Plastic Oceans Australasia (POA) is delighted to announce Trent Zimmerman as its first Patron and Manjula Sickler as its New Zealand representative. Trent Zimmerman was a former Member for North Sydney in the Australian Parliament where he served between 2015 and 2022 as Chair of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Health, Aged Care and Sport and led several major inquiries into aspects of the Australian health system. In Parliament, he was a strong advocate for climate and environment issues, innovation, health and, as the first openly gay Member of the House of Representatives, LGBTI+ issues. A long-time advocate for environmental issues Trent said, “As an island nation, Australians understand how important our marine environment is and feel passionately about its protection. This is reflected in the strong desire of our community to reduce plastic pollution, which poses such a threat to so many of our marine species.” Manjula Sickler is founder-CEO of Green Global Solutions (Aotearoa) and has worked in the health sector as finance manager and later as the Sustainability Manager for Te Toka Tumai Tamaki Makau Rau and Te Whatu Ora. Manjula led the environmental strategy at Te Toka Tumai Tamaki Makau Rau from 2014 to 2022. More recently, Manjula was the sustainability advisory lead for the National Procurement & Supply Chain operating model at Te Whatu Ora-Health NZ to develop national guidelines for a sustainable procurement and supply chain framework in line with the Government’s net zero legislation. “I am delighted to join the POA family and feel excited to continue working in the sustainability space in such a critical time for our planet,” said Manjula. POA’s Executive Director, Ricki Hersburgh, said, “We are delighted to welcome prominent and well respected people like Trent and Manjula into the POA family and look forward to working with them to achieve POA’s mission of eliminating plastic waste.” POA is an environmental impact NGO that works throughout Australasia. Its mission is to change the way we deal with plastic waste by challenging society’s perception that this indestructible substance can be treated as ‘disposable’. Media Contact: Patricia Lee Manager Engagement and Marketing Plastic Oceans Australasia 0404759998
patricia@plasticoceans.org.au www.plasticoceans.org.au
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