Ita Buttrose AC OBE

Ita Buttrose was born on 17 January 1942 in Sydney. Her father was a journalist and she joined Australian Consolidated Press as a copygirl at age fifteen. When she was only 23, Frank Packer took her under his wing and appointed her Women's Editor of the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph.

Her rise within the industry was rapid and by 1972 she was the founding editor of Cleo a women's magazine. She was made a Director of Consolidated Press in 1974. From there she moved to Editor of the Australian Women's Weekly (1975-77). She attained a high profile in this role, particularly as a result of her TV advertisements for the magazine. Ita went on to become publisher of the Women's division of Australian Consolidated Press.

In 1981, Ita joined Rupert Murdoch's News Limited as Editor-in-Chief of the Daily Telegraph and the Sunday Telegraph, the first woman to reach this position in Australia. In 1988, she started Capricorn Publishing and was Chief Executive (1988-94) and edited her own magazine, Ita (1989-90). She still maintains a high profile on national television and radio in Sydney and Melbourne.

Ita has used her influential position to promote many important causes such as the National Advisory Committee on AIDS (Chair, 1984-88) and the National Family Summit (Convenor, 1992). She has written two books, Every Occasion: Your guide to modern etiquette and Early Edition: My first forty years.