Olya Booyar has joined as the incoming Head of Radio Designate of Asia Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU) to help drive an expansion of services to the ABU's 272 member organisations across the region.

Having already worked before for the ABU, she will be working closely with the outgoing head, Vijay Sadhu, who is retiring in June after 12 years with the ABU. 

Born in Ukraine and educated in Canada, Olya began her career began as an on-air broadcaster-journalist with the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) in Australia and rose through the organisation, before leaving to become Deputy Director of the country's national Classification Board.

Previously, she was a General Manager for the Australian Communications & Media Authority (ACMA) and most recently worked at the Australian Writers' Guild.

She is a past-President of the global International Association of Women in Radio and Television (IAWRT).

She devised and delivered Media training for UNESCO, Media and Gender Mainstreaming training for Asia Broadcasting Union (ABU), the Asian Institute for Broadcast Development (AIBD) and, auspiced by the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Foundation (FES) authored the “Broadcasting for All: Focus on Gender guidelines for Public Broadcasters in the Asia Pacific region. She is an accomplished mentor and coach, working with Australian and international organisations helping them to achieve excellence.