The Team

Jenny McGregor is founding CEO of Asialink at the University of Melbourne. Under her leadership Asialink has become Australia’s leading centre for engagement with the Asian region, with major national programs in Education, Business, the Arts, Health and Diplomacy. Jenny initiated track 1.5 Dialogues with Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia and Myanmar and was a co-founder of the ASEAN Australia New Zealand Dialogue with ISIS Malaysia. 

Ms McGregor led the Asialink Commission resulting in the publication of a major report, ‘Our Place in the Asian Century; Southeast Asia as the Third Way,’ 2012 and has developed a number of cross sectoral consultations on the Foreign Affairs White Paper, Asia in Australian schools’ policy and practice and Asia policy in Australia national and state government. 

In 2013 Asialink secured significant funding from the Australian government to establish Asialink Business, a national centre for Asia capabilities. Asialink Business generates major applied research and analysis reports, publishes Country Starter packs and delivers training and development programs across Australia. 

Jenny has a BA (Hons) and Diploma of Education from the University of Melbourne and has worked as a political advisor and for the national and state governments in leadership roles including community development, information and communications, social planning, research and the formerly titled, Aboriginal Affairs. 

She has served on Boards including Australian Volunteers International and the Myer Foundation Beyond Australia Committee, and on Advisory Boards at the University of Melbourne, Monash and the Australian National University. She is currently a trustee of the William Buckland Foundation. 

Jenny is a fellow of the Australian Institute for International Affairs and served on the Advisory Boards of a range of government and private sector endeavours, including the Australia Japan Research Centre. She is a member of Chief Executive Women and is a recipient of the Australian Financial Review’s True Leaders award and a member of the Order of Australia for her contribution to Australia Asia engagement.

Ross Barker is currently the Chairman of the Melbourne Business School Limited and a Trustee of the William Buckland Foundation. He has a Bachelor of Science with Honours in Mathematical Statistics, Master of Business Administration (University of Melbourne) and Graduate Diploma (Securities Institute of Australia).

From 2000 to 2017 he was the CEO and Managing Director of Australia’s largest listed investment Company – Australian Foundation Investment Company and three smaller listed investment companies: Djerriwarrh Investments Limited, Mirrabooka Investments Limited and AMCIL Limited.

Following his retirement as Managing Director in December 2017 he became a non-executive director of Australian Foundation Investments Company Limited, AMCIL Limited and Mirrabooka Investments Limited. He has now retired from these Boards.

Jodi leads a diverse team of philanthropy specialists, with a goal to create and influence more effective philanthropy in Australia. As an aggregated funder of circa $120m in philanthropic giving every year, the team specialise in creating and managing structured giving vehicles and guiding families and organisations to achieve maximum change through their lifetime with their wealth. The team work nationally, with 37 team members operating across the country, including a specialist division focussed on building and protecting indigenous wealth via community trusts.

The team’s responsibility as a trustee and funder is to connect, challenge, lead, influence and inspire more effective application of philanthropic funding where we can. This means; helping more Australians to share their wealth, leading more strategic thinking around how to do this and encouraging further collaboration among other key players in this complex philanthropic landscape.

With a background in commerce and almost seven years’ experience at Equity Trustees, Jodi spent 10 years prior in the Financial Services sector, working at National Australia Bank, leading their Community Engagement team within Corporate Sustainability. Jodi is also a Director on the Equity Trustees’ Wealth Services Limited Board, a subsidiary Board of EQT Holdings Ltd.

Ferdi has forged a successful career in the social impact space by remaining optimistic that bringing the best of the business and community together-coupled with the right funding-will change the world we live in for the better. She has worked across the corporate, non-profit and philanthropic sides of the social sector over 20 years. 

Before taking up her current position leading the William Buckland Foundation at Equity Trustees, she held leadership roles at Social Ventures Australia and Children’s Ground where she developed and implemented social investment, communications and partnerships strategies. Ferdi also spent 13 years in a global professional services firm PwC, engaging the firm and its employees in social investment and corporate responsibility initiatives.

Alex has extensive experience in strategic grant making across leading independent, family and corporate philanthropic organisations including The William Buckland Foundation, Gandel Philanthropy, The QVWC Trust and The Foundation for Young Australians.

Over that time, Alex has played a key role in several successful collaborative funding initiatives including the Victorian Family Violence Funders Network, the Out Of Home Care Funders Network and the Post COVID Collaborative that have brought funders and sector leaders together to leverage ‘more and better’ philanthropy, impact and social change.

Alex also brings 15 years’ experience working in the not-for-profit sector and is committed to building open, respectful and trusting relationships within and across sectors.

Alex is passionate about social justice, education, inclusion, and reconciliation as powerful strategies to build better spaces and places for all.