Ronni Kahn AO

About Ronni

Ronni Kahn AO is the founder of OzHarvest, the Australian food rescue organisation she started in 2004 after seeing how much usable food was being thrown away by events and hospitality. She led it as chief executive for two decades, handing over to a new CEO in March 2024, and is now the organisation's Visionary in Residence as well as a board member and a participant in OzHarvest Ventures. Two decades on, OzHarvest delivers millions of meals to people in need each year and has changed Australian food waste legislation.

Her perspective on social impact is shaped by two decades of building the organisation — from a single van and a borrowed phone to a national operation with hundreds of staff and thousands of volunteers. She speaks frankly about the early years, the work of changing federal law, the cultural change required inside the food industry, and what it actually takes to sustain mission-driven work over decades. Her memoir, A Repurposed Life, and the feature documentary Food Fighter both trace that arc.

For corporate audiences, Ronni is a strong fit for leadership programs, sustainability and ESG conferences, women's events, food and hospitality industry events, and any in-house program where the brief is to combine an extraordinary mission story with substantive thinking on systems change. She works internationally.