General Thinking | 1329

Nominated by:

Adam Dennis Web Guy Yea, Australia

My Network Friends

Debra Knight

Managing Director | Crivelli Fine Coffee

Melbourne, Australia

Generally thinking:

My tags:

Business Development | Finance | Museums | Music | Social Change

Very good at:
+ Pragmatic, multi-disciplinary thinking
+ Mentoring and reframing situations with a positive attitude
+ Embracing and fostering change

About me & my work:

Spanning medieval literature, finance and coffee, the constant of my career has been to live & learn to the absolute limit of my ability. Consequently I’m routinely found teetering on the edge of at least one precipice!

Formally I hold a BA (Hons) from Melbourne University, an MBA (Deans List) from Columbia University, and an Advanced Professional Certificate in Business Law and Taxation from New York University.

I bought my coffee-roasting company, Crivelli Fine Coffee, in early 2008, after a 20 year finance career in New York and Australia. Since taking ownership, the business has won a string of awards for its coffee, and in 2014 a Northern Business Achievement Award for Customer Service.

Crivelli Fine Coffee retails to nearly 200 cafés, restaurants and corporate clients, and roasts for a number of large coffee chains. Crivelli holds the exclusive international roasting contract for one of Italy’s premier coffee companies.

In both work and life, I am governed by fairness, a commitment to excellence, and win-win outcomes whenever possible.

My driving passions are my sons, coffee, the Arts, literature and furthering women, with a particular interest in women’s financial literacy. I’ve held governance roles with several not-for-profit activities across these spheres, including the Victorian Women’s Trust, the Lyceum Club, Monash Gallery of Art, and Melbourne Grammar School Council.

One role very dear to my heart is as the inaugural Chair of the Mac.Rob Foundation, affiliated with my alma mater Mac.Roberson Girls’ High School. In 2014, responding to women’s apparent invisibility within Melbourne’s coffee scene, I founded an industry network “Women in Coffee”.

My links:

+ Crivelli Fine Coffee