Ambassadors

Chris Bath

After graduating from Charles Sturt University in 1988, Chris began as a cadet reporter and newsreader at Sydney’s Radio 2UE.

She stayed at 2UE for over a year before moving to regional television at Prime in Albury, where she worked as a reporter and presenter.

In 1991, NBN Television in Newcastle approached the then 23-year-old to anchor its evening news, making Chris one of Australia’s youngest presenters on metropolitan television. Her appeal was immediate and she helped the station to ratings success. Chris remained at NBN for five years before joining the Seven News in Sydney in 1996.

Sunrise was the first of Chris’s many national news reading positions at the Seven Network.

In 1997, Chris was juggling dual roles as Sunrise anchor and host of 11AM, before being promoted to Seven’s Late News. In the same year, Chris also became the presenter of Face to Face, the Network’s Sunday morning political interview program.

In 1998, Chris joined the team at Witness, travelling around the world as one of its correspondents. After taking a well-earned break to Italy, Chris returned to Late News in January 1999.

Chris was part of Seven’s host team for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games and co-hosted the prelude to the Opening Ceremony live on stage at the Olympic stadium, while seven months pregnant with her first child.

After having son Darcy in late 2000, Chris returned to political interviewing in 2001 as anchor of Sunday Sunrise and stayed for three years.

Other career highlights included anchoring the Schapelle Corby verdict live from Bali and broadcasting live from East Timor in December 1999 during the Christmas concert for the peacekeepers.

In 2004, Chris judged entries in the TV current affairs reporting and camera section for the prestigious Walkley Awards.

More recently, Chris took part in Seven’s hit show Dancing with the Stars, where she and dancing partner Trenton "Trenno" Shipley won second place overall. With Darcy cheering them on, Chris and Trenton received the highest praise from the judges.

Chris spends her free time with her family and wrestling with her garden.

 Petero Civoniceva

Born in Suva Fiji, Petero Civoniceva is a Fijian-Australian professional rugby league player, best known for his reliability and durability.

He began playing for the Brisbane Bronco’s in 1998 when he won their “Rookie of the Year” award.  He also won their “Player of the Year” awards in 2004 and 2006 and played over 200 games for the Bronco’s.

In 2008 he began playing for the Penrith Panthers and was appointed the captain of the team.   He was also named “Player of the Year” and “Clubman of the Year” for the Panthers at the end of the 2008 season.   Petero continues to play for the Panthers and is still captaining the team.

During his career he has played in the Queensland side in the State of Origin on several occasions and is also a regular in the Australian national team.  

Petero became an Ambassador for the Luke Priddis Foundation in 2008 and is a proud Ambassador and supporter of the Foundation

Tim Grant

Tim Grant was born in Penrith, where he has lived all his life.  From a very young age his dream was to play in the NRL and to one day play for NSW and Australia.           

At the age of 4yrs, Tim joined a soccer team after his parents said no to rugby league.  His dad had played league for many years and was experiencing the legacy of the pain from his injuries and didn’t want that for either of his sons.  After 3 years of constant nagging, Tim’s parents gave in and Tim played his first rugby league game.  Although only 7yrs, he was not wanted in his first team, as he had never played before, however, the second side’s coach said that he would give him a go.  After the game, Tim went over to his parents and said that one day he wanted to play for Australia and although still along way off, that is still his ultimate dream.                                         

Tim played has played in all of the Penrith junior representative sides and captained the 2006 SG Ball grand final team.  In the same year he went on to play in the winning Jersey Flegg grand final team.  Tim was 19 yrs old when he played his first NRL game in 2007, in the position of prop.  He played 11 games in the 2007 season, however, his  season was cut short, due to a shoulder injury that required surgery.  After a great off season, he was looking forward to the 2008 season.  However, just before the first trial game, injury struck again, this time a serious ankley injury which kept him off the field for 5 months.  After 5 games in first grade, he went back to the under 20’s competition to regain his fitness ready for the 2009 season. 

Tim has represented NSW in under rugby league under 17’s and 18’s sides and captained the under 19’s side.  The road has not been an easy one for Tim, as when he was 12yrs he was diagnosed as being allergic to grass, which is the worst thing that you can tell a footballer.  Tim went through 3 years of injections to build up his immunity and all the while training to get ready for the day that he could play and not get sick.  The set back just made him more determined to achieve his goals. 

Tim has made a lot of friends through rugby league and has had the opportunity to get involved within the community.  He loves Penrith and believes that the community support their own.  He is proud to be an Ambassador of the Luke Priddis Foundation and believes that children deserve equal chances, whether able or not and although his set backs are minor compared to children with autism, it proves that with support, you can achieve anything.   

Meredith Smith

Meredith Smith has a long history in sport and fitness, having represented Australia in swimming and becoming a Commonwealth Games and World Championship medalist.

She has been working in the fitness industry for over 5 years, is a qualified Personal Trainer and currently runs her own fitness centre, Future Physique www.futurephysique.com.au, which specialises in Personal Training and Kick Boxing.

She is passionate about fitness and improving people’s lifestyles and health.

 Jo Townsend

Joanna Townsend is a newsreader, presenter, reporter and producer for the Nine Network Australia.

Joanna completed a degree in journalism and law from the University of Technology, Sydney, with first class honours in media law, then went on to a masters degree in politics and policy from Macquarie University. She also holds an industry accreditation from the Securities and Derivatives Association of Australia.  

Joanna began her career in journalism at NBN, and soon moved on to a producing position at Nine’s A Current Affair. After more than two years producing and then reporting at Nine’s top rating nightly current affairs program, she joined the team at Business Sunday as a producer – and later reported for the same program.

Soon afterwards, Joanna also began to work as a newsreader and reporter within Nine’s business and finance team. Today, Jo writes and reads daily news bulletins for National Nine News business and finance, and regularly contributes to National Nine News, the Today show, A Current Affair, Nightline and 2GB news radio as a business and finance expert. Joanna also appears daily on Nine’s Qantas Inflight News. 

She also enjoys her regular segment as arts reporter for the Sunday program. 

Joanna has furthered her career as a producer during her time at the Nine Network. Highlights of Joanna’s production efforts include producing Ray Martin’s Logie award winning interview with Steve Irwin’s widow Terri, and working again with Ray Martin as the supervising producer of Who Killed Harold Holt?, The Baby Listener, and Nine’s extended coverage of the Asian tsunami and federal election.  Jo also produced a one hour documentary for the Nine Network, honouring the life of the late Kerry Packer. Recently, Joanna went to London to produce Nightline host Michael Usher for Nine’s Royal family special.

Jo also enjoys her rewarding work as ambassador for the Luke Priddis Foundation and Chittaway Bay Public School, and regularly hosts live corporate events and corporate videos.