Deborah Thomas — Editorial Director, The Australian Women’s Weekly
After completing a degree in Fine Arts at Caulfield Institute (now Monash University), Deborah turned to full-time modeling where her first stop was Paris in 1978 and a regular job modeling haute couture fashion for Givenchy.
Upon her return to Australia in 1981, Deborah was offered a position at NIDA to study theatre design. While at NIDA she was contacted to take up the position as Head of Graphics for Crawford Productions.
In 1985, a move to Sydney meant a change in direction. Her first job was as an art director/copy writer with a small fashion-advertising agency, Cation Creative Direction.
While working in advertising, Deborah was offered the job of Beauty and Lifestyle Editor at Cleo (May 1987). Three years later (May 1990) she was promoted to deputy editor.
In August 1992, Deborah took on the editorship of Mode. The first issue (October/November) immediately reflected Deborah’s style and was a sellout.
In August 1994, she became editor of Elle Australia and consolidated the magazine’s position through a frenzied period of rival magazine launches.
In July 1997, Deborah was appointed editor of Cleo. During this period the magazine experienced three consecutive circulation increases and two readership increases (June 1998-July 1999).
In September 1999, she was appointed editor of The Australian Women’s Weekly, Australia’s highest-selling magazine and a national icon. In July 2001, The Weekly announced its first circulation increase in four years.
In May 2002, The Weekly scooped the pool at the Magazine Publisher’s of Australia Awards (the magazine equivalent of the Oscars). The awards included Magazine of the Year 2002, General Excellence (News and General Interest) and two advertising awards. Deborah also received the highest accolade, Editor of the Year.
In March 2004, she was appointed editor-in-chief of The Australian Women’s Weekly magazine and books divisions. In March 2005, she was promoted to editorial director responsible for all aspects of this iconic brand.
Outside work, Deborah is wife to Vitek and mother to four-year-old Oscar and is actively involved in many community fundraising projects.
THE FOOD TEAM
Food Director of The Australian Women’s Weekly, she is co-host of Fresh, daily on the Nine Network and appears on Mornings with Kerri-Anne every Friday. She has written for innumerable publications on food and wine, and hosted Internet chat shows. Her unflagging energy sees her on the Council of the Royal Agricultural Society, past president of both The Food Media Club Australia and the NSW Wine Press Club and member of the Tourism NSW Food and Wine Advisory Committee. In 1995, she was awarded the inaugural Restaurant and Caterer’s Association Award for Excellence for Outstanding Contribution to Food Media Journalism, was a finalist in 1996 and won again in 1997. In 1998 she became a judge.
A lecturer in wine appreciation, cooking demonstrator and hospitality lecturer, her particular field of expertise is in the matching of food and wine. Her book Balance. Matching Food and Wine. What Works and Why which she co-authored with wine educator Colin Corney (Lothian) won Best Food and Wine Writing at the Vittoria Australian Food Media Awards in 2006. An inspector for The Good Food Guide since 1987, she previously authored four best-selling cookbooks, including Flavours, A Fresh Approach (New Holland), an innovative guide to food and wine matching.
Alexandra Elliott — Food Editor
Alex has been with The Weekly for more than 17 years. She began in the Test Kitchen in 1989, became the assistant food editor in 1993, and then food editor in 1999. Alex’s role as food editor involves overseeing and organising the food section of the magazine, from brainstorming ideas to writing briefs for the Test Kitchen’s recipe developers and from tasting each recipe to editing them for print.
Alex has made regular TV appearances and radio interviews and has been a member of judging panels for The Grand Dairy Awards, The Royal Agricultural Society Cheese Show and some recipe competitions as well. Her passion for food has taken her around the world and she has also undertaken professional development in olive oil tasting, cheese judging, coffee and overseas cooking schools. In 2001, she travelled with a photographer capturing the food of Greece for a food guide book. With attention to detail her hallmark, she was a key part of the award-winning food team honoured in the World Food Media Awards in 2001 and The Vittoria Food Media Awards in 2003.
Alex married Tom, a widower, in July 2005 and is now a busy stepmum to four children.
Fran Abdallaoui — Deputy Food Editor
Fran has extensive experience in the food publishing and hospitality industries. She holds a degree in Home Economics, and began her career freelancing for several food writers before working as a home economist in The Weekly’s Test Kitchen and as an assistant food editor for ACP books. Fran joined The Australian Women’s Weekly magazine team in 1999 as deputy food editor, where she prepares the recipes for photography. When not shooting, Fran is researching feature ideas, writing and editing recipes, tasting and testing to ensure the recipes are relevant and appealing to The Weekly’s readers. Fran has a wide and varied knowledge of many cultures and cuisines as she has experienced the food first hand travelling to many parts of Europe and North Africa where many of her relatives reside.
Fran has also owned and operated several successful businesses: a café, a catering business and more recently a restaurant. Fran is married to Jamal and has two children.
Pamela Clark — Test Kitchen Director
Pamela’s first venture into cooking as a career occurred in 1962 when she joined a public utility company (St George County Council) where she trained “on the job” as a cookery demonstrator and teacher.
In 1969, Pamela was offered the position of chief home economist in The Australian Women’s Weekly Test Kitchen. The Australian Women’s Weekly, at that time, had the largest circulation, per capita, of any the world’s lifestyle magazines. During her four-year tenure, she was involved in the production of nine cookbooks in addition to The Australian Women’s Weekly Original Cookbook, which became the first Australian cookbook to sell overseas rights. Pamela was also responsible for the Test Kitchen’s operations, organising testing and photography for all the food features that appeared in The Australian Women’s Weekly.
Pamela moved to Tasmania in 1973 (a move which necessitated her resignation from The Australian Women’s Weekly) to work as the presenter on two local television programs and a radio program, all food related. She also taught Adult Education food classes and was involved in the organisation, opening and running of a restaurant in a new hotel in Hobart.
Asked to return to The Australian Women’s Weekly Test Kitchen in 1978, again as chief home economist, Pamela was instrumental in the production of The Golden Cooking Library, Cookery Cards, AWW Home Library Cookbooks and recipes for The Weekly.
In 1984, Pamela became food editor for The Australian Women’s Weekly and its AWW Home Library Cookbook offshoot, then in 1999 was appointed AWW Test Kitchen Director. During this period of time, she has written and/or edited more than 100 cookbooks (a dozen more of which are in production at present), and appeared on a regular basis on Channel 9’s What’s Cooking? for five years during the 1990s. Today finds her writing and featuring in the station’s Short Cuts food segments; overseeing the Test Kitchen’s operations (which include both a separate catering division for Australian Consolidated Press and the company’s executive dining room); and, with an office staff of four and a Test Kitchen comprising eight home economists and chefs, continuing to produce and edit material for all AWW cookbooks.
FASHION AND BEAUTY
As the executive style director, Jane creates many of the concepts and visual imagery for the covers, celebrity features, fashion and beauty in the magazine. Her countless photographic shoots, with Australia’s top photographers, have portrayed many of Australia’s most beautiful, influential and successful women.
Jane is one of Australia’s leading fashion commentators and for many years in her previous roles as fashion editor of The Sydney Morning Herald and more recently as editor-at-large at Harper’s Bazaar, she reported on the International and Australian fashion collections.
Jane has curated major fashion exhibitions, as well as lectured on fashion and design history. The exhibitions Jane has curated include Art Knits for the Bicentennial shown at the Art Gallery of New South Wales and regional galleries and then in Tokyo and Seoul (1988-1989); Australian Fashion: The Contemporary Art which was shown at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London and the Powerhouse Museum and then in Tokyo (1989-1991) and Christian Dior: The Magic of Fashion for the Powerhouse Museum (1994).
Kate Mahon — Beauty Director
Kate Mahon has more than 25 years experience in the media, beginning with a career as a newspaper reporter before entering the magazine world.
She has worked as a writer and sub-editor on such publications as Cosmopolitan, SHE, House and Garden, Practical Parenting and The Sunday Telegraph and freelanced for titles including Cleo, Elle, Good Medicine, The Sun-Herald, Good Taste, Slimming Australia, Wish and New Idea.
From 1998 to 2001, Kate was editor of SHE and SHE’s Having a Baby.
Following this appointment, she taught and co-ordinated the News Media program at TAFE, St George.
Before joining The Weekly, she was employed as beauty editor at New Idea.
Kate’s interest in beauty is longstanding. To further her knowledge in this area, she completed a Diploma of Beauty Therapy in 1992, accredited with the Advanced Association of Beauty Therapists (AABTh), and the internationally-renowned Comité International D’Esthétique et de Cosmétologie (CIDESCO) in 1993.
HEALTH
Helen has also been a member on a number of key national cancer and health committees and was recently appointed a member to the National Health Committee of the NHMRC for the triennium 2006-2009. Helen was also named a finalist in the 2006 Telstra Business Women’s Awards.
In addition, Helen is also a practicing breast physician and has a staff specialist appointment at the Rachel Foster Breast Clinic, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney.
The National Breast Cancer Centre will be on board the Road Train providing potentially life-saving health information that every woman should know. Free information sessions will be held across the country empowering women to be proactive about their breast and ovarian health — to know the symptoms to look out for and to see their GP promptly if they find a new or unusual change in their body.
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