OzHarvest has appointed three new members to the board of directors. Yasmin Poole, Guy Brent and Andrew Baxter joined the organisation in August to help navigate the new level of demand of food relief and ensure a robust future.
Chairman, Lawrence Goldstone welcomed the new directors, explaining it was a crucial time as OzHarvest adapts and evolves following the impact of COVID-19. “We are delighted that Yasmine, Andrew and Guy have joined the board with their wealth of knowledge and diverse backgrounds. It certainly is a challenging time for any business, especially those in the charity sector.”
Award winning speaker, writer and youth advocate Yasmin Poole is currently Plan International’s National Ambassador and frequently appears on prominent Australian media programs to discuss the role of diversity in social change. Yasmin has represented over a million young Australians as the Chair of the Victorian Government’s Youth Congress and led the global business development of 180 Degrees Consulting, the largest youth consultancy in the world.
OzHarvest has been working with National Food Rescue partner Woolworths for over a decade, where Guy Brent has held various senior management positions since 2011. Guy brings a wealth of experience from the business world as Chief Financial Officer of Cellarmasters and Commercial Director at Optus. He originally qualified as a Chartered Accountant and is now Managing Director Foodco & Metro (part of the Woolworths Group).
Marketing thought leader, Andrew Baxter holds many Chair and Non-Executive Director positions, including Chair of Australian Pork, Chair of Tjapukai, Chair of Commtract, and a Non-Executive Director at both Foresters Financial and GrowthOps. He is also a Senior Advisor at BGH Capital and the Adjunct Professor of Marketing at the University of Sydney, and has been the Senior Advisor to KPMG’s Customer, Brand and Marketing business. Prior to this he was the CEO of two of the country’s largest communications agencies, Publicis, and Ogilvy, where he was a trusted counsel to many of Australia’s most iconic brands.
Since March, OzHarvest has rescued 4.5 million kilos of food, delivering over 16 million meals to people in need across the country. Thanks to government funding new emergency services have been operating for the last four months, including 5 pop-up hamper hubs distributing 50,000 hampers, cooking and delivering 340,000 individually portioned meals, 2 mobile markets delivering to 22 regional locations, 20,000 food essentials boxes in Victoria, opening a new OzHarvest Market in Sydney’s Waterloo and supporting an additional 263 charities.
