‘We’re an activist organisation, we’re a campaigning organisation’: What its like to lead one of the UK’s largest retailers

24 October 2025

Australian expat businesswoman Shirine Khoury-Haq is not widely known here at home – but she’s the CEO of one of the UK’s largest retailers, and an influential leader internationally on social and political issues.

As CEO of the 180-year-old Co-op Group, she plays a leading role in the group’s push for profits, as well as the interests of the seven million members who rely on nearly two and a half thousand Co-op supermarkets for their weekly shop.

Listen to the full interview on The Radio National Hour, ABC Radio.