Dr Catherine Brown OAM

Non-Executive Director - Sefa

Catherine has a long commitment to supporting innovative solutions to tough social and environmental challenges. She is a Board Director and a part time Enterprise Professor at the Melbourne Business School where she is leading the blended finance for climate initiative. Catherine was Chair of the Australian Environmental Grantmakers Network until November 2025 and is a Board member of Impact Investing Australia and InfoXchange (technology for social justice). Previously, Catherine led the Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation (now Greater Melbourne Foundation), the largest community foundation in Australia, for 12 years until early 2024. Priority impact areas included affordable housing, economic inclusion and social enterprise, climate change (mitigation and resilience), and sector capacity building. Catherine was a member of the Social Impact Investing Taskforce which advised the current and former Federal Government on strengthening the impact investment ecosystem in Australia.

Catherine is the author of Great Foundations: A 360° guide to building resilient and effective not-for-profit organisations (ACER Press, 2010). She completed a PhD titled Unlocking the innovation potential of philanthropic organisations at the Centre for Social Impact, Faculty of Business and Law, Swinburne University in 2019. She is a lawyer and a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. Catherine was awarded a Medal in the Order of Australia for services to charitable organisations in 2020.