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.

David joined Flagstaff Partners in 2016 from law firm Ashurst (previously Blake Dawson), where he spent most of his 35-year career as a corporate partner. In addition to leading that firm’s corporate practice for a number of years, David was widely recognised as one of Australia’s leading M&A practitioners, having worked on some of Australia’s highest profile M&A deals, including for clients such as ANZ Bank and BHP Billiton. 

In addition to his many years practice as a leading external counsel, from 2010 to 2013 David was Head of Group Legal and Chief Compliance Officer at BHP Billiton. David has a wealth of cross border experience, including having lived and worked in London twice. 

David has been actively involved in community life, including through his roles as former Chairman of SecondBite, and of the Corporate & Philanthropic Committee of the Salvation Army in Victoria. David is a Trustee of the Scobie & Claire Mackinnon Trust and of The William Buckland Foundation.

David’s experience in managing equities also includes for his extended family and as a Director of Cormack Foundation.

David has a Bachelor of Laws Degree from the University of Melbourne and is a member of Australia’s Takeovers Panel.

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.

Emily joined Equity Trustees in April 2023 after an 18 year tenure at Westpac Banking Corporation, where she was Relationship Director for Social Sector and Social Enterprise. Over the years she has successfully developed and implemented strategies that increased client engagement across the community banking and social enterprise industry. Emily has worked collaboratively with internal, government and community-based stakeholders and during her time at Westpac, directly grew portfolio of new and existing clientele engaged with community and social sector banking and social impact solutions.

As a forward-thinking banking and financial services professional, Emily has honed her skills in proactive business development, relationship management and delivering bespoke solutions. She has established networks at a local, national, and international level across a diverse range of social impact sub-sectors including those aligned with the William Buckland Foundation focus areas; specifically social inequality, supporting Indigenous communities, environmental sustainability, and supporting community initiatives.

Emily`s commitment to creating positive social impact is reflected in the professional development opportunities she has pursued and her active engagement in community initiatives and committees, including her role as a Westpac Social Change Fellowship Assessor and Panelist, Darebin Council Gender Equity Advisory Committee Member , 2023 Social Impact Hub Fellow and 2022 Centre for Social Impact Scholar.

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.