Our Board

The Copyright Council's board has up to nine directors. At each Annual General Meeting (in April), affiliated organisations elect a maximum of six directors. Each elected director must be a representative of an affiliated organisation, and have been nominated by two other representatives of affiliated organisations.

The elected directors may appoint a representative of an affiliated organisation to fill a casual vacancy. In addition, the elected directors may appoint any person as an additional director, provided the total number of directors does not exceed nine.

Each director must retire at the following Annual General Meeting, but may be re-nominated for election or re-appointed.

Kate has practised as an intellectual property lawyer since 1989, and is one of the foundation partners of Banki Haddock Fiora, established in 1995.

She has extensive experience advising collecting societies and publishers in relation to all aspects of their business, including in particular copyright and competition law. She provides advice on all aspects of copyright management and transactions relating to dealings with copyright properties. In particular, she has close experience of all aspects of the legal issues facing collecting societies, including under competition legislation.

Kate also conducts litigation and manages disputes and enforcement proceedings relating to copyright and competition and consumer laws, in particular in the music industry. She has extensive experience in the Copyright Tribunal of Australia. Her clients include collecting societies, publishers and other companies with creative interests.

Kate is a lay member of the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance ethics panel, and a member of the management committee of the Copyright Society of Australia.

Since 2009, Kate has been included in the intellectual property section of the Best Lawyers of Australia list published by the Australian Financial Review.

Dean Ormston is a senior executive in the Australian Music industry and has worked with APRA AMCOS for 20 years. He is currently Head of the Member Services Group and oversees the company’s Membership, Distribution, International, Communications and Government Relations portfolios. Ormston works closely with Federal and State Governments in lobbying for the recognition and support of creator's rights. He has secured government support and investment for a range of initiatives including Australia’s music industry export office Sounds Australia, the National Live Music Office, songwriting residencies in high schools and international songwriting collaborations for Australian songwriters.Ormston has initiated research projects relating to the economic contribution of the Australian venue-based live music industry and most recently, the potential application of tax-offsets to the commercial music industry. Ormston is a Board Director of Screenrights, and in a former life was a high school music teacher.

Alida is the former Chief Executive of Viscopy, the rights management organisation for visual artists in Australia and New Zealand. Alida has practised law for more than 10 years in Australia and New York specialising in intellectual property and information technology transactions, competition and regulatory law. On returning from the United States in 2005, Alida worked as the Senior Solicitor at the Arts Law Centre of Australia representing artists and arts organisations and as a Solicitor in the Office of General Counsel at The University of Sydney. Alida has degrees in Arts and Law from the University of New South Wales. She served on the board of directors of Viscopy from 2007 to 2012 and currently serves a director of Disabled Wintersport Australia, as well as the management committee of the Copyright Society of Australia.

Lynne is currently the General Manager of both ARIA (the Australian Recording Industry Association) and PPCA (the Phonographic Performance Company of Australia). Formerly with Festival Records, Lynne has been with ARIA and PPCA since 1996, and has held a range of roles.

Lynne is also a director of the music industry benevolent fund, Support Act Limited, and has acted as Support Act’s Secretary/ Treasurer since 1998.

Libby is Policy Director at Copyright Agency|Viscopy, which provides rights management services for writers, artists and publishers. She has a law degree from the University of Adelaide, and was previously Executive Officer of the Australian Copyright Council. Libby is a former board director of the Australian Music Centre and member of the Management Committee of the Copyright Society of Australia.

Kingston is the Executive Director of the Australian Directors Guild, the main organisation that represents Australian screen directors. His responsibilities include policy development, event management and overseeing the different State committees of the Guild.

He comes from a theatre and film background working as a theatre director, film and television producer as well as a consultant for screen organisations across Australia. He most recently produced “TAXI SCHOOL” for SBS and KULKA for NITV. He was the Manager of the Production Liaison Unit of the NSW Film and Television Office for three years and has served on a number of boards including the Association of Film Commissions International, Seymour Theatre Centre and Ausfilm.

Simon Lake is the chief executive of Screenrights, a non-profit, audio-visual collecting society which collects royalties for owners of copyright in film and television.

Previously Simon was the executive director of the Australian Writers’ Guild, the national professional association for writers working in film, television, theatre and multimedia and also the executive director of AWGACS, the Australian Writers’ Guild’s Authorship Collecting Society.

Simon is on the Board of the international retransmission collection agency, AGICOA.

Louisa is an experienced, commercially minded business executive who delivers business growth and development. She is currently the General Manager at the Walkley Foundation for Journalism.  Her key focus is staff management, stakeholder relations, program and service delivery. She has worked for United Nations Women, The Australian Institute of International Affairs, the Sydney Writers’ Festival and the Ten Network. Louisa has also managed national community awareness campaigns for both White Ribbon Day and the Australian Republican Movement.  She is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and has held a number of non-executive board positions.