Helen O'Neil is Executive Director of the Council for the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences and is a graduate of the University of Melbourne (BA) and Harvard University (Master of Public Administration).

Helen began her career as a journalist and reported on politics with ABC Radio and TV before moving into media and broadcasting policy issues first as a government adviser and then as a corporate manager.

She worked for News Limited on Pay TV and media regulatory issues, was part of the management team for the Foxtel start-up and was a Director of the Australian Film Finance Corporation.