Kirstin Irene Ferguson is an author, columnist and company director, and creator of the #CelebratingWomen campaign. She is also a former Royal Australian Air Force officer. In September 2018, Ferguson was appointed by Prime Minister Scott Morrison as Acting Chairman of the ABC Board, after the sacking of Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) Managing Director Michelle Guthrie and the subsequent resignation of the board's chairman, Justin Milne. When Ita Buttrose was appointed Chairman of the ABC in March 2019, Ferguson became the ABC's Deputy Chairman. Early life Ferguson was born in Melbourne. At the age of five, she moved to Sydney with her family. During her younger years she grew up in the Royal National Park, south of Sydney, living in the small town of Maianbar and attended Bundeena Primary School. For the first two years of high school, she was a boarding student at Hurlstone Agricultural High School before finishing her final four years of high school in 1990 at SCEGGS Darlinghurst. Career Ferguson enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force in 1991, training as a cadet at the Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA) from 1991 to 1994, also studying for a Bachelor of Arts degree for the cadetship's university component. Graduating as the dux of her ADFA class, she was posted to RAAF Base Amberley as a flying officer. While serving in the RAAF, Ferguson studied for a law degree at Queensland University of Technology (QUT). She left the RAAF in 1998, joining the law firm Deacons (now known as Norton Rose Fulbright) as Director of Corporate Services. After eight years at Deacons, in 2006 Ferguson became CEO of Sentis, an international consultancy offering cognitive-based safety training in the mining and resources industry. In 2010, while Ferguson was CEO, Sentis was named by BRW Magazine as the 5th Best Place to Work in Australia. While still CEO of Sentis, in 2008 Ferguson was offered a position on the board of directors for SunWater, which she accepted, and was then offered another board role. In 2011, she became a full-time board director, and since then has served on the boards of Dart Energy, she was the first female director of the Queensland Reds Rugby Union team, and she has also served on the boards of CIMIC Group, the Queensland Theatre Company and Layne Beachley's Aim For The Stars Foundation. She was Deputy Chairman of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation until the