Gordon
Cairns

Gordon Cairns is Chairman of the Woolworths Group and Origin Energy. He is a director of Macquarie Group and Macquarie Bank (since November 2014). He was previously Chairman of David Jones and Rebel Group, and a director of Westpac Banking Corporation (July 2004 to December 2013).

Previous experience

CEO: He has extensive Australian and international experience as a Chairman, director and senior executive. He has over 30 years of food and retail experience, including his time as Chief Executive Officer of Lion Nathan, and as a senior manager in marketing, operations and finance roles with PepsiCo, Cadbury and Nestle.

Education: Gordon is a Celt, born in Bridge of Allan, Scotland. He was educated at the University of Edinburgh, where he graduated with an MA Honours degree.

Cadbury: He started his career with Nestle, followed by Cadbury, the Imperial Group, and PepsiCo, where he worked for 10 years in three continents, in Marketing, Operations and Finance. He joined Lion Nathan, initially as the Managing Director of their Australian beer business, and then for seven years as CEO. During that period, the company was consistently recognised as a best employer, and he was awarded a True Leaders award on three separate occasions.

speaker: Gordon Cairns is at once an authentic and most inspiring speaker.