Jon Dee
Founder and MD, Do Something! and founder, Planet Ark.
Profile
Jon Dee is an award-winning social entrepreneur, broadcaster and campaigner.
Current Work
Jon is currently the Energy Transition Leader at Arup Australia, where he works on renewable energy, pumped-hydro, battery storage, sustainability and hydrogen-related projects. In his push to increase corporate adoption of renewable energy, Jon is also the Coordinator for RE100 Australia, heading up the initiative in Australia.
His guidebooks, ‘Sustainable Growth’, ‘EnergyCut’ and ‘EnergySmart’, have shifted over 140,000 copies. Thanks to Government funding, his 2017 ‘EnergySmart’ book can be downloaded for free from EnergySmartSaver.com.au.
Jon is also the Managing Director of The DoSomething Foundation, a registered charity that he co-founded in 2007 with Pat Cash and Tina Jackson. The organisation seeks to bring about positive social and environmental change.
Jon is also the Global Director of One Tree Per Child, which he founded with Olivia Newton-John. Ambassadors, Supporters and Patrons of the initiative include Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Lord Stern, Lord Hastings, Costa Georgiadis, Kevin McCloud from Grand Designs and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall from River Cottage. Jon and Olivia launched it in Australia with help from Malcolm Turnbull, Greg Hunt and News Corp.
Jon gives keynote speeches, MC’s events and consults to major companies on efficiency, sustainability and change management in Australia as well as overseas.
Previous Experience
Media: On Sky News Business channel from July 2015 to November 2017, Jon researched, wrote and presented 115 episodes of ‘Smart Money’ – a live weekly TV program where he showed businesses how to become more innovative, efficient and sustainable.
Companies that Jon interviewed on his programme included Toyota, McDonald’s, KPMG, SABMiller, Coca-Cola, Westpac, PwC, LEGO, Qantas, BT, Tesla, Accenture, IKEA, M&S, News Corp, The Body Shop, Fujitsu, KFC, Mirvac, Marriott Hotels, Mars, Jaguar Land Rover, Sydney Opera House, Coles, Lion, Unilever and many others. In total, he wrote and presented over 700 different business sustainability news stories and interviews.
Philanthropy: As a philanthropist, Jon Dee co-founded Planet Ark with Pat Cash in 1991 and ran the organisation for its first 15 years. As Managing Director he initiated and oversaw the organisation’s highly successful initiatives and prime time TV advertising campaigns.
Jon and Olivia Newton-John founded Australia’s highly successful National Tree Day and fronted the event for the community planting of its first 10 million trees.
Producer & Director: Jon has produced and directed over 300 environmentally focused TV adverts and videos featuring Tom Cruise, Kylie Minogue, Dustin Hoffman, Nicole Kidman, Bob Geldof, Sir Richard Branson, Greta Scacchi, Pierce Brosnan, Jeff Goldblum and many others.
Feedback
Good presentation of a difficult topic.
Jon was exceptional - incredibly well prepared, right on target with the topic, with an interesting presentation that held the audience's attention. Jon engaged the audience both during and after the event, making a real effort to discuss issues with the audience over lunch. Jon was also most accommodating regarding media after the event. He was a pleasure to have and an asset to the event.
Thank you very much for taking the time to speak at Frocomm's 2010 Public Relations & Corporate Communications Conference in Sydney in August. The feedback about your speaking slot has been fantastic, with delegates voting you the joint number one best speaker along with author/speaker Gerry McCusker from PR Disasters. Your confidence on stage and your willingness to share insights into exciting case studies really appealed to the delegates. Comments from delegates like "great", "very impressive" and "inspiring" clearly show knowledge of your subject, that you are a professional public speaker, and that you truly engage with the delegates, especially in the Q&A sessions. Delegates also commented on your excellent use of visual aids such as video and photos. I would be delighted to recommend you to any conference organiser seeking a professional, confident and polished speaker.
Jon continues to meet our expectations with regard to the content and messages he delivers in talks conducted on our behalf. He is also extremely amenable with regard to pre-event media and media interviews on the day. Jon is an asset to our current program - I could not recommend him more highly to anyone wishing to engage a relevant, informed, approachable and engaging speaker.
The feedback from delegates has been extremely positive with many saying that they identified with your simple but refreshing approach to sustainability in that it is good business sense about about doing more with less. The delegates were also very excited to receive a copy of your book, Sustainable Growth.
