Kel O’Neill, Chair
Kel is a proud Wiradjuri man, father and grand father, born and raised in Dubbo, NSW.
Kel brings many years of experience in program management, development and service delivery; working with Indigenous organisations and communities; and vocational education training.
Emma-Kate Rose, Executive Director
Emma-Kate is a mother, sister to five, auntie to 19 and was born in Sydney and raised in Brisbane. She holds a Bachelor of Arts (Justice Studies) and draws on over 30 years’ experience working in criminology, social enterprise development, environmental sustainability, food justice and bottom-up economic development.
Emma-Kate is a past Fellow of the Centre for Social Innovation at Griffith University. She’s currently a Special Advisor to the Board of the Queensland Social Enterprise Council, where she was previously President from 2017-2020.
Robert Pekin, Executive Director
Robert is a father, brother to eight, uncle to 19, born and raised in Colac, Victoria. He’s a former 4th generation organic dairy farmer, and over the last 20 years has been innovating local food production and distribution systems in Australia. In 2004, he founded Food Connect, a dynamic multi-farmer food distribution enterprise with an innovative community-based distribution system.
Robert is a co-founder of the Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance, and a founding director of Open Food Network. In 2018, he co-founded the Food Connect Shed to run a successful equity crowdfunding campaign. Rob is a well known speaker in the Fair Food movement. He loves his blended family of four children, and his favourite foods are beer, butter and good bread.
Geoff Ebbs, Director
Geoff is an experienced company director, general manager and member of a number of advisory boards at Griffith University.
He has significant experience as a marketing and sales director across media, software development and engineering firms, and is currently undertaking his PhD in food systems at Griffith University.