Meet the passionate team who power FareShare.
Chief Executive Officer: Marcus commenced volunteering with FareShare in its early days and within a couple of years became its first CEO. After varied roles in the corporate sector and heading up Environment Victoria, he led FareShare on a journey from using surplus food to bake pies in a small, rented kitchen to cooking millions of free, nutritious meals every year in Australia’s largest charity kitchens. Marcus shared a vision with the board to set up dedicated FareShare facilities and by collecting more surplus food and mobilising more volunteers, cook more meals for people in hardship. He has played a major part in FareShare’s continuing impact and expansion ever since.
Chief Operating Officer: leads our operations including our kitchens, logistics and kitchen gardens.
Executive Director, Queensland: leads the development of FareShare's Brisbane kitchen and partnerships. Fiona’s career has spanned the non-profit, government and university sectors in Australia and the USA, including leadership positions at Philanthropy Australia, Brisbane Powerhouse, Next Wave Festival, and Artsupport Australia. Through these roles and as a board member of numerous organisations, Fiona has gained extensive experience supporting philanthropists, non-profits, advisors and intermediaries, and helping them build stronger, more sustainable relationships with supporters. When she isn’t developing key partnerships for FareShare Brisbane, she puts her expertise to good use as Deputy Chair of DVConnect, a state-wide domestic violence crisis service, and as a fellow of the Australia Council Arts Leaders Program.
Director of Special Projects: responsible for the development and oversight of FareShare's major projects. After a varied career spanning mining, scientific writing, and high-volume catering, Kellie joined FareShare in 2010, moving to Brisbane in 2018 to design and develop FareShare's new kitchen facilities. While at FareShare she has developed and overseen many projects including the kitchen gardens, the First Nations ‘Meals for the Mob’ project and the new range of extended shelf-life meals which is currently in development. Kellie has served on non-profit boards, food waste advisory groups and currently sits on several grant advisory panels.
Communications Director: manages our Community team responsible for communications, volunteer programs and community fundraising. Lucy was initially attracted to the sustainability impact of FareShare’s mission having had a long history with the environment movement including as a director of the Australian Conservation Foundation for 10 years and as communications manager for WWF-UK. She has also worked as a senior communications adviser for the Victorian Government. A former journalist with a background in print media, she heralds from London.
Finance and Corporate Services Manager: manages our finances, information technology, human resources and regulatory compliance. Prior to commencing with FareShare, Brian was the Assistant Commissioner, Corporate Services at the Productivity Commission. Previously, he has worked in a range of finance and resource management roles, including as Chief Finance Officer and Manager Administration, establishing the corporate services function for a new national court at the Federal Circuit Court of Australia; as Director Financial Resources at the National Crime Authority; and in various resource management roles in the Health, Housing, Local Government and Community Services and Defence Departments.
Production Manager: leads our Melbourne kitchen team responsible for cooking thousands of nutritious meals every day.
Production Manager: heads our Brisbane kitchen established in 2018 to provide nutritious, cooked meals for vulnerable Queenslanders.
Logistics Manager: oversees transport, logistics and warehousing in Victoria to rescue food and distribute free, nutritious meals to charities.
Garden Program Manager: leads our kitchen garden teams and plans our vegetable crops and harvests across three sites in Melbourne.
Volunteer Programs Manager: leads our Melbourne volunteering program including corporate and school programs.
Program Manager: manages volunteering in Brisbane including our corporate volunteering program.
First Nations Officer: coordinates our meal program for First Nations communities from our Brisbane kitchen.
President: David is a director and part-owner of the TIC Group and is involved in a number of other private companies. A Certified Public Accountant, he has been a long-serving member of the FareShare Board. He joined FareShare when it was known as One Umbrella and production in the kitchen was just 1000 meals per week. During his tenure he has watched our staff and volunteers in awe as production has risen to more than 60,000 meals a week. In addition to his formal involvement, David has been a regular participant in the the annual Upstream Challenge, a sponsored walk, raising significant funds for FareShare. David was also a member of the Foodbank Victoria Board for 12 years, retiring in 2017.
Vice president: Sandy Dudakov was a building project manager before joining One Umbrella, the forerunner to FareShare. In her time she has seen the charity grow from collecting food in private cars to now having nine refrigerated vans driving around Melbourne, and from having to cook in borrowed kitchens to operating Australia’s largest charity kitchens in two states. Sandy is especially pleased to have been around to see the Wrongs & Other Acts 2002 passed in Parliament which by offering legal protection encourages businesses to donate safe food to charities.
Rilka is an entrepreneur, food writer and broadcaster with a long history of community service. She serves on the board of The Hospital Research Foundation and the Centre for Creative Health among other charity commitments. Author of Rilka’s Feasts, she is known among Melbourne and Adelaide radio listeners for regular segments on food and culinary culture.
Chris is the CEO of Citywide Service Solutions Pty, a leading physical services company in Australia. Prior to this, he had more than 30 years’ experience in the resources sector, including with BHP Billiton, in various senior executive roles. More recently, Chris has acted as a non-executive director, including with the Victorian Government’s Metropolitan Partnership, and for innovation company Breakthrough Technology. He has been a ‘friend’ of FareShare for a number of years, participating in volunteering opportunities himself, and also with colleagues and teams from Citywide.
Margot founded de Groots wills & estate lawyers in Brisbane in 1986 and in Sydney (2007) and Melbourne (2013). Margot also founded the Queensland branch of the international Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP) and was a founding member of the Queensland Law Society Succession Law Committee. She has also served as Chairman of Law Australasia, a National Association of law firms and has been a Director and Chair of several other companies and foundations.
Our Patron: Mr Charles Goode is the Chairman of Australian United Investment Company Ltd, Diversified United Investment Ltd and Flagstaff Partners. He retired in February 2010 as Chairman of Australia and New Zealand Banking Group after serving as a director for four years and as Chairman for 15 years. He retired in July 2007 as Chairman of Woodside Petroleum Limited after serving as a director for 19 years and as Chairman for eight years. Mr Goode has a wide range of community interests which include serving as Chairman of The Ian Potter Foundation, one of Australia's largest philanthropic foundations. He was made a Companion of the Order of Australia in 2001.