The board of the Melbourne Press Club has unanimously agreed to confer the honour of Life Membership for Eileen Berry, Adele Ferguson and Rob Curtain.
The board and management of the Melbourne Press Club congratulates Eileen, Adele and Rob on this outstanding achievement.
Eileen Berry made an outstanding contribution to the Club as President up to the 2020 AGM and continues to serve as a board member.
She started in journalism in 1984 at Leader newspapers. Her career has included roles in editorial, administration, classifieds and new technology at ‘The Age'. Eileen has worked in Qld (APN), New Zealand (FXJ). She is the founding editor of ‘The Weekly Review’ (Metro Media Publishing, 2010-2015)). Today, Eileen runs the NFP organisation Parenting Guides Ltd. and continues to give back to the media sector through her engagement on the board of the Melbourne Press Club and as a mentor with Women in Media.
Adele Ferguson also contributed to the Club in the role of Club President up until October 2019.
She started her career in journalism at The Advertiser. She has also worked at BRW and The Australian and is now an investigative journalist and columnist with The Age, SMH and AFR, and a guest reporter with ABC Four Corners and 7.30. Her journalism awards include eight Walkley awards including the Gold Walkley for her Four Corners program 'Banking Bad', two Gold Quill Awards, two Gold Kennedy Awards, a Logie and the Graham Perkin Journalist of the year. In 2019 Adele was awarded a Member of the Order of Australia (AM).
Rob Curtain has been a long standing member of the Club and was a member of the board until June 2020. He continues to provide support for the Club in an advisory role, for which we are thankful.
Rob has worked in commercial radio as a news director (3AW, 3MP), news commentator, journalist, announcer, and copywriter. He was national news director for Fairfax Radio. He has also had roles in public relations as a media manager and corporate affairs journalist. Today, he is a media and communications consultant and lectures in journalism, media law and ethics and public relations at Deakin University. Rob is Chair of the RMIT University Journalism Industry Advisory Committee.
The Melbourne Press Club has now recognised 23 outstanding Life Members and we express our gratitude for their past services to the Club.
Life Members include; Mark Baker, Peter Bartlett, Eileen Berry, Jim Clarke, Adele Ferguson, Claude Forell, Steve Harris, Pat Hayes, Ian Henderson, Sue Henderson, Bob Kearsley, Neil Mitchell, Laurie Oakes, David Poulton, Mike Richards, Michael Rowland, Mike Smith, Bernard Teague, John Trevorrow, Michael Venus and Sally White.
We look forward to celebrating these newly conferred Life Membership achievements after Covid 19 restrictions ease.