FGII Market Information Day (Q4 2025)

Lisa Fedorenko - Head of Impact Investing, Save the Children Global Ventures

Lisa Fedorenko is Head of Impact Investing at Save the Children Global Ventures, leading the strategy and execution of the $30 million Asia Healthcare Impact Fund, a pioneering initiative designed to advance equitable healthcare access for women and children across the Asia-Pacific. 

With over a decade of experience in ESG, impact investing, and venture capital, Lisa brings deep expertise in capital raising, stakeholder engagement, and fund management.

Her prior experience includes managing the $16 million Alberts Impact Venture fund and leading investments for Reinventure (Westpac’s CVC). Lisa is a frequent speaker at leading industry forums, including the Impact Investing Summit and SXSW, and has co-founded sector initiatives like Equity Clear pushing the needle on Gender Lens Investing and recognised by Fortune’s Change the World list. She holds a double degree in Commerce and Mathematics from the University of Sydney and has been repeatedly acknowledged for her leadership in impact investment.

Zara Fulton - Head of Investment, Remarkable

Zara Fulton is Head of Investment at Remarkable, Cerebral Palsy Alliance, where she leads investments in scalable technologies delivering impact for people with cerebral palsy and other complex disability. Zara has led close to $3 million in off balance sheet investments into seven early-stage ventures whose technologies are already impacting more than 100,000 people with disability.

She brings a cross-sector perspective, with strategy and corporate development leadership roles at Genomatica, advancing sustainable materials innovation, and at Norstella, advising global pharmaceutical companies. Earlier in her career, she contributed to vaccine development at Johnson & Johnson and The Scripps Research Institute, and shaped national innovation policy at the Department of Industry, Science and Resources. Zara holds a PhD in Structural Biology and a Master of Public Policy, and is committed to backing ventures grounded in lived experience, driving both deep individual impact and broad systemic change.

James Russell, Coolabah Capital

James joined Coolabah Capital as an ESG Analyst in 2024, focusing on ESG-related investment activities, including investee due diligence and macro and regulatory analysis. James has been instrumental in the development of Coolabah’s environmentally-focused strategies – in particular, defining the strategies' investment universe of environmentally-labelled bonds and rigorous screening process to classify “Coolabah Carbon Leaders”.

Prior to Coolabah, James was a Climate Risk Analyst with the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA), responsible for analysing and providing prudential supervision on the financial risks associated with climate change. James led projects identifying and supervising Australian banks’ exposure to physical weather risks, designing APRA’s Insurance Climate Vulnerability Assessment, and forecasting macroeconomic variables to align with low-carbon economic transition scenarios as part of APRA’s integration of climate risk into its Supervision Risk and Intensity models. James began his career as a graduate in Macquarie Group’s Risk Management Group, focusing on the credit risk of financial institution counterparties. James has a Bachelor of Commerce with First Class Honours from the University of Melbourne, majoring in Finance and Economics.

Melissa Reader, Violet

Melissa is a dedicated social entrepreneur with a wealth of personal and professional expertise, driving impactful change in her leadership role at Violet. Drawing from her unique insights into end-of-life matters, Melissa’s consulting background in adaptive leadership, purpose-led strategy, and human-centred design has cultivated a culture of innovation and resilience within the organisation.

With a commitment to reimagining traditional approaches, Melissa spearheads creative problem-solving, leverages technology, and fosters new collaborative models to drive meaningful transformation. Her adeptness in navigating complex business landscapes and nurturing stakeholder relationships underscores her leadership style, which is marked by innovation, sustainability, and a steadfast dedication to delivering exceptional value.

At Violet, Melissa has transformed a community-based charitable organisation into a tech-enabled, purpose-driven social enterprise, reshaping how we approach and manage end-of-life planning.

With Co-founder Tom Hull, Violet adopts a strategic and commercial perspective to address critical challenges and generate value for individuals and diverse businesses across the system.

David Hetherington - CEO, Impact Investing Australia

David Hetherington is the CEO of Impact Investing Australia. He was previously the CEO of the Public Education Foundation and the founding Executive Director of the progressive think tank Per Capita. He has also worked at the UK’s Institute for Public Policy Research and with LEK Consulting in Sydney, Munich and Auckland.

David has authored over 100 reports, book chapters and opinion pieces on a wide range of economic and social policy issues. His work has appeared in The Guardian, The Economist, The Sydney Morning Herald, AFR and The Australian, and was a regular commentator on ABC TV’s The Drum. David holds an MPA with Distinction from the London School of Economics and a BA with First Class Honours from UNSW. In 2022, he was named in Pro Bono’s Impact 25 list as one of Australia’s 25 most influential non-profit leaders.

Karen Wiik - Assistant Under Treasurer, Office of Social Impact, Queensland Treasury

Allan English AM  - Founder and Chair, The English Family Foundation | Chair, Queensland Government Social Impact Advisory Roundtable

Ben Smith - Head, Impact Investing, Paul Ramsay Foundation

Ben is Head of Impact Investing at Paul Ramsay Foundation. Alongside his role at PRF, Ben is the Vice Chair, and Chair of the Investment Committee, for NatWest Social and Community Capital. Furthermore, he holds the position of Impact Investor in Residence at Centre for Social Impact Flinders University.

Prior to joining PRF, Ben was Head of Impact Investment at Esmée Fairbairn Foundation – the UK’s largest impact investing foundation.

Bhanvi Kapoor Anand - Portfolio and Partnerships Manager, Snow Foundation

In 2024, she completed the Observership Program, gaining board governance training through the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD) and The Ethics Centre. She holds an MBA from UTS and a Bachelor of Applied Finance from Macquarie University.

Michelle Di Fabio - Program Director for the Foundations Group for Impact Investing (FGII), Philanthropy Australia

Michelle leads the Foundations Group for Impact Investing (FGII) at Philanthropy Australia. The FGII launched in 2023, is designed to support market-building initiatives for foundations and charitable funders interested in starting or currently undertaking impact investing.