Women Shaping the Future of Media

After a fascinating tour behind the scenes, where we saw Foxtel’s multiple channels going to air simultaneously, we settled down to hear Fox League presenter Yvonne Sampson lead an impressive panel of women: Stacey Brown, CFO Foxtel Group; Cate Hefele, Executive Director at Kayo; Erin Ferreira, Executive Producer at Fox Sports; and two of our ex-students, Sophie Shepherd (’17) Producer at Sunrise and Boh Clancy (’93) Vice President of Sales & Digital Distribution at Paramount Pictures.

Our panellists highlighted the importance of evolving, adapting and accepting new initiatives. The media landscape is constantly changing, with new technologies and trends emerging all the time; one of the newest trends is how many women are watching sports now, and the rise in popularity of women’s sports on TV. Each panellist provided overarching key takeaways necessary in the industry:  confidence, resilience, engagement, networking and valued mentorship. The clear messaging from Boh was ‘to listen, learn and absorb’. Yvonne reiterated the valuable quality of resilience, ‘to turn rejection into redirection’.  Our youngest ex-student, Sophie, encouraged our audience to ‘say yes to opportunities and internships’, have confidence in your ability and ‘make yourself heard’.

Finally, our appreciation to past parent and CEO Foxtel Group, Patrick Delany, for hosting LK Connect event for a second time.  Patrick is a strong advocate of a Loreto education, witnessing first-hand the incredible impact Loreto Kirribilli has on shaping strong, capable women - an education founded on our Loreto values.  Patrick is committed to opening doors for women in the media industry, and in his words, ‘there are no glass ceilings at the Foxtel Group for women’, which was clear in the calibre of panellists who shared their expertise with our Loreto community.

These events are golden opportunities for our students to gain first-hand insights from women in senior roles within various industries, and I encourage you to attend future industry evenings. We welcome our Loreto community to host corporate events to ‘open doors’ for more engagement and networking opportunities.

Debbie Henry
Development Manager