Business Entrepreneur, CEO of Carman’s
Carolyn Creswell’s passionate interest in human rights was sparked during her Monash University days in the early 1990s when she also bought her fledgling business, Carman’s. In the 22 years since then, she has been awarded many business accolades including 2007 Ernst and Young, Young Entrepreneur of the Year and the 2012 Telstra Australian Business Woman of the Year.
In addition to being the CEO of Carman’s, Carolyn is a Board Member at the Human Rights Law Centre and is an Ambassador for Smiling Minds, a not-for-profit web and app based meditation program designed to bring balance to young minds. She previously has been a board member of the Victorian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission. Carolyn also sits on the Board of the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation, whose programs are now used in 10% of Australian primary schools, teaching students via pleasurable food education to grow, harvest, prepare and share food.
Carolyn loves living in Melbourne and is a very proud mother of four young children.
“Several years ago, I heard Kon speak at a fundraising event and I was blown away with his passion, commitment and to learn about the incredible work of the ASRC happening on my doorstep. I believe Australia has really been resettling boat people since 1788. It seems unfathomable today that, with all the land and riches we have here, we can’t be more generous to these beautiful people in need. In another life, it could easily have been us. As a mother of four children, my heart breaks to think of children still locked in detention centres and I believe one day we will feel equally as responsible for the impact we have had on these innocent children’s lives as we have for the children of stolen generation. It is a privilege and an honour to be an Ambassador for the ASRC and to help support the life changing work that they do.”