About Us
Meet Some PRIA Fellows
Sheila O'Sullivan
Sheila is Officer of the College of Fellows and chairman of Socom PR in Melbourne and one of the most respected issues managers and communications analysts in Australia.
For more than two decades Sheila has been recognised by her clients and peers nationally and internationally - winning many industry awards. Her successful campaigns have covered a wide range of public relations and Sheila’s knowledge of government is unmatched in the industry.
Much of her work has focussed on encouraging local communities, including women in particular, to participate in political life. Sheila has received the 2004 United Nations Communication Award for her work in guiding the campaign that was successful in securing support for East Timorese refugees who wanted to become permanent residents in Australia.
Sheila has worked with a wide range of government and community groups, including the Municipal Association of Victoria and individual councils, designing programs to encourage women’s participation in local government.
Much of her work has focussed on developing new models of community engagement.
As a highly-awarded public relations practitioner, she has been instrumental in raising the standing and professionalism of the industry. She was involved in the development of the Public Relations Institute of Australia (PRIA) course accreditation program for universities and since 1994 has been Chairman of the Examination Board of the PRIA nationally.
In 2003 she was awarded a Centenary Medal for outstanding services to local government. She holds a number of directorships and Board positions of both public and private organisations, including the Museum of Victoria and the Sustainable Energy Authority of Victoria.
Sheila’s work has helped to build a pathway for energising civic capacity in women as well as encouraging more female public relations practitioners to recognise their strategic abilities and take on senior management roles.
Jim Macnamara
Jim Macnamara has a 30-year career in media, public relations and corporate communication and is an internationally recognised authority on research for planning and measurement of communication.
After working in senior corporate PR positions, he founded and headed a PR consultancy for 13 years, before establishing the Asia Pacific office of global media analysis firm, CARMA International and working full-time in media and communication research.
He holds a BA in journalism, media studies and literary studies; an MA by research in media studies; and a Doctor of Philosophy in media research and is the author of 11 books and a former National President of the PRIA.
Peter Lazar
Peter Lazar, founder and chairman Professional Public Relations (PPR), one of Australasia's largest consultancy firms. A Life Fellow and Eminent Visiting Practitioner, Peter was a PRIA Councillor (20 yrs), President NSW and Convenor College of Fellows and a founding director of the Futures Foundation.
Key communicator involved in fluoridation of Sydney water, he was made a Fellow of the International College of Dentists for services to dental health. Co-author PR Manual (Tymson Lazar), the leading text for communication students, he now lectures extensively, undertakes pro bono work for community and charity organisations and mentors younger members of the profession.
Associate Professor Tom Watson
Dr Tom Watson is Associate Professor and Head of the School of Communication at Charles Sturt 
University. He took his first degree at University of NSW and gained his Doctor of Philosophy from Nottingham Trent University in 1995 for research into evaluation of PR.
After starting work as a journalist on The Australian, Tom went to the UK in the mid-1970s to work in journalism and then public relations. From 2000 to 2002, he was chairman of the UK’s Public Relations Consultants Association. Tom is a Fellow of the UK’s Chartered Institute of Public Relations and a Fellow of the Public Relations Institute of Australia.
Tom Watson has advised clients in the UK, Europe, Africa and the Americas on major issues. He has researched and written extensively on evaluation of public relations programmes and his book, Evaluating Public Relations, co-authored with Paul Noble, was published recently by Kogan Page.
Naomi Factor
Naomi Factor has had more than 35 years experience as a public relations practitioner with her major expertise being in marketing communications.
She was the co-founder in Australia of international PR consultancy Burson Marsteller and was their Vice President and Director of Consumer and Health Care Services
She moved to Network Communications in 1987 to head its Strategic Planning and Marketing Division and set up her own business, The Communications Factor in 1994. Naomi also worked for three years as a Senior Advisor to multinational Public Relations Consultancy, Hill & Knowlton.
Recently, she has been mentoring young executives and has been involved in putting in place a mentoring program for the NSW Public Relations Institute.
Naomi was active for many years in the affairs of the PRIA NSW as a Senior Vice President, Chairman of the Admissions Board as well as Convenor of several Public Relations Conferences and, for several years, the Awards of Excellence. She is a Fellow of the College, is on the Board of Asthma NSW and an adviser on their marketing needs and is a trained Marriage and Youth Counsellor.
Warwick Olson
Currently runs own consultancy, specialising in the not-for-profit area.
Previous history: 1951-64 Sydney Daily Telegraph; 1964-73 Media Officer Anglican Church; 1973-4 Communications Director for Billy Graham sponsored international congress in Lausanne Switzerland: 1974-98 Director and later Managing Director Pilgrim International Limited; 1992-3 seconded to World Vision International in the USA ,as VP Communications; 1998 - Present, Principal of the Olson Consultancy Pty Ltd; 2001 – Present, Chairman Pilgrim International Limited.
Robyn Sefiani
With a public relations career spanning over 20 years, Robyn Sefiani is highly regarded in Australia as a specialist in corporate reputation and brand management, issues and crisis management and executive profiling.
Robyn has advised some of the world's leading companies on public relations strategies, including Visa International, Procter & Gamble and BHP Billiton. In 1999 Robyn established Sefiani Communications Group, a specialist corporate and financial communications strategy firm. Previously, she had a 12-year career with global public relations firm Edelman, where she was President South-Asia and sat on the international Board.
Robyn is a Board member of Special Olympics Australia.
Grahame Cox
Grahame’s career spans more than 20 years assisting companies develop and implement B2B communications strategies using on-line and offline media. As managing director of Upstream Australia he is part of the team managing the operations of the London Stock Exchange (AIM) listed Upstream whose offices are based in Sydney, Singapore, HongKong, Beijing, Shanghai, Taipei, and Tokyo. Grahame provides specialist counsel on marketing issues and corporate reputation in the technology and telecoms sector, and positioning emerging companies. He is a founding partner of Macro Consulting prior to that company joining the Upstream group. He spent seven years with the international public relations consultancy, Hill & Knowlton, where he worked in Canberra, Sydney, Auckland, Wellington and Brisbane working across government, marketing and research. He is a former director and principal of the MACRO Communication agencies in Australia, Singapore and Indonesia.
Rodney Gray
Rodney Gray BA MBA is principal of Employee Communication & Surveys, a “boutique” consultancy specialising in employee communication (research, systems, processes, strategies and plans).
He has been consulting for 25 years following a corporate career as head of human resources (for such companies as Rheem and Honeywell).
Rodney has been on the Committee of the Research Foundation of the International Association of Business Communicators for many years, and is on the Advisory Board of the Australian Centre for Public Communication at the University of Technology, Sydney.
He is a regular guest lecturer to Communication Masters students at UTS and Charles Sturt University.
Brian Mahoney
A director of leading financial public relations consultancy Financial & Corporate Relations (FCR) since 1989, Brian has extensive experience in investor communication, financial product marketing, media relations, and issues and crisis management.
He entered public relations in 1977 when he co-founded Eric White Associates’ financial relations division with Brian Hemming. Activity included investor relations and crisis management during the initial public demonstrations against asbestos mining at James Hardie’s annual meetings, defence of Theiss and reputation management for Utah after it was heavily criticised for repatriating large amounts to the US from its lucrative Queensland open cut coal operations.
In 1980-82 Brian headed Eric White’s Adelaide office, managing employee, media and public relations for Actil, Austrade, Australian Finance Conference, Tubemakers, Sabco, Santos and the Art Gallery of South Australia.
Returning to Sydney in 1982, he became the senior financial relations consultant and then associate director of Neilson McCarthy & Partners until 1987. Activity included comprehensive stakeholder communication to achieve two major rural mergers: one involving the Queensland meat industry interests of Elders IXL, Smorgon, Metro Meat and Tancred Bros; the other merging Dalgety, Farmers Grazcos and Bennetts Farmers.
Other work included the start of a 12-year relationship with Legal & General where broad public relations activity resulted in the company being publicly perceived as larger than it actually was; Westfield Holdings’ investor relations, particularly with the takeover of Channel 10 and the listing of Westfield Trust; and communication enabling the re-entry of Visa International to Australia after local banks had ostracised the organisation in favour of their own Bankcard.
In 1987 he joined specialist financial relations consultancy, Dewe Rogerson Australia, writing Westpac’s annual report and developing early shareholder benefits communication for CSR. Other activity included a sensitive project to prevent adverse publicity when the board of a leading company replaced its managing director; another campaign to convince unitholders in Growth Equities Mutual to vote for ASX listing as a way to overcome imminent collapse of the property trust; and media management when a large insurer withdrew from the Adelaide market because of earthquake risk.
From January 1990 to the present Brian has been a director of FCR. He coordinated media relations and communication initiatives for Arnott’s Limited in its takeover defence against Campbell Soup – a bid that created more widespread public sympathy and concern than any other, before or since. He has managed communication strategy during crises where shoppers were killed by legionnaires disease from potting mix, where workers threatened to flood a mine, and throughout a bitter, month long industrial dispute.
He managed media relations during the Tampa crisis for the Wilhelmsen Line after the ship’s captain made one of the largest sea rescues in history but was refused entry to land the 346 refugees in Australia. As an election issue that helped John Howard win government, the communication challenge was to ensure the Norwegian shipping line did not become an adversary to the Australian government. FCR succeeded in channelling information from the ship to the world in a way that resulted in the captain and the company emerging from the crisis with a higher reputation.
John Savage
Savage has and continues to foster new members of the profession with work experience and often flowing from this full and part time positions. It was his focus on giving new members of the profession a start that led to his appointment to the College of Fellows. While Savage still works in the Public Relations industry he and wife Jeanette have a tour company, Interlude Tours which specialises in personally escorted trips to some of the world's most popular destinations
Candy Tymson
Candy has more than 25 years managerial experience in the fields of Public Relations and Marketing. Her company, Tymson Communications, represented clients such as Telstra, Apple Computer, CSR, the Olympics 2000 Project and co-ordinated the official opening of the Sydney Harbour Tunnel.
Now a professional speaker and business coach, Candy is the co -author of The Australian & NZ Public Relations Manual, the recognized text on PR, a former Lady Mayoress of Sydney and Past President of the National Speakers Association of Australia.
She is also the author of "Gender Games: Doing Business With the Opposite Sex – a topic which is one of her speaking specialties. Find out more by going to: www.tymson.com.au
Gerry Mulholland
Gerry Mulholland is a senior consultant with five decades of commercial public relations experience. His first promotional assignment was launching DDT for control of the cattle tick.
In l959 he established a public relations agency, building the practice to a staff of 11 operating from company-owned premises in Sydney.
A former PRIA NSW councillor and Vice President, he helped organise two national PR conferences and the first international public relations congress in Australia, in Melbourne in 1988.
He has been National Coordinator of the International Public Relations Association, a long-time member of the International Association of Business Communicators and travelled to China as a member of the first officially-sponsored Australian public relations delegation invited to that country.
Robert Gibbs
Robert Gibbs FPRIA has been web master for the PRIA since 2000.
His interest in technology and public relations is well known within the profession. Robert advocates that public relations practitioners are uniquely placed to lead the way technology can best be applied in the communications and marketing fields. He is a regular speaker on this issue and many companies operating in this area seek his advice.
Robert's other professional commitments include membership of the public relations industry advisory committee of RMIT and he is a regular judge of the annual PRIA State Awards for Excellence (Vic). He is also an immediate past national board member of Musica Viva Australia.
Robert is one of Australia's most successful and well-known public relations executives. He has been recognized by his peers both in Australia and internationally receiving many awards from IABC, IPRA and PRIA. His career spans 20 years including recent roles as head of public relations for Telstra Corporation and prior to that was head of publicity and promotions for ABC Radio.
Robert is currently the head of marketing and communications for Nokia Siemens Networks ANZ. Robert has also received the PRIA National President's Award in recognition of his contribution to the PRIA.
Contact Robert: webmaster@pria.com.au
Some candid shots
John Malone FPRIA, Arthur Delbridge FPRIA & Peter Lazar FPRIA
Last Updated: April 8, 2008