Good Foundation appoints new CEO

The Good Foundation is delighted to announce the appointment of Amy Smith to the role of Chief Executive Officer.

Smith replaces Felicia Mariani, who is leaving the Foundation to pursue new opportunities. Based at the Foundation’s headquarters in Melbourne, Ms Smith will be responsible for leading the Foundation’s efforts in championing the transformation of Australia’s food habits through advocacy, program delivery and collaboration to maximise health, wellbeing and productivity of communities.

Smith joins The Good Foundation from Dineamic, the healthy meal service which lists many of Australia’s highest profile athletes as its customers, where she was most recently a Director and Chief Marketing Officer.

Prior to Dineamic, Smith was the national Head of Marketing at Grill’d Healthy Burgers and the CEO of Jenny Craig in Australia and New Zealand from 2008 to 2013. Prior to this she was the CEO of J. Walter Thompson in Australia and New Zealand for ten years. During her time as CEO of Jenny Craig, Amy undertook a three-year turnaround plan that doubled the business and revitalised the brand.

This work included her securing iconic ambassadors such as Magda Szubanski. Founder and Director of The Good Foundation, Andrew Muir commented: “We are thrilled to welcome Amy to the team.

She brings with her a wealth of experience, having held senior positions in the food and nutrition sectors both in Australia and overseas for many years. She has the leadership capabilities and necessary skills to help us deliver on our ambitious plans to transform Australia’s eating habits.

“I would also like to thank Felicia Mariani for her contributions to the Foundation over the course of the past year, and I wish her all the best in her future endeavours.”

The Good Foundation is the exclusive licensee of Jamie Oliver’s Jamie’s Ministry of Food and Learn your Fruit and Veg programs in Australia.

Jamie’s Ministry of Food program teaches Australians of all ages how to prepare healthy meals at home, based on research that shows that when people are empowered through education about how to cook healthy and nutritious meals at home, they can convert from a dependence on processed foods to cooking from scratch, also resulting in them buying and consuming more vegetables.

Smith joins at an exciting time for the Foundation which since its establishment in 2010 has opened permanent centres in four states as well as two mobile kitchens in Queensland and Western Australia.

Through The Good Foundation’s delivery of Jamie’s Ministry of Food programs, over 38,000 Australians have completed a five, seven or ten-week food education program since 2011.

Commenting on her appointment, Amy Smith said, “I am so pleased to take on the mission of transforming Australia’s eating habits one community at a time; as more people discover the joy of cooking great food! We have an opportunity to inspire and share real life hands-on skills across our communities and to get people confident about cooking.”

The Good Foundation has also welcomed new Chair Chris Dodd to lead its board. Chris has been a director of the board since 2011 and replaces Laura Anderson who has done an exceptional job in her role for the past seven years and will continue to play an ambassadorial role for the Foundation.