Our guest speaker will be Ed Kitchen, Managing Director, Uber Eats Australia & New Zealand. His topic will be UBER IN THE COMMUNITY.
UBER and AUSTRALIAN RED CROSS entered a major 3 year partnership in 2025 building on the success of their longstanding collaboration – including the groundbreaking Uber x Red Cross Clothing Drive, which began in 2016 and saw the collection of 80,000kg of clothing in 2024 alone.
This partnership is helping Australian Red Cross members, volunteers and staff access reliable transport and meals. With a footprint in over 51 towns and cities, and Uber Eats expanding to more than 100 locations by the end of 2025, Uber is uniquely placed to support Australian Red Cross members, volunteers and staff. When Cyclone Alfred hit early last year, Uber was pivotal in enabling Australian Red Cross members, volunteers and staff to reach some of the most severely affected areas across South-East Queensland and Northern New South Wales and provided essential meals to those working throughout the emergency response. More recently, severe flooding in New South Wales has made the impact of this collaboration even clearer.
UBER also has a partnership with an indigenous organisation called JAWUN. JAWUN is a place where corporate, government and philanthropic organisations come together with Indigenous communities to affect real change. Jawun operates in 12 regions across Australia. Their story can be heard around the campfires, corridors and boardrooms of Australia’s most influential corporate, philanthropic, government and Indigenous changemakers.
For corporate, government and philanthropic partners, working with Indigenous-led organisations can offer powerful lessons in embedding values of trust and community accountability in the way they do business. Secondees return with a deeper connection to Indigenous Australia and the motivation to pass on the lessons and experiences gained during their secondment within their own networks. For Indigenous leaders, these partnerships provide access to a highly skilled and experienced network with influence in major businesses and across government, presenting valuable opportunities for learning, cross-sectoral collaboration and leadership development.