The health and wellbeing of people and corporations have never been more important. No longer a side project, today employees' wellbeing sits front, centre and top of the agenda in the day to day operations of many large corporations, universally transformed by a pandemic that no one saw coming and for which none of us were prepared.
At the second chapter event for the year, Pernod Ricard Winemakers’ Emma Baldwin will facilitate a panel of three inspirational speakers from the drinks industry who have long been passionate about mental health and wellbeing: their own and that of their colleagues.
Heather Williams - General Manager Health, Safety and Wellness – Treasury Wine Estates
Passionate about the health and safety of people in the workplace, Ms Williams' role at TWE is to ensure that employees return to their homes at the end of the day in good physical and mental health. During her time at TWE, Ms Williams (pictured above, left) has developed and facilitated the Mental Health Awareness and People Leader - How to Support Mental Health programs. Both programs have been adopted by the organisation in Australia and internationally and have proven to be crucial to the organisation in navigating the sudden and prolonged impact of COVID on its people. She has been a business leader in health, safety and wellbeing for global organisations for ten years.
Genevieve Hawkins - General Manager of Coles Group Insurance - author of Mentally at Work
After years leading major health, safety and wellbeing change programs in large organisations, Ms Hawkins (pictured above, centre) wrote Mentally at Work to help current and future leaders lead in a way that makes a difference to individual, team and organisational health and performance.
She believes in “the value of simplicity, pragmatism, finding the right way to talk about the elephants in the room, embracing clunky conversations and the importance of sticking to your ‘true north’ in order to get the right long term outcome for a business and its people”.
Now a senior executive, Hawkins has undertaken post graduate study in occupational hazard management and change management, is a sponsor for Pride at Coles, a non-executive Director of the Alcohol and Drug Foundation and a board member of the AOHSEB.
Jeff McKenzie - Commercial Director - Pernod Ricard Australia
Mr McKenzie has worked for Pernod Ricard in various commercial roles for 15 years, with experience in customer management, operation and strategy roles. In 2016, he left Endeavour Drinks to take up the role of Commercial Director at Pernod Ricard Australia. He has a Post Graduate degree in Human Resource Management and his passion for leadership and cultural development stems from his strong belief that, no matter the size of the team, people are the crucial element to that team's performance. Healthy people with good mental health and a culture of strong collaboration, makes for a great place to work where people can thrive.
Mr McKenzie is also on the Executive Board of the Drinks Association.
Join what is certain to be an insightful and educational discussion about managing every day stress in your everyday life and learn about how businesses within the industry have improved support for their employees’ health and wellbeing these past 12 months.
The Drinks Association's Embrace Difference event will take place over lunch from 12.30pm-1.30pm on Wednesday, 11 August. Register here.