IGD appoints Naomi Kissman as new Social Impact Director

IGD has announced the appointment of Naomi Kissman as the Social Impact Director.

Social Impact comprises IGD’s initiatives that are driving change and making a tangible difference to society, by uniting and inspiring the food and consumer goods industry and mobilising it as a force for good.

“I’m delighted that Naomi is taking the lead across all our Social Impact projects as we continue to navigate through these extraordinary times,” Susan Barratt, IGD chief executive, said.

“Naomi joined IGD in October 2019 as our Strategy and Corporate Affairs Director and has done an excellent job building our Economics from IGD pillar and deepening relationships with key external stakeholders. Now, her focus will turn to delivering positive Social Impact across all our workstreams and on strengthening our reach across the food and consumer goods industry.”

IGD is an organisation of two interconnected communities, with the profits from Commercial Insight being reinvested into Social Impact, delivered in four key areas: People, Health, Sustainability and Economics.

Last year, some 4,800 companies engaged with IGD’s Social Impact initiatives.

Naomi Kissman said: “I’m enormously excited to have the opportunity to lead Social Impact at IGD. Having worked in this vital industry for over 15 years, I’m incredibly passionate about its ability to deliver lasting social impact. Never has it been more important for us to come together to ensure a thriving industry that delivers better health and environmental outcomes for the benefit of us all. I look forward to continuing to drive initiatives that unite and inspire businesses to make a difference.”

From supporting more than 10,000 young people to develop their employability skills to saving 250,000 tonnes of food from waste via the IGD-WRAP Food Waste Reduction Roadmap, Social Impact from IGD made a tangible difference in 2021. Other initiativesinclude:

• Championing inclusion and diversity through a new reverse mentoring scheme for industry leaders
• Supporting over 1,400 business leaders with economic insight
• Helping to shift consumer behaviour towards healthier and more sustainable diets by working collaboratively to test strategies in real-life settings
• Developing a new, shared ambition to halve the environmental impact of all packaging systems by 2030