It's not just good business but good sense to put social impact at the heart of your organisation.
Kim McDonnell is a dynamic entrepreneur, global CEO, and marketing leader with over 20 years’ experience driving business growth, organisational transformation, and purpose-led innovation. She’s founded, scaled, and sold award-winning businesses—including CUBED Communications, which she sold to Publicis Worldwide—before relocating to New York to expand her global influence. There, she rebuilt her career from the ground up, securing speaking engagements at the United Nations and connecting with global leaders, including a U.S. President.
Kim is the Founder and CEO of tech start-up Saveful, the award-winning free app designed to make mealtimes less stressful and more sustainable. Saveful helps families cook with what they already have in their kitchen, reducing food waste, saving money, and promoting smarter, more sustainable living. Since its launch in November 2023, Saveful has recorded over 32,000 uses, saving an estimated $84,000, 5772.73 kilograms of food, and 10.97 tonnes of carbon emissions. The app’s growth has been supported by partnerships with major brands such as Bega, Nestlé, Birds Eye, Goodman Fielder, Rabobank, and Qantas, along with new alliances including SunRice, Gumtree, SPC, AGL and OzHarvest. Saveful has won an Australian Good Design Award and the prestigious Victorian Premiers Design Award.
Saveful offers personalised content tailored to household preferences, flexible recipes, tools to track food waste and savings, and practical tips to make sustainability simple and accessible. Kim’s leadership has positioned Saveful as a key player in the fight against the cost of living crisis, helping families to save food to save money, empowering households to adopt more conscious and sustainable cost-effective food habits.
From the outback mining town of Mount Isa where Kim grew up, to the boardrooms of Melbourne, Sydney, New York and the United Nations … to the decision to turn her life into a mission to empower and create positive change, Kim’s career is marked by bold decisions and a focus on outcomes. She’s worked with top-tier brands through leadership roles at Leo Burnett and Publicis Worldwide and is recognised for her ability to align purpose with performance. Whether leading high-performance teams, driving sustainable business practices, or creating impactful marketing strategies, Kim’s no-nonsense, pragmatic style ensures her keynotes deliver more than just inspiration—they provide actionable strategies for real-world results.
Talking Points
Leading with Impact: How to Build High-Performance Teams and Navigate Change
In today’s fast-paced business environment, effective leadership isn’t about buzzwords—it’s about results. Drawing from her experience as a global CEO and founder, Kim McDonnell shares practical strategies for building resilient, high-performing teams and leading through change. This session focuses on what works in real-world leadership, from managing growth and uncertainty to driving accountability and performance.Leading with Impact: How to Build High-Performance Teams and Navigate Change
Key Takeaways:
- Proven techniques for building strong, accountable teams
- Practical frameworks for navigating organisational change and complexity
- Leadership strategies that deliver measurable business outcomes
Sustainable Success: Embedding Purpose and Social Impact into Business Strategy
Sustainability isn’t just a trend—it’s a business advantage. As Founder and CEO of Saveful, Kim McDonnell shows how organisations can integrate sustainability into their core operations without compromising profitability. Drawing on her experience leading a tech start-up focused on reducing food waste, she shares practical strategies for embedding environmental and social impact into business models, with measurable results.Sustainable Success: Embedding Purpose and Social Impact into Business Strategy
Key Takeaways:
- Clear strategies for integrating sustainability into business models
- How to align social impact initiatives with commercial success
- Tools to measure and communicate the ROI of sustainable practices
The Purpose-Driven Marketer: Turning Bold Ideas into Measurable Business Growth
Marketing isn’t just about creativity—it’s about impact. Kim McDonnell draws on her extensive background in advertising and data-driven marketing, including leadership roles at Leo Burnett and Publicis Worldwide, to show how purpose-led brands can drive stronger business outcomes. In this session, she breaks down how to craft marketing strategies that resonate with audiences and deliver measurable growth.The Purpose-Driven Marketer: Turning Bold Ideas into Measurable Business Growth
Key Takeaways:
- Actionable marketing strategies that deliver real business outcomes
- Techniques for creating purpose-driven brand narratives that connect
- Practical tools for aligning marketing efforts with business objectives
The Future of Food and Farming: Innovation, Sustainability, and the Circular Economy
As the Founder and CEO of Saveful, Kim McDonnell is at the forefront of tackling one of the biggest challenges of our time—food waste and sustainability. In this keynote, she explores the future of food and agriculture, highlighting how technology, behavioural change, and circular economy principles can transform how we produce, consume, and value food. Kim shares insights from working with leading food brands and sustainability partners, offering a practical look at how businesses and communities can play a role in creating a more resilient, sustainable food system.The Future of Food and Farming: Innovation, Sustainability, and the Circular Economy
Key Takeaways:
- Key trends shaping the future of food, agriculture, and sustainability
- Practical strategies for businesses to reduce food waste and improve resource efficiency
- How the circular economy is driving innovation in food production and consumption
- Real-world examples of how technology can create sustainable, scalable impact in the food sector
Video
Farmer's campaign to feed those in need |Thankful
Kim McDonnell | Thankful | Meat the Ultimate Podcast
Kim McDonnell is the Founder and CEO of thankful.org, a social enterprise and global lifestyle brand founded on the principle that the simple practice of gratitude has the power to improve overall happiness and wellness. This innovative new model merges philanthropy and business to spread the power of gratitude, via licensed products that give back, activations that spark thankful thinking, and harness the power of gratitude for good.Thankful for Women | Kim McDonnell
When women flee domestically violent situations they often lose their self-confidence and self-esteem in the process. Our #InternationalWomensDay event at Tavern on the Green helped to nourish these women and remind them that they're worthy, amazing human beings, capable of doing anything. Thank you to all our amazing partners who helped to create Thankful Moments for these wonderful women #IAmThankful4WomenKim's presentations are engaging and insightful. Backed by real-life examples, research and data, Kim leads her audience through the drivers of real positive social impact. I stepped away fr ... keep reading Project Resource Partners
What makes Kim McDonnell so special and effective in delivering meaningful and high impact presentations is that she is purpose driven, kind and grateful to her core. This resonates for her audience no matter what she is talking about - her ability to connect quickly is unique. She's engaging, clear with conviction and this makes her audience invest. I've had Kim present at various companies on various topics, from philanthropy, social enterprise, purpose and values/leadership. The last time I had Kim present was in my capacity as Chief People Officer, to which I had to extend the session for our people to be able to ask all of their questions. Incredible!
