Canada’s Most Admired CEO 2021

Lori Nikkel

Lori Nikkel is a visionary champion of social and environmental justice issues related to food.

She is an international thought leader on Perishable Food Recovery with a strategic focus on increasing awareness of the negative impacts food loss and waste has on our climate.

Lori’s guidance has changed the way Canada understands food loss and waste and food security. As the co-author of The Avoidable Crisis of Food Waste, she worked on world first evidence-based research that identified where, why, and how much food is lost and wasted across the supply chain. She is also the co-author of Canada’s Invisible Food Network a report that identifies the often overlooked 61,000 charities and non-profits that are serving food to their communities.

As CEO of Second Harvest Lori scaled a local charity into a national food recovery network that redistributes millions of lbs. of healthy surplus food each year to thousands of communities supporting millions of Canadians. She has transformed the movement of food through a complex national logistics framework and through innovation and technology, creating the Food Rescue platform and app to connects local businesses with surplus food directly to local non-profits.

A favored media contributor, Lori is sought after for her commentary and recommendations. She was globally recognized by the United Nations as Canada’s Food Hero in 2020. Is a Clean 50 recipient and one of Canada’s 2021 Women of Influence. Lori is also a is a member of Canada’s Food Policy Advisory Council and the Standards Council of Canada.

Read the announcement.