OUR TEAM

Pollination Foundation bridges local and global expertise to incubate ideas, nurture growth and celebrate success.

Image credit: Johnson Wang

Leadership

Board

Martijn Wilder AM

FOUNDING PARTNER

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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Nolan Hunter

INDIGENOUS AFFAIRS ADVISOR​

Nolan Hunter is a Bardi man from northern Western Australia and an active campaigner for Indigenous rights. Nolan is passionate about sustainable enterprises based on Indigenous cultural values as a way to generate wealth in remote communities, ignite social change, and create positive futures. He provides leadership for local, on the ground activities, whilst advocating at the national level, and developing international partnerships.​ Current engagements include Head of Engagement Uluru Dialogue through UNSW Indigenous, Reconciliation WA Board Member and Advisory Panel Member to Minister Hon. Susan Ley MP Minister for the Environment.

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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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Mikaela Garraway Jade

CEO AND FOUNDER, INDIGITAL

Mikaela’s award-winning company Indigital develops innovative new ways to digitise and translate knowledge and culture from remote and ancient communities. She has a background in environmental biology, and has spent much of her career to date as a national parks ranger.
A proud Cabrogal woman, Mikaela is a Fellow of the Australian Rural Leadership Program; a member of the World Economic Forum Global Future Council on Virtual and Augmented Reality; and a member of Microsoft Australia’s Reconciliation Action Plan Advisory Board.

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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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Judy Slatyer

NON EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Judy brings expertise and knowledge from across many areas with a particular focus and passionate on how communities adapt to climate change, embedding sustainability, and the fair and equitable application of frontier technologies like AI.

In the past year, Judy has built a portfolio of initiatives to support her contribution in these areas including with CSIRO on sustainability and responsible AI and PWC on environmental, social and governance issues. Judy is also a member of the NSW Government Net Zero Emissions and Clean Energy Board, the WWF-Australia Board, the Talent Beyond Boundaries Board, the Climate Leaders Coalition organising committee, the Convergence.tech Advisory Group, Chief Executive Women. She is also the Chair of Natural Carbon.

Prior to these initiatives Judy was the CEO of Australian Red Cross. Before that the global COO of the Worldwide Fund for Nature. Prior to that the CEO of Lonely Planet.

Judy hold an MBA from Sydney University and completed executive leadership programs at the Stanford Graduate School of Business in the US and IMD in Switzerland.

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Advisors

Nuvan Aranwela

SENIOR ADVISOR

Nuvan has an absolute passion for bringing business concepts to life. For more than 15 years, he has developed ideas to business case, and then 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 is currently co-CEO 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.​

Nuvan is a senior executive with more than 15 years’ experience, largely in venture-backed and corporate start-ups. Through his experience, he has developed robust and practical approaches to qualifying ideas, developing them into investible propositions, and ultimately securing funding for, standing up and running ventures. Nuvan is Co-CEO of the fintech Six Park, which aims to create a path to financial well-being for all Australians. Prior to that, Nuvan was Head of Client Services at Red Planet, a customer insights and digital marketing business he co-founded within Qantas, when he was Head of Innovation for Qantas Loyalty. While at Qantas, Nuvan was responsible for identifying and developing new revenue and business ventures that leveraged the Loyalty division’s assets; and sponsored opportunities identified through the Group’s accelerator. Nuvan joined Qantas when the Group acquired Wishlist, an online retail and loyalty business where he was Chief Technology and Strategy Officer. He began his career in management consulting. Nuvan joined the Earthwatch Board as its fact-based approach to driving positive change resonated, and offered an opportunity to bring together his career in business with his training in ecology and love of the natural world. Nuvan holds a PhD in Science from Monash University.

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Duane Fraser

CHAIR OF THE MINISTERS INDIGENOUS ADVISORY GROUP

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 Federal Environment’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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Amanda Young

SENIOR ATLANTIC FELLOW FOR SOCIAL EQUITY

Amanda is a Senior Atlantic Fellow for Social Equity and former CEO of First Nations Foundation.  Starting her career as a criminal lawyer, Amanda went on to work in government strategy and policy, where she worked across legal, social and political initiatives including reparations payments for the stolen wages of Indigenous workers.

Ten years ago Amanda became fascinated with the economic potential for First Nations people and shifted to an Indigenous business incubator at the Victorian Chamber of Commerce. From there she took up the leadership of First Nations Foundation and was able to drive dramatic impact: she built the world’s first Indigenous financial edtech program, and travelling around the most remote Indigenous communities, reunited $24 million in lost Indigenous superannuation.

Amanda is an alum of Harvard, Stanford and the London School of Economics, becoming an Atlantic Fellow for Social and Economic Equity. She is also a board director at Cufa, an international financial development aid agency operating in the Asia-Pacific.

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Michael Looker

SENIOR ADVISOR, COMMUNITY LED CONSERVATION

Michael was previously Senior Advisor to The Nature Conservancy’s global Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities program with a primary focus on Community Led Sustainable Financing. He previously completed a two-year global assignment as Director of the Aotearoa, New Zealand Program establishing one of the Conservancy’s newest country programs. Prior to this role he was Director of Regional Strategies where his main interest was in infrastructure developments across the Asia Pacific, especially with the implementation of The Nature Conservancy’s “Development by Design” which helps to guide sustainable development decision-making.

He is a trained botanist and previously appointed as TNC’s Australia Program Director in 2005. Michael led the Australia Program to achieve remarkable results including the protection of 3.6 million hectares through 28 land acquisitions, and the establishment of a Corporate Conservation Council to forge a closer alliance between business and conservation. He also developed close working relationships with Indigenous communities and organizations supporting their aspirations in looking after country. The acquisition of Fish River Station in the Northern Territory as part of this program, marked the first time that a conservation NGO in Australia has been involved in purchasing land that will be handed back to its Indigenous Traditional Owners. Michael served on the Australian Government’s Indigenous Protected Areas (IPAs) program advisory committee supporting Indigenous communities to manage their areas of land and sea country for biodiversity conservation through a voluntary agreement with the Federal Government.

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James Cameron

SENIOR ADVISOR

James is a recognised leader of the global climate change movement. He has extensive expertise and connections in mobilising change in civil society, government and business. He was the Co-founder of the Climate Change Capital, the world’s first green investment bank, and Co-founder of the Climate Change Practice at Baker McKenzie. James has worked extensively across a multitude of sectors. He is a Senior Advisor at Systemiq and Tulchan; on the Advisory Board for Neste (Finland), Green Finance Institute, AVAIO; and was a former Chairman of the Overseas Development Institute (ODI). ​He is also an Executive Fellow at Yale and a newly appointed Senior Research Fellow, Grantham Institute.  James is a former member of the UK Prime Minister’s Business Advisory Group; former negotiator, UNFCCC and Kyoto Protocol; and former Senior Advisor to the Morocco and Fiji COP Presidencies. ​James was officially appointed as a ‘friend of COP26’ providing strategic advice to the UK Government on the COP ambition, with a particular focus on the nature strategy.

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Leadership team

Ariadne Gorring

CO-CEO POLLINATION FOUNDATION

Ariadne is passionate about Indigenous-led cultural conservation, working with the Kimberley Land Council (KLC) for over 20 years on native title and cultural and natural resource management. Ariadne worked with 14 Native Title groups to register the West Kimberley on the National Heritage List. She led the registration of the North Kimberley Savanna Carbon Projects – the first in Australia to be registered on native title lands. She has engaged with national and international networks to promote best practice models of Indigenous led conservation. She was a Committee Member, World Indigenous Network Conference in Darwin; and Presenter at World Parks Congress, Sydney, and United Nations Climate Change Conference, Paris. She’s an Atlantic Fellow for Social Equity Melbourne University; and recipient of The Nature Conservancy’s Barbara Thomas Fellowship in Conservation Financing.

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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 currently Chair of the Executive Council of the Protected Areas Learning and Research Collaboration (PAC) and is a member of the Australia Committee of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (ACIUCN).  Jane received a Barbara Thomas Fellowship in 2014, Harvard Club of Australia Fellowship in 2017 and was awarded Tasmanian Australian of the Year 2016 for her contribution to nature conservation.

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Project leaders

Kirsty Galloway-McLean

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

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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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.

Email us

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