Lisa Wilkinson AM

Lisa Wilkinson has lived much of her life in the public eye. A Member Of The Order Of Australia, as well as a multi-Walkley-award-nominated and Logie-award-winning journalist, Lisa has been one of Australia's most admired and respected media personalities for more than four decades.

Growing up in the school of hard knocks in Sydney’s western suburbs, it’s Lisa’s drive, determination and what she calls her “never-fail strong gut instincts”, which have led to her blazing an unprecedented and inspirational trail through every corner of the Australian media and cultural landscape ever since.

At just 21, Lisa became the youngest editor ever appointed to take charge of a national magazine, Dolly, and managed to quickly triple the circulation of this teenage bible during the four years of her leadership.

Then, personally headhunted by media scion Kerry Packer to become editor of the iconic Cleo magazine, Lisa made a number of landmark changes to the title over her ten years at the helm, that resulted in Cleo becoming the No.1-selling women’s lifestyle magazine, per capita, in the world. By now, Lisa’s huge and loyal following and her strong connection to female audiences across Australia was affirmed.

Widely known for her inspiring leadership, Lisa has been a mentor to many who have gone on to forge their own highly successful media careers, including Mamamia.com’s Mia Freedman and long-time Women’s Weekly editor, Deborah Thomas. Lisa was even instrumental in discovering an at-the-time-unknown 15-year-old Nicole Kidman and giving her very first magazine cover.

By the mid-to-late 90s as she juggled career and motherhood, Lisa was in demand as a columnist, international magazine consultant, and radio host, eventually making the move to television, first on Foxtel’s Beauty & The Beast, before joining Channel Seven to help launch and co-host Weekend Sunrise and taking the show to Number One in the ratings within a few months. Lisa then accepted the offer to join Channel Nine to co-host the iconic, but at the time, struggling, Today breakfast show alongside Karl Stefanovic. By 2016 she and Karl had taken the show to Number One in the hotly contested breakfast TV wars, and Lisa remains the show’s longest-serving female co-host.

In 2017 Lisa caused headlines across Australia and the world on the issue of the gender pay gap, when she moved to Channel Ten as co-host of the nightly news and current affairs program, The Project.

In 2021, Lisa added “author” to her long list of achievements, with her widely acclaimed memoir “It Wasn’t Meant To Be Like This” immediately becoming a number one best-seller upon it’s release. It was also named one of Apple’s Ten Best Books Of The Year, and was a finalist in the Australian Book Industry Awards for Best Autobiography.

It’s the stories of everything that went on behind the scenes in Lisa’s rise to the top though, and how a young girl from Sydney’s Western Suburbs came to be such a force in Australian media and our cultural life, that makes Lisa’s extraordinary story of success so stunning. It is a story that is deeply honest, hilariously funny, truly engaging - and powerfully inspirational.

Mother to three children and married to best-selling author and Sydney Morning Herald columnist Peter FitzSimons, Lisa has also dedicated much of her life to philanthropic endeavours and in 2016 was made a Member of The Order Of Australia (AM), for her work with women’s and children’s charities.

With her unrivalled place in Australia’s media landscape, as well as her warm, intelligent and elegant presence, Lisa’s keynote is one you don’t want to miss.