Board & Governance

Co-founder, Chief Sustainability Advisor and Director at Planet Ark, Paul Klymenko is one of Australia’s leading environmental advocates.

Paul has worked in the environment sector for more than 30 years, and made a lasting contribution as an environmental campaigner, researcher and ethical investment fund manager.

Paul co-founded Planet Ark in 1992 and has been instrumental in it becoming one of Australia’s most trusted not-for-profit environmental behaviour change organisations, through initiatives such as National Tree Day, the Australasian Recycling Label, Recycling Near You and the recently launched Australian Circular Economy Hub.

He is a member of a number of Boards and committees including the Australian Government’s Ministerial Advisory Group and APCO’s Collective Action Group.

Prior to moving into the environmental field in 1990, Paul spent eleven years in the financial services industry in research and advising roles. In 1986 he co-founded Australia’s first socially responsible fund manager, Australian Ethical which now has over $9b under management. He is a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Edward Dowse is an experienced finance and commercial leader with 20 years of experience across a range of industries.

Edwards’s industry experience includes fast moving consumer goods, manufacturing, transportation, and recycling. He has been with Lion for over nine years and currently leads their involvement in container deposit schemes across Australia and New Zealand.

Prior to Lion, Edward spent over 10 years at Ernst & Young advising major lenders, investors, and corporates in relation to business performance, strategic options analysis, financial restructures, and turnarounds in both Australia and Europe.

Julian Sheezel is a senior executive with broad experience over 25 years in corporate affairs, corporate taxation, politics, government and business in Australia and Asia.

Julian leads the Group Corporate Affairs team at Asahi Beverages including responsibility for Government relations, communications, public policy, regulatory matters and corporate reputation.

Julian has been heavily involved in Container Deposit Schemes since 2018 when he became a Board member of Exchange for Change (NSW) and Exchange for Change (ACT), the CDS Scheme Coordinators for NSW and the ACT.

Prior to joining Carlton & United Breweries / Asahi Beverages, Julian had careers in corporate taxation, politics and government. He worked in international corporate tax roles in Melbourne and Hong Kong with KPMG. He then served in senior political party roles in Melbourne and Canberra for more than a decade before being Chief of Staff to the Australian Minister for Revenue and Financial Services.

Ben is a senior executive with over 21 years of experience in the beverage industry with roles in procurement and supply chain, encompassing packaging, raw materials and corporate and supply chain indirect.

Ben has recently been promoted to the Global Procurement Sustainability Director at Coca-Cola European Partners (CCEP) with the responsibility of leading its sustainability commitments to increase recycled content and recyclability across packaging, implementing of RE100, and overseeing the commitment of CCEP’s suppliers to Science Based Targets by 2025 and 100% renewable energy by 2030 across CCEP global operations. Prior to this role, Ben was Head of Regional Procurement – packaging and sustainability for the Australia, Pacific and Indonesia region managing a spend of $1.5bn.

Ben previously worked for 9 years at Cadbury Schweppes prior to moving to Coca Cola Partners in 2011. During his time with Cadbury Schweppes, he held the various roles from Australia and New Zealand Procurement Manager to the Asia Pacific Procurement Manager – Packaging. In these roles he was responsible for all aspects of packaging including innovation, sourcing and sustainability and managed the annual procurement spend.

Philippa Perkins is an experienced finance and commercial professional with over 20 years of experience in complex projects, corporate establishments, reorganisations and transformations across a number of industries.

Philippa works in Lion’s CDS team supporting the establishment and monitoring of container deposit schemes across Australia. Philippa has been involved in collection schemes across Australia and New Zealand over the last 6 years and was a key member in the establishment of the Western Australia and Queensland container deposit schemes.

Philippa is a director of Marine Stores Pty Ltd, a joint venture business between Lion and Coopers that acts as a Supercollector in South Australia and the Northern Territory. She is also a director of Exchange for Change (NSW) and Exchange for Change (ACT), the container deposit scheme coordinators in New South Wales and Australian Capital Territory, and acts as an alternate director of Western Australia Return Recycle Renew, which operates the WA container deposit scheme.

Prior to joining Lion, Philippa spent over 15 years at EY as a consultant, managing financial restructures and turnarounds in both Australia and Europe.

Kylie Lethbridge is an industry executive with over 30 years of experience involving government services, tourism, marketing and stakeholder management.

Kylie is the Chief Executive Officer of the Independent Brewers Association, having started the role in March 2020 with a diverse career history.

Kylie began her journey working in Ministerial support teams before progressing to a variety of communications and marketing, tourism, economic development and management roles within local and state government in Australia and federal government in the UK.

Having owned her own small business, Kylie understands the challenges many small beverage suppliers face. She is a leader and author of strategies and policies that support organisational outcomes and has delivered effective results from her work in destination development and international trade.

Kylie has held multiple Board directorships, is considered an excellent relationship and stakeholder manager as well as a nurturing leader and facilitator of change.