WESTERN Australian fresh produce entrepreneur and previous WA Business News 40under40 award winner Leanne Wesche has been named this year’s Telstra WA Business Woman of the Year. Ms Wesche, managing director of fruit and vegetable packaging company Pacco Group, was commended by the judges for the significant risk she took in starting her own business and the way in which she has continued to stay true to her business beliefs. Ms Wesche started Pacco Group in 2004 and the company has since grown to become one of Australia’s largest independent fruit and vegetable packing houses, packing 80,000 pieces of mostly locally-grown produce each day. Ms Wesche started another business, Safeguard Innovations, earlier this year with the launch of its first project, Fruit & Veggie Wash. She is also on the board of the Food Industry Association of WA. At the Telstra awards, Ms Wesche also won the Business Owner Award, for owners with a 50 per cent share or more in a business, and the Nokia Business Innovation Award. Winners from other categories include Bunbury-based Imaging the South chief executive and fellow 40under40 winner Angela Whittington, who won the Hudson Private and Corporate Sector Award, for owners with less than a 50 per cent share of a business Professional Placements managing director Vanessa van der Swaagh won the PricewaterhouseCoopers Young Business Women’s Award, for entrants aged 34 years or under. The national awards will be held on December 9
