PIANC ANZ welcomes our 2021 Board Observers.
In March PIANC ANZ Chair Will Glamore welcomed our 2021 Board Observers Anna Gudkov and Olivier Mineau to their first Board meeting. “As usual” he said, “PIANC benefits greatly from the extremely high quality of the Observership Program candidates.
Anna Gudkov is a litigation lawyer committed to keeping companies accountable for their climate change and ecological footprint.
Anna works as a Senior Solicitor in the Corporate and Gas team at the Environmental Defenders Office (EDO), one of the largest environmental legal centres in the southern hemisphere. “Climate change” Anna notes, “ is not just an environmental risk, it is also a financial risk, and a business risk.” The aim of her work at EDO is to change corporate behaviour through strategic litigation, and to prevent corporate “greenwashing’. She also enjoys hiking (attempting the Overland track in May), yoga and tennis. In her year with PIANC she aims to:
- Work with the Board on aligning PIANC ANZ with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)
- Evaluate PIANC climate change content within working groups – looking at what’s missing – in global or local efforts
- Increasing PIANC ANZ’s diversity – in particular looking at gender diversity.
Olivier Mineau is the General Manager, Commercial & Partnerships – Woolworths Everyday Rewards.
Olivier is French Canadian, resident in Australia for five years, previously working for Coles, and now Woolworths on their rewards programs. He has an MBA, is a self-styled “[loyalty] points nerd” with years of experience in marketing and boosting customer engagement strategies. He has been active as a volunteer in campaigns and organisation focused on alleviating poverty in Canada and Tanzania. He is soon to be an Australian citizen, which is exciting. As is the thought of working with PIANC on a couple of initiatives:
- new membership engagement strategies – how to drive renewal rates, step-change membership growth and make sure we are addressing all of our potential market.
- Scope for hiring a PIANC EO including business case, risks, source funding, key responsibilities/finding the EO/ performance management
About: The Observership Program facilitates the involvement of young, talented and energetic individuals in a structured experience on non-profit Boards. Each Observer is paired with an organisation for a 12-month period. During that time, Observers attend all board and/or committee meetings as non-voting members and learn about fundamental principles and functions of not- for-profit boards, the roles of board members, fiscal processes and other governance priorities.