Our Team

Tony Douglas

Director - Melbourne

First job:Current Affairs Program Manager 3RRR-FM

Favourite campaign I've worked on: Rights@Work campaign and AEU Campaigns

Best part of my job with EMC:Winning campaigns that bring about positive change for our clients and the community. An example would be the AEU campaigns in Victoria that got $1.9B to re-build state schools and the Australians for Affordable Housing campaign that helped get $6.6B for new public and social housing builds

Email: tony@essentialmedia.com.au
Direct: (03) 9929 9912

Elizabeth Lukin

Director - Melbourne

First job: I trained as a registered nurse at the Mater Hospital in Brisbane.

Favourite campaign I've worked on:Early on in my media career, I was lucky enough to be asked to manage media when Xanana Gusmao was in Melbourne, after being released from an Indonesian jail.
He was on his way home to Dili and I spent 2 DAYS in his company.
The other campaign I feel very proud of is the Your Rights at Work campaign which bought together a TV campaign and high level media management which was exciting and really did change politics.

Best part of my job with EMC: Speaking truth to power.

Email: elizabeth@essentialmedia.com.au
Direct: (03) 9929 9910

Peter Lewis

Director - Sydney

First job: Overnight shifts sub-editing foreign news for Australian Associated Press (I subbed the collapse of most of the Iron Curtain throughout 1989)

Favourite campaign I've worked on: Your Rights at Work - how many times do you get to bring down a government?

Best part of my job with EMC: Working for people who are as passionate about politics as I am.

Email: peter@essentialmedia.com.au Direct: (02) 8280 9105
Twitter: @PeterLewisEMC
Skype: EMCPeter

Chris Perkins

Director - Brisbane

First job: Journalist at the Toowoomba Chronicle. I got the job on the strength of a story I wrote about my local Oxfam campaign to collect clothes for the victims of the Mozambique civil war.

Favourite campaign I've worked on: The successful 2009 Queensland election campaign for the Queensland Council of Unions - it involved research, online campaign video work, media, advertising and public messaging.

Post-election, the then Opposition Leader admitted that his biggest mistake was underestimating the strength of the unions' campaign - as a good a reference as you can get.

Best part of my job with EMC: Winning campaigns, making a difference, embracing new ways of doing things - and the people.

Email: chris@essentialmedia.com.au
Direct: (07) 3217 2215

Paul Sheridan

Senior Manager - Sydney

First job: Editor of Packaging News magazine. I learnt a lot about the benefits of provoking audience discussion when I introduced a centrefold section, revealing a new type of packaging each month in a 'sealed section'.

The publisher initially received complaints, but then the (serious) news media covered the 'controversy', subscriptions more than doubled within one month and advertising revenue increased by 40%.

Favourite campaign I've worked on: For its ambitious goal and the range of challenging and creative strategic communications initiatives, the Save Our Marine Life campaign to create a network of large marine sanctuaries in the south west of Australia.

Best part of my job with EMC: There is a great support among staff for new ideas and also to challenge convention. Having a solid base of evidence, drawn from a bank of research knowledge, of what works and what doesn't provides important building blocks for campaigns, but there is great scope for creativity to ensure campaigns swim, not sink.

Email: paul@essentialmedia.com.au
Direct: (02) 8280 9118

Gemma Swart

Senior Manager - Sydney

First job: Working my way up from intern to account manager for a Scottish public affairs consultancy, as the media and political landscape changed with the inauguration of the Scottish Parliament - a defining moment for modern democracy.

Favourite campaign I've worked on: Oxfam campaigns to protect civilians caught up in conflicts in west Africa - breaking stories about death and displacement to the world's media and pressuring the UN Security Council to respond.

Best part of my job with EMC: Front page stories.

Email: gemma@essentialmedia.com.au
Direct: (02) 8280 9102

Shannon Walker

Senior Client Manager - Melbourne

First job: President of the Deakin University Council of Students

Favourite campaign I've worked on: Volunteer media advisor to Annette Taddeo, Democrat candidate for the Florida 18th Congressional District in the 2008 US election.

Best part of my job with EMC: Helping progressive organisations win campaigns that change Government policy for the better

Email: shannon@essentialmedia.com.au
Direct: (03) 9929 9904

Stewart Prins

Client Manager - Sydney

First job: Writing compelling advertising features for the Hobart Mercury - including the weekly round-up of live music events and a very tasty Dining Out guide. The Spring Brides liftout was a career highlight.

Favourite campaign I've worked on: The Last Drinks campaign to tackle the epidemic of alcohol-related violence in NSW. The campaign has brought together cops, doctors, nurses and ambos.

Best part of my job with EMC: Advocating for the interests of working people and for better public services.

Email: stewartp@essentialmedia.com.au
Direct: (02) 8280 9119

Kate Rielley

Client Manager - Melbourne

First job: Communications coordinator for Holden, working on their Community Support Program.

Favourite campaign I've worked on: AEU 2006 Victorian Public Schools Audit campaign, helping secure $2 billion from the State Government to re-build public schools.

Best part of my job with EMC: the diversity of issues and organisations I'm involved with.

Email: kate@essentialmedia.com.au
Direct: (03) 9929 9902

Brett Young

Client Manager - Brisbane

First job: Sub-editing, reporting, making the coffee and learning the ropes on a mostly-daily newspaper in far north-west Queensland.

Favourite campaign I've worked on: A successful fight against the conservative government's Leading Schools in Queensland in the mid 1990s.

Best part of my job with EMC: Working with clients committed to a cause.

Email: brett@essentialmedia.com.au
Direct: (07) 3217 2000

Jackie Woods

Client Manager - Sydney

First job: Journalist at the Eastern Suburbs Messenger. I reported on the intrigues of Waverley Council, wrote thrilling real estate copy and reviewed some of Sydney’s worst restaurants.

Favourite story I've covered: The Fiji coup in 2000, where nationalist Fijians led by George Speight took the elected Government hostage. The setting was surreal, with the lovely Pacific-style Parliament building surrounded by big guys drinking kava and waving machine guns, while the elected politicians were locked inside. Fijian democracy has never recovered.

Best part of my job with EMC: Writing about the issues facing Australian workers in diverse industries, from posties to police, miners, childcare workers and train drivers.

Email: jackie@essentialmedia.com.au
Direct: (02) 8280 9107
Twitter: @jackiewoods

David Imber

Account Director - Melbourne

First job: I started doing media relations as part of my volunteer work when I was at university. My first big win included acting as spokesperson on morning FM radio when (then) rock star Peter Garrett came to Monash University to speak at our protest against French Nuclear testing in the Pacific. My first paid gig that involved communications was as Policy worker at the Tenants Union of Victoria.

Favourite campaign I've worked on: Australians for Affordable Housing- as spokesperson I got to see the passion and energy of EMC staff as they supported me with almost daily media as I travelled the country visiting every State and Territory campaigning for affordable housing. My personal highlight was being interviewed on Meet the Press.

Best part of my job with EMC: working with our clients to shape the news agenda and create a more progressive country.

Email: davidimber@essentialmedia.com.au
Direct: (03) 9929 9918

Stuart Gillies

Digital & Production Manager - Sydney

First job: I started my own web business with some friends at university, and learnt quickly that strategy and client development was my passion. Since then I have worked in many varied roles across branding, application development, advertising and online strategy for a broad range of industries.

Favourite campaign I've worked on: Save our marine life campaign, launching the sandy the seal game and creating new ways to drive petition signing and awareness of the site using various online tactics.

Best part of my job with EMC: Working with people who are enthusiastic about change, and open to explore and try new ideas, which is particularly great in the ever changing and evolving world of social media and online strategy.

Email: stuartg@essentialmedia.com.au
Direct: (02) 8280 9106
Twitter: @cheddarhungry

Andrew Bunn

Research Director - Melbourne

First job: Media distribution - after-school paper round for Hampton East newsagency.

Favourite campaign I’ve worked on:A campaign to protect Victoria's marine environment which resulted in the creation of 13 Marine National Parks and 11 Marine Sanctuaries. And Your Rights @ Work, of course.

Best part of my job with EMC:Working with great people and conducting research on issues that matter.

Email: andrew@essentialmedia.com.au
Direct: (03) 9929 9909