Experience

Crescent Institute

• Australia
• Non-profit Organizations
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Non Executive Board Member

  • Mar 2021 - Present

  Under the mission statement "Opening Tomorrow to Everyone", the Crescent Institute hosts events with top-tier speakers, establishing networking opportunities for early-to-mid stage professionals from non-English speaking backgrounds. Under the mission statement "Opening Tomorrow to Everyone", the Crescent Institute hosts events with top-tier speakers, establishing networking opportunities for early-to-mid stage professionals from non-English speaking backgrounds.



Network 10

• Australia
• Broadcast Media Production and Distribution
• 700 & Above Employee

• National Affairs Editor

  • Jan 2019 - Present

  Work with senior editorial management to lead coverage of major national and international events. Take integral role in on-air studio coverage of events like federal elections and budgets, and special programming like the death of HM The Queen. Co-host the weekly federal politics podcast “The Professor And The Hack”, which has garnered more than 1,000,000 downloads.

• News Presenter

  • Feb 2014 - Present

  Presenting TEN Network's flagship Sydney-based news bulletin TEN Eyewitness News.Occasional host of The Project, Studio 10, and News Specials with a special focus on politics, international and breaking news.

• National Political Editor & Canberra Bureau Chief

  • 2009 - Feb 2014

  Hugh led the TEN political reporting team through the tumultuous period that included the fall of Malcolm Turnbull as Opposition leader, the toppling of Kevin Rudd as Prime Minister, the 2010 "hung" parliament, the internal moves against Prime Minister Julia Gillard, and the 2013 election victory of Tony Abbott's Coalition. He won his second Walkley Award in 2011 for his work in breaking the Defence "Skype" scandal, sparking more than half a dozen government and defence inquiries and ushering in Defence internal reforms.During this period, Hugh also won the Australian Human Rights Association media award, the UN Assn Media Prize, and was nominated for a second Logie. He was also shortlisted for the Graham Perkin Award for Australian Journalist of the Year.Hugh also reported significant international events in the company of five Prime Ministers (Rudd/Gillard/Abbott/Turnbull/Morrison), from the 2009 Copenhagen climate change talks to major missions to Russia, China, Korea, India and the United States (twice) with Julia Gillard, with Tony Abbott as he pledged naval patrol vessels to Sri Lankan in 2013, with Malcolm Turnbull to the UK, Germany and France, and with Scott Morrison to the G20 in Japan. Hugh also reported from Afghanistan, during Operation Slipper, covering combat engagements, the capture of high value insurgents, foot and vehicle patrols, local politics and weapons seizures in Uruzgan Province.His studio work including presenting election coverage in 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019 & 2022 and overseeing and presenting MEET THE PRESS.Under his leadership, the 15 member Canberra bureau achieved Walkley Awards and the Paul Lyneham Award for Press Gallery excellence. Staff he hired and mentored have gone on to distinguished careers in journalism, politics and business. Show less



Farnow Media Pty Ltd

• Director

  • Jan 2018 - Nov 2022

  Private family company providing content and digital assets. Private family company providing content and digital assets.



John Mac Foundation

• Australia
• Philanthropy

• Chairman

  • Apr 2016 - Feb 2020

  The John Mac Foundation was created by 2017 NSW Australian of the Year, Deng Thiak Adut, a former South Sudanese child soldier who came to Australia as an illiterate refugee, speaking no English, who by 23 had a law degree, and by 30, his own law firm. HIs late half-brother John Mac Acuek had been a friend of mine. I knew Deng from his earliest days in Sydney. After his brother's tragic death back in South Sudan, Deng started the foundation in his honour. I became its foundation chair. From the beginning it raised and directed funds to support university education for students from refugee and humanitarian backgrounds. For workload reasons, I stepped back from the role of honorary chair in early 2020. Show less



Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC)

• Australia
• Broadcast Media Production and Distribution
• 700 & Above Employee

• Radio Host "Sunday Extra" ABC RN

  • Jan 2018 - Dec 2019

  Presenting the national ABC radio show Sunday Extra. This involved leading a small team to produce three hours of content every Sunday morning to a significant audience. The subject matter ranged from highly technical discussions of banking and finance, to global affairs, the examination of scientific and social change, and interviews with distinguished achievers across a wide range of life experience. Presenting the national ABC radio show Sunday Extra. This involved leading a small team to produce three hours of content every Sunday morning to a significant audience. The subject matter ranged from highly technical discussions of banking and finance, to global affairs, the examination of scientific and social change, and interviews with distinguished achievers across a wide range of life experience.



Soldier On Australia

• Australia
• Individual and Family Services
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Non Executive Director

  • 2012 - 2019

  Soldier On helps Australian Defence Force personnel and their families and other Australians who have been wounded, physically or psychologically, as a result of their service. Hugh was a foundation board member and remains an ambassador and fund-raiser for Soldier On. www.soldieron.org.au Soldier On helps Australian Defence Force personnel and their families and other Australians who have been wounded, physically or psychologically, as a result of their service. Hugh was a foundation board member and remains an ambassador and fund-raiser for Soldier On. www.soldieron.org.au



Hachette Australia Books

• Australia
• Book and Periodical Publishing
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Author: "Minefields: A Life In The News Game"

  • May 2017 - Jun 2017

  "Minefields: A Life In The News Game" is an account of - at the time - a 35 year career in Australian and international reporting. It was a certified bestseller, becoming the #1 Australian biography - until knocked off by Jimmy Barnes! Fair play. It remains in print. "Minefields: A Life In The News Game" is an account of - at the time - a 35 year career in Australian and international reporting. It was a certified bestseller, becoming the #1 Australian biography - until knocked off by Jimmy Barnes! Fair play. It remains in print.



CNN

• United States
• Broadcast Media Production and Distribution
• 700 & Above Employee

• Anchor/Correspondent

  • 2004 - 2009

  Anchored the multi-award winning CNN International flagship program CNN TODAY. Reported from the field the major global news of the day, including the Indian Ocean Tsunami, China's Sichuan earthquake, the nuclear crisis on the Korean peninsula, the Nias and Yogyakarta earthquakes, and the war in Iraq from the ground. Hosted with Kristie Lu Stout CNN's "Eye On China", CNN's first sceheduled international programming out of Beijing, in what was widely seen as proof of the thaw between China and the West. Reported extensively across China, East and South-East Asia. Reported and presented a one-hour CNN documentary on Pakistan. Hugh's reporting of a plan to create a legal trade in human organs in the Philippines led to the draft legislation being abandoned. Hugh's exclusive one-on-one interview with former US Secretary of State Colin Powell on the night Barack Obama was elected made global headlines and was widely reported in the United States the following day, including on the front page of the New York Times. During his tenure, CNN TODAY twice won the Asia TV Award for the best news program in Asia. Hugh received the Dupont/Columbia Award (NY) for his coverage of the Indian Ocean tsunami. Show less



Nine Network Australia

• Presenter, NIGHTLINE

  • 2001 - 2004

  Nightline was over many years the most watched single news bulletin in Australia, as a late evening bulletin with a brief to bring serious issues to a national audience. As well as presenting the program, Hugh frequently went into the field to cover major stories including the TAMPA stand-off and the start of the "Pacific solution" for asylum seekers, the birth pangs of independent East Timor, and significant events in federal politics. He again travelled extensively in the Middle East, observing historic moments in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank, and in Iraq. His was the last Australian TV team to be in Baghdad in the lead-up to the 2003 invasion, becoming a witness to the last days of the Saddam Hussein regime. Show less

• Anchor/Correspondent

  • 1995 - 2001

  Returning from London, Hugh took up a roving brief with the Nine Network. In this role he led the network's coverage of momentous events including the resumption of French nuclear testing in the Pacific and independence riots in Tahiti, the Port Arthur massacre, the Thredbo disaster, the PNG tsunami of 1998, the Kosovo war, and the chaos in East Timor before the Australian-led INTERFET mission. He reported extensively from the Middle East as the Oslo peace process collapsed. Hugh also returned repeatedly to the war zones of Africa, reporting on the Lords Resistance Army conflict from northern Uganda, and the Sudanese war of independence. He and cameraman Steve Levitt bought 876 slaves on the Sudanese civil war front line, to demonstrate how an ancient trade was flourishing again under war conditions. Hugh received a Logie award and repeated Walkley nominations during this period and won the 2000 Walkley for securing an exclusive first interview with Fiji coup leader George Speight.In 2000 Hugh also completed a Master of Arts (Macquarie University) with a major project examining the armed humanitarian interventions in Somalia, Rwanda and Kosovo. Show less

• European Correspondent

  • 1991 - 1995

  The Nine London office had a geographical reach stretching from Cape Town to Murmansk and east to the Persian Gulf. In this time, Hugh reported on the chaos in Somalia, the South African township wars, the election of Nelson Mandela, the Rwandan genocide including the 1995 Kibeho massacre witnessed by Australian troops, the Russian rebellion that saw the doomed seizure of the Parliament, the Northern Ireland conflict and moves towards greater union within Europe. He also reported the crisis within the House of Windsor as the institutions of Royalty faced divorce, scandals and the challenges of modernity. During this time Hugh benefited, as many others have done, from the mentoring of the great Robert Penfold. Show less

• General Reporter

  • Jan 1989 - Dec 1991

  Hired by legendary newsman John Sorell, Hugh reported the hurly-burly of Melbourne crime, finance, state politics and general mischief. The period coincided with the collapse of many grand companies and institutions, including the Pyramid Building Society, Estate Mortgage, Tricontinental and the State Bank of Victoria. It was good practice for the next huge global crash in 2007. Too junior to be sent to the fall of the Berlin Wall, Hugh took holidays and headed to Berlin anyway to see this historic event for himself. After a couple of years in the Melbourne, Hugh was despatched to the London bureau. Show less



Seven Network Limited

• India

• Reporter

  • 1987 - 1988

  Having signed up to join the Seven general news team, Hugh was diverted to a new project, the HINCH AT SEVEN current affairs show. It was not for him. After a few months, Derryn Hinch and Hugh agreed news might indeed be a better fit. Hugh and the Human Headline remain good friends. Having signed up to join the Seven general news team, Hugh was diverted to a new project, the HINCH AT SEVEN current affairs show. It was not for him. After a few months, Derryn Hinch and Hugh agreed news might indeed be a better fit. Hugh and the Human Headline remain good friends.


3AW
• Spain
• Advertising Services
• 1 - 100 Employee
• Journalist

  • 1985 - 1987