Our board

Sandeep Varma

Sandeep Varma (Chair) is an experienced organisational leader, and is currently the Founder and CEO of SAARI Collective, a media startup that amplifies the voices of South Asian Australians. A former speechwriter, communications manager, corporate employment lawyer and youth human rights advocate, Sandeep won the Department of Justice Secretary’s award for his crisis communications work during the Black Saturday bushfires, and was recognised by the Lord Mayor of Melbourne for his work supporting the community during the COVID-19 lockdown. He has spent his life mentoring and helping young people, and loves building community, encouraging creativity and inspiring adventure. Sandeep was born in Pasadena, California and grew up on a steady diet of tacos, hip-hop, Hindu mythology and superhero comics. Sandeep is the father of two witty boys, speaks Hindi and Spanish, loves cooking and has won the Australian Chilli Cook-Off Championship three years in a row.

Julie Mason OAM

Growing up on a dairy farm in country Victoria, Julie Mason learnt how to milk cows, ride horses and drive tractors.  After attending small country schools, Julie decided teaching was to be her vocation. She is Principal of Baden Powell College, in the City of Wyndham, looking after 1800 students and 200 staff. Julie was awarded Victorian Primary Principal of the Year in 2005 and awarded a forty year service certificate in 2012. Julie has been a member of the Rotary Club of Wyndham for twenty years, and in 2015-16 she was District Governor. Actively involved in local government committees for many years, Julie was Wyndham Citizen of the Year in 2006 and awarded an Order of Australia Medal in 2020. Julie has two adult sons and three gorgeous grandsons.

Emily Wrigglesworth

Emily Wrigglesworth is a specialist in public relations and communications. She has twenty years experience, primarily working in the cultural, education, not-for-profit and government sectors. As head of public relations for Museums Victoria she helped share the amazing stories hiding in objects, exhibitions and research.

Emily runs Wrigglesworks Consulting. She believes communication can make a positive impact on big problems. In recent years, she has worked on campaigns around obesity, violence against women, workplace exploitation and climate change. She teaches public relations writing at RMIT University, is an Industry Inspirer for the Thrive Research Hub at The University of Melbourne, and lives in Melbourne’s inner west with a mini-crew of adventurers and pets.

Kartik Iyer

Kartik Iyer is a strong advocate for the role business and finance can play in solving some of our most complex social challenges. He is currently the CFO at AbilityMade, a social enterprise that uses technology to empower children with disabilities. Outside of this, he holds several leadership positions, Board Deputy Chair at Climate for Change, Alumni Council Chair at the Melbourne Microfinance Initiative and President of the Young Alumni Committee, FBE at the University of Melbourne. As a dedicated contributor to the for-purpose sector, Kartik is always willing to support the development of young professionals and emerging changemakers through mentoring, leading masterclasses and facilitating connections to create a more collaborative ecosystem.

Rosemary Tran

Rosie enjoys working with communities, businesses and government to create practical solutions to complex problems. She's passionate about ensuring services and systems are accessible, equitable and culturally appropriate. A self-professed policy nerd, Rosie has deep expertise in policy design and implementation, stakeholder engagement, strategy and legal analysis.
Rosie is an experienced management consultant, leading strategy, community engagement and policy projects across Australia. She’s worked with communities to design community-led and trauma-informed policies and tools, and developed strategies for organisations in the education, health, community justice sectors. Rosie has also worked in public policy and research in Canberra, and commercial law in Sydney.

She loves writing short stories, playing piano and working on her garden.

Abhilash Mudaliar

Abhilash Mudaliar is an experienced 'for purpose' professional, with 20 years of experience across a variety of roles in India, Australia and the US. Abhilash currently serves as Chief Impact Officer at the Paul Ramsay Foundation, where he oversees teams focused on impact measurement and evaluation, impact investing, social enterprise and social innovation. Prior to PRF, he held a variety of analytic and leadership roles in impact investing (at the Global Impact Investing Network and Elevar Equity), research & evaluation (at the World Bank), social enterprise (at Unitus and Hippocampus), and management consulting (at Bain & Company and Dalberg).

Abhilash has Honours degrees in Commerce and Arts from the University of Melbourne and an MPA in International Development from Harvard University. In his spare time, he enjoys writing fiction and serves on a number of volunteer nonprofit Boards, including First Australians Capital, Shine for Kids and Give 2 Asia Australia.

Calvin Cordle

Calvin has worked in financial services for over 22 years in London, Sydney and Melbourne in diverse corporate and property finance, M&A and Private Wealth roles. He is currently the CEO of RedZed, a company dedicated to providing loans for self-employed borrowers.

Calvin has loved stories his whole life and harboured a vague ambition to write a book of his own one day. The covid pandemic gifted him both the inspiration and the time to bring this ambition to a reality. His first novel will be published later this year.

He has a degree in Psychology and is passionate about how inclusive and creative leadership can solve intractable problems, changing lives and communities for the better. Calvin believes that storytelling is core to how we learn and how we can lead.

Calvin is married to Amy who is a scientist and a singer and together they have two amazing children.

Linda Pitt

Linda Pitt leads Apple’s Education Leadership and Learning team across Australia and New Zealand. Previously, she was in the Leadership and Learning team focused on QLD and Northern Territory. Linda focuses on leading the strategic development of schools and implementation of pedagogical change projects, developing education programs and events and supporting teams in the areas of curriculum, transformational learning, school change management, professional development, educational research and strategic planning.

Linda has worked previously as the Executive Manager, Learning and Participation at the State Library of Queensland, delivering events, exhibitions and learning programs around Queensland.

In previous roles, she was the Transformational Learning Manager for the Queensland Department of Education and Training. She was charged with steering schools across the state towards transformational and contemporary learning practices. She started her career as a secondary school teacher and leader in Education Queensland.

Owen Brailsford

Owen Brailsford is an experienced senior executive having worked for over 25 years in the financial services industry. He is currently the Chief Risk Officer for Equity Trustees, one of Australia’s oldest and largest independent trustee companies, overseeing ~$150bn of funds under management and supervision and responsible for ~$100m p.a. of charitable granting on behalf of benefactors. He has extensive experience in governance, finance, risk management and regulatory roles in the superannuation, investment, insurance and trustee sectors. He aims to use these skills in the purpose driven sector to help reduce inequality. Raised in the UK, he’s a keen traveller, a tolerable cook and his enthusiasm for any sport is matched only by his undistinguished list of sporting achievement – the 1982 under 8’s egg and spoon race aside.