AMI appoints Mars Wrigley marketing chief as CEO

The Australian Marketing Institute (AMI) has brought on former Mars Food Australia marketer, Brownyn Powell, as its new chief executive officer.

Powell is taking up the reins from current CEO, Narendra Prasad, who will continue on with the association as its CFO and company secretary. Powell comes with more than 30 years’ experience in marketing and has been a non-executive director at the AMI for the last year. Most recently, she was marketing director at Mars Food for four years, overseeing brands such as MasterFoods, Kantong, Ben’s Original and Dolmio.

Prior to this, Powell was marketing director for QSR business, Oporto, overseeing the relaunch of the brand’s customer experience, franchisee engagement and menu innovation. Her resume also includes senior marketing and innovation roles with McDonalds, Coca-Cola Amatil, 20^th Century Fox and George Weston Foods. Powell also joined the board of the Australian Institute of Food Science and Technology (AIFST) last year.

AMI chair, Andrew Thornton, noted Powell’s extensive experience as a marketing leader and proven ability to transform and position brands for growth as powerful attributes to bring to the AMI CEO position.

“At the heart of her success has been her ability to develop innovative new concepts and strategies that connect with consumers and change businesses,” he stated. “We look forward to Bronwyn leading the AMI as we move into the next phase of the organisation’s development, building on the sound footings already in place. Moving forward, the focus will be on continuing to devise and deliver valued benefits for our members that will really make a difference to their career aspirations, regardless of what career stage they are at.”

Powell said she’s passionate about strengthening the marketing profession in Australia.

“There is no doubt in my mind that professional marketers need a strong and supportive industry body to help them navigate their career and to provide access to first class continuing professional development opportunities,” she said.

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