APAC / CEO of the Year Awards 2022 9 Agriculture Charity CEO of the Year 2022: Natasha Kocks MAICD vision. Having found the nonprofit sector and charity work massively rewarding, Natasha hasn’t looked back since. Nowadays, she and her team take a collaborative approach to their work, supporting and looking out for one another at every turn in order to ensure everyone is working at their fullest capacity, as Natasha knows first hand just how taxing both mentally and physically such a role can be. By keeping her people organised, well rested, and mentally recharged, she carries out regular check-ins with her staff in order to make sure they feel like they are in a safe space to continue their work. If not, she will help them get the time they need to recover accordingly. Moreover, the team she has gathered around her is one she is massively proud of, as each of them treat each other with the same level of grace and understanding as they treat the people they help, well-equipped both in the physical sense and in emotional intelligence to help those impacted by disasters. With weekly meetings, training, upskilling, and more, her team works all across Queensland and New South Wales. By not sticking to just the one office, she shows both massive trust in her team – trust that they repay by doing some of the best work heretofore seen in non-profit efforts – and is able to reach more people that need the services Aussie Helpers can offer. With honesty, transparency, and diligence forming the beating heart of Aussie Helpers and its team, it is no wonder that it has become such a household name in the nation. Additionally, it approaches each farmer on an individual basis, checking in with them and always putting their best foot forward when it comes to that first critical interaction, knowing full well it doesn’t have the one solution that will fix everything, but that it has some solutions that will help. In this manner, it promises only what it can give, reaching out to those in need with a gentle, sensitive, yet practical attitude that its service users can appreciate the forthrightness of. Thus, it focuses on what it can do for each individual farmer. This can be anything from helping with the provision of fodder and feed, aid with outstanding bills that they have no way of paying, help with destroyed fencing and buildings, or just a friendly chat and some much-needed counselling to help them work through the emotional fallout of going through a disaster. At Aussie Helpers, its biggest goal is to share the load; this means that in whatever way the farmer needs, Natasha and her team will be the friends that help them work through the stress and fallout of a natural disaster or incident, ensuring they can see the path to recovery. Helping them through the good, the bad, and the ugly, Aussie Helpers has always taken the attitude that no issue is too big or too small. If it is a problem facing a rural community that it can assist with, it will be there in a heartbeat to give that critical support, something which has become especially important with the Australian agriculture market in the midst of such a profound shift in line with new natural risks. Throughout, Aussie Helpers promises that it will remain a steadfast, supportive pillar to its service users, with Natasha leading the charity with an ironclad dedication that has helped the charity meet its second decade in operation. Looking forward to many more years of hard work, empathy, and effective work, Natasha hopes to keep growing as a CEO alongside the continued development of the charity, hoping to help as many people as possible before the charity’s reigns must be passed on once more. Company: Aussie Helpers Contact: Natasha Kocks MAICD Website: aussiehelpers.org.au
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