Melanie Fatouros-Richardson
Vice-President, Communications and Government Relations
SkipTheDishes
Melanie Fatouros-Richardson is the VP of Communications and Government Relations at SkipTheDishes, where she has played a key role in the continued growth and success of Canada’s only homegrown food delivery network. Since joining in 2019, when the company was still considered a start-up within the Canadian tech industry, Melanie’s leadership has been instrumental in driving Skip’s long-term success through her expert communications and government relations strategies. During her tenure at Skip, Melanie has overseen several of the organization’s most celebrated and successful national communications campaigns, including its recent partnership with Katy Perry and the highly successful ten-year anniversary celebration. Every year, under Melanie’s leadership, Skip proudly supports Pride for the 2SLGBTQ+ community with industry-leading activations and parades from coast-to-coast, as well as dedicated campaigns to increase visibility for industry-specific resources. Melanie’s commitment to embedding corporate social responsibility within the heart of every campaign or company initiative is clear; in 2022, rising food prices in Canada led to increased food insecurity, prompting Skip Express Lane (SEL) to address the issue. SEL launched the Inflation Cookbook, an AI-powered app generating affordable, nutritious recipes based on real-time grocery prices. Beyond hundreds of millions of earned media and social media impressions, influencer relations programs and community activations, Skip has also garnered sizable annual donations to invest in the communities it serves, including 4.7 million meals donated to Food Banks Canada since 2020. Prior to her role at Skip, Melanie held communications roles at the National MS Society, Winnipeg Regional Health Authority (WRHA) and Bold Commerce.
Career Highlights
Led SkipTheDishes' recent Inflation Cookbook campaign – an interactive digital resource designed to help Canadians source affordable, nutritious food – which received three Cannes Lion awards and two Strategy Gold award
In the first quarter of 2023, her team increased year-over-year results by more than 1000%, securing 98 million earned media impressions
Promoted four times in five years, and now reports directly to Skip’s CEO
