AFTRS CEO Dr Nell Greenwood today announced the appointment of two senior executives to the School. Dr Romaine Moreton has been appointed to the newly created role of Director, First Nations & Outreach. Con Apostolopoulos has been appointed as Director, Partnerships & Development.
Dr Moreton is Goenpul Yagera of Stradbroke Island and Bundjulung of northern New South Wales. She is an internationally recognised writer of poetry, prose and film. While a Research Fellow Filmmaker in Residence at Monash, she completed the powerful transmedia work One Billion Beats, that examined the historical representation of Aboriginal people in Australian cinema. Prior to that, she was a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Newcastle and worked on a project about Indigenous Cultural Intellectual Property. With Dr Lou Bennett, Romaine has been working closely with AFTRS over the last two years on a first-of-its-kind Indigenous Curriculum for screen and broadcast, focussed through the lens of ethics and aesthetics.
Dr Moreton will be responsible for leading the design and implementation of the School’s First Nations and Outreach strategy, to ensure that AFTRS is continuing the work of the previous Head of Indigenous, Kyas Hepworth (née Sherriff), and meaningfully embedding First Nations culture in all that the School does, internally and externally, and that AFTRS takes a leadership position as a hub of excellence in learning that is safe, inclusive and accessible to people from all across Australia.
Mr Apostolopoulos comes to AFTRS after an international career, most recently as Senior Vice President, Asia and the Middle East, at National Geographic and, prior to that, as Vice President, Partnerships, Fox International Channels. Mr Apostolopoulos started his career with NewsCorp where, over a decade, he worked across partnerships for The Australian, The Daily Telegraph and The Australian Magazine. In 2009, he relocated to Hong Kong to join Turner Entertainment where he worked in the Advertising and Partnership teams across the Asia Pacific for brands including Cartoon Network, POGO, WB and HBO before joining Fox Networks Group as Vice President across APAC and the Middle East. He received his MBA from AGSM in 2014.
He will be responsible for the School’s Business Development strategy, including national and international student recruitment; national and international partnerships with educational institutions, screen and broadcast organisations and corporate and commercial organisations; philanthropic donations and leveraging in-kind support from stakeholders and alumni.
Dr Greenwood said: “This is a really exciting time for the School. With her years of experience as an academic, poet, filmmaker and advocate, Romaine brings deep knowledge and insights to our executive team that are vital to leadership in today’s complex world. Con has a very different but extremely complementary skill set – combining a really impressive international career with a passion for the arts.”
Dr Morton said: “As an AFTRS alumna, it is exciting to be joining the AFTRS executive team as the Director of First Nations & Outreach and to be part of a learning and teaching community that is focussed on fostering generations of storytelling and media practitioners both nationally and globally. I look forward to engaging in dialogue that promotes a renewed appreciation of media through the lens of Indigenous philosophies, ethics, aesthetics and land pedagogies with AFTRS staff, students, industry partners and stakeholders in support of AFTRS’ vision of encouraging screen and media leadership.”
Mr Apostolopoulos said: “I very much look forward to being part of AFTRS and working closely with Nell and the team to deliver a compelling experience for our students, drive further collaboration with our industry partners and develop long-lasting partnerships with those wishing to celebrate the wonderful and diverse power of Australian storytellers.”
In announcing these key appointments, Dr Greenwood said that a new streamlined structure will see AFTRS staff deployed over five divisions: Teaching & Learning, Production & Operations, Partnerships & Development, First Nations & Outreach, and People & Culture. “Moving into the CEO role earlier this year has given me the opportunity to think really hard about strategy for the School and how we move forward in this rapidly changing world. How do we ensure our graduates are the best screen and broadcast graduates in Australia; graduates who are able to make the screen and audio stories Australians need in this very complex world, and who are able to compete and tell truly Australian stories on a global stage?” Dr Greenwood says.
“At the heart of everything we do there needs to be excellence in learning. My focus is on ensuring the School and its staff are engaged in the singular purpose of providing the best possible industry-aligned, future-focussed student experience.
“As a School, we need inclusivity, diversity, an embedded First Nations culture, a world-class infrastructure supporting bricks and mortar and also a virtual structure for this digital, remote-access age. We need to be the hub of a rich, live network of partnerships and relationships – across our industry but also more broadly across society.”