Farewell Wilson Younan (OAM)

On behalf of the team at SBS, we are deeply saddened by the death of our colleague and friend, Wilson Younan OAM.

Wilson, the Executive Producer (EP) of SBS Assyrian, passed away on Tuesday, 18 August after a long illness. His family was by his side.

There is so much to say about Wilson – it is difficult to know where to start as he was a wonderful person, a leader in his community and a hugely successful businessman.

Wilson became EP of the Assyrian language service nearly 30 years ago in 1993. He was passionate about his community and he felt a deep sense of responsibility to serve his fellow Assyrian Australians and a deep pride in helping to foster their culture and language in Australia.

Wilson was born in Iraq and graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Baghdad in 1979. He worked for Iraqi Television for two years before migrating to Australia in 1981. He completed a post graduate Degree in Journalism from the University of Wollongong and started working for SBS in 1993.

He was a leader in his community and was recognised in 2010 with a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for service to the Assyrian Community.

In 2017, he was awarded Assyrian Australian of the Year and the Assyrian Universal Alliance (AUA) and the Assyrian Australian National Federation recognised Wilson’s professionalism and approach to coverage of news and current affairs in Australia and internationally.

Away from SBS, Wilson built an extremely successful commercial cleaning company Storm International. He founded the company more than 40 years ago, and today Storm International is a nationwide, family operated company, employing hundreds of staff.

Wilson was sincere, warm-hearted, a man of integrity and always had time to stop and say hello and ask how others were going.

Will is survived by his wife Asmar and three children, Maria, Tania and George.

Wilson, thank you for being a wonderful friend and inspiring colleague to many. We will miss you – rest in peace.

Mandi Wicks, Director of Audio & Language Content

To download a PDF version of this statement, click here.