Kim McDonnell is a dynamic entrepreneur, global CEO, and marketing leader with over 20 years’ experience driving business growth, organisational transformation, and purpose-led innovation. She’s founded, scaled, and sold award-winning businesses—including CUBED Communications, which she sold to Publicis Worldwide—before relocating to New York to expand her global influence. There, she rebuilt her career from the ground up, securing speaking engagements at the United Nations and connecting with global leaders, including a U.S. President.
Kim is the Founder and CEO of tech start-up Saveful, the award-winning free app designed to make mealtimes less stressful and more sustainable. Saveful helps families cook with what they already have in their kitchen, reducing food waste, saving money, and promoting smarter, more sustainable living. Since its launch in November 2023, Saveful has recorded over 32,000 uses, saving an estimated $84,000, 5772.73 kilograms of food, and 10.97 tonnes of carbon emissions. The app’s growth has been supported by partnerships with major brands such as Bega, Nestlé, Birds Eye, Goodman Fielder, Rabobank, and Qantas, along with new alliances including SunRice, Gumtree, SPC, AGL and OzHarvest. Saveful has won an Australian Good Design Award and the prestigious Victorian Premiers Design Award.
Saveful offers personalised content tailored to household preferences, flexible recipes, tools to track food waste and savings, and practical tips to make sustainability simple and accessible. Kim’s leadership has positioned Saveful as a key player in the fight against the cost-of-living crisis, helping families to save food to save money, empowering households to adopt more conscious and sustainable cost-effective food habits.
From the outback mining town of Mount Isa where Kim grew up, to the boardrooms of Melbourne, Sydney, New York and the United Nations … to the decision to turn her life into a mission to empower and create positive change, Kim’s career is marked by bold decisions and a focus on outcomes. She’s worked with top-tier brands through leadership roles at Leo Burnett and Publicis Worldwide and is recognised for her ability to align purpose with performance. Whether leading high-performance teams, driving sustainable business practices, or creating impactful marketing strategies, Kim’s no-nonsense, pragmatic style ensures her keynotes deliver more than just inspiration—they provide actionable strategies for real-world results.
