New centre of excellence

Australian Community Media (ACM), Australia’s largest independent publisher, today announced the launch of its Commercial Strategy Centre of Excellence – a new commercial strategy and operations division, dedicated to growing partners’ businesses in regional Australia.

The team, which will be overseen by ACM’s new Chief Marketing Officer, Jarrah Petzold, brings together the publisher’s top commercial strategy executives to drive commercial growth and successful outcomes for partners.

The team will be headed up by a powerhouse of ACM’s female leaders, including Maree Neale, who has been appointed Director of Commercial Strategy and will lead the division, Lisa Levesque, who has taken on the role of Deputy Director of Commercial Strategy and Lupe Prada, who has been promoted to Marketing and Commercial Strategy Director, ACM Agri, along with Chris Clarke who moves into a Director of Business Intelligence role.

Neale, who is currently ACM’s Commercial Operations Director, has more than 20 years’ experience in commercial leadership and business management across government, agencies, SME and not-for-profit organisations. She has been with ACM for nearly a decade in senior leadership roles, and has also had senior roles at Nine and Fairfax Media.