Grow with Purpose in 2021

From a young age, Pete’s perspective on life was shaped by his upbringing in south-east Asia and after finishing a Bachelor of Commerce and Arts specialising in management and international development, Pete officially joined the Thankyou team in 2012.

Thankyou’s products are stocked by major retailers in Australia, with every product contributing to helping end global poverty. To date, Thankyou has raised over $17 million to impact the lives of people across 22 countries.

As Chief Impact Officer at Thankyou and a Director of the Thankyou Charitable Trust, Pete is constantly studying different theories, organisations and approaches that are effective in tackling extreme poverty. Pete works to ensure Thankyou’s funding amplifies impactful change-makers, who are working towards systemic and sustainable outcomes for vulnerable and low-income communities. Pete’s also passionate about the holistic impact of our business. He has been involved in establishing our Responsible Business Goals and supports our team in minimising the negative impacts of operating a social enterprise model in the fast-moving-consumable-goods industry.

As an experienced leader within the social enterprise and social impact sectors, Pete is passionate to see business philanthropy serve partners and low-income communities with the best possible solutions, which often results in backing solutions which aren’t ‘simplistic’. As a result, he is regularly asked to engage with business, government, charity, and educational audiences regarding Thankyou’s unique impact funding approach.

Corinne is a climate change and sustainability professional with over ten years’ experience working globally across the corporate, development and social sectors.

She is a trusted adviser, effective communicator and has managed a diverse set of climate change and sustainability related projects across Europe, Africa and the Asia Pacific region.

Prior to joining the Global Compact Network Australia, Corinne worked for Save the Children Australia where she developed, implemented, monitored and evaluated education, health, child protection and climate change adaptation projects and strategies across the Pacific, South and Southeast Asia. She worked with a diverse set of institutions, communities and government Departments on the delivery of multi-million dollar/multi-year development projects.

Corinne also worked for the International Institute for Environment and Development in the UK where she gained extensive experience managing complex multi-stakeholder projects, building out the climate change and security research stream and supporting governments across Africa and Asia develop climate change related policies.

Corinne holds a Bachelor of Science, Master of Science (International Security and Global Governance) and completed a Corporate Sustainability course at New York University Stern Business School.

Gordon Renouf is the CEO & co-founder of Good On You, the world's leading sustainability rating system for fashion brands. He has been a consumer advocate for 30 years including as head of Campaigns at CHOICE, a Board member of Consumers International and Deputy Chair of the Consumers Federation of Australia.

In 2016 he was invited by the ACCC and CHOICE to give the annual Ruby Hutchison Lecture, "Can Consumers Buy a Better World", in which he explored our right to consume responsibly, and the corresponding obligations on producers to provide accurate information about their impact on the issues consumers care about. He has also served as a Director and Chair of Australia's leading environmental certification scheme Good Environmental Choice Australia.

Fiona Killackey is the Founder of My Daily Business Coach, a consultancy that helps business owners (and their teams) understand, create, analyse and improve their marketing, branding, content and overall business strategies.

She is the author of Passion Purpose Profit, published in 2020, and also a published journalist since 2002, a book and magazine editor, a ghostwriter for books and audio book.

Fiona has almost two decades experience working with large and small brands in senior content and marketing roles. She has previously held senior roles in content and marketing for MIMCO (CRG), Amazon, Open University and Audible.

Mark is the Executive Director of Market Operations at Social Traders. He has worked in the social enterprise field since 2001 and over that time he has procured from social enterprise, run social enterprises, lobbied for social enterprise and helped found Social Traders – Australia’s leading social enterprise development organisation.

Mark’s work now centres on enabling government and business buyers to build social enterprises into their supply chains. Social Traders market place has enabled 90 business and government buyer members to work with over 380 certified social enterprises, in FY18 & 19 the Social Traders marketplace enabled over 1300 disadvantaged job-seekers to obtain jobs through social enterprises and many more social impacts.

Susan Mizrahi is a senior sustainability strategist and has over 20 years’ experience working in Asia, Europe, North America, as well as domestically, on international, business and human rights issues. She is committed to leading positive, systemic change on social and environmental issues and has achieved this through working collaboratively across and within the private, public and not-for-profit sectors.

Susan has particular expertise in business human rights obligations, sustainable supply chains, forced and child labour, and the China-Tibet issue. She is skilled in strategy, communications, public policy and advocacy, and is actively committed to advancing the UN Global Compact principles and the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Susan joined Australia Post in 2015 as Head of Corporate Responsibility and became their first Chief Sustainability Officer in 2019. She acts as Chair of the London Benchmarking Group (‘LBG’).

With a passion for championing sustainability Nick Balgue comes from a background delivering energy efficiency projects and expert advice to business. As the Manager of Sustainable at Sustainability Victoria he now works within government to design and deliver programs aimed to accelerate Victoria’s transition towards a Circular Economy and Net Zero Carbon future.

Millicent joined the Grants and Incentives team at BlueRock in March 2020. She has 8 years of experience specialising in Research & Development Tax and Export Market Development Grants across Australia and North America.

Millicent is experienced in understanding her client’s business and identifying whether any past, present or future activities might be eligible for grant funding and assist with determining eligibility, writing applications, identifying costs and managing the process with the regulators.

BlueRock is now the trusted Grants & Incentives advisor to over 60 clients from all corners of industry, from medical to manufacturing to agriculture and renewable energy clients. BlueRock helps these clients to raise millions of dollars in funding each year.

Simon is the CEO of RIAA - an organisation with 350 investment organisation members who jointly manage over $9 trillion in assets globally - where he works to elevate sustainability issues as core investment risks and opportunities, and shift capital to support a more sustainable, equitable and prosperous world.

Simon has operated at the intersection of economics, finance and sustainability for nearly 20 years and has international experience as an economic adviser, investment analyst and sustainability consultant across finance, corporate and not for profit sectors.

Simon is active across the region and internationally in responsible investment and sustainable finance. He sits as the Co-Chair of the Australian Sustainable Finance Initiative, chairs the Global Sustainable Investment Alliance, and is a member of the Aotearoa New Zealand National Advisory Board on Impact Investment.

John is Policy Adviser ESG with CPA Australia, having responsible for the development of strategy, research, policy and advocacy in the areas of sustainability, emerging external reporting, corporate governance and corporate law. He gained his PhD from the Melbourne Law School University of Melbourne and holds masters degrees in both accounting and commercial law. Prior to joining CPA Australia, John held executive positions in the international telecommunications services sector with responsibility for cross-border tax planning and FDI structuring.

Robyn has more than 25 years of experience in the sustainability field. She has worked for government agencies at all levels and as a consultant to businesses and industry bodies on policy development, strategy and reporting in sustainability. Her focus is on the development and application of reporting frameworks and standards, particularly in sustainability and ESG. Robyn has served on multiple governance bodies of the Global Reporting Initiative and is currently Vice-Chair of GRI's Global Sustainability Standards Board.

Having worked in the social enterprise space for 7 years, Jimmy has coordinated, executed and led multiple impact and development projects overseas. He brings his experience as Co Founder of Project Everest Ventures - Australia's first and only B Corp Certified impact incubator and mobility provider - to execute on effective impact measurement strategies, with a focus on helping companies match profit with purpose by becoming B Corp Certified. He is heavily invested in the personal and professional development of all our students through our student impact programs, having been involved in working with and training over 1000 students. Jimmy works specifically with impact focussed businesses contributing to the UN SDG's.

Susanne Bransgrove is recognised as a family office and family business governance expert and has been working in this sector for many years across various countries, including Australia, New Zealand, Germany, the USA as well as the UK.

Growing up in Germany as part of a third-generation family business has provided her with a sound foundation for understanding the range of issues that arise when needing to balance the performance of the family office or family business with the differing needs of multiple generations.

Prior to specialising in this sector, Susanne has had a long and successful career in the corporate sector, including working for Commerzbank Bremen (Germany), Australia and New Zealand Banking Corporation (Australia) and Macquarie Bank (Australia), where she held a national role before starting her first business.

Susanne has deep experience in starting up and building successful businesses. In 2018 she was invited to provide mentoring and guidance to start-ups and founders in the University of New England’s Smart Region Incubator program.

Greg brings a breadth of business expertise, understanding of family businesses, and experience with federated organisations like Family Business Australia and New Zealand (FBANZ).

Over the past 4 years as CEO of FBANZ, Greg’s drive is to enable the organisation to be the leading association that focuses on maximising positive economic, social and environmental impact for family businesses and in doing so, enable leaning, innovation and co-creating, empowering family businesses to shape the future for people, communities, the environment for future generations.

Previously as CEO of Dairy Farmers Milk Co-operative, which he held for 8 years, Greg successfully developed and implemented the strategic vision of the business, whilst managing a broad range of key stakeholders. Prior to this, Greg held positions of Deputy Chairman of the Australian National Drag Racing Association, CEO of Destination Melbourne Limited, and senior roles with Victorian Farmers Federation. A Melbournian, Greg was also General Manager of Melbourne Football Club in the early 2000’s.

Mat's sustainability journey flourished when he set out to establish his own manufacturing business, Acoye; however, he soon grew disappointed from the lack of readily available recycled raw materials, despite the ever-increasing plastic waste dilemma. To solve this issue, Mat built his own micro-processing machine so that he could have a steady stream of his own recycled materials to use in his manufacturing business. Through his journey, Mat discovered a huge gap in the industry when it comes to the small to medium business markets, which drove him to find like-minded individuals and businesses.

Thus, Rethink Recycling Co-op was born; a collaboration of community members and organisations who have come together with the aim of driving national change in the waste and sustainability sectors. Having partnered with Lids4Kids Australia, Design and Technology Teachers Association (DATTA) Victoria, and Precious Plastic, the Co-op is truly working together for a sustainable now.