  • Digital Radio Project

Staff Placeholder

Lisa Hunt

Data and Insights Manager

Lisa brings to the CBAA over 10 years' experience working in media organisations such as The Walt Disney Company, Foxtel and Network Ten before making the leap in more recent years to join not-for-profits The Australian Red Cross and Leukaemia FoundationLisa has held a variety of Insights, Data and Research roles, all focused on using insights and data to drive decisions and make organisational impact

Projects:

Martin Davies

Martin Davies

News Network Director

Martin Davies is the CBAA's Network News Director, coordinating the development, scheduling, and sharing of news and current affairs content across the Community Radio Network.

He previously worked at the BBC World Service in London as Regional Executive Editor for Africa and the Middle East, and as overnight editor for the most listened to news and current affairs morning show, on World Service

Projects:

Sharmaine Spencer

Sharmaine Spencer

Content Services Manager

Sharmaine is an experienced audio engineer, team builder, and broadcast operations specialist who has been involved in the community broadcasting sector for almost a decade. Her dedication to community broadcasting extends far beyond her work at CBAA, she is a presenter and producer at 2SER, a volunteer CBF grant assessor, and served on the board for Eastside Radio for 2 years as director and secretary.

She is also an artist, and DJ who regularly performs around Sydney. She is also the creative director for the DIY audio and art project Honey Trap Sound System, Sydney's first sound system built and run by women.

Sharmaine loves the role community radio plays to share and shape communities, empower participation for all members of our society, and as the vehicle we use to tell our most important and intimate stories.
 
Projects: