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	Management Team		Venture Development Team
	The Partnerships Team		Support Services Team
	SVA Consulting Team

Jan Owen AM, Executive Director  [Team Leader] Leah Armstrong Susan Black, Manager, Community Relations, QLD Social Enterprise Hubs Andrew Brough, Consultant Louise Caseley Gary Delpaul, Coordinator, Logan and Ipswich Social Enterprise Hubs Andrew Hamilton, Manager, Corporate Relations, QLD Social Enterprise Hubs Ruth Johnstone, Hub Development Coordinator Tatiana Peralta, Consultant Jane Pound Seri Renkin Mandy Richards, Coordinator, ACT Social Enterprise Hub  Kevin Robbie, Social Enterprise Development

Jan Owen AM has been an executive director of Social Ventures Australia (SVA) since 2002. Prior to this, Jan was founder and inaugural chief executive of the CREATE Foundation. She has more than 25 years experience in the non-profit sector, including establishing and operating numerous organisations and cross-sectoral partnerships.

Jan serves on the boards of Social Firms Australia, the CREATE Foundation, the International Women’s Development Agency, Inspire Foundation and the International Board of Advisors of the Medical Knowledge Foundation. She is the author of ‘Every Childhood Lasts a Lifetime’ (1996).

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Leah, a Torres Strait Islander from Mackay in Queensland, has lived and worked in Newcastle, NSW for the past 20 years and joined SVA in September 2009.

For over 18 years, Leah has worked with the Indigenous community on employment, training and enterprise development initiatives. Leah is passionate about creating a vision of hope for the next generation of Indigenous leaders and strongly advocates the importance of addressing the capacity to achieve economic self sufficiency within communities using culturally appropriate strategies. Leah has worked closely with governments and the private sector to maximise partnership opportunities and is involved in advising various national and state organisations.

Leah is currently a Director on the Board of Indigenous Business Australia, Australian Indigenous Minority Supplier Council and is an advisor to the National Policy Commission on Indigenous Housing as well as previously advising on SVA’s Indigenous Community Building Strategy. She was also a Judging Panel Member in 2008 of Reconciliation Australia’s National Indigenous Governance Awards. Leah was the Executive Director of Yarnteen Ltd (formerly Yarnteen Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Corporation) from 1992-2009.

In her role at SVA, Leah will initially be focusing on supporting the business development work within the social enterprise hubs, particularly our new Jobs Fund project.

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Susan is the Manager, Community Relations for the Queensland Social Enterprise Hubs and has been with SVA since 2006, when it initiated the first Social Enterprise Hub in Australia in Brisbane. 

Susan has twenty years experience in community development and management from both within government and non-government sectors. She is currently president of the Deception Bay Neighbourhood Centre and an associate of the Centre for Social Response, a community development training organisation.

Susan has a Bachelor of Occupational Therapy and Master of Social Welfare Administration and Planning, both from the University of Queensland.

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Andrew has joined SVA on a contract basis, working on a project to assess the need and potential for a Community Development Finance Institution sector in Australia.

Andrew is an experienced director/entrepreneur who has just returned to Australia after 13 years living in the UK, France and USA.

Previously Andrew was Head of Fund Development for the Young Foundation where he setup Launchpad’s social venture funds in health and education and was director/advisor to ventures including School of Everything and Social Innovation Camp. He has been board member to the National Probation Service and Metropolitan Support Trust. Andrew's background is in technology start ups and investment where he co-founded several ventures from university R&D. He also helped organisations such as the BBC, Siemens, NHS and UCL to innovate.

Andrew holds a Masters in Space Science and Bachelors degree in Mechanical Engineering.

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Louise has joined SVA on a contract basis, working on a project to develop processes around grant management and acquittals. 
 
Louise has over seven years of experience in the non-profit sector, coming most recently from the partnership fundraising team at the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) in the UK.   She has extensive experience in project managing major partnerships between charities and UK Government bodies, companies and individual donors.

Louise holds a BA (Hons) International Business from Manchester Metropolitan University.

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Gary joined SVA in January 2010 and works on the ongoing development of the Ipswich and Logan Social Enterprise Hubs.

Prior to joining SVA, Gary was involved in a successful start-up Recruitment and HR business for a number of years, a role that made good use of his ten years plus experience as a HR professional across both the commercial and non- profit sectors.

Gary holds a Bachelor of Business in Human Resource Management.

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Andrew's SVA responsibilities include portfolio management and corporate and investor support in Queensland. He also coordinates the Accelerator Program of the QLD Social Enterprise Hubs.

Andrew holds a BComm and MBA and has specialised in sales and marketing roles. These roles include senior management positions in the financial services and technology sectors for small entrepreneurial firms in Brisbane.

He has served on the board of Foresters Community Finance and is currently a board member of Jabiru Community Youth and Children's Services Association.

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Ruth joined SVA in 2007 and is the Hub Development Coordinator for the Parramatta Social Enterprise Hub.

Ruth has over 15 years experience in the private and public sector and in recent years has focused on capacity building, business facilitation and project management in regional business and economic development through government funded programs. She has also been running her own business since 2005 and has personal experience in the challenges of startups and the need for business support services.

Ruth holds a Bachelor of Arts in Education and Sociology and a Post Grad in Social Science from the University of New England, Armidale.

Tatiana has joined SVA on a contract basis, working on a project to build knowledge in international social investment models. 

Tatiana moved from Mexico City to Melbourne in 2007 to pursue her MBA degree, graduating in May 2009.  Prior to commencing full-time study, Tatiana worked in financial services, starting her career as an analyst at Credit Suisse and ultimately working as an investment banker in Mexico, focusing on structured equity and debt issuances and mergers and acquisitions.

While pursuing her MBA, Tatiana turned her attention to concepts such as microfinance, social ventures and social entrepreneurship. Tatiana volunteered for Kiva.org, the first microfinance platform to apply the peer to peer lending concept.

Tatiana holds an MBA degree from Melbourne Business School (University of Melbourne) and a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering from Universidad Iberoamericana.

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Jane joined SVA in 2005 and works in the Partnerships team in Melbourne on cross sector collaborations and partnerships. She has a particular interest in working with Indigenous Australia on community building initiatives.

Prior to joining SVA, Jane spent 10 years working in legal and corporate advisory roles, including five years in Sydney as a senior lawyer of leading law firm Gilbert & Tobin where she specialised in mergers and acquisitions and shareholder arrangements. After beginning her career as a lawyer in Melbourne, she was appointed Senior Manager at Ernst & Young in a corporate advisory role.  

Jane holds degrees in law and economics from Monash University.

Jane is currently on maternity leave.

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Seri is a member of the Partnerships team, and has previously been involved with SVA in a number of roles, including that of Director, Victoria.

Prior to joining SVA, Seri spent eight years as a management consultant with Accenture and Hay Management Consultants in Australia, New Zealand and the UK. Seri specialised in leading change management programs, organisation strategy and leadership development in companies undergoing large scale change. During her career she has worked in a pro bono capacity with a range of non-profit organisations and has served on the boards of Social Firms Australia and The Torch Project.

Seri holds a BA (Hons) from The University of Melbourne.

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Mandy has 13 years experience across a broad spectrum of industries and sectors. This includes roles with two of Australia’s most significant charities (one as national marketing manager) and
at two economic development agencies in Australia and New Zealand, which involved heading up a leading innovation advisory centre as well as leading a creative and eco-technology business incubator from concept stage.

Mandy’s personal business experience has included developing a $3.2m business start up as well as commercialising an invention with international sales.

Mandy holds a Bachelor of Business from the University of Newcastle and a Graduate Certificate in Trade Marks Law and Practice from UTS.

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Kevin is responsible for supporting SVA’s efforts to develop social enterprises that create employment for people marginalised from the labour market.

Kevin has over 15 years of social sector experience in the UK. He has held a number of senior management positions, including seven years as Chief Executive of Forth Sector, one of Scotland’s leading social enterprises. He has run projects and written a number of publications for the Scottish Government around measuring social added value, new approaches to social investment, tendering for public sector contracts, new approaches to commissioning public services and business development.

Prior to joining SVA, Kevin was on secondment to the UK Government’s Office of the Third Sector as an advisor on both Social Return on Investment (SROI) and the role of social enterprises.

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