The Australian Food and Grocery Council (AFGC) Board is delighted to announce the appointment of Ms Tanya Barden as the new Chief Executive Officer of AFGC.

Ms Barden will commence as CEO on 3 July 2017.

Chairman of the AFGC, Mr Terry O’Brien, congratulated Tanya on her appointment from a field of high calibre candidates.

“Tanya brings tremendous experience and proven success at senior executive levels in both the public and private sectors, with a career spanning the public service and business. Importantly, she also has experience with the $126 billion food and grocery sector, having worked as AFGC Director of Economics, Trade and Sustainability,” said Mr O’Brien.

“Ms Barden comes to the position with a strong background in competition, energy and economics policy and regulation having worked in various roles at the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. Subsequent to this she worked for energy retailer ActewAGL and ran her own on-line food retail business.

“Tanya has been at the forefront of AFGC’s advocacy on key areas of reform, particularly flagging to governments the need to commit to strong energy market reform to reduce the cost pressures caused by the spike in energy costs. She has also led the sector’s trade agenda having driven an ongoing focus to improve market access through the reduction of non-tariff barriers.

“In these government and corporate roles, Tanya has demonstrated a strong collaborative style and a great ability to think strategically, develop policy, campaign effectively and engage with business and government on a range of issues,” Mr O’Brien said.

“The AFGC Board and staff welcome Tanya to this exciting position. Members are very familiar with her outstanding contribution to the policy advocacy for the sector, and we very much look forward to her taking an expanded role from July.”

Mr O’Brien also paid tribute to the leadership provided by Acting Chief Executive Dr Geoffrey Annison.

“Geoffrey is a great asset to the AFGC with tremendous knowledge of our industry and commitment to its ongoing growth. The Board thanks him for providing steady leadership to the organisation until Tanya begins, and we are delighted that Geoffrey will continue as Deputy CEO beyond that date.”

This media release was sourced directly from AFGC and was written by James Mathews.