FGII Market Information Day (Thu 12 Dec)

Rachel Ball - Chief Executive Officer, Reichstein Foundation 

Rachel Ball is CEO of the Reichstein Foundation, an Australian philanthropic pioneer that has supported outstanding changemakers and shaped the infrastructure of giving for the last 50 years.

The Foundation backs the people, ideas and organisations that drive social, economic and environmental justice in Australia. 

Rachel is also a Director of Australian Progress and sits on the advisory committee of the Sustainable Investment Exchange (SIX). She’s previously held senior leadership roles at the Human Rights Law Centre, Oxfam Australia and the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria, where she supported Assembly Members to negotiate the foundations for Treaty-making in Victoria.

She has expertise designing and delivering strategies that challenge unfair distributions of wealth and power, including through rights-based advocacy, public campaigns, strategic litigation and political engagement.  

Rachel lives on Wadawurrung Country on Victoria’s Surf Coast and loves dashing into the ocean at every spare moment.

Duncan MacGregor - Executive Director of The Nightingale Foundation

After 20 years of experience in traditional property development in Australia and the US Duncan was ready to leave what felt like an uninspired and broken system of the commodification of housing. 

It was at that point that he met Jeremy McLeod and his fledgling organistaion 'Nightingale Housing' driven by the same frustrations. Re-inspired to be involved in some meaningful change, Duncan has since then worked exclusively with Nightingale to change the way housing is delivered by focusing on people not profit. 

Duncan’s work has been primarily in capital raising and structuring as well as overall Directorship of the enterprise. 

After operating as a Not for Profit for many years Nightingale Housing has just transitioned to a full charity and our impact is set to significantly grow.

Kerry Series - Founder of NorthStar Impact  

Kerry is the founder of NorthStar Impact and is responsible for overseeing the portfolio management and research into impact stocks.

Kerry has advised or invested in equities since 1992, and his investment experience includes co-founding Perennial Investment Partners, which achieved strong investment performance and reached $20 billion in assets under management within eight years, Investment Director for HSBC Asset Management in Hong Kong, and Head of Asia Pacific Equities for AMP Capital.

He has a Bachelor of Science (Economics) from Birkbeck College, University of London; is a Certified Investment Management Analyst (CIMA); and holds a UK Securities Industry Diploma. In 2018, he completed the Impact Measurement program at Oxford University. 

As the major shareholder of Northstar Impact, Kerry has been pioneering impact investing in listed equities. The NorthStar Impact Australian Equities Fund is the only Australian equities impact fund certified by RIAA. He is also the co-owner of the Impact Investment Summit Asia Pacific and OnImpact.
 

Kurt Gruber – Co-founder and Managing Director, WorldView Group 

Kurt Gruber is has founded and grown multiple organisations over the past 20 years across the social enterprise, business and charity sectors.  

Kurt will be speaking about investment and partnership opportunities across the Worldview Group, of which he is co-founder and Managing Director.

The Worldview Group consists of the charity Worldview Foundation along with social enterprises WV Technologies and WV Pathways which have grown to be thriving National organisations delivering high quality services to clients, while also generating environmental and social impact for our community.

Kurt will discuss three models for investment/partnership to members with varying investment objectives. The three opportunities are donation/partnership to scale the Indigenous charity,  growth capital/debt for the Indigenous social enterprise and an investment need for a high growth and high economic return opportunity as the organisation scales internationally via proprietary software and cyber security/environmental tools that have been developed. 

Jon Hiebert, Senior Manager Microfinance Business Development, CARE Australia

Jon has been dedicated to the financial inclusion sector for nearly 15 years, working with microfinance institutions and nonprofit organisations across Mongolia, Myanmar, and Australia. His passion lies in empowering marginalised communities in the developing world by providing access to credit and essential training, enabling individuals and communities to build resilience.

Jon currently leads the Lendwithcare project at CARE Australia, which launched in October 2023. He will be discussing how CARE Australia’s Microfinance Capital Fund for Social Return provides a unique opportunity for Private Ancillary Funds (PAFs) to make forgivable loans from the PAF corpus to CARE Australia. Via financial service provider partners such as FCCT in the Philippines and Thanh Hoa in Vietnam, these loans provide capital that is otherwise unavailable to financially-excluded entrepreneurs, offering a "hand-up" rather than a "hand-out." CARE Australia's deep expertise in addressing barriers to financial inclusion is a key reason why the Lendwithcare borrowers present such an exciting opportunity for support.

Before joining CARE Australia, Jon served as Head of Funding and Social Performance at Proximity Finance, a leading agricultural microfinance provider in Southeast Asia, focusing exclusively on Myanmar. Over his five-year tenure, he significantly expanded the foreign lender portfolio, supporting the organisation’s growth from 50,000 to 200,000 active clients. Jon’s team was instrumental in pioneering innovative blended finance solutions that opened the door for substantial funding to flow into the country.

Magdaleno T. Bargamento - CEO, First Consolidated Cooperative Along Tañon Seaboard (FCCT)

Prior to stepping into the CEO of FFCT from 2020, Magdaleno “Daleng” has been a Cooperative Consultant for almost 20 years and Board of Directors from 2018-2020. Daleng has been operating in the FCCT as a financial service provider in particular for rural farmers in Cebu, Negros Oriental, Negros Occidental and Bohol.

For over 30 years, FCCT advocates for comprehensive food value chains while achieving collaboration on the triple bottom line of people, profit, and planet. FCCT has emphasized the importance of microfinance loans in Cooperatives in the Philippines, as many people cannot access traditional banks. 

FCCT collaborates with CARE Australia, which has already enabled FCCT to expand and reach even more individuals in need of loans. 

Daleng has several other affiliations including:

• Vice Chair Kauswagan Water Sanitation and Service Cooperative (KAWASSCO)
• Climate Change Reality Corps Associates
• Development Educator, Asian Confederation of Development Educators (ACDE)
• Former Adviser, Maranding Women Investors Multi-Purpose Cooperative (MWMPC)
• Former Development Associate, Peace and Equity Foundation, Inc.

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.

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.