Kylea Tink will become the new CEO or Australia’s largest food relief organisation, Foodbank Australia, on 27 October 2025.
Ms Tink joins the organisation with an impressive professional track record spanning federal politics, commercial operations and the not-for-profit space. As the former Independent Member for North Sydney, she was the first woman elected to represent the seat which, in March 2025, was abolished by the AEC as part of their boundary redistribution. At the time Ms Tink announced that, rather than contest another seat, she would retire from politics along with her community.
The former managing director for Edelman Australia, Ms Tink comes to Foodbank equipped with a deep knowledge of the not-for-profit sector having served as the in augural CEO of the McGrath Foundation where she played a pivotal role in conceiving and successfully establishing one of the most iconic sporting events in the world – the Sydney Pink Test. From there as the CEO for Camp Quality she turned her attention to working with those seeking to allow kids facing cancer to just be kids again.
“Over the years I have been fortunate to work with incredibly smart, committed and passionate people and organisations who have pulled together to address fundamentally and completely untenable systemic inequities in our society,” Ms Tink said.
“The opportunity for me to join Foodbank Australia is a natural extension of that experience as it provides the opportunity to again work with dedicated and brave people to fix what is a wholly fixable issue – hunger.”
Ambitious commitment
The appointment comes at a pivotal time, as Foodbank Australia sets to pursue an ambitious new commitment to ensure anyone in Australia experiencing the uncertainty of food insecurity – man, woman or child, of any age, cultural or socioeconomic background, has access to the support they need, immediately and reliably.
As the 14th largest economy in the world, it is inconceivable that nearly a third of all Australian households currently report experiencing food insecurity, with Ms Tink saying, “quite simply, no Australian should go hungry.”
“No one in Australia should ever have to worry about what they are going to either feed their families or eat themselves and its time we worked to bring that truth to reality,” she said.
“Working together, food insecurity can absolutely be a thing of the past in our society – but it’s going to take all of us; everyday Australians, business leaders and governments at all levels to say enough is enough. We will not tolerate or accept hunger in Australia.”
“Foodbank is changing lives all over Australia, and I’m looking forward to leading the organisation through a period of transformational change.”
Hunger in Australia
Based on data gathered through the annual Foodbank Hunger Report and ground-breaking Foodbank Hunger Map, Foodbank Australia has calculated that around $100m per year is required to secure the food, funds and logistical support needed to ensure every person seeking food relief has access to it.
Foodbank Australia Chair, Duncan Makeig believes the ambition of the organisation’s new strategy, at a time of challenging economic pressures, called for a particular type of leader to join the organisation.
“I’m looking forward to working with Kylea as we all turn our full attention to solving this challenge once and for all. Kylea’s appointment comes as the organisation embarks on a bold and ambitious strategy of raising more than $100million per year to support the national distribution of at least 120 million kilograms of nutritionally and culturally appropriate food relief annually,” he said.
In closing, Ms Tink offered the following: “This is no small target strategy and I cannot wait to throw my experience into the mix to help reshape our Australian reality.”
Brianna’s impact
Ms Tink replaces outgoing CEO, Brianna Casey AM, who announced her resignation in July after steering the organisation through the 2020 Black Summer Bushfires, COVID-19, supply chain disruption and the cost-of-living crisis.
Mr Makeig paid tribute to the impact Ms Casey has had on the organisation: “I have thoroughly enjoyed working with Brianna who I have found to be a leader of great energy, insight and enormous compassion in everything she does.
“Brianna leaves behind a legacy of creating and building invaluable networks and relationships across the social services sector, food and grocery industry and government,” he said.
