At the age of 18, David Anderson took a job changing tea towels and sorting mail at the ABC in Adelaide. 

More than three decades later, having spent almost his entire working life at the public broadcaster, the 54-year-old is set to bow out as managing director.

His rise from the bottom to the top rungs of the ABC, along with an approachable air, helped establish Mr Anderson as a stable presence at the helm during turbulent times for the organisation.

He came to the job of managing director in 2018 after his predecessor Michelle Guthrie was sacked.

The fallout engulfed the ABC's then-chairman Justin Milne, who resigned amid allegations that he ordered Ms Guthrie to sack two senior journalists because the federal government "hated" them — claims Mr Milne firmly denied.

The political pressure on the ABC and external criticism of its prominent staff have not let up on Mr Anderson's watch.

He said pressure in his job had been "constant, can I say, for the entire period of time, and you don't enter into these roles lightly".

His time as managing director also spanned the COVID pandemic and an accelerating shift in audiences away from traditional broadcast towards online platforms and social media. 

'Human shield'

Despite having been reappointed until 2028, Mr Anderson announced his resignation on Thursday. 

He said he would remain until his successor took over, "which conceivably could be March next year".   

"It is the right time for me and it's the right time for the ABC and it wasn't an easy decision to make," Mr Anderson told ABC News Channel.

He said it was "an honour and a privilege to have been in the role for this period of time, in fact to work for the ABC for 35 years".

ABC chair Kim Williams and staff-elected director Laura Tingle both said the board had tried to persuade Mr Anderson to stay his full term until June 2028.

Tingle said that as "an ABC staff member, I wanted to record my gratitude to David for bringing stability into the organisation in a tumultuous period".

She said she noted the "immense toll that must have been taken on someone who has often had to act as a human shield, or punching bag, for the national broadcaster".

Television production to editor-in-chief

In contrast to his predecessor who was a former executive at Google and Foxtel, Mr Anderson was a career ABC employee.

Mr Anderson cut his teeth in television production.

Before rising to managing director, he was director of entertainment and specialist content, overseeing the ABC's broadcast television and radio music networks, on-demand products and apps such as ABC iview.

Under his watch, the ABC commissioned some of Australia's most successful television programs including Bluey, Utopia, and Mystery Road.

He was also director of strategy and planning, and oversaw the restructure of the television division.

Mr Anderson was formally appointed managing director under an ABC board led by media industry veteran Ita Buttrose whose celebrity status would disarm some politicians when the pair travelled to Canberra.

The managing director role has also made him the ABC's editor-in-chief.

He has been repeatedly called upon to defend ABC journalists in the face of political and legal pressure.

A month after Mr Anderson's appointment, the Australian Federal Police raided the ABC's Sydney office after reports by journalists Dan Oakes and Sam Clark on alleged Australian war crimes in Afghanistan.

The raid

In the wake of the raid, Mr Anderson told the National Press Club that "press freedom is a proxy for public freedom".

"These investigations demonstrate why an unimpeded media is so important to the public," he said.

His time as managing director also spanned the COVID-19 pandemic and an accelerating shift in audiences away from traditional broadcast towards online platforms and social media.

Mr Anderson, who has been on a salary just shy of $1 million a year excluding superannuation, took a 5 per cent pay cut during the pandemic to reduce costs.

This included budget restrictions that resulted in 250 job cuts.

He also brokered a commercial deal with Google and Facebook, which helped fund the expansion of regional bureaus with 50 new journalist roles.

On his watch, a survey of ABC News staff showed 13 per cent of respondents had experienced sexual harassment at work and more than one in four had been bullied in the past two years.

He also ordered an independent review of the ABC's systems and processes to support staff who experience racism, with the report due to be handed down this month.

In January, he came under fire over the sacking of radio presenter Antoinette Lattouf, which led to a vote of "lost confidence" in the managing director by Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance members.

MEAA national media director Michelle Rae said the ABC had mounted a "pointless and costly defence" of an unfair dismissal claim by Ms Lattouf.

"The managing director of the ABC … must be prepared to stare down lobbying by politicians, businesses and unaccountable organisations that seek to interfere in the ABC's journalism," she said.

Under pressure

The University of Melbourne's Denis Muller, a media ethics expert, said Mr Anderson's time leading the ABC was mixed.

He thought Mr Anderson had been "an exceptionally decent and honourable and capable managing director [who] certainly brought a period of stability to the ABC" after political pressure and funding cuts.

"[But] I'm not alone in thinking that the sustained pressure on the ABC has had an effect on its editorial judgement, even on its editorial courage, and that has been a culture which David Anderson has inherited," he said.

"He has done his level best to overcome, but it's been a difficult thing to try to shift a culture like that."

Dr Muller said this included the ABC response to public criticism of journalist Stan Grant before his departure.

After his appearance on the ABC's coverage of King Charles's coronation, Grant wrote about being subjected to "relentless racial filth" on social media and accused the public broadcaster of "institutional failure".

"Anderson's on the record apologising to Stan Grant for not sticking up for him at the time," he said.

Mr Anderson said the highlights of his time at the ABC included seeing "the difference that public interest journalism has made in this country".

"It makes our society better. It makes our country great to be able to give voices to people who don't have one, to hold power to account, and have it result in something better," he said.

"There's been other moments, of course, when we've had wonderful programming that's gone out [including] the joy the Bluey brings people."

Mr Williams said it was "difficult to respond appropriately in terms that properly honour the period of David's leadership and service in so many roles at the ABC, although I think he will be treated generously in the overwhelming body of commentary about his decision".

"He is exemplary in his spirit of public service generally and in his deep abiding commitment to the corporation," Mr Williams said.