2015 Conference: Anthony Pratt

SPEAKERS

Mr Anthony Pratt
Chairman and CEO of Pratt Industries and Global Chairman of Visy Industries

Mr Anthony Pratt graduated from Monash University, Melbourne, with a Bachelor of Economics (Hons) in 1983. After graduation he joined the consulting firm of McKinsey & Co, before joining Visy. In 1991 he moved to the United States to spearhead the family’s business expansion into America, where he built Pratt Industries USA into a billion-dollar company which now employs more US citizens than any other Australian company.

In 2007 he made a commitment at President Clinton’s Global Initiative in New York City to invest $1 billion in clean energy and recycling infrastructure over the next 10 years. Anthony is firmly committed to environmental causes, and he and the company have been honoured by environmental leaders such as former Vice President Al Gore, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Ted Turner, the Climate Group and Global Green for spreading the word that recycling is an important weapon against climate change.

Anthony also sits on the National Board of the Muhammad Ali Museum and Education Centre in Louisville, Kentucky, and is active in numerous charity organizations throughout the US and Australia. He divides his time between Melbourne and Atlanta, where Visy and Pratt are headquartered respectively.

Visy’s Contribution to Food Security

Food security can’t be seen in isolation but as a package of social development goals. Visy contributes to food security by the advancement of four interrelated sustainable development actions:

1. supporting its food and beverage customers in a number of ways; e.g. to reduce food waste through more food processing, better packaging—and our customers doing well will help their small holder farmer vendors (whose advancement is four times more effective than the next best way to eliminate poverty)
2. investing in sustainable infrastructure, such as 100 per cent recycled paper mills, clean energy plants, recycling centres, sustainable packaging and closed loop water systems
3. employing thousands of people across Visy’s global businesses in Australia, America and Asia, recognising that the best social program is a good, well-paid sustainable job
4. contributing philanthropically to the local communities in which Visy does business.

• Possibly Australia’s greatest contribution to global food security is through the production and export of safe, nutritious, sustainably-produced food, to meet the rising demand across Asia and beyond.
• We need to promote, protect and extend Australia’s reputation as a high quality, safe food supplier.
• Visy supports its food industry customers to do well, which will fuel Australia’s capacity to feed 200 million people directly. We can also help feed a further 800 million with the application of our skills, R&D and business services.
• Supporting our food customers revitalises the food processing sector and tackles food waste by protecting food from deteriorating, which could double the effective calorie delivery from the current level of agricultural production.
• Reducing food waste by better packaging that extends food shelf life also adds value to our customers and hence to society.
• Applying business know-how, in collaborative partnership with researchers and farming practitioners, is an important key to achieving this goal.