SBS chief content officer Helen Kellie passes away
SBS’ chief content officer Helen Kellie has passed away, after losing her battle to cancer.
Kellie first joined the broadcaster in 2012 as marketing director, before taking on the role of chief content officer in 2014.
Kellie had been with SBS since 2012
Before joining SBS, Kellie was working in the UK as chief marketing officer for BBC Worldwide and marketing director for the BBC for almost nine years.
In her time with BBC, she worked on brands including Top Gear and Doctor Who.
When she was promoted to the role of chief content officer at SBS in 2014, Kellie was tasked with uniting the SBS content and marketing teams.
In her time with the broadcaster, she worked on broadcast events including First Contact and The Eurovision Song Contest, and controversial documentary Struggle Street, which she was forced to defend in 2015.
Kellie passed away on December 23 aged 52.
Michael Ebeid, CEO of SBS Australia described Kellie as a “true leader”.
“Our much-loved colleague and one of the most remarkable people I’ve had the privilege of working with, Helen Kellie, passed away just before Christmas from an incurable cancer.
“Our thoughts and prayers have, and continue to be, with Helen’s family during this incredibly heartbreaking and difficult time,” he said.
“To say that we will miss Helen does not go any way to doing justice to the impact she had on many of us as individuals and on the organisation we are today. Helen was a true leader, innovator and creative who shared her skills and knowledge with all she worked with, and a generous and inspiring colleague, friend and mentor to many. The SBS family is mourning her passing.”
What incredibly sad news. Helen was truly wonderful, incredibly talented and very generous in spirit. Australian television will be poorer for her loss. Vale.
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How terribly sad. I have had the pleasure of working with Helen and her energy and enthusiasm was amazing to watch. My thoughts are with her family at this difficult time. RIP Helen.
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I had the pleasure of working with Helen when she first started as a marketing graduate at what is now Reckitt Benckiser in the UK and watched her career progress from fmcg to broadcasting with the BBC and eventually joining us here in Australia. It is so sad that such a lovely person and a brilliant marketer is taken from us in this way. She will be missed.
Immensely sad news. I had the honour of working with Helen briefly when I worked on The Observer Effect and we did an ADMA Altitude Series Q&A together. A lovely smart woman who has left a mark on SBS and all who worked with her.
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Deeply sad news. Helen was a pleasure to talk with away from her professional role at SBS. I had many such experiences. Having relocated her young family from the UK, Helen fell in love with Australia’s lifestyle, but more significantly, truly believed in the virtues of SBS.
Tough, uncompromising and committed – Helen, at times, made some unpopular program decisions, but in retrospect proved to have made the right calls more times than not. RIP Helen Kellie.
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Devastating & shocking news, Deepest sympathies and love to all of Helen’s family.
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Such sad news. Helen was so passionate and her energy lit up the boardroom. Television has lost one of the greats. Vale Helen Kellie
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Helen worked in the Reckitts Pharmaceutical Marketing department in the 90s when I was Global Marketing Director. She was an outstanding marketeer and a lovely person. I am so sorry to hear she passed away. My condolences and heartfelt sympathies to all her family.
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Eurovision Song Content? Contest, perhaps.
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I was on the graduate trainee intake with Helen at Reckitts in Hull and indeed rented a room off her for a year. What a shock and what a loss. She was exceptionally smart and one of the most decent people it was my privilege to know.
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Hi Typo?,
Thanks for flagging and apologies for the error. We have fixed it.
Vivienne
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