Jim Mather was appointed chief executive of New Zealand’s national indigenous broadcaster, M?ori Television, in February 2005. A statutory corporation, M?ori Television is funded by the New Zealand Government in acknowledgment of its commitment to promote and protect M?ori language and culture. Mr Mather holds a Master of Business Administration from the Henley Management College in England and a Bachelor of Business Studies. His business management experience spans over 15 years. Prior to joining M?ori Television, Mr Mather was chief executive of the Pacific Business Trust based in Auckland, New Zealand. A qualified accountant by profession, Mr Mather has held a variety of private sector roles including general manager of a marine engineering business and financial controller for a local subsidiary of a Swiss multi-national. Aligned with his commercial background, Mr Mather is also a former officer in the New Zealand Army and was awarded the Sword of Honour in recognition of his distinguished achievements in officer training. M?ori Television hosted the first World Indigenous Television Broadcasting Conference in March 2008 and as a result, the World Indigenous Television Broadcasters Network was established. M?ori Television has undertaken the secretariat role for the Network in its first two years, and Mr Mather has been the inaugural chairman.
Ms Patricia Turner AM, is an Arrernte and Gurdanji woman from Alice Springs, NT.
During her illustrious 28 year career in the community and public sector, Ms Turner held the position of the most senior Aboriginal woman in the Australian Public Service.? Ms Turner was awarded with the Order of Australia (AM) in 1990.
Clights include, Former Deputy Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet; Deputy CEO of Centrelink; and the CEO of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission.
Ms Turner holds a Masters Degree in Public Administration from the University of Canberra, where she was awarded the Prize for Developmental Studies, and also held the Monash Chair of Australian Studies, Georgetown University, Washington DC, USA.
Currently Ms Turner is the CEO of National Indigenous TV (NITV), a 24 hour television service aimed at preserving Indigenous culture, educating and enriching lives of all Indigenous peoples.
NITV celebrated its 2nd anniversary on-air on 13 July 2009.
Jean LaRose is a First Nations citizen from the Abenakis First Nation of Odanak. He was raised in Ottawa where he studied Journalism at Algonquin College and obtained his B.A. in Social Communication at the University of Ottawa. He later began study for his Masters in Public Administration at L'Ecole Nationale d'Administration Publique (ENAP). He was named Chief Executive Officer of APTN in November 2002. Since his appointment, he has brought the network from a deficit position of more than $5.5 million dollars to a surplus position. The network has moved to a digital, high-definition platform and now employs over 130 people. APTN is one of the host broadcasters for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games and will carry over 10 hours per day of Olympic events.
Mr. LaRose sits on the Board of Directors of the National Screen Institute, the Pay and Specialty Television Board of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters, and the NISGA'A Commercial Group. He also served on the National Capital Commission Advisory Committee on its mandate review to provide Aboriginal perspective as it pertains to the future plans of the NCC, and the Advisory Committee on Indigenous Property and Authenticity Rights that was established by Heritage Canada. He has been a panelist and public speaker on a variety of forums, speaking to the issues and matters that pertain to the Aboriginal Peoples of Canada.
Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK)
Nils Johan Heatta is born in Guovdageaidnu (Kautokeino) in Sapmi (Samiland) in 1954. He is now living in Guovdageaidnu.
Heatta has worked as sound and video engineer. He has been director for the Sami Broadcasting in Norway since 1985. NRK Sami Radio is a part of the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK). As director for the Sami division he is automatically member of the management of the NRK company. As director Heatta is dealing with journalistic and technical subjects and he is responsible for managing NRK Sami Radio economics and administration.
NRK Sami Radio is producing both radio and TV programs, broadcasted on regional and national network. NRK Sami Radio is also running internet services with news and current affairs, cultural affairs and content for children and youth. Today NRK Sami Radio has a staff of 95.
Heatta has been active in the collaboration between the Sami radio and TV stations in Finland, Sweden and Norway. He has been central in establishing the daily Sami TV news program which is broadcasted in Sweden, Finland and Norway.
In 1998 Heatta was asked to help the Russian Samis to get their own radio station and in 2000 Heatta initiated a project to restart Sami radio broadcasts on the Kola Peninsula. The station in Russia started their broadcasts December 31th 2003.
For the first time in Input’s history Nils Johan Heatta was preparing and accomplishing an indigenous session at Input 2005 in San Francisco. And Heatta also took initiatives for closer collaboration between indigenous broadcasters all over the world to bring indigenous societies and subjects into light.
Pol O Gallchoir has been working in Irish TV and Radio for over thirty years.
After graduating with a degree in History and Political Science from University College Galway in 1979, Pol joined the National Public Service Broadcaster RTE as a News Journalist in TV and Radio.
In 1987, he was appointed Regional Manager for the National Irish Language Radio Service, Raidio na Gaeltachta and in 1994 was appointed Head of the service.
In 1996, a new Irish Language Television service, TG4, was established in Ireland. Pol has been Director General of TG4 since 2000.
The channel was originally established as part of RTE and in 2007 TG4 was established as a statutory independent public service broadcaster.? The channel is available on all platforms throughout the Island of Ireland.
TG4 broadcasts 24 hours a day delivering a full range of high quality Irish language television content across all programme genres to audiences in Ireland and abroad. The key responsibility is to provide an attractive and innovative television service in Irish in order to promote and develop the Irish language and culture. The Irish schedule is supported by content in English and other languages.
Over 800,000 viewers tune in to the channel every day and TG4 has a 3% audience share of the national television market.
Donald Campbell joined MG ALBA- the Gaelic Media Service (see www.mgalba.com) - as Chief Executive in July 2006, having previously served as a member of the Board. Before that Donald was a director with Ernst & Young, where he worked as tax adviser on public and private infrastructure projects, cross-border finance and treasury transactions.
As Chief Executive, Donald is responsible for ensuring that MG ALBA delivers a wide and diverse range of high quality Gaelic programmes to audiences in Scotland in partnership with the BBC (see www.bbcalba.co.uk).? Donald chairs the joint management board of BBC ALBA – the dedicated Gaelic television channel launched on 19 September 2008 – as is a member of the National Steering Group for Gaelic Education and a board member of Skillset Scotland (the industry body which supports skills and training for? the creative media industries).? Donald’s role encompasses the provision to audiences in Scotland of a high quality partnership Gaelic television channel and the creation and maintenance of the right conditions for the long-term success of the channel.? This involves planning for the growth of new talent and skills among Gaelic speakers and learners, an example of which is MG ALBA’s digital shorts project FilmG (see www.filmg.co.uk).
Donald is a native Gaelic speaker and was born in the island of South Uist.? He now lives in Glasgow and is married with three children.
