Australian Made Campaign appoints new Chief Executive

The Board of Australian Made Campaign Ltd (AMCL)—the organisation responsible for promoting and administering the nation’s iconic green-and-gold Australian Made, Australian Grown (AMAG) logo—has appointed Ben Lazzaro as its new Chief Executive, following a Board meeting in Melbourne on Tuesday.

Mr Lazzaro will succeed retiring Chief Executive, Ian Harrison, who steps down at the end of July.

Mr Lazzaro has an engineering and communications background with more than 15 years experience across a variety of management, sales, marketing and communications roles in consultancy, agency and in-house capacities. He joined AMCL in 2011 as Marketing & Communications Manager and in 2016 took on the role of Deputy Chief Executive.

According to Australian Made Campaign Chairman, Glenn Cooper, the AMCL Board has had a succession plan in place for some time.

“Ben has been a key contributor to the success of the organisation and the Australian Made logo for many years now,” Mr Cooper said.

 “Ben’s combination of skills and experience, paired with his understanding of country of origin matters, have him ideally placed to lead the organisation into its next exciting chapter.”

Mr Lazzaro said he’s looking forward to his new role.

“It’s a real honour to be given the opportunity to lead this organisation and I thank the Board for that,” Mr Lazzaro said.

 “While enormous progress has been made, there is opportunity for the Australian Made team to further strengthen this Australian icon, here and overseas.”

Mr Lazzaro acknowledged the leadership of outgoing Chief Executive Ian Harrison in establishing the Australian Made logo as Australia’s global product symbol.

“The logo has become one of the most powerful sales and marketing assets for businesses that make and grow products locally,” he said.

“It makes the Australian connection instantly, clearly and with authority, and is synonymous with quality and integrity – a truly global product symbol for our growers and manufacturers. Ian Harrison was central to achieving that and to the enormous progress of the campaign over the last 14 years.

“The challenge ahead is to build on this success, evolve the Australian Made offering and continue to deliver value to Australian manufacturers and growers, as well as consumers the world over.”

Mr Lazzaro will officially take on the role as of 1 August 2018.