Interviews with Celebrities

Amanda Gome

Amanda Gome has spent two decades in business journalism is the CEO of SmartCompany and is a professor of business at RMIT University.

She has built a reputation as being Australia's leading source of news and information for entrepreneurs and small to medium enterprises. Her passion for encouraging entrepreneurs led her to founding and editing the Emerging Companies section and the influential Fast 100 and Upstarts lists at BRW magazine.

In 2006, Amanda created SmartCompany.com.au, the website for SMEs and entrepreneurs. At the launch of SmartCompany.com.au, the Federal Minister for Small Business and Tourism Fran Bailey said that this website was long overdue.

"I believe that this will help to improve the business culture in Australia by providing fresh, independent information and advice for business owners by business owners," said the Minister.

Amanda has worked as a business journalist since 1988 at The Herald, Sunday Herald, Herald-Sun and BRW. She appears regularly on radio and television. This is her first start-up business. "For 20 years I have been writing about entrepreneurs and telling them what to do," says Amanda. "I thought it was time I did it myself!"

Bruce Tyrrell

Bruce Tyrrell is the chief executive of one of the largest family-owned wine companies in Australia. He has transformed Tyrrell's Wines a into a major player in the domestic and international wine markets.

Established in 1858 in the Hunter Valley, Tyrrell's wines have won many awards, most recently dominating the 2006 Hunter Valley Wine Show, taking out nine trophies, 15 Gold Medals, seven Silver Medals and eight Bronze.

Bruce was a pioneer in exporting Australian wines to the world. From a frustrating start Bruce's persistence paid off, and Tyrrell's now exports to 30 countries around the world.

Bruce has long taken a leadership role in the Australian wine industry and is involved in a number of industry bodies and research activities.
He has also taken a strong interest in the link between the wine and tourism industries and is currently Chairman of the Australian Wine Tourism Alliance. He has provided financial support to the local Tourist Information Centre and funded an annual scholarship through Tourism Training Australia.

Bruce has also contributed significantly to charities. Personally and through Tyrrell's Wines he supports a variety of causes such as the Starlight Foundation; the Royal Flying Doctor Service; the Victor Chang Heart Research Institute; the Heart Foundation of Australia; the Cancer Council of New South Wales; and the Royal Agricultural Society Easter Show.

Fergus Linehan

Fergus Linehan is the Festival Director and Chief Executive of Sydney Festival. This year was his third year at Sydney Festival and was basically critic proof. In particular Mr. Linehan organized a number of free and low cost events making it easier for all Sydney-siders to join in the celebrations. He obtained record attendance, an operating profit, and injected a young and fresh element into the show.

Fergus was born and grew up in Dublin. His family has extensive links to the Irish arts community, with his father a playwright and his mother a respected actor and comedienne and his brother a journalist.

Franca Arena

 Franca Arena, journalist broadcaster and parliamentarian, was born at Genoa, Italy, in 1937 and migrated to Australia in 1959. After her arrival in Sydney in she was employed as a journalist with the Italian newspaper La Fiamma, and as a broadcaster with various radio stations. She was involved in the founding of Ethnic Radio 2EA Sydney and was awarded a Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Fellowship.

Ms Arena was a founding member and convener of a number of organizations including the Ethnic Communities Council of NSW, the Women's Committee of the Council, and the Migrant Women's Association.

A member of the Australian Labor Party, Arena was elected to the Legislative Council of NSW in 1981. She was the first woman from a non-English speaking background to be elected to the NSW Parliament.

Her primary interest where in immigration, multicultural and women's issues, and issues surrounding pedophilia. She has also written an autobiography titled Franca: my story.

Monica Waters

Working in the healthy industry Monica was concerned by the lack of healthy and convenient foods available to parents and she wanted to create an alternative that children would enjoy and parents would be pleased to serve.

She observed that busy parents were very concerned about the convenient snack foods on offer, as they were generally filled with colourings and preservatives or heavy in saturated fats or salt.

Her husband James Meldrum and herself started the company Nourish and the brand Whole Kids with the commitment to provide the highest-quality organic and natural foods to consumers.

After five years of research the products were launched, and the public response to the Whole Kids range, which includes dried fruit, juices, bars and popcorn, has by all accounts been overwhelming.

Sebastian Jacobs

Sebastian is a 25 year old full time fire-fighter based in Sydney. He set up OutingsGuide, a one-stop entertainment and social networking website after noticing that nothing like it existed anywhere on the web.

OutingsGuide looks to provide information about all the events and entertainment options in any area of Australia. From school fetes, to big name concerts, OutingsGuide can provide you with all the options including advanced mapping capabilities and the ability to invite all your friends to the event. It also includes places to stay.

Businesses can list on the website for free or upgrade their profiles for a small amount - perfect for the small business who wants an easily updatable presence on the web, but doesn't want to outlay a heap of cash to develop their own site.

Johnny Diesel

Johnny Diesel has recorded nine albums under either this name, his birth name of Mark Lizotte or the epithet Diesel. Two of his albums have been No. 1 Australian hits and he has also played on several albums by his brother-in-law, rock singer Jimmy Barnes.

Best known as a singer and guitarist, Diesel is also competent on bass guitar, drums and percussion and keyboards. In 1986 Johnny Diesel and the Injectors were formed and were taken on tour with jimmy Barnes as the opening act. This was was the beginning of a long working relationship between Diesel and Barnes that continues to the present.

The eponymous album Johnny Diesel and the Injectors was recorded in Memphis, Tennessee and released in 1989.

At the ARIA awards in early following year, Johnny Diesel and the Injectors won awards for Best New Talent and Best Selling Album of the Year (with more than 280,000 copies sold).

Diesel made a comeback to Australian music with the September 1999 release Soul Lost Companion, issued under his birth name Mark Lizotte. It spawned the singles, "Dig" and "Satellite".

To this point in his career, Diesel has sold over 800,000 records in Australia and won nine awards.

Ron Bunker

Ron Bunker became Chairman of Citibank Ltd on January 1, 2002 and has driven significant change across the organisation. These changes have included transforming the traditional bank branches to financial investment centres, the acquisition of Diners Club Australia, and structuring the management of the Bank as five discrete business units.

Focusing on delivering for all Citibank stakeholders in his tenure, employee and customer satisfaction has risen significantly and profits have increased year on year.

Mr Bunker was raised and educated in Canada, and since immigrating to Australia, he has developed a strong commitment to supporting the local community and a keen interest in rugby union.

Ron also spent four years working for the Canadian government in the Department of Defense. As a research scientist in ionispheric physics, he was the joint author of two papers on the effects of solar storms on radio wave communications in the Northern Hemisphere.

In Australia and New Zealand, Citigroup businesses service almost one million consumers and 1,000 corporate customers and revenues of one billion dollar.

Trevor Sinclair

Trevor is Sydney born, raised and bred & has a real passion for Sydney.