Helen Millicer, GAICD, Churchill Fellow, Director One Planet Consulting

Helen Millicer is one of the first in Australia to explore and articulate the practical steps for Australia’s transition to a more circular economy.

Building on two decades of working and consulting nationally in business, government, industry and manufacturing on sustainability and circularity, in 2017 Helen won a Churchill Trust Scholarship to investigate how Australia could shift to a more circular economy, focusing on plastics. In 2018 she was appointed by the EU as Co-Chair of the EU-Australia Leadership Forum on Circular Economy for Plastics, and in 2021 by the Australian Government to lead a national and global project on ways to influence circular product design. This report with 10 Recommendations was published in March 2023.

Helen has worked in national sustainability roles for two decades on energy, carbon, water and materials. She has an extraordinary span of knowledge having worked on seminal projects including Victoria’s first 50 Year Water Plan, renewable energy, organics recycling, plastics and chemicals manufacturing and recently on Victoria’s transforming Kerbside Reform.

Helen is consultant lead on the first EPR stewardship scheme for Australia, for soft plastics with the Australian Food and Grocery Council. She is also currently Chair of the Churchill Trust Panel for Industry, Agriculture and Logistics, an inaugural Director for the Tasmanian Government Board on recycling, Curator of the annual Aust/NZ SPE Plastics and Circular Economy Conference, and Founder ClimateWise Associations.

Helen has won a number of awards and scholarships for her vision, achievements and contributions to society, holds qualifications in business management, carbon accounting and is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.