APRA Writer Directors’ message to potential writer nominees

APRA is a member-based music rights management organisation. The APRA Constitution provides that the APRA Board must be comprised of six writer members and six music publisher members.

The six Writer Directors who currently represent the writer membership on the APRA Board are: Jenny Morris MNZM OAM (Chair), Amanda Brown, Mark Callaghan, Chris Neal, Bic Runga, and Jonathan Zwartz.

Read the APRA Board biographies

A message from the Writer Directors on the APRA Board to potential Writer Director nominees

We are very proud to represent the writer membership on the APRA Board, and we are conscious that big challenges lie ahead for the Company and for our membership at large. How do we support and protect the livelihoods of the APRA membership through the scarring devastation of the COVID-19 pandemic? How do we, as individual music creators ourselves, represent the varied interests and voices of our diverse writer and composer members, while leading and governing the business on behalf of the whole collective? How do we balance the complex commercial and compliance aspects of our responsibility with the increasing call from our membership for greater accountability on social issues such as equality, inclusion and diversity?

When our colleague and friend, Chris Neal, recently announced he was voluntarily stepping down from the APRA Board after 21 years of service, he said he was doing so in the hope that the writer membership would elect in his place a candidate that expanded the diversity of the APRA Board. We recognise and endorse the view that greater diversity of perspective on our Board will strengthen our ability to navigate these challenging times by bringing different viewpoints and challenging assumptions.

As the current Writer Directors, we thought it would be useful to set out here the skills, experience and personal qualities that in our view a successful Writer Director candidate for the APRA Board may possess.

Skills and Experience

• Demonstrated involvement in and commitment to the Australian music community
• Ability to reflect broad community standards and engage with a plurality of community perspectives
• Understanding or a capacity to develop an understanding of the rights management framework and the commercial, cultural and community value of music rights
• Personal experience in the commercial and business aspects of being a career songwriter, composer and artist
• General knowledge and interest in the future implications for our industry of technological, socio-economic, geopolitical, demographic, market and workforce changes

Personal Qualities

• Curiosity and a deep inquisitive nature – the ability to extend beyond your comfort zone and seek answers to difficult questions
• Exceptional communication skills and the ability to respectfully debate difficult issues within group decision-making process
• Integrity, good judgement and the ability to make objective decisions on behalf of the collective, independent of personal views
• Maturity and balance, and the ability to apply reason, common sense and sensitivity when assessing a wide variety of material
• Ability to shape strategic thinking, including experience in leading and managing small teams

Jenny Morris MNZM OAM, Amanda Brown, Mark Callaghan, Chris Neal, Bic Runga and Jonathan Zwartz