Ellen Fanning
Award-winning current affairs journalist.
Profile
In her 20 years as an award winning public affairs journalist, Ellen Fanning has interviewed every Australian Prime Minister from Sir John Grey Gorton to Malcolm Turnbull.
Current work
Ellen co-presents ABC TV’s “The Drum” and is regularly seen on ABC TV’s 730.
Previous experience
She has reported politics from Canberra to the White House while her broader career has taken her to locations as diverse as the North Pole, an airline refueling fighter jets over Bosnia and a Collins Class submarine deep in the Indian Ocean.
She spent the first ten years of her career at the ABC where she presented both the AM and PM current affairs radio programs. She also served as the ABC’s Washington correspondent.
She was later a reporter on the Nine Network’s 60 Minutes and the last presenter of Nine’s Sunday program.
Feedback
It was a pleasure working with her and I will most definitely be recommending her for future events. Ellen Fanning was very professional and did a lot of behind the scenes investigating to ensure she truly understood the event content and background and could therefore tackle any question and handle the panel session. Ellen was quick on her feet and was one of the highlights of the event.
Ellen was flexible and really easy to work with. She added to our script to make it her own and ad-libbed as required.
Ms Fanning displayed an incisive grasp of the business issues and current affairs combined with great charm and humour. She went to considerable lengths prior to the event to work with us as the client and her preparation and research was very impressive, also her grasp of the issues important to ANRA gave us real peace of mind in the run up to the event. In short, she is a pleasure to work with and made an enormous contribution to a very successful event that attracted national media coverage. I would not hesitate to recommend her as both a polished performer and someone who is prepared to go the extra yard to ensure a professional and satisfying event.
Ellen, you were the consummate professional. I get the impression the studio could be in flames and falling around your ears and you would still be able to deliver in a calm, controlled manner. Thank you for all the advice and direction.
Delegates overwhelmingly rated Ellen as an excellent MC and appreciated her insightful questions and management of audience participation and keeping to time. Her contribution to the conference was a critical part of its success. Ellen's professionalism in well researching her brief through contact with conference speakers ensured she did an excellent job of not only introducing speakers but preparing the audience for what is coming and linking the conference themes and ideas. Ellen was a fabulous choice of MC for the Group Training conference - providing the right balance of warmth and intellect that had broad audience appeal and created a positive energetic atmosphere. GTA enjoyed working with Ellen and greatly appreciated the outstanding effort she put into making sure her role worked smoothly.
