OUR PEOPLE

We bridge local knowledge with global expertise, creating partnerships for lasting change.

Image credit: Johnson Wang

Our People

Board of Directors

Martijn Wilder AM

FOUNDER & CEO, POLLINATION

Martijn is a recognised global leader in climate law and investment. He has advised governments and companies on innovative climate finance investments including the World’s First REDD+ Green Bond.

Martijn was head of Baker & McKenzie’s global climate law and finance practice for twenty years and has played a key role with Australia’s clean energy finance institutions. He is currently Chair of the Governing Board of the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP) based in Vienna. He was previously Chair of the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) and a former founding Director of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation. He helped establish and later Chair the Federal Government’s Low Carbon Australia finance body.

He is currently President of WWF-Australia and Chair of NSW Climate Change Council. He is Adjunct Professor of International Climate Change Law at Australian National University, a Director of the Climate Council, and Senior Adviser to Serendipity Capital. Martijn was a Cambridge Commonwealth Trust Scholar and was awarded an Australian Honour (AM) for his contribution to climate change law and the environment. In 2018, he was awarded the Financial Times Asia Pacific Legal Innovator of the Year.

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Janine Mohamed

CEO, LOWITJA INSTITUTE

Janine Mohamed is a proud Narrunga Kaurna woman from South Australia. A nurse by training, she has more than 20 years experience in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health sector, working in diverse roles that span management, workforce development, cultural safety and health policy and dedicated to strengthening the Aboriginal Community Controlled Health sector.

Currently Janine is CEO of the Lowitja Institute, Australia’s community controlled Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Research Institute. She has a strong focus on the impact of climate change on human health, seeking to highlight Indigenous-led adaption and mitigation strategies that strengthen wellbeing and deliver benefits not only to Indigenous peoples but more broadly to the global community.

Janine was awarded an Atlantic Fellows for Social Equity Fellowship in 2019 and in January 2020 was awarded a Doctorate of Nursing by Edith Cowan University. She was a speaker at a side event for the COP26 Glasgow Climate Conference in 2021, highlighting the intersection between Indigenous health and climate change.

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John E. Morton

MANAGING DIRECTOR, POLLINATION

John E. Morton brings more than twenty-five years of experience in emerging markets, climate finance, and economic and environmental policy. Throughout his career, John has been at the forefront of designing and structuring some of the most innovative platforms and investment vehicles to mobilize private capital flows into climate-related sectors in fast-growing global markets. In the Biden Administration, he served as the U.S. Treasury Department’s and Secretary Yellen’s inaugural Climate Counselor, managing and coordinating an historically ambitious set of policies and priorities. During the Obama Administration, John served as the President’s White House Senior Director for Energy and Climate Change, and previously as the Chief of Staff and Chief Operating Officer at the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (now the US DFC). Outside Government, John was Managing Director of Economic Policy at The Pew Charitable Trusts and a private equity investor with the Global Environment Fund. He began his career as a strategy consultant with Mercer and with the World Bank managing environmental infrastructure projects in the former Soviet Union. John lives in Washington DC with his wife and two children.

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Amanda Young

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, POLLINATION

Amanda Young is a multisectoral executive with over 25 years’ experience in law, government, commercial, financial services and non-profit sectors. Her expertise is focused on reducing structural inequalities across political, social, economic and sustainability domains. A former practicing lawyer and former CEO of a national Indigenous economic foundation, she has studied at Harvard and Stanford Executive Business Schools, Cambridge University and is an Atlantic Fellow from the London School of Economics International Institute of Inequalities. At Pollination Amanda is bringing her experience to advisory capabilities for a just transition to net zero economies, with particular focus on the Indigenous stewards of natural capital and workforce capabilities. She is also a non-executive director of Crescent Institute and Oxfam Australia.

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Lisa Miller

NON EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Lisa Miller studied zoology at UNSW and specialised in the field of evolutionary biology before starting her career as a scientist at the Australian Museum. After spending the last ten years growing leaders and teams at some of the fastest growing tech companies in Australia – including Canva – she has now united her passion for conservation and technology by establishing Wedgetail: an organisation devoted to preserving and restoring biodiversity through sustainable investment.

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Rob Grant

MANAGING DIRECTOR, POLLINATION

For 25 years, Rob has been personally and professionally passionate about advocating for and delivering climate change abatement and clean energy policy, regulation, projects investments, businesses and industries.

His professional career includes roles as Director Energy at Fortescue Metals Group responsible for the company’s energy and green hydrogen businesses, Chair of the Clean Energy Investor Group, Senior Vice President Clean Power and Vice President Capital for SNC-Lavalin in Asia Pacific and for 18 years until July 2014 helped position Pacific Hydro as Australia’s most successful and dynamic international clean energy utility. Rob holds a Bachelor of Civil Engineering and has completed an MBA and Master of Applied Finance at Melbourne and Macquarie Universities.

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Senior Advisors

Nuvan Aranwela

MANAGING DIRECTOR, POLLINATION

For over 15 years, Nuvan’s career has spanned technology-led start-ups and ventures across a variety of industries, including data, loyalty and marketing, sourcing, financial services and insurance, e-commerce and sustainability. Consequently, he has developed ideas, secured investment, built capability and run early stage to mature operations. Having worked across strategy, commercial, marketing, operations and technology, he enjoys bringing together ideas with operational detail in a commercial context.

He was co-CEO and is now Strategy Adviser of fintech Six Park, which aims to build a path to financial well-being for all Australians. He is also Strategy Adviser to Landmarks ID, a start-up in the geolocation data and insights space; and a Board Member of Earthwatch Australia. Prior to that, he was Head of Innovation for Qantas Loyalty, a role he was appointed to following the acquisition by Qantas Group of Wishlist Holdings, a loyalty services business for which he was Chief Strategy and Technology Officer. Nuvan holds a PhD in Plant Biomechanics.

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Duane Fraser

CHAIR OF THE ENVIRONMENT MINISTERS INDIGENOUS ADVISORY COMMITTEE

Duane Fraser is a Wulgurukaba and Bidjara Traditional Owner, and has extensive experience advising Commonwealth and State Governments on matters relating to Indigenous Affairs and Environmental Policy.​

Duane uses his profile to create positive change and impact to ensure Traditional Owners are given the opportunity for full and effective participation and leadership roles at all levels of decision-making in political, economic and public life. ​

Duane has presented at numerous international fora on the advancement of Indigenous peoples of the world and their empowerment in the protection and safeguarding of their delicate biocultural land and seascapes, heritage and cultural expressions. Currently serving as Chair of the Australian Environment Minister’s Indigenous Advisory Committee, Duane also serves on several boards including the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority and Tourism and Events Queensland Boards.

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Our Team

Ariadne Gorring

CO-CEO POLLINATION FOUNDATION

Passionate about community led solutions Ariadne has 25 years of experience in Indigenous led conservation and multistakeholder collaboration. Most recently she co-designed with multiple partners a global learning and leadership network – Ampliseed and previously, a regional cultural economy model to increase the flow of finance to Indigenous ranger programs. She participated in the development of Northern Australia’s savanna carbon industry and engages with national and international networks to promote best practice models of Indigenous Peoples & Local Community led climate solutions.

She was a committee member on the Expert Panel to Review Australia’s Carbon Credit Framework, a committee member of the World Indigenous Network Conference in Darwin, a Presenter at the World Parks Congress, Sydney, and the United Nations Climate Change Conference, Paris. She’s an Atlantic Fellow for Social Equity at Melbourne University, a recipient of The Nature Conservancy’s Barbara Thomas Fellowship in Conservation Financing, has a BA in Sustainable Development and Entrepreneurship and a Master’s Degree in Social Change Leadership from Melbourne University.

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Jane Hutchinson

CO-CEO POLLINATION FOUNDATION

Jane is a leader in nature conservation with over 20 years experience as an Executive and Non-Executive Director of multiple and varied conservation organisations including Accounting for Nature, The Nature Conservancy Australia Program, Australian Land Conservation Alliance, Midlands Conservation Fund and Tasmanian Land Conservancy. Jane is a fellow of the Barbara Thomas Fellowship, Harvard Club of Australia and is a former Tasmanian Australian of the Year for her contribution to nature conservation.

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Brydy McDonnell

EXECUTIVE OFFICER, POLLINATION FOUNDATION

Brydy is the Executive Officer of the Pollination Foundation based in the Melbourne office. Prior to joining Pollination, she acted in a range of advisory roles within the Queensland Department of Environment and Science. Delivering operational management of marine and terrestrial protected areas, she supported strategic programs including the Great Barrier Reef Field Management Program and the Minjerribah Protected Area Expansion Strategy.  Previously, Brydy worked as an Executive Assistant to various senior executives within the Queensland Government developing foundational skills in executive administration, recruitment, and office management.

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Kirsty Galloway-McLean

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, AMPLISEED

Kirsty is a leader in global environmental governance and knowledge management, including 15 years with the UN working on sustainable development and information sharing. She is passionate about making policies practical, information accessible, and the power of people-led nature conservation. Kirsty previously led the climate change and communications department of the Traditional Knowledge Initiative at Japan’s United Nations University, and she set up the first globally distributed information exchange system under international law for the Convention on Biological Diversity in Montreal. She ran the cross-disciplinary research Centre for the Mind at the Australian National University, was an advisor on risk assessment and intellectual property for the Australian government, and established BioChimera, a Melbourne-based consulting firm that specialises in assisting international environmental agencies and philanthropic foundations working with Indigenous peoples. Kirsty has authored four books on climate change and Indigenous peoples, edited several scientific and technical journals, and written numerous articles on climate change adaptation, mitigation, REDD+, safeguards, access and benefit-sharing, Indigenous livelihoods, and traditional knowledge.

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Samim Hoshmand

ASSOCIATE, POLLINATION FOUNDATION

With a background of nature conservation and climate change, Samim has over 12 years of experience in various capacities with the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), United Nations Industrial Development Programme (UNIDO), International Federation of Red Cross Society (IFRC) and Heinrich Böll Stiftung (hbs). He was also the National Ozone Officer implementing Montreal Protocol and Vienna Convention for over 5 years. In May 2019 he has appointed a senior role as Director of Climate Change for Afghanistan, supervising over 40 staff and experts. In this role, he helped with securing over $22 million from the Green Climate Fund for Afghanistan. He also instructed climate change and environment laws at Kabul Education University. Samim was the founder and chairman of the Board for Environment Watch Afghanistan Society (EWA). He published several papers on nature conservation and climate change and authored a book in Farsi called “Towards Green Future” which he dedicated to Afghanistan’s natural beauty. Samim represented Afghanistan at various COPs and global meetings and actively negotiated and participated in media advocacy campaigns encouraging green development.

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Lauren Austin

COMMUNICATIONS AND DESIGN

Lauren is a visual designer and digital content producer based in Sydney, Australia. Motivated by the scale and urgency of the climate emergency, she has built her career out of helping non-profit and socially minded organisations create impactful campaigns, memorable branding and creative digital communications to help tell powerful stories to create meaningful change.

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OUR VALUES

What defines us.

Catalytic Collaboration

We believe in connecting diverse thinkers to create breakthrough ideas. Real, systemic change can only be achieved by joining forces and forging new paths together.

We collaborate rather than compete. Our ideas are open source, meaning we share what we learn.

Thoughtful Transformation

We believe our impact must be significant and measurable and the transition just and fair.

We manifest our leadership through exemplary, ethical behaviours and business practices.

We respect the agency of others and design initiatives to benefit future generations.
We take an evidence-based approach, without taking shortcuts or jumping to solutions. Instead, we test, learn, adapt and scale.

Diverse Perspectives

We believe in the power of seeing through the eyes of others and bringing together diverse perspectives to explore new pathways through complexity.

We stay present in ambiguity, look for synergies and celebrate unexpected partnerships.

Courageous
Creativity

We believe that transformation takes courage to make ideas a reality. We’re the doers, creative disruptors and innovators doing things differently because tomorrow’s opportunities need more than yesterday’s solutions.

CONTACT US

If you share our ambition and commitment to intergenerational change benefitting nature and community, let’s talk.

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