The Aesthetic Business Masters Awards are judged by people who know this industry from the inside. Not observers, but practitioners, founders, strategists, and educators who have built businesses, led teams, navigated regulation, and sat across the table from clinic owners working through the same challenges you are. This series introduces you to the people behind the scorecard, so you know exactly who’s reading your submission and what they’ll be looking for.
Meet: Kris Abbey
Kris Abbey’s career reads like someone who couldn’t sit still long enough to do just one thing, and the industry is better for it.
By 15, she was leading group fitness classes. By 22, she had built a corporate health company with 15 staff, providing health and exercise strategies for clients including NEC, Coles Myer, Apple, Dick Smith Electronics, and Sandoz Pharmaceuticals. That early momentum led to speaking engagements aimed at motivating women in business, and it set the trajectory for a career spanning 30 years across health, wellness, media, publishing, pharma, and the spa industry.
Kris holds a Bachelor of Education in Physical Education and Science, as well as a Postgraduate Diploma in Exercise Physiology and Sports Science. After her corporate health years, she spent five years at Eli Lilly Australia in the neuroscience division, where she was part of the sales and marketing team that launched Prozac in Australia. That experience deepened her understanding of mental health and reinforced her belief that mind and body work as one.
Her love for writing and marketing eventually pulled her into media. She helped launch Good Health magazine, ran the Sydney office as NSW Publishing Manager and Fitness Editor, and later became Editor. In 2001, she purchased the magazine, rebranded it as Better Health, and grew it into an online content hub. She also spent time as Editor of Ultra-Fit magazine and purchased Spa Life magazine, which she published for four years. It was in that role that she discovered the global spa industry and found her calling.
Today, Kris is the force behind the Spa & Wellness media platform and the founder of the Asia Pacific Spa & Wellness Awards, launched in 2022 to recognise excellence across the industry. In 2023, she added the Wellness Summit, bringing together thought leaders for connection, education, and collaboration. She is also a published author, with titles such as Going Organic: Your Guide to a Healthier Life and The Low HI Diet.
Image credit: Kris Abbey
Kris has spent decades in media, and she knows what makes a business worth covering. It’s not the biggest clinic, the most expensive device, or the loudest social media presence. It’s purpose. The businesses that attract sustained media attention are those with a clear reason to exist beyond revenue, a genuine commitment to wellness, a founder story that resonates, or a philosophy that challenges the status quo. She wants clinic owners to stop chasing publicity and start building something worth publicising.
As a judge for the Aesthetic Business Masters Awards, Kris Abbey brings a lens shaped by decades in media, publishing, wellness, and brand building. She understands what makes a business worth writing about, and she’ll be looking for entries that demonstrate genuine purpose, strong storytelling, and a commitment to wellness that goes beyond the treatment menu.
