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Welcome to our May Circular Economy Futures Meetup. We hope you are all doing well and staying safe in these tumultuous times. We wanted to stay connected with our community and ensure that we continue connecting you to the industry as we have committed to doing when starting these Meetups. In a time of physical distancing, we believe that it is important to stay socially connected, so we are going online for this event.

Join us to hear from Mark Barthel, Special Advisor for Fight Food Waste CRC and Food Innovation Australia Limited, a wealth of knowledge in the Food Waste sector, in Australia and the UK. Joining him will be Vanessa Murillo and Lachlan Powell, Co-founders of I Am Grounded, who are upcycling the natural by-product of the coffee cherry into a health bar. You wouldn't want to miss this full circle conversation, from the systemic problems inherent in our current food system, through Mark's presentation, all the way to producing new products from waste in action, through Vanessa and Lachlan's talk.

Speakers & Bios:

Mark Barthel
Special Advisor - Fight Food Waste CRC and Food Innovation Australia Limited
Mark joined the Fight Food Waste CRC team as a Special Advisor in August 2019 having moved from the UK to Australia. In addition to his CRC role, where he is leading the development of a Food Waste Reduction Roadmap with Woolworths, he is supporting FIAL and the Department of Agriculture, Water and Environment in the implementation of Australia’s National Food Waste Strategy.
Mark has a successful 25-year track record of driving sustainable innovation and circular thinking in agri-food; and over 15 years’ experience in quantifying and preventing food loss and waste and leading product and packaging innovation projects in the UK, Europe, North and South America, Africa and Australia. He has worked with the senior teams of some of the largest food and grocery businesses in the world, including Tesco, Sainsbury’s, M&S, Cooperative Food, Walmart, Woolworths, Nestle and Danone.

Vanessa Murillo & Lachlan Powell
Co-Founders - I Am Grounded
Lachlan and Vanessa are the co-founders of I Am Grounded, a social enterprise focused on adding value to coffee byproducts by upcycling the fruit of coffee into nutritious and impactful snacks. Their first product to market is the Coffee Fruit Bar; Australia first eco-conscious health bar made using upcycled coffee fruit that would have otherwise gone to waste. Lachlan is a Civil Engineer with a Master's in Project Management and is strongly interested in sustainable development and eco-innovation. He is further passionate about sustainability in food and agriculture, and of course coffee! Vanessa originated from Colombia and comes from a family of food & coffee entrepreneurs, she has been passionate about coffee since training as a Barista Master at the age of 15. Vanessa has worked in digital and content marketing for the past 7 years and has a duel bachelors in Journalism and Political Science as well as a postgraduate certificate in Integrated Marketing Communications. The pair have just come from a round of successful crowdfunding on Kickstarter and are alumni of Wandering Cooks- a startup kitchen space in Brisbane's South Brisbane.

YAS GRIGALIUNAS (EVENT HOST)
CEO - WORLD'S BIGGEST GARAGE SALE
Yas is a passionate advocate for the circular economy. Her work at WBGS focuses on activating circular principles within the community and industry around recycle, reuse and repurpose.

Event night info:
Presentations 6:00PM - 7:00PM
Q&A 7:00PM - 7:30PM

Proudly presented by World's Biggest Garage Sale & The Office of the Queensland Chief Entrepreneur in partnership with Advance Queensland.

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