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Meet the senior leaders of our Membership team

Story Published Tuesday 1 June 2021

Our Member Services division will now be known as Membership.

As Jana Gibson departs this month, we’re currently recruiting for a Divisional Head of Membership.

We’ve made some changes to our Membership team, please meet our senior leaders.


Following the announcement that Jana Gibson, Head of Member Services, will be leaving APRA AMCOS at the end of June, we’ve reviewed responsibilities within this area of our business and redefined some roles of people within the team to better align with our priorities to support our membership.

Membership is at the heart of APRA AMCOS. The priority of the Member Services team is to support our members to pursue sustainable and successful businesses and careers by providing well¬ targeted services, strong advocacy and opportunities to grow. We provide a core service to our members through partnering with the Music Licensing Operations functions of our business to maximise revenue for rightsholders and ensuring that our processes are competitive, efficient, accountable, fair and transparent. Over the last 12 months, the increased focus on technology enhancements has substantially increased our capacity to deliver this core service through the provision of data insights to members and an improved user experience on website portals, as well as providing staff with back-end process efficiencies.

In addition to these core activities, we support our members through outreach and engagement, educational resources, creation of programs for craft development and business skills as well partnerships and initiatives that provide opportunities for networking, collaboration and recognition both locally and globally.

Over the last 18 months, we’ve also made a strong commitment to address representation and inclusion as a key priority to better support our membership. We’ve made initial steps internally in terms of policy development which has framed external consultation with members and some programming. It has also led to the appointment of Diversity Arts Australia to consult with us on effecting meaningful change.

So this month will see some changes in our Membership team.

The Division has been renamed from Member Services to Membership. We are currently recruiting for a Divisional Head of Membership.

Please meet our senior leaders:

Leah Flanagan has been promoted to Director of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Music Office (NATSIMO) in recognition of her contribution to the strategic priorities she has established for APRA AMCOS both internally for management and staff, and externally for members ensuring self-determination is the basis of our ongoing support and planning.

Gillian Dunn has been appointed Senior Manager, Culture & Engagement in the People & Culture team to demonstrate our commitment to prioritising representation and inclusion across all aspects of our business. Gill will assist with the delivery of the soon to be completed Equity Action Plan, following our Diversity Arts training and consultation, and will partner with the business to facilitate stronger networks and greater representation and engagement with the broad diversity of our members and customers.

Matt Barber has been appointed to replace Gill Dunn in the role of Senior Manager, Publisher Relations. Matt has worked in the Publisher Relations team for many years and will be a familiar face to many as Gill transitions into her new role.

Laurel Smith as Senior Manager, Repertoire will work alongside Matt Barber and they will continue to co-lead the Publisher Relations and Repertoire department. The repertoire team continue to identify efficiencies and enhancements in copyright management systems to maximise payments to members.

Hannah Karkkainen has been appointed to a new role Director, Member Services. Her responsibilities have expanded to oversee the administrative operations of the division as well as core service delivery for writer and publisher members with a particular focus on continued digital service enhancements. Her strategic priority is ensuring our core services continue to be delivered as best practice.

Chris O’Neill has been appointed to a new role Director, Membership and Stakeholder Engagement. Chris will continue to lead APRA AMCOS’ National Engagement strategy with the membership and industry while overseeing project delivery and strategic alignment of multiple programs for members. He’s also responsible for national stakeholder management to identify opportunities to address career sustainability.

Milly Petriella will continue to work in her member relations role supporting members globally, and her title has been adjusted to reflect her work in securing partnerships, Director, Member Relations and Partnerships. This is a key component to continuing some of the well-established member programs Milly and her team deliver.