Allen Williams steps down as ACM MD and CEO

After a longstanding career with the company spanning more than 30 years, Australian Community Media (ACM) managing director and CEO Allen Williams has resigned from his role and will finish up with ACM on December 18.

ACM has begun its search for a replacement for Williams.

In an internal note to staff, ACM executive chairman Antony Catalano confirmed the move and said that while he is “disappointed” that Williams will be leaving the company, the outstanding contributions Williams made to the business throughout its evolution is commendable.

“While I am disappointed that Allen will be leaving us, I am grateful for the outstanding contribution he has made… from before the Rural Press and Fairfax Media merger all the way through to ACM’s first 18 months as a privately owned and proudly independent media company,” he said.

“I have had the pleasure of working with Allen over many of those 30 years and he will always have my gratitude for his decision to stay on after Alex Waislitz and I acquired ACM in July 2019.

“Allen’s experience across the business and his extensive industry knowledge has been a critical factor in helping steer us through the past year, which has presented some of the most challenging financial conditions ever faced by the Australian media sector.”

Williams’ career in media began almost 40 years ago and has taken him to senior management roles across Australia, New Zealand and the US.

Having previously worked at News Limited, Australian Consolidated Press and The Asher Joel Media Group, he joined Rural Press in June 1990 with responsibility for its national sales operation and was subsequently appointed as general manager of Victorian operations – a position he held until transferring to the US in 1993 as president of Rural Press USA Inc.

On returning to Australia in 1996, he was appointed to the senior management team of Rural Press.

From the Rural Press-Fairfax Media merger of May 2007 through to the December 2018, Nine-Fairfax merger and ACM’s move to private ownership in July 2019, Williams held various senior executive roles at Fairfax, including chief executive and publisher of Fairfax Regional and Community Newspapers, CEO of Fairfax Media New Zealand, managing director of Australian Publishing Media and managing director of Australian Community Media & Printing.

Over that time, he lent his expertise to the broader media industry as a director of the former Australian Associated Press (AAP), Torch Publishing Pty Ltd and the Pacific Area Newspaper Publishers Association (PANPA).

In New Zealand, he was a director of the Newspaper Publishers Association and Newspaper Advertising Bureau Board of Control. He was also a member of the Supporters Council of the Young Enterprise Trust, which promotes an enterprise and financially literate culture among New Zealand school students.

“On behalf of Alex, ACM’s executive leadership team and everyone across the ACM business, I would like to sincerely thank Allen for his generous contributions as a leader, mentor and colleague,” Catalano added.

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