PRESS RELEASE

Global Citizen Appoints Terence Jeyaretnam And Anna Robson To Australian Board Of Directors

(Melbourne, AUS | Thursday, 4 February 2021) – Homegrown international advocacy organisation Global Citizen today announced the appointments of sustainability specialist Terence Jeyaretnam and social entrepreneur Anna Robson to its Australian Board of Directors. 

Jeyaretnam is a Partner at Ernst & Young (EY) in the Climate Change and Sustainability Services practice, as well as EY Australia’s Reconciliation Leader, while Robson is Co-founder and CEO of Refugee & Migrant Talent - Australia’s first national refugee and migrant employment platform facilitating sustainable employment.

2021 will be a critical year for the delivery of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, as COVID-19 has pushed millions of people further into extreme poverty and the world seeks solutions to the climate crisis.

Together, Global Citizen Australia’s new directors bring decades of experience in environmental and sustainability policy, refugee and migrant policy, innovation, corporate citizenship and international development to the Global Citizen movement. Their contributions will be critical to ensuring the Australian Government continues to play an active role on the global stage and that Australians champion efforts to end extreme poverty by 2030.

The new board members join existing directors, Hon. Mary Wooldridge (Chair), Ian Allen AM, Trish Daley, Professor Linda Kristjanson AO and Natasha Stott Despoja AO.

“With less than ten years remaining to achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals - the framework for ending extreme poverty - we need countries such as Australia to step up to ensure these goals are met. Due to COVID-19, more people have been pushed into extreme poverty and many global efforts have stalled or regressed. This means that the urgency and need to act is more important than ever. We are delighted to be welcoming the breadth of experience from Terence and Anna to ensure we expand our efforts in Australia and be an effective champion for the world’s most vulnerable citizens,” said Mary Wooldridge, Chair of Global Citizen Australia.

“I am honoured to be joining the Australian Board of Global Citizen. Environmental and climate impacts are not only disproportionately impacting the poor and vulnerable communities, but contributing to affecting ecosystems and food bowls, putting further strain on our common goal to eradicate poverty,” said Terence Jeyaretnam, who brings with him over twenty-five years’ experience advising governments and corporations on sustainability issues, and is also a passionate advocate for diversity and inclusion, having migrated to Australia under humanitarian status from Sri Lanka in the mid ‘80’s.

Commenting on her appointment, Anna Robson said: "I am excited to join Global Citizen’s Australian Board and contribute to the organisation’s much-needed work towards encouraging all Australians to take actions that help meet the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, which ultimately improve conditions for all human beings and the planet we live on."

Robson, who was named one of Forbes’ 30 Under 30 Asia 2017: Social Entrepreneurs, has helped connect more than 25,000 refugees and migrants globally and within Australia to over 600 employers nationally, via her social enterprise Refugee and Migrant Talent since it was launched in 2015.

For more information about how to join the Global Citizen movement, visit www.globalcitizen.org and follow @GlblCtznAU on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram using #GlobalCitizen.

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About Global Citizen

Global Citizen is the world's largest movement of action takers and impact makers dedicated to ending extreme poverty by 2030. With over 10 million monthly advocates, our voices have the power to drive lasting change around sustainability, equality, and humanity. We post, tweet, message, vote, sign, and call to inspire those who can make things happen to act — government leaders, businesses, philanthropists, artists, and citizens — together improving lives. By downloading our app, Global Citizens learn about the systemic causes of extreme poverty, take action on those issues, and earn rewards with tickets to concerts, events, and experiences all over the world. To date, the actions of our community, along with high-level advocacy efforts and work with partners, has resulted in commitments and policy announcements from leaders valued at over $48 billion, affecting the lives of more than 880 million people. For more information, visit GlobalCitizen.org.

Contact

Feature Communications, on behalf of Global Citizen Australia:

Lisa Poisel, lisa@featurecommunications.com.au, 0412 151 664

Editors Notes

More Information On New Board Directors:

Terence Jeyaretnam

Terence is an environmental engineer and Partner at EY in the Climate Change and Sustainability practice, based in Melbourne. He is EY’s national leader for indigenous reconciliation, as well as the D&I leader for EY’s Melbourne office. He has been an integral part of EY’s cultural diversity efforts over the past two years.

Prior to joining EY, Terence founded Net Balance in 2006. Before it was acquired by EY in 2014, he succeeded in growing the firm to Australia's largest standalone sustainability and climate change advisory service. Net Balance was twice rated by BRW as one of the Fast 100 growth companies in Australia.

Terence is on the Boards of Knowledge Media, Food Frontier and Fairtrade Australia New Zealand, and is an Adjunct Professor at University of Southern Queensland. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Engineers Australia, having been named one of the Young Engineers of the Year in the ‘90s by Engineers Australia.

Anna Robson
Co-Founder & CEO, Refugee & Migrant Talent

Anna Robson is a social entrepreneur who specialises in designing innovative programs to harness the strengths and improve the well-being of people. 

Anna has extensive first-hand experience working with marginalised people, particularly refugees, in settings such as India, South Korea (English Teacher) and Nauru (Save the Children). While working at the Nauru Detention Centre, Anna was deeply impacted by the human suffering she witnessed and also gained insight into the enormous potential and highly developed skill-sets of many refugees. 

It was these experiences that sowed the seed of inspiration for her to explore how technical innovation could help harness the wasted human potential and overcome barriers to employment for refugees in Australia. It was while participating in the Techfugees hackathon Anna met Nirary, a Syrian refugee with a Masters in Web Science.

Together they founded Refugee Talent - and have built Refugee Talent into a social enterprise providing recruitment and technology solutions that raise the visibility of refugees, and other minority groups, in terms of their skill and experience and connect them with employers to gain meaningful sustainable long term employment.