Podcasts about social ventures australia

In this episode, Mel talks with Elise Sernik, founder of Leadership Space. Elise is an executive and team coach, strategy consultant, leadership and culture change facilitator and trainer with a long history of specialising in the social purpose sector. She founded Leadership Space to help the sector fulfil its critical role in the Australian and global economy. Over the past 15 years, Elise has worked with hundreds of leaders across the sector helping them to unlock their ability to set strategic direction, lead, team, partner and accelerate the achievement of meaningful social impact.   Prior to establishing Leadership Space, Elise had the pleasure of contributing to the early foundation of People for Purpose - colleagues from her years at Social Ventures Australia where she was an internal and external consultant, providing strategy and operational consulting and program design. Prior to SVA Elise was General Manager of Nonprofit Australia where, amongst other things, she designed and delivered a large-scale mentoring program for social purpose CEOs. Elise's first career was in the commercial sector managing corporate partnerships with BBC Worldwide, followed by consulting and the design of a production-finance-digital joint partnership. She left commercial roles in 2002, becoming Assistant Director of Marketing and Fundraising of the London based non-profit, Asthma UK.   Growing Your Business and Impact Talk to us today about how we can grow your capacity to level up your business and impact with our fully trained and managed outsourced marketing solutions - delivered by our digital heroes armed with good strategy, the latest tech and big smiles.  Learn more at humansofpurpose.com Promotional Partnerships Like what we are serving up on Humans of Purpose? Our promotional campaigns have delivered great marketing and sales outcomes and ROI for our partners to date.  Whether you're seeking a 1-month, 2-month or season sponsorship, follow the flow below to become a partner before we run out of our remaining promotional slots for 2024.  Click Here to learn more about collaborating on a custom campaign package. Ready to partner? Just complete this short Partner Enquiry Form and we'll be in touch. Gold Membership Want a premium listening experience that directly supports us to keep making the podcast?  Join current members Michael, Pravati, Noel, Kathy, Andrew 1, Andrew 2, Chris, Nikki, Margaret, Ben, Misha, Sarah and Geoff and enjoy our range of member benefits:  Premium dedicated podcast feed Removal of all three ads per episode Early access to all episodes Full transcripts of all episodes Brokered intros to all podcast guests Ask me anything page access To take up this great offer, just head to our Gold Member page today. CREDITS Music intro and outro on this podcast was written and performed by Keyo Rhodes, with Harrison McGregor on drums and percussion. Sound engineering and mastering by Lachlan McGregor.

In this episode, Mel talks with pioneering social entrepreneur, Mandy Richards, founder and CEO at Global Sisters. Mandy is a social entrepreneur fiercely passionate about human rights, animal welfare, eradicating poverty and empowering women. She established Global Sisters to democratise entrepreneurship in 2013 – with the goal of creating a scalable and efficient model for supporting women to create an income stream via self employment, when mainstream employment wasn't accessible.   Mandy's diverse career path over the past 20+ years has spanned the commercial and not-for-profit sectors where she has worked internationally on government business incubation programs in Botswana and New Zealand, as well as for high profile charities including the Hamlin Fistula Hospitals in Ethiopia and locally as National Marketing Manager for the RSPCA.   Mandy established the ACT Social Enterprise Hub while working at Social Ventures Australia and was Director for Place Based Philanthropy with the Sydney Community Foundation. Following securing the highest investment on Channel 7's Dragons Den, Mandy launched a $3.5 million startup and has commercialised an invention internationally.   She has also been voted one of the 25 most inspiring and influential poplin the for-purpose sector as a Pro Bono Australia Impact 25 winner for 2022.   A country girl who spent her younger years growing up on a small farm outside Armidale, NSW before her family moved to Indonesia, Mandy now lives in Sydney.   Growing Your Business and Impact Talk to us today about how we can grow your capacity to level up your business and impact with our fully trained and managed outsourced marketing solutions - delivered by our digital heroes armed with good strategy, the latest tech and big smiles.  Learn more at humansofpurpose.com Promotional Partnerships Like what we are serving up on Humans of Purpose? Our promotional campaigns have delivered great marketing and sales outcomes and ROI for our partners to date.  Whether you're seeking a 1-month, 2-month or season sponsorship, follow the flow below to become a partner before we run out of our remaining promotional slots for 2024.  Click Here to learn more about collaborating on a custom campaign package. Ready to partner? Just complete this short Partner Enquiry Form and we'll be in touch. Gold Membership Want a premium listening experience that directly supports us to keep making the podcast?  Join current members Michael, Pravati, Noel, Kathy, Andrew 1, Andrew 2, Chris, Nikki, Margaret, Ben, Misha, Sarah and Geoff and enjoy our range of member benefits:  Premium dedicated podcast feed Removal of all three ads per episode Early access to all episodes Full transcripts of all episodes Brokered intros to all podcast guests Ask me anything page access To take up this great offer, just head to our Gold Member page today. CREDITS Music intro and outro on this podcast was written and performed by Keyo Rhodes, with Harrison McGregor on drums and percussion. Sound engineering and mastering by Lachlan McGregor.  

Welcome to Purposely SHORT, a weekly episode, featuring one of our friends or past guests and their expertise on a certain topic. This weeks episode features Jo Taylor Executive Chair of 'Pay What It Takes' (PWIT), a coalition between for purpose organisations and funders aiming to redefine philanthropy and reshape the funding landscape for the charitable sector. Their objective is to challenge the cycle of underfunding and organisational challenges by advocating for unrestricted funding or a 30% addition to project-based funding to adequately cover indirect costs. Episode Highlights - The importance of looking elsewhere for inspiration, to other parts of the world where people and organisations may have tackled the same or similar issues. That is what Jo and her team did when they looked at American foundations who had the same issue and were solving the same problem (the starvation cycle). -Practical steps on running a successful campaign: Focus on those organisations and people closest to your mission and who are the most aligned at the start of your campaign Peer leadership and adoption / buy in crucial to the success of any campaign particularly in philanthropy Context: A pivotal catalyst for this movement was the inquiry titled 'A Sector in Peril,' laying the foundation for collaboration among like-minded foundations. The Coalition led by Jo, and comprising Philanthropy Australia, the Centre for Social Impact, Social Ventures Australia, The Origin Foundation, and the Paul Ramsay Foundation, conducted comprehensive research, interviews, literature reviews, case studies, and workshops to address chronic underfunding of core operational expenses within Australian organizations. The vulnerabilities exposed during the COVID-19 pandemic further emphasized the critical need for adequate funding. Listen to Episode #176 of Purposely for more, where Jo emphasises the necessity to challenge misconceptions surrounding indirect costs and advocates for a redefined evaluation of efficiency and effectiveness by funders. This paradigm shift demands courage and peer leadership within the sector, recognising the entrenched mental models ingrained in both funders and nonprofit organizations that need to be reshaped. Jo is also the CEO of The Siddle Family Foundation. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/mark-longbottom2/message

Introducing Jo Taylor, the Chief Executive Officer of the Siddle Family Foundation, to Purposely. Jo sheds light on her professional and personal odyssey from the UK to Australia and the impact of her partner—a medical professional whose dreams of a life downunder set the stage for their move. We delve into her her leadership role in philanthropy and how the work she is involved in is reshaping the narrative around giving and philanthropy.  After 23 years, Jo is now happily married to her partner, and they are parents to two children. Having spent two decades in Bondi, they recently moved to the Mid North Coast region.   Contrary to her initial career plan of becoming a lawyer, Jo has emerged as a leader in the philanthropy sector in Australia. Leveraging her legal studies, her involvement in Raise & Give (RAG) during her tenure at the University of Leicester, and her experience as a fundraiser in the charity sector, Jo brings a substantial depth of knowledge and expertise to her current role   Jo shares her professional journey from lawyer to philanthropy leader. This transformation involves her engagement in 'Pay What It Takes' (PWIT), a coalition between for purpose organisations and funders aiming to redefine philanthropy and reshape the funding landscape for the charitable sector. Serving as the Chair of this Coalition, Jo and the PWIT Steering Committee drew inspiration from the impactful work of Bridgespan and Foundations in the United States, prompting crucial questions about the level of financial support provided by Australian funders. Their objective is to challenge the cycle of underfunding and organisational challenges by advocating for unrestricted funding or a 30% addition to project-based funding to adequately cover indirect costs.   A pivotal catalyst for this movement was the inquiry titled 'A Sector in Peril,' laying the foundation for collaboration among like-minded foundations. The Coalition led by Jo, and comprising Philanthropy Australia, the Centre for Social Impact, Social Ventures Australia, The Origin Foundation, and the Paul Ramsay Foundation, conducted comprehensive research, interviews, literature reviews, case studies, and workshops to address chronic underfunding of core operational expenses within Australian organizations. The vulnerabilities exposed during the COVID-19 pandemic further emphasized the critical need for adequate funding.   Jo emphasises the necessity to challenge misconceptions surrounding indirect costs and advocates for a redefined evaluation of efficiency and effectiveness by funders. This paradigm shift demands courage and peer leadership within the sector, recognising the entrenched mental models ingrained in both funders and nonprofit organizations that need to be reshaped.   Despite the challenges, the Pay What It Takes movement is gaining momentum, offering optimism for a sector striving for genuine impact and change. The collaboration aims to redefine the philanthropic landscape in Australia, ensuring that organisations receive sufficient funding to effect lasting, impactful change.   Throughout her professional journey, Jo's commitment to social justice has been profoundly shaped by personal aspirations, life experiences, and the influence of her parents, particularly her mother. Her story serves as a compelling inspiration for those seeking to make a meaningful difference in the world of philanthropy. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/mark-longbottom2/message

Michael Traill was the founding CEO of Social Ventures Australia from 2002 -14. Prior to this role, Michael spent 15 years as a Co-Founder and Executive Director of Macquarie Bank's private equity arm, Macquarie Direct Investment. In his time there, the Macquarie Direct Investment team invested in 43 businesses generating a gross rate of return of 32.3%. Michael chairs Australia's largest charitable foundation, the Paul Ramsay Foundation, is a Director of Australian Retirement Trust, MH Carnegie & Co., Australian Philanthropic Services and Hearts & Minds Investments and was previously Chair of Goodstart Early Learning.  Michael also chairs the Federal Government Social Impact Investing Taskforce and is the author 'Jumping Ship - from the world of corporate Australia to the heart of social investment', Winner Ashurst Business Literature Prize 2017.In this episode #137 w Michael Traill, learn about:His humble upbringing in country Victoria, with his father being the first in 4 generations to go past grade 10, Michael's chip on his shoulder being the country kid and making it to rooms where he felt out of place like Harvard and Macquarie and success at age 18 being a career in politics but how he ended up in the business world.I ask Michael about his reflections on his Harvard MBA and was that a hindrance or accelerant, his most painful learning and Questions he asks perspective candidates looking to join his team so he can understand them intimately.And of course we cover how and why he jumped ship from the business world to social investment a day before his 42nd birthday, the difficult first year of making the transition, the role of superannuation in funding climate and impact solutions, and the legacy he wants to leave.It's now time to explore your curiosity. Please enjoy!(Timestamps below)***Follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn or TwitterContact us via our website to discuss sponsorship opportunities, recommend future guests or share feedback, we love hearing how to improve! Thank you for rating / reviewing this podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, it helps others find us and convince guests to come on the show! ***

Elyse Sainty, director in the Impact Investing team at Social Ventures Australia, spoke with Patrick Flynn, director of public affairs at SVA, as she's about to pass on the baton after 10 years leading SVA's work in social impact bonds (SIBs) and outcomes contracts. https://www.socialventures.com.au/sva-quarterly/outcomes-contracting-trailblazer-shares-knowledge-before-passing-the-baton/

Michael Traill is an absolute legend in Australia's not-for-profit circles, but that is not how he started out. Like many other Harvard grads, Michael went into investment banking. He spent 14 years at Macquarie Bank, where he successfully co-founded the bank's private equity division. But, a career that provides profit above all else didn't sit comfortably with him. In 2002 at the peak of his career, Michael jumped ship to the not-for-profit sector. His idea was to bring corporate rigour to the charitable world. He was founding CEO of Social Ventures Australia, and he took a revolutionary approach with bridging the gap between privilege and property. These days, Michael Chair's the Paul Ramsay Foundation and the Federal Government social impact investing taskforce among his many other roles. In 2010, he was made a member of the Order of Australia in recognition of his service to the not-for-profit sector.

Sarah DaviesThis week I'm thrilled to welcome Sarah Davies AM to the podcast. Sarah is the CEO of the Alannah and Madeleine Foundation and holds a number of board non executive director roles too at Social Ventures Australia, Teach for Australia and the National Museum of Australia. Our SponsorsWe are proudly sponsored by Neon Treehouse, the best digital agency on the planet earth. Delicious and healthy soda Kreol is the official drink of Humans of Purpose and you can get a 15% discount on purchases using promo code HUMANSOFPURPOSE. We would welcome your support and partnership to help us take the podcast forward. More about this below in Promotional Packages below.Promotional PackagesOur promotional packages amplify purpose-driven and socially impactful organisations and enable you to reach our global audience of over 10,000 episode listens per month and our growing social media community. Connect with our wonderful socially conscious audience who are based in major Australian cities, of whom 76% are 25-44 years old and 74% are senior professionals in their field. As part of our social enterprise model, we offer just a handful of opportunities per year with just a few opportunities left for 2022. Click Here to learn more about collaborating on a custom campaign package.HoP MembershipLove Humans of Purpose? We are a social enterprise and we rely on your support to cover our costs of production. You can help sustain our work by Signing Up as a monthly or annual Humans of Purpose member like our rock star supporters Andrew 1, Andrew 2, Chris, Nikki, Margaret, Ben, Misha, Sarah and Geoff. You'll get the following awesome perks in return each and every week:Early access all episodesAd free all episodesFull transcripts all episodes5 Key Insights all episodesAudio notes all episodesBrokered intros all podcast guests Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of the Investing for Life podcast, host Douglas Isles interviews a guest who put purpose and passion ahead of a traditional career path, unlocking an ongoing journey of positive community impact and social change.  David Williams has more than two decades' experience across the private and for purpose sectors, most recently at Social Ventures Australia, spanning diverse roles from global senior management to field operations and delivery. His experiences partnering with people in Australia and around the world to generate positive community outcomes has transformed his approach to ‘work'. After meeting his wife and raising their young family in her hometown in the Northeast of Brazil, David began to fully appreciate the breadth and depth of racism and unconscious bias in society. This sparked a journey of understanding of self, and the way people from different cultures and contexts interact. David has applied these learnings throughout his career working within 'for purpose' sector; leaving his early career at Bain & Company and spending more than a decade working in countries across Africa and Latin America, before returning to Australia to work and raise his family. For anyone seeking deeper purpose in their career, tune in to this inspiring conversation with someone who took a leap of faith and has never looked back. Listen to hear more about: David's experience as an 'outsider' living with his family in the Northeast of Brazil; David's transition into the 'for purpose' sector; How his sustainable tourism social venture (Meza Community) came to light, combining marine conservation and community development alongside recreation and hospitality services in Tanzania; His view on how to create positive social change including learnings along the way; and Whether David believes you can have a greater social impact at home or abroad.    Investing for Life is hosted by Douglas Isles, Platinum Asset Management.Disclaimer: Issued by Platinum Investment Management Limited ABN 25 063 565 006, AFSL 221935. This information is general in nature and does not take into account your specific needs or circumstances. You should consider your own financial position, objectives and requirements and seek professional financial advice before making any financial decisions.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Michael Traill is Chair of Australia's largest foundation, the Paul Ramsay Foundation, and co-founder of For Purpose Investment Partners. Michael also co-founded Macquarie Group's private equity arm, was Chief Executive of Social Ventures Australia and holds a Harvard MBA. This episode provides key insight and detail for anyone who wishes to leverage private capital for social good. We explore a range of topics including: (1) An overview of philanthropy in Australia today. (2) Going beyond grant-making and ensuring endowments are invested for impact. (3) Do investment professionals genuinely value impact investing? (4) How does a non-profit, impact investment manager actually work? (5) How do you go about deal flow origination, and what does a deal look like? (6) How do you go to market with an impact investment proposition? (7) How will the impact investing market evolve in the coming years? (8) Do most impact investment opportunities arise from private equity houses, philanthropic foundations, high net worth individuals, or elsewhere? Thank you for downloading this episode of the Do One Better Podcast. Please leave us a rating and a review since it helps others find this show. For information on more than 150 interviews with remarkable thought-leaders in philanthropy, sustainability and social entrepreneurship, visit our website at Lidji.org  

In this episode, Michael joins David to discuss his career and path into investing for purpose. They discuss Michael's involvement in several investments, including ABC Learning Centres (Now Goodstart Early Learning) that went into liquidation in 2008; as well as the social impacts that were derived from these investments. As Founding Chief Executive of Social Ventures Australia, an organisation offering innovative solutions to society's most pressing social problems, Michael is a wealth of knowledge in the impact investment space. He ultimately stepped down as CEO of Social Ventures Australia in October 2014, taking on an Executive Director role. Prior to this role, Michael spent 15 years as a Co-Founder and Executive Director of Macquarie Bank's private equity arm, Macquarie Direct Investment. In his time there, Michael invested in 43 businesses generating a gross rate of return of 32.3%. Michael chairs Australia's largest charitable foundation, the Paul Ramsay Foundation, is a Director of Sunsuper, MH Carnegie & Co., For Purpose Investment Partners, Australian Philanthropic Services and Hearts & Minds Investments and was previously Chair of Goodstart Early Learning.

A special episode with Kids Rehab's own Research Operations Manager. Today we highlight the team based approach to modern research - with a focus on project management and tales of research endeavours. With pearls of wisdom that highlight what to look for in making research happen smoothly (and to learn from the missteps that can cause hiccups).As part of the Kids Rehab team at Telethon Kids Institute and Perth Children's Hospital, Mitch provides operational support to the research team including financial, data, and program management. It was a pleasure to speak with Mitch about projects past and present and how a Project/Operations Manager can assist with and enhance your research project.Mitch has a Bachelor of Laws from Australian National University (Canberra) and a Master of Science in Economics from Gothenburg University (Sweden). Prior to joining Kids Rehab, Mitch was a manager for Social Ventures Australia's consulting team, where he advised for-purpose organisations around Australia on using strategy and evaluation to improve social impact. Before that, Mitch was a senior program manager for international development assistance programs in South East Asia and the Pacific.With a wealth of knowledge and expertise in project and operations management, the role Mitch plays in making "research work" is a vital one. Listening to this episode could very well highlight some logistical operational needs and requirements that you may not have thought of previously and this insight can only help to make your research project a smoother experience for you and your team.We hope you enjoy a behind the scenes look at what makes Research Work!

Michael Traill might just be the ultimate Good Investor. Growing up in a small mining town in Victoria he found himself co-founding Macquarie Group’s private equity business. After fifteen years at Macquarie and poised for higher honours within the bank, he took a radical u-turn and became founding CEO of Social Ventures Australia. Shortly thereafter he had a leading hand in rescuing ABC Learning’s Australian assets via not-for-profit enterprise Goodstart Learning. Now he is looking at establishing a new asset class in Australia - in scale. He and his co-founding partners at For Purpose Partners are trying to bring superannuation and corporate management skills into the aged care, mental health, disability, social housing and education sectors. The aim is to generate acceptable financial returns but create positive social change at the same time. Find out what makes For Purpose Partners different, where Michael gets his sense of social justice from, what is next for the growing area of social infrastructure and what advice he received that spurred him on to run 10kms in less than 41 minutes as an 11 year in regional Victoria. The podcast is hosted by Co-Founder and CEO of Ethical Partners Funds Management, Matt NacardSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode, Aurora’s Managing Director in Australia, Hugo Batten speaks with Ian Learmonth, the CEO of Australia’s Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC). With vast experience in the energy sector across the globe, Ian has spent time at Macquarie Group, NatWest and Social Ventures Australia, prior to joining the CEFC in 2017. Some of the main topics include: • CEFC, technologies of focus and storage investment cases • Role of gas and storage in Australia’s energy transition • The evolution of policy and regulation in the Australian market

Joanne McEachen is CEO/Founder of The Learner First (USA/Australia/New Zealand), a Fellow of Salzburg Global Seminar (Austria), on the Executive Committee for Karanga The Global Alliance for Social Emotional Learning and Life Skills (Global) and a Board Member for Partners for Youth Empowerment (PYE) Global.   A social entrepreneur and a leading voice in the global education community, Joanne brings years of whole system leadership experience, working with and within all levels of education to offer insights and strategies that support communities to discover their strengths and bring them to the surface. The perspective she works from is that people and communities hold the answers and not the experts.   Her experience as a teacher, principal, superintendent, and whole-country school-system leader and working with over 10 plus countries has enabled Joanne to focus on what matters, on humanities development of SEL and deeper learning outcomes––self-understanding, knowledge, competency, and connection––that lead to meaning, fulfillment, and lifelong success. She has co-authored multiple books and these can be found in schools and homes around the world.   Joanne insights are illuminated by continued, hands-on experience, partnering with people- diverse groups around the world.   She was co-founder of NPDL (Global).    Louka Parry is the CEO + Founder of The Learning Future, an organisation that supports schools, systems and companies to thrive in tomorrow’s world. A former teacher, he became a school principal at only 27 years old and was named Inspirational Public Secondary Teacher of the Year for South Australia. Louka works globally (in English and Spanish) and has supported tens of thousands of educators and leaders globally to increase their positive impact.   A rapid learner, he speaks five languages, has visited over 80 countries, and holds two Masters degrees, one in Instructional Leadership from the University of Melbourne and another in Applied Linguistics, and has also completed executive studies at Harvard University. Through his work, he has acquired expert knowledge in leadership, communication, wellbeing, future learning models and organisational change. He is a Fellow of the Salzburg Global Seminar and of the Stanford d.school, working at the forefront of the future of education, innovation and social emotional learning to empower children, educators and communities all across the globe.   Louka brings a range of deep strategic insights as a learning architect and as a sought-after speaker and facilitator. He has worked across all Australian Education Departments and sectors, across international systems from the Dominican Republic to Romania, with corporates like PWC, Microsoft and Apple, and with not-for-profits such as Social Ventures Australia, CASEL and TED. In this age of rapid change, he is driven to transform structures, systems and societies to empower individuals to do their best work and maximise wellbeing, ultimately making our world a better place for all.    

As parts of the private sector struggle to survive the downturn, governments at all levels could do more to provide work and learning opportunities - especially for young people. An alliance of civil society leaders has some ideas for the Federal Government to help Australians get jobs. Plus, the economic fall-out of trade tensions with China. And the high-tech, high-value photonics industry that's a roaring success.Guests: Lisa Fowkes, Director of Employment, Social Ventures Australia. Member of Australia Together Barry West, wool, wheat and barley farmer, Kuiln, WAStephanie Males, Partner, PWCDr Simon Poole, VP Cylite, co-author of Photonics in Australia & New Zealand: Lighting Economic Growth

Simon Faivel Simon is Director of Consulting at Social Ventures Australia. Simon is also the Chair of SIMNA Ltd and Social Value International. Patreon Stars Thanks to our awesome Patreon Supporters - Rich, Tanveer, Lusha, Judy, Jules, Sally, Will, Bee, Lyndon, Olivia, Jo, Bonny, Misha * 2, Macartan, Joel and Stuart- you help us to create great weekly podcasts! Join Patreon Support us today! You'll get a weekly shout-out, my eternal gratitude, many perks plus some terrific HoP swag. Not bad value for the cost of one coffee per month. Support the show.

BE SURE TO SEE THE SHOWNOTES AND LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE HERE. Eve Picker: [00:00:03] Hey, everyone, this is Eve Picker. And if you listen to this podcast series, you're going to learn how to make some change.   Eve Picker: [00:00:19] Eve Picker: Thanks so much for joining me today for the latest episode of Impact Real Estate Investing. My guest today is Jeremy McLeod. Jeremy is the founding director of Breathe Architecture, an architecture studio located in Melbourne, Australia. Breathe is a world class architecture firm delivering fabulous projects to its clients. But Jeremy isn't resting on his laurels. He really cares about the ever widening gap between those who have wealth and those who do not. And so 12 years ago, he embarked on a journey to deliver sustainability and affordability in one housing model. His first project, The Commons, was met with huge success. Now, with a waiting list of over 8000 buyers, he intends his Nightingale project to be an open source housing model led by architects. Be sure to go to Eve Picker dot com to find out more about Jeremy on the show notes page for this episode. And be sure to sign up for my newsletter so you can access information about impact real estate investing and get the latest news about the exciting projects on my crowdfunding platform,Small Change.   Eve Picker: [00:01:35] So hi, Jeremy. It's really lovely to finally meet you.   Jeremy McLeod: [00:01:40] Yeah, I did think we were doing this interview over Zoom so I was surprised to see you in my office in Australia. Thanks for coming.   Eve Picker: [00:01:46] Oh, you thought it was by Zoom. I told you it was local. It's really fun to be recording in your beautiful building and actually see it because I've really wanted to do that for a long time. So you're an architect and you've taken your fabulous education and you're working on a new housing model for Melbourne, Australia, where we're recording today. And I wanted to talk about what's kind of driven you to think about that, to develop a better housing model and what even that means.   Jeremy McLeod: [00:02:16] It's not hard to build a better housing model in Australia. It's because our housing system is broken. I mean, the interesting thing about Australia is that we're the richest country per capita in the world, yet we have one of the highest greenhouse gas emissions per capita in the world. But importantly, we have over, at the last census, we have over one hundred and sixteen thousand homeless people here. So for an incredibly wealthy country with lots of opportunity, there's incredible inequity here. And that inequity is growing. In countries, you know, Scandinavian countries or Austria or Germany or anywhere in Europe, basically, there's an affordable housing requirement. In London there's inclusionary zoning which requires you to put in 20 percent affordable housing. In New York there's inclusionary zoning, but in Australia there is no inclusionary zoning, which means that the private housing developers can build whatever they want without including any affordable housing.   Eve Picker: [00:03:18] So, not held accountable for the economy at all.   Jeremy McLeod: [00:03:20] No, absolutely not. And so in that instance, then you would assume it's the responsibility of the state to provide housing for its people. But in the 1980s, state governments around the country started divesting their responsibility for housing and people through a public housing system and started giving it to smaller, not-for-profit organizations, church-based or faith-based organizations or community housing providers to provide housing. And they started selling down their assets and importantly, stopped building housing. And so what we've seen is a steady growth of homelessness at the same time as a steady growth in wealth in this country. As an architect. I mean, before I was an architect, I studied environmental design. So I understand, you know, inherently the issues around climate change. I've looked at the issues around the last IPCC report which says that, you know, if we're not careful, we're going to find 2 billion refugees globally, a billion coming out of Africa and a billion coming out of Asia. Where do you think those people are going to be? And we also understand that people at the edges are the people that suffer the most in times of climate change. So, I mean, I think that climate change and homelessness and housing are all intrinsically linked and that we need to resolve both those issues simultaneously. And we need to resolve those issues very rapidly. The state doesn't... has divested their responsibility. and the private sector obviously is interested in returning profit to their shareholders, not in delivering kind of, you know, on corporate responsibility goals that, you know, may or may not exist within their boardrooms. So the idea for us was that we would build a model, a prototype basically to encourage private developers to change the way that they worked. And our contention was that you can build housing that simultaneously builds community that is sustainable and that is affordable and it returns some fair and reasonable return back to investors.   Eve Picker: [00:05:35] You thought this was an important role for you as an architect? Because it's an unusual role for an architect.   Jeremy McLeod: [00:05:44] Yeah. Look, I mean, of course, my first love is architecture. I would love to just design great buildings all day, every day. I would love to build great housing. But as an architect yourself, you would understand that to make a great project, you need three things. You need a great architect, you need a great builder, you need a great client. And so if we're trying to build great housing projects in Melbourne, it was, you know, let's assume for a moment that Breathe Architecture was a great architect. I can find a great builder, but I couldn't find a great client. So for us to be able to deliver on the projects that we needed to, I felt that the only way was to become our own client.   Eve Picker: [00:06:26] That makes sense.   Jeremy McLeod: [00:06:28] Yeah. And to basically build a system that could be replicated, that was kind of the birth of Nightingale.   Eve Picker: [00:06:35] Right. I watched your TedX talk, which I thought was really interesting. And you said that there's a population explosion going on here, which I know, but I think I didn't realize it was quite so rapid. But how many people in Melbourne today?   Jeremy McLeod: [00:06:48] So there's five million at the moment. We're going towards 8 million by 2050. It's essentially a hundred thousand Melbournians every year for the next 30.   Eve Picker: [00:06:57] I think it's one of the fastest growing cities in the world, right?   Jeremy McLeod: [00:07:00] Yeah. So interestingly, we've always been smaller than Sydney. We've always been the little sister to Sydney and we're now about to outstrip Sydney in terms of population.   Eve Picker: [00:07:08] Yeah, I can feel it every time I come and visit. You talked in that TedX talk about urban compression versus urban sprawl, which I thought was a really great way of describing what's available and what's probably true in most of the United States as well. The idea being that urban compression is like warehousing people in really dense, maybe warehousing isn't a way to say it, but building very dense, high-rise housing products in inner cities versus urban sprawl, which is building, you know, the American/Australian dream of a house on a lot. Right? And not much in between yet. So what's in between look like?   Jeremy McLeod: [00:07:50] Well, I mean, the interesting thing here is it's all about politics, right. So, in the centre of our city, it's all old commercial land. It was a commercial centre. So it's easy to build one hundred and eight story towers there to warehouse people, so to say, because no one objects to that, because everyone sees that if someone builds a 108 stories there, then I can then build my old shop to 108 stories and I'll get that value uplift. So it's a great capital gain. And the city, in the middle ring suburbs, so in all the places really close to infrastructure, schools, hospitals, work, public transport, those areas there are all held by the city's wealthiest population. They're well-moneyed, they're well resourced  and they've got a very, very loud political voice. And they say very clearly to the state planning minister and to the state politicians that they don't want any increase in density around them. But like San Francisco, instead, they've got no issue with density per se, just not in my backyard.   Eve Picker: [00:09:04] Yes. NIMBY, right?   Jeremy McLeod: [00:09:06] So that's right. So they're the NIMBYs. So, instead what happens is that if you're a first time buyer in Australia, if you could possibly afford to be a first time buyer here, you can't afford to buy a house in the middle ring suburbs close to work, close to hospitals, close to schools.   Eve Picker: [00:09:22] Yeah, you're very far away.   Jeremy McLeod: [00:09:24] You end up very far away. So in Sydney, I saw a graph recently where if you're a nurse and you work in a hospital and you're a first home buyer, you're an hour and a half away from the nearest hospital that you are working in.   Eve Picker: [00:09:37] Wow.   Jeremy McLeod: [00:09:37] That's three hours every day. Yeah.   Eve Picker: [00:09:40] So in effect, those people are really the ones that need to be closer to the city and need to be, have access to public transit.   Jeremy McLeod: [00:09:48] Absolutely.   Eve Picker: [00:09:49] And of all of those things to make, to make their lives work.   Jeremy McLeod: [00:09:52] Well, to make the city work for all the well-moneyed people as well, you know. Yeah. So the city works because of those people. And so, and the other issue that we've got in Melbourne is this incredible sprawl issue where currently we have built over 40 percent of our farming land. So we've got 60 percent of our farming land left, but our population is growing at unprecedented rates. At the same time, we've got pressure where China is coming in and buying our farming resources. So they're buying, you know, beef, dairy, big farmland, so I worry about food security for, you know, for Australians in the future when there's 1.5 billion Chinese and 600 million middle class Chinese, you know, in a time when food security becomes a big issue all of our food will be being exported.   Eve Picker: [00:10:49] Wow.   Jeremy McLeod: [00:10:49] So I see that as this incredible, this madness of us building over all of our good farming land.   Eve Picker: [00:10:56] And then the other piece of it is, I think you and I agree on this, that many new buildings are built as a financial commodity. And really, they're really about making money not about making place better, which is really disturbing to me because I think you can take the same money and build, you know, add to a city in a really meaningful way or not, right? So...   Jeremy McLeod: [00:11:20] Yeah, looking at examples, like there's a suburb in Sydney called Ultimo and over 90 % of Ultimo has been bought by investors. So essentially a lot of our apartments, and in Melbourne, in   Eve Picker: [00:11:36] And is that, like, little single-family houses or...   Jeremy McLeod: [00:11:38] No, so it's all apartments. So the whole, nearly all ...   Eve Picker: [00:11:41] So it's a bit of a ghost town then? Or is it just all rental?   Jeremy McLeod: [00:11:44] Well, a lot of it is rental. You know, until very recently, there were no foreign ownership maximums on how much of an apartment or, or how much of a building you could sell to foreign owners. So we were. we had Australian developers selling 100 percent of their buildings to offshore waiting lists in Kuala Lumpur or Shanghai. We would find that, you know, whole buildings are owned by offshore investors that have never been to the city or have never seen the actual apartments. They bought it off a spreadsheet through, through an investment vehicle. And of course, when you get a city built on a spreadsheet, it becomes a pretty, pretty sad outcome.   Eve Picker: [00:12:24] Right. So your journey started in 2007 when you bought the piece of land where you're sitting on right now, right?   Jeremy McLeod: [00:12:35] Yeah.   Eve Picker: [00:12:35] And, so where did you begin?   Jeremy McLeod: [00:12:38] Well, so maybe  I'll go back to 1972 when I was born. So, so my parents were a couple of hippies. When I was about eleven, my dad took me to old Parliament House to lobby the government then about public housing in a suburb called Footscray in Melbourne. So then I go on study sustainability, environmental design, and then I go on to be an architect where my focus is on studying housing. I then work for a big firm, and when I'm working in that big firm, I end up working on, you know, 88 story towers, which just, you know,.   Eve Picker: [00:13:18] And the toilet details, right?   Jeremy McLeod: [00:13:19] Yeah. Yeah, lots of toilet details, lots of stairs, correct. But it was the last building that I worked on in that big practice, I was working on the carpark for six weeks.   Eve Picker: [00:13:29] Oh, that's really crushing.   Jeremy McLeod: [00:13:30] And I thought that that was crushing and I didn't think it was a good use of my time or, it wasn't that I was interested in, you know, housing cars. What a meaningless act. So I start Breathe Architecture in 2001. When I started Breathe Architecture, the simple idea was that every room would have a window so the occupants could breathe.   Jeremy McLeod: [00:13:53] So in 2007, as an architect working in the city, we'd been working for a bunch of property developers. It was, it was disappointing. We resigned a couple of commissions, we got fired from a couple of commissions because we wouldn't back down on certain things like, you know, we wouldn't take the solar panels off the roof. We wouldn't take the,.. yeah, yeah, we wouldn't take the solar hot water out of the  building. We wanted to make sure that we got winter sun into the building, you know, like. really simple things that we wouldn't back down on.   Jeremy McLeod: [00:14:29] So after that, we decided that we would partner with some other architects and we would try and embark on building a prototype building. So there were six of us. Six architects. We all came together, we bought this site. It was originally called Nightingale back in 2007, and it took us until 2013 to finish it. So it took us six years. In the middle of it, thanks to sub-prime issues in the United States, the financial crisis washed across the shores to Australia. By the time I needed finance to build this...the idea was that it would be a zero carbon building. A building that focused on sustainability and community and affordability. By the time I needed to get money for that, it was after the financial crisis had actually, bit into Australia as well, and we lost our funding to build it. And so then...   Eve Picker: [00:15:22] Why did you lose the funding, is it because banks just got more conservative? Or..   Jeremy McLeod: [00:15:28] Yeah, banks just got more conservative.   Eve Picker: [00:15:30] So the same reasons I saw in the States.   Jeremy McLeod: [00:15:33] Yeah, and look, I actually don't blame the bank. I think that leading up to the global financial crisis, you know, it was too easy to get money. So as a group of six architects, you know, we were about to borrow seven point one million dollars, you know, on a kind of prototype project that hadn't been built before. So I can understand why the bank was nervous by the time, you know, we got into, you know, 2010, 2011.   Jeremy McLeod: [00:16:01] We went and met with a whole different raft of impact investors. We met a group called Small Giants and Small Giants bought the project off us. They renamed the project from Nightingale to the Commons because their marketing team thought that was a good idea. I can, I can live with it, but you know, what's in, what's in a name. But anyway, the Commons then ended up being delivered and in 2014, it won the National Award for Sustainability, the National Award for Housing. And it became, you know, kind of a destination for people to come and look at. And so in the following year, we opened the building up for tours. We took every property developer in the city through. We took Melbourne residents through. And we talked a lot about, you know, the importance of change in our housing model. And then the idea was, off the back of that, that we would influence change in the marketplace.   Eve Picker: [00:17:01] Well, that was one of my questions here. Has your work influenced the status quo?   Jeremy McLeod: [00:17:06] Well, the interesting thing was that when we, when we completed the Commons and it won all those awards, and it got lots of media and lots of people were interested, the answer to that is no. It was seen as an exception to the rule. And so, the idea was that the pilot project or the prototype project would influence change, but it was seen as an outlier.   Eve Picker: [00:17:26] Interesting. And like just breaking up a bit. So what is different about the Commons, this building?   Jeremy McLeod: [00:17:32] So the Commons, I think that if you want to build something that's affordable and sustainable simultaneously, every project manager says that you can't do that. Every project manager will tell you that sustainability is more expensive and so to build sustainability means that you can't build it affordably. And so instead, Bonnie Herring, who was the project architect of Breathe who led this project, her whole approach was one of sustainability through reductionism. So she constantly interrogated the idea is, if we don't need it, take it out. Ask people, what are the things they actually need not what they want from some real estate glossy brochure.   Eve Picker: [00:18:14] What they think they need because everyone else has it right.   Jeremy McLeod: [00:18:17] Yeah, but when we when we started talking to people, the interesting thing was that what people actually wanted was space, light, outlook, plants, you know, natural materials. No one wanted marble bench tops, you know, a thousand down lights, white shag-pile carpet, a swimming pool, three bathrooms, you know, what people actually wanted, we were finding, was just kind of really good meaningful housing. So our approach on The Commons was, yes, sustainability through reductionism. If I step you through that, you'll see that it makes total sense. So the first thing is, we took the basement car parking out. And why is that important? So, for a seven million dollar building, the basement car park was gonna cost seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars. So by taking that out, we reduced the build cost by over 10 per cent. But importantly, we just, we didn't just reduce the price of all the apartments by $30000 each. We also took some of that money and put it into making the rooftop garden, you know, really incredible. Where you would have ordinarily had a driveway coming in off the street and a ramp up and then a ramp down to get into that driveway and a roller door to close that driveway off to get down to the basement carpark, instead, Instead of having that there, we put in a wine shop where the driveway and the ramp would have been.   Jeremy McLeod: [00:19:42] And then we sold the wine shop for four hundred and twenty five thousand dollars. We then took the revenue from the wine shop and we used it to increase all of our glazing to get the best possible double glazing that money could buy in the country at the time. We pumped up all of the insulation on our walls. So we made all of our walls fatter. we got better insulation in them. So we used that money to improve the thermal envelope of the building. Then, that then made the apartments perform...so we've got the star rating system here, so you need kind of, you need a minimum of five stars or an average of six stars to be able to get a building permit here. And instead, we set the minimum at seven and a half stars here. The panacea is 10 stars means you don't require any energy for heating or cooling, which would be incredible. But we'll make it to seven and a half stars out there. More modelling told us that the building could operate within a thermal comfort range of between 19 and 27 degrees. And the interesting thing is that that's kind of the European thermal comfort range of the Germans deemed that to be.   Eve Picker: [00:20:47] So that's all Celsius right now. Got it. That's about ...oh I can't do that in my head right now. We'll figure it out later.our Yeah, I'll let you do the calculations. You'll figure it out later.   Jeremy McLeod: [00:20:57] But but basically, the Australian thermal comfort range, you know, is generally been seen to be in between 19 and 22 degrees.   Jeremy McLeod: [00:21:08] So by stretching it out from nineteen to twenty seven, the German comfort range, all of a sudden we found that we didn't need to put air conditioning in. When we take air conditioning out, we save another 5 percent out of the building costs throughout the building and obviously drastically reduce the operational costs and operational energy required in the building. Normally every two bedroom apartment in Melbourne at that time was being designed with two bathrooms. So a primary bathroom and then an en suite to the master bedroom. Instead we took out all of the en suites, so we had one bathroom in each apartment. We kept them at the same size. So the apartments, by taking out the really energy intensive detail-heavy bathrooms, we saved about $10,000 out of the cost of each of the apartments and all the living rooms got seven square meters bigger, which is 70 square feet. We took out all of all of the individual laundries out of each of the apartments and instead put one beautiful laundry on the rooftop, which overlooks an incredible rooftop garden.   Eve Picker: [00:22:14] And I assume you could save money on all the stacks. Correct. And the space in the unit. Correct. So everyone's. Exactly right. And the cost of all these appliances. Exactly. Seventy costs.   Jeremy McLeod: [00:22:28] Exactly. You get it. You get it. So you do that over and over again. We have one shared Internet connection. So we bring fibre into the building and we share that Internet throughout the building. So we pay for it at one point and then we use bulk buying to share that. It gets really, really cheap, really, really fast internet in a city where the Internet here is expensive.   Eve Picker: [00:22:47] That's smart. That's a very good idea generally to buy it as a retailer.   Jeremy McLeod: [00:22:50] It's expensive and it's poor quality here. And we do the same thing with the power through an embedded network.   Eve Picker: [00:22:57] So it's this constant that you're a very pragmatic approach. It's really pragmatic, pragmatic to chisel away what's really necessary in a building and and really make it work. Yeah. And think about it.   Jeremy McLeod: [00:23:10] You know, what can you share? It's all about sharing and using, you know, bulk buying and trying to get maximum utilization. So you know what? Our laundry, for example, is six washing machines, which could use a lot more than having, you know, 24 washing machines that get used in a very infrequently.   Eve Picker: [00:23:28] I think a lot of people might find that concept difficult, but I suppose you don't need to find a lot for one building do you.   Jeremy McLeod: [00:23:38] Well, I mean, initially when we started when we finished this project and we started work on Nightingale 1 and I'll tell you why we started Nightingale 1, there were eleven people that had written to us to say, if you're going to build another building, like The Commons, can you please let us know. And so we put those eleven people on a waiting list. That waiting list through Nightingale housing is eight and a half thousand people.   Jeremy McLeod: [00:24:03] So apparently there is eight and a half thousand people in Melbourne that would be happy to have a cheaper apartment with a bigger living room, with a beautiful shared rooftop laundry ,with one bathroom, with no individual or private car parking, but with a free car-share membership to, you know, 20 cars parked within a 400 meter radius.   Eve Picker: [00:24:29] And to be fair, in a beautifully designed building.   Jeremy McLeod: [00:24:33] Thank you.   Eve Picker: [00:24:35] I'll sign up for the waiting list!   Jeremy McLeod: [00:24:38] I think the great thing about, you know, being your own client is that you can definitely make sure that the architecture is what it should be.   Jeremy McLeod: [00:24:49] So I actually for people listening in, the thing that's also very incredible here is The Commons. This building sits right on a railway line. You can see there you can see the station. Out of the windows. So it's really it's really a transit oriented development as well, which really makes it much easier not to have a car.   Jeremy McLeod: [00:25:08] Yeah, absolutely. So there's that train station right next door or the bike path right next door or the 503 bus and then the tramline.   Eve Picker: [00:25:16] And the garage packed full of bikes.   Jeremy McLeod: [00:25:18] Yeah. So we do have the highest ratio of bikes to apartments in the country. Yeah, but the interesting thing about that is that we just looked at what were the bike ratios used in the Netherlands and then we used those and brought that over here. So it's not none of this is rocket science, at least, you know. How's it been done?   Jeremy McLeod: [00:25:36] So you have investors in this project and how did they do?   [00:25:42] So in the Commons there were six architects and all of us and we all invested. So Tamara and I, my partner and I, yeah, we literally bet the house on it. And so, yeah, out of the Commons, we did at the end of the project when Small Giants, we bought the site, we redesigned the site, we got the D.A. approval, we got the price in place. Then we had to sell the project at Small Giants. They sold they bought the project back off us. And at that point we had bought the site for five hundred and forty five thousand and we sold it back to them for two million dollars.   Eve Picker: [00:26:23] How did they do then?   Jeremy McLeod: [00:26:27] Eventually, they never actually disclosed to me how they did, but they built and entire brand off the back of The Commons.   Eve Picker: [00:26:35] There you go!   Jeremy McLeod: [00:26:36] But interestingly, everything sold in The Commons. The project was delivered on time and on budget. And you know.   Eve Picker: [00:26:43] And did it sell quickly?   Jeremy McLeod: [00:26:45] Yes. And that kind of thing else was.   Eve Picker: [00:26:48] Yeah, that's probably keeping in a project like this, because having a couple of vacant units if your profit and a building like this.   Jeremy McLeod: [00:26:54] Yeah. That didn't happen here.   Eve Picker: [00:26:57] That's fantastic. So then, you know, the triple bottom line here actually made a financial return as well. That's a pretty strong argument for doing the right thing. Yeah. How hard is it to find investors who really care about the triple bottom line?   Jeremy McLeod: [00:27:16] Well, so maybe let me let me just come back to the move from The Commons to Nightingale 1. Or why we started Nightingale Housing. Do you want to hear?   Eve Picker: [00:27:25] Oh, yeah, absolutely.   Jeremy McLeod: [00:27:26] So this idea that that the Commons would drive change by being a prototype building. And I said before that it kind of failed because it was seen as the exception, not the rule. What we decided to do after that first, you know, with that wait list of eleven people was to, if if the market wouldn't change, then we would drive change in the market and we would continue to build buildings until such a time as the market actually came to us, you know, until we didn't need to exist any longer. So we established Nightingale Housing. We got some corporate sponsorship. We got a government grant. We got a grant from the National Australia Bank. So we built a really small team of about three of us and we embarked on Nightingale One.   Eve Picker: [00:28:15] And that's a non-profit driven.   Jeremy McLeod: [00:28:18] Yes. So Nightingale One was still delivered. And the way that we wrote that feasibility study was that we capped the return at 15 per cent per annum and then we capped that return at a three year project timeline. So essentially it was a gross return of forty-five per cent over three years. So there was a lot of pressure on us to deliver that for our investors to deliver it within the three year time window.   Jeremy McLeod: [00:28:42] So - to get to get - we tried to do that at 10 per cent per annum. And when we tried to raise impact investment to build a carbon neutral building. So when we tried to raise equity,  I spoke to probably 60 architects in the city because I wanted architects to invest in it. I wanted architects to own it. I want to share the IP with architects that would take it and scale the idea. I met with architect after architect for about, you know, six weeks and we ended up getting 27 investors all putting in $100,000 each. A lot of people with not a lot of money borrowed against their homes to invest money in. And when we first said we want to return 10 per cent per annum, ur first investor said that wasn't enough. It wasn't it didn't match the risk versus return matrix for them. And so they wanted fifteen percent return. So we ended up taking all the equity. In Nightingale One it was about a 10 million dollar project and we raised $2.7 billion in equity with a capped return of 15 percent per annum. Going forward from that ...   Eve Picker: [00:29:49] Did you return the 15 percent?   Jeremy McLeod: [00:29:52] Yeah, absolutely. We returned. And so the way that we that our model worked was that we have a construction contingency in the project, and so after we returned all the money to the shareholder, exactly as we said in our prospectus at the end of the project, the money left over from that contingency, instead of taking that as developer, which a developer would normally keep that as [crane?]. We then gave that back to the residents. So the residents that had balloted into the building, because by that time there was more demand than there was supply after the success of the comments. So we had to run a public ballot where the mayor drew the names for the apartments out of a hard hat. And those residents, those lucky residents at the end of the project, their apartments were about $90,000 under market. And when we finished the project, we gave the building a check for $109,000 dollars back.   Eve Picker: [00:30:43] Wow. And just to be clear, because in the US apartments are usually, well, this is this is all for sale. At this point. Right. Yes. Which is really what the market is in Melbourne.   Jeremy McLeod: [00:30:53] Yeah, absolutely. It's all you know, it's all for sale. Everything's for sale.   Eve Picker: [00:31:00] Which is in itself an interesting discussion. That's really amazing. So now now that was the first project. What's happening next?   Jeremy McLeod: [00:31:08] Well, so after the completion of Nightingale One, and then we did Nightingale Two which is just completed and Nightingale Brunswick East, which is just completed.   Eve Picker: [00:31:18] How many units did you build?   Jeremy McLeod: [00:31:19] So Nightingale One. So the Commons is 24 apartments, Nightingale One is 20 apartments, Nightingale Two is 20 apartments, Nightingale Brunswick East is a hybrid with a property developer. So that's 38 Nightingale apartments and about 25 straight to market apartments.   Eve Picker: [00:31:37] So that's a real mixed income project.   Jeremy McLeod: [00:31:39] Yeah. Yeah. And that's interesting. It's interesting. The developer was so good. They funded the whole project. They agreed to run everything transparently with us. So it's you know, so Nightingale's principles are that it has to be minimum seven and a half stars, has to be carbon neutral and operations can't have natural gas pumped into it, has to have, you know, all those Nightingale principles. And we've got to lock up. We also have a restrictive caveat which says that if we're selling and owning an apartment to you and we're capping the maximum sale price that we're selling to you based on a maximum return to investors, then you can't sell it tomorrow and make a massive profit.   Eve Picker: [00:32:19] And so you want to keep it affordable.   Jeremy McLeod: [00:32:21] Yeah, absolutely. And so this developer, Lucent, agreed to do all of those things. They handled all the delivery side. And the benefit the upside for them was that they were trying to sell apartments in a street where someone else was about to sell 700 apartments. Someone else was selling 60 apartments. There was about a thousand apartments on the market. They broke their building in half, did half Nightingale half straight to market. We said that we would do that only if the entire project, including their straight to market apartments, were carbon neutral in operations and met the minimum seven and a half star requirement. They agreed to do that. The Nightingale apartments went to ballot. They balloted in one day. So they sold all of 38 apartments in one day.   Eve Picker: [00:33:04] That's astounding.   Jeremy McLeod: [00:33:05] Which then got them the sales target that they needed to get financial closure from the bank to cover the debt, which meant that they could then demolish the building, start their basement construction, which gave them a massive program jump on all the other buildings. They then opened their straight to market sales. And some of the people that it missed out on the Nightingale ballot went and bought there because they could afford to. But also, they were interested in the sustainability idea of carbon neutrality and the idea of community. And then it gave them a kind of a massive differentiator in the market. And so when no one else was selling anything in that street, they sold their 25 apartments in three weeks, which was unheard of.   Eve Picker: [00:33:50] I don't know what balloting is. Can you explain that to me?   Jeremy McLeod: [00:33:53] Sure. So ordinarily, the way that a straight to market developer would sell their properties by employing a real estate agent. The real estate agent generally charges a fee of about 2.25% percent. So there's two different ways you can sell in Australia. But if you if you employ a real estate agent here, they'll charge you 2 per cent of the gross revenue of the project, so if  the project is a 10 million dollar project, they'll charge you $200,000 for the 20 million dollar project, they'll charge you $400,000.   Eve Picker: [00:34:22] Because they're going to sell all units for that.   Jeremy McLeod: [00:34:25] That's right. They are going to sell all the units for that. If you historically had trouble selling, you would go to financial advisors in inverted commas, who are meant to be independent and they could sell your apartments to people looking for investment advice and they might charge six or seven percent. Okay. I think they're trying to outlaw that at the moment. Because they're their commission obviously makes it difficult, the rate of their commission is so high, it makes difficult for them to make independent advice about what to buy into or what not to. But Nightingale's says no real estate agents, no sales, no marketing. Instead, it has a series of information nights, it talks to all the purchasers and it provides information, fearless information, warts and all, about the great things about the project and the not so great things about it.   Jeremy McLeod: [00:35:17] So for The Commons, for Nightingale One, we talk about all the great things, but we also say that it's right next to the train line. So the great thing about that is that it's really close. But it also means that train runs 24 hours on a Friday and Saturday night. And if you got your window open, you know you can. You're going to hear it. You know, that's a very, very it's a place of urban flux, and that where you see all the single story warehouses now, you'll be a construction site for the next five years. So we talk about all those things openly.   Eve Picker: [00:35:43] So how do you find those people, though? How did they find you?   Jeremy McLeod: [00:35:46] I don't know. So so, look, we don't have you know, we don't have a marketing team. We had some political trouble on Nightingale One where we got a planning permit. The developer next door took us to the appeals court here based on the fact that they didn't want us to sell apartments that were 20 percent bigger, 20 percent cheaper and 120 percent better than theirs, because I think that they thought that it might provide a market problem for them. They took us to the appeals court and they were well funded by the developer. And we weren't particularly well-funded. And they had a good legal team. And then they had our permits stripped from us. So they got our permit taken off us.   Jeremy McLeod: [00:36:33] Well, it's a very, very strange planning system here where  individuals can veto a local government decision. It's very interesting. So we then had to lodge a new  planning application from scratch for Nightingale One.   Jeremy McLeod: [00:36:53] But the interesting thing was that when Nightingale One lost the local planning permit at that at the appeals tribunal, the local media, particularly the liberal media, got very, very bent out of shape about a project that was trying to deliver carbon neutral housing affordably, particularly trying to house millennials and first time buyers that had just been totally priced out of the market. And they got really bent out of shape that that the one thing that that project was defeated on at the appeals court was on car parking. So basically the whole fight was that we didn't provide any car parking. How our whole contention was that it sat on top of a train station next to a place where people were unlikely to have cars. Well, over 30 percent of them didn't have a license. Thirty percent of them didn't have cars. And the last 40 percent had filled out statics saying that they would either get rid of their cars when they moved into the building or that they would garage them in surrounding buildings that have masses of basement carbon that is under utilized. Well, the biggest thing that happened for us was that it totally changed the landscape for us in terms of everyone suddenly had heard of Nightingale, heard about this.   Eve Picker: [00:38:03] That bad thing was great marketing.   Jeremy McLeod: [00:38:05] Yeah. The bad thing that nearly broke me emotionally, like Breathe architecture was nearly broken the day after that. We couldn't believe what had happened in the 21st century in this city, given its incredible problems with climate change and kind of housing justice. And anyway, what we found was that beyond that, after that, our waiting list, like the week after that, our waiting list had jumped from 125 people to over 400 people.   Jeremy McLeod: [00:38:34] So people had read it in the mainstream. Wow. So you're wonderful. You're absolutely right. I think that was the start at which people actually started to hear about us.   Eve Picker: [00:38:42] So because we're running out of time. But I really want to know what's next.   Jeremy McLeod: [00:38:47] Mm hmm. Good question. So off the back of all of the Nightingales we've done, what we found was that Nightingale One opposite the Commons, they're both really great strong communities. But what we've found is that there's that they've actually started to work together as an organism. So the residents of The Commons and the residents of Nightingale One have worked together to lobby the council, to close the street at the front. So in two years time, the street will be closed and they're going to pull up the asphalt and replace it with grass and turf.   Eve Picker: [00:39:18] Well, it's wonderful. And so you've started to see really build a community here.   Jeremy McLeod: [00:39:22] Yes. And they and importantly, what else we've seen is with those two buildings in close proximity to each other, they've started to engage with other residents around. So it's not just individual communities, but everyone within that street now and across the railway lines and around the corner are all now kind of engaging in street parties, garage sale days, you know, Christmas parties or just talking to each other as they go past. There's no more anonymity. And so the big thing for us was how do we kind of learn from that? And so we bought seven sites to Street south of the Commons. And that's what's called Nightingale Village. So that's there was gonna be seven buildings by seven architects, all carbon neutral communities, no individually owned cars, a car share hub for 15 share cars, a consolidated bike park with 450 bikes. But importantly, no cars allowed on the streets. So on the streets above, again, pulling up the asphalt, replacing it with grass, trees, street furniture and making it a place for pedestrians and cyclists. That's fabulous. Yeah. And so then, you know, at that scale, it jumped from a 10 million dollar project to one hundred million dollar project. We had a superannuation company, HESTA work with an organization called Social Ventures Australia, an impact investor, and they put in 20 million dollars worth of equity into that project. And then we've had a big bank here, National Australia Bank essentially build a two billion dollar housing innovation fund to step into the gap that our federal government and state governments have left to. Yeah. And so the debt will be funded out of that National Australia Bank housing fund. So it's been incredible getting institutional finance coming in to make that happen. And then within that, obviously, we understand and that we're part of the gentrification problem. And so we've been looking at this idea of inclusionary zoning and why can it work in London and why doesn't it work here or why isn't it called for here? And basically, the property council here, lobbies our planning minister, not to put inclusionary zoning. They say that we won't be able to afford it, that it will make..   Eve Picker: [00:41:32] But who does the Property Council represent.   Jeremy McLeod: [00:41:36] Property developers. And so. And so we've decided at Nightingale Housing to now make sure that every project we do has 20 percent affordable housing in it, whether there's inclusionary zoning or not. And so what we're intending at Nightingale Village, we're now putting in 20 percent affordable housing. And so within that, we want to prove to the planning minister and to the government that you can put in affordable housing, that you can salt and pepper it through your developments, that it can be done well and it can be done elegantly and it can be done equitably. And if we can do it, there's no reason why a well-managed, publicly listed housing company or development company can't do it. So, yeah, look, the big push for us is now to actually make sure that we don't just we just try and get better with every project. We try and think through what are the other issues that need to be done and then we'll deal with it.   Eve Picker: [00:42:35] OK. So I have a couple of really quick questions for you. What trends in real estate development architecture do you see emerging that you think are important for the future?   Jeremy McLeod: [00:42:47] Yeah. Yeah. So, look, I mean, we're not plumbing natural gas and all of our buildings are carbon neutral in operation. So it has to be powered by 100 per cent certified green power, 100 percent renewables. So that's the measure that we use in Australia before we started Nightingale, every property developer told me that was impossible because people liked gas to cook on their woks, you know, to have a wok burner in their apartments and that they would never go without gas. Since Nightingale One has been complete, there are now five zero gas buildings within a one kilometre radius of Nightingale One. Quite interesting. So we've shifted the bar on this idea of can I operate without gas? Are my purchasers interested in carbon neutrality and around here? Absolutely.   Eve Picker: [00:43:37] And of course, if you don't have gas you don't need to run gas lines and that is another savings.   Jeremy McLeod: [00:43:41] Correct. In the building. Correct. No gas made a room. No gas particularly. Right. Right. Yeah.   Eve Picker: [00:43:46] Wrap up question here. So where do you think the future real estate impact investing lies? Because you've been dealing with those impact investors from day one?   Jeremy McLeod: [00:43:56] Yeah. It's a really good question. I think that and I'm very, very interested in your model, because I think that peer to peer lending is going to be really interesting about people being able to invest in projects with meaning. We see that the people of Melbourne who funded the early equity projects in Nightingale, they did it not so much for the return, but because they cared about what was happening to our city, what was happening.   Eve Picker: [00:44:25] That's why I built small change, because I think the people in the cities they're in and they just want to be part of making it better.   Jeremy McLeod: [00:44:33] Yeah, I agree. Totally. And so it's incredible to see Melbournians investing in projects and people with not a lot of money, but literally, you know, borrowing against their own home to help make this happen, because they're not just interested in making the city more livable place, but they're also interested in and they care about the future generations and what's happening to Millennials being locked out of the housing market and wondering what's going to happen for them in housing security in the future, so I don't think that's going to put a lot of pressure on institutional funds. We've got a lot of superannuation money in Australia.   Eve Picker: [00:45:11] So do you think the interest requirement of 15 per cent is going to grow?   Jeremy McLeod: [00:45:15] Well, the interesting thing is, since the village. That's the last time we paid those rates. Oh, very good. So since then, we've got two new projects on line and the offers are becoming back in. And now, you know, 13 per cent and 11 per cent because, you know, by the time we finished the village that's 14 projects. And with a wait list of eight and a half thousand people, the single biggest risk in a project is sales and settlement. Right.   Eve Picker: [00:45:39] There's not much risk. Right. Right. So I've really enjoyed the conversation. Thank you very, very much. Yeah, there's lots more and want to know, but it's pretty fabulous what you're doing. Thank you.   Eve Picker: [00:45:55] That was Jeremy MacLeod of Breathe Architecture and the Nightingale Project. If you want to build something that is affordable and sustainable simultaneously, says Jeremy, every project manager in Melbourne will tell you you can't do it. So Breathe instead defines sustainability through reductionism. They discovered that what people actually want is really good and meaningful housing with space, light, great outlook and plants, not marble countertops, three bathrooms and shag carpet. They have achieved affordability and sustainability through reductionism. If you don't need it, take it out.   Eve Picker: [00:46:40] You can find out more about impact real estate investing and access the show notes for today's episode at my web site Eve Picker dot com. While you're there, sign up for my newsletter to find out more about how to make money in real estate while building better cities.   Eve Picker: [00:46:57] Thank you so much for spending your time with me today. And thank you, Jeremy, for sharing your thoughts with me. We'll talk again soon. For now, this is Eve Picker, signing off to make some change.   Eve Picker: [00:47:17] Be sure to go to Eve Picker dot com to sign up for my free educational newsletter about impact real estate investing. You'll be among the first to hear about new projects you can invest in. That's Eve Picker dot com. Thanks so much.

Alex Oppes of Social Ventures Australia discusses the social enterprise movement in Australia, providing key insights into some of the progress made, as well as opportunities to improve, whilst providing advice for social entrepreneurs to maximise their impact.

Welcome to Episode 8 of Good Will Hunters! On the show this week we have Andrea De Almeida. Andrea is the Executive Director of B-Lab, the not for profit organisation which supports the community of B Corps in Australia. Prior to this, Andrea worked for Social Ventures Australia where she was the Director of Venture Philanthropy. In this role, Andrea was responsible for incubating and testing innovative solutions to complex social problems. Andrea holds a Bachelor of Public Policy and Management and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Melbourne. In addition, Andrea is a Vincent Fairfax Fellow, enabling her to work with other senior executives throughout Australia to undertake an advanced leadership experience. In this episode, we discuss the rise of B-Corps in Australia, and why more and more businesses are looking for an independent certification that distinguishes them as being socially and environmentally responsible. In the wake of the Financial Services Royal Commission, many are questioning the ethics of some of our largest businesses. Yet, more and more businesses are taking steps to expand their corporate social responsibility, become a social enterprise, attain B-Corp certification or play with impact investment. In this interview, we discuss these trends and more, including why law reform in Australia would enable more businesses to legally enshrine their mission and protect their Directors in the process. Andrea’s wealth of experience has equipped her with fascinating and important insights into the future of business and international development, and why we already have the tools we need to redefine profit, purpose and progress. 1:45 - What is a B-Corp? 2:55 - B-Lab 9:22 - Becoming a B-Corp 12:48 - Redefining business culture 16:30 - Building the B-Lab community 19:16 - The Benefit Company 20:25 - Impact Investment 25:50 - Why business MUST be a force for good 30:30 - Inclusive capitalism 36:00 - Business and international development Check out our article on this weeks episode, over at the Lowy Interpreter - https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/business-aid-and-aiding-business You can learn more about B-Lab Australia via their website - https://bcorporation.com.au Royalty free music by Bensound

In this episode we speak to Simon Cant, founder of $100m venture capital fund, Reinventure, Tim Fung, CEO of Airtasker and Rob Koczkar of Social Ventures Australia to pick apart how our Businesses of Tomorrow can scale to the next level. Our founders, Will Davies, Hana Krawchuk, Christian Damstra and Jordan O’Reilly, respond to their concerns and reflect on how they, and their businesses, have changed since they went on the program.Music Credits:Where It Goes, JahzzarFake It, Mr Frisbys Beat PocketIkigai, The Kyoto ConnectionDeep Dive, Rafael ArchangelWhat True Self Feels, Chris ZabriskieBe Careful I've Stood On It Too, Bitbasic Bumbler, Andy G CohenHappiness, Scott Buckley See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Microsoft Hack for Good Sydney  March 8 and 9 2018 (in conjunction with Social Ventures Australia)   I was lucky enough to attend and judge Hack4Good at PwC's Barangaroo offices last week with 12 of Microsoft's  partner organisations participating hosted by David Masters from Microsoft. The event focused on hacking solutions for people with disabilities. There  were three winning teams: Humanitix who are transforming their event platform so that those with a disability can clearly communicate their accessibility needs to event organisers, Clinic to Cloud who proposed a personal disability passport to easily communicate with service providers, and PwC who explored the use of Microsofts cognitive services to clearly communicate the emotions of users during a  Skype call for those who may not be able to see or hear. With one in five Australians living with a disability today, it was inspiring to see the commitment to accessibility from Microsofts  partner community.  A big thanks to PwC for hosting the event and to Leonie from the Deaf Society of NSW, Rocco from KPMG, Kenny from Microsoft, Dianne from Social Ventures Australia and David Masters for their invaluable guidance to Microsoft  teams over the course of the hack.   Skype Accessibility from the Skype Blog   From the Skype blog, Microsoft will be working hard to improve accessibility of Skype arose iOS, Android, Mac and Windows, and are urging people to give them feedback.   https://blogs.skype.com/news/2018/03/16/improving-skype-accessibility/#.WqxltA6wSJw.twitter   A Reminder the CSUN 2018 is on This Week   If you use Twitter and you want to follow what is going on with CSUN, follow the Hash Tag CSUNATC18. We'll have lots to talk about next week from CSUN. A great resource for news and audio interviews from CSUN 2018 is Blind Bargains who will be bringing us news and interviews.   Apple's first Coding Session for Blind or Low Vision Students at the Texas School for the Blind and Visually  Impaired March 7 2018   Apple Experts visited the school and took students through coding in Swift Playgrounds to flying drones.   https://www.512tech.com/technology/with-assist-from-apple-visually-impaired-austin-students-learn-write-code-fly-drones/KbOaJnSwOoH2MHgTFNFAmL/   Apple's Education Event in Chicago on March 27   We have know idea what the event is about which is being held at a  school in Chicago and is aimed and creativity for students and teachers, , but chances are that because its education, we'll see new iPads, and MacBooks  announced.   https://www.macworld.com/article/3264007/techology-business/apple-is-holding-an-education-event-on-march-27-in-chicago.html   WWDC (World Wide Developers Conference) Apple Set for June 4 2018   As this is a software developers conference, we'll see updates across all of the OS platforms - iOS, Watch os, TV OS, and Mac OS.  Rmour is that Apple will be focussing mainly on security and stability improvements in iOS 12.   https://www.imore.com/wwdc-2018   JAWS 20108 Update March 15 2018   I think the great improvements in this update of JAWS is that JAWS can now unmute the sound card via JAWS key plus Escape (JAWS's screen refresh), drivers for the Orbit reader, and added  a new layer command to turn Screen Shade  on/off JAWS key plus Space plus F11.   http://www.freedomscientific.com/Downloads/jaws/JAWSWhatsNew#Enhancements   Google Assistant now Available on the iPad   Just search for Google Assistant on the App Store on your iPad and you can start using the assistant the same way you can use it on your iPhone.   Tell Me About vision Australia Now on Google Home   Information about Vision Australia and our services can now be obtained from Google Home, just ask: Hey Google Tell me about Vision Australia.  

“It’s quite easy to sit in an office and think that you’re having a really fantastic impact, but it is really about talking to the people you end up working with and testing with them; is this working or is there anything that we can do better?” For our tenth episode, Naomi Smith and Reegan Quick sit down with Dan Code, an associate consultant with Social Ventures Australia, an organisation dedicated to supporting social impact through offering services like consulting and impact investment for the non-for-profit space. Together they discuss the need to understand the context you’re operating in, Dan’s experience working in Tanzania, the relevance of an MBA in social impact, the importance of organisations like Social Ventures Australia and a unique perspective of the role of philanthropy. Show Notes: Social Ventures Australia (Organisation) Arti Energy (Organisation) Ubongo (Organisation) Net Impact (Organisation) Social Traders (Organisation) The Difference Incubator (Organisation) Poor Economics (Book) If you’re interested in finding out more about Dan’s work with Social Ventures Australia or how the organisation runs more broadly, then please be sure to visit their website or check them out on Twitter or LinkedIn. Follow the journey on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Our Website.

My guest for episode 73 of The Startup Playbook Podcast is Will Richardson, the Head of Venture Capital at the Impact Investment Group and the Managing Partner of Giant Leap Fund Will spent several years in the private equity space before searching for something more in line with his values and passion. This search led him to the impact investment industry and through a series of 50 coffees, came across the Impact Investment Group, a leading Australian impact investment funds manager that shifts capital towards investments that blend financial returns with deep social and environmental impact. Will is now the Head of Venture Capital at the Impact Investment Group and is the Managing Partner of Giant Leap Fund, Australia's first 100% impact venture capital fund. Through the $14M fund, Giant Leap Fund has invested in local companies; Sendle, YourGrocer, GlamCorner and Switch. In this interview we talk about: The power of introductions The misconceptions of impact investment The 3 things that Giant Leap looks for when investing in startups The benefits of effective storytelling PLAYBOOK MEDIA – Growth through Data-Driven Storytelling STARTUP PLAYBOOK HUSTLE APPLICATION   Show notes: Small Giants Impact Investment Group Giant Leap Fund Pete Cameron Adam Milgrom Kylie Charlton Social Ventures Australia Jan Owen Rachel Yang James Moody Sendle Morgan Ranieri YourGrocer Thankyou Group GlamCorner H&M TopShop Wells Fargo WeWork Deloitte Millennial survey (2017) Fergus Kyle offeran Will Richardson Adrian Stone Dream Factory Feedback/ connect/ say hello:  Rohit@startupplaybook.co @playbookstartup (Twitter) @rohitbhargava7 (Twitter – Rohit) Rohit Bhargava (LinkedIn) Credits: Intro music credit to Bensound Other channels: Don't have iTunes? The podcast is also available on Stitcher & Soundcloud The post Ep073 – Will Richardson (Managing Partner – Giant Leap Fund) on impact driven investment appeared first on Startup Playbook.

Connect: @jancowen Engage: www.fya.org.au Jan Owen AM is a highly regarded, dynamic social entrepreneur, innovator, influencer and author who has spent the past 25 years growing Australia's youth, social enterprise and innovation sectors. In 2012 she was named Australia's inaugural AFR and Westpac Woman of Influence; in 2014 she received the Doctor of Letters (honoris causa) from Sydney University; and Jan was awarded membership to the Order of Australia in 2000. Prior to FYA, Jan was Executive Director of Social Ventures Australia & founded the CREATE Foundation, the national consumer body for children and young people out of home care. In this coffee pod we talk about education, leading progress and how to achieve change that matters.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Social entrepreneurs may dream of changing the world, but to make a dent in the most pressing social and environmental issues, they need to achieve scale. Find out how in the final episode of our three-part series. Scale is one of the hardest challenges a social enterprise will face. Even the most successful entrepreneurs have struggled to grow their operations and impact. In the final How to Social Enterprise episode, Not for Podcast speaks to a handful of these entrepreneurs about how they achieved scale. From finance to business models to grassroots campaigns, they all have a unique story and different lessons to pass on. But they all agree that, at every point in the social enterprise journey, an entrepreneur should plan for scale. Featured in this episode: Jamie Green, founder of ONE NIGHT STAND Rebecca Scott, CEO and co-founder of STREAT   Adam Makepeace, senior manager, employment and training services at 180 Painting Services Daniel Flynn, co-founder and managing director of Thankyou. Produced by Ellie Cooper and Wendy Williams, brought to you by Social Ventures Australia.

Find out what it takes to set up and run a social enterprise in the second episode of our three-part podcast series. In the first episode of How to Social Enterprise, Motivations, we looked at the why of the social enterprise model and who should consider going down that pathway. In Skills we ask whether combining a business brain with a charity heart requires a unique skill set to get started. Not for Podcast spoke to social entrepreneurs about what they learnt along their social enterprise journey, what worked, what didn't and what would they change if they could do it all again. Featured in this episode: Will Dayble, founder of Fitzroy Academy Alastair Pryor, founder of Totes Making a Diff and Compact Shelters Simon Griffiths, co-founder of Ripple, Shebeen and Who Gives a Crap Ben Robb, finance and strategy volunteer at ASRC Catering and ASRC Cleaning Adrian Watts, CEO of National Health Co-op Stay tuned for episode three, How to Social Enterprise: Scale – to find out how ultra-successful entrepreneurs grew their business and social impact. Produced by Ellie Cooper and Wendy Williams, brought to you by Social Ventures Australia.

Have you ever thought about setting up a social enterprise? Find out whether it’s right for you and  in the first episode in our three-part series Featured in this episode: Social Change Central co-founder Anne Lennon The Difference Incubator CEO and co-founder Bessi Graham Social Traders head of investment and advisory Libby Ward-Christie YGAP co-founder and CEO Elliot Costello Produced by Ellie Cooper and Wendy Williams, brought to you by Social Ventures Australia.

The impact of Australia’s lack of affordable housing is far reaching – low-income earners are being pushed to the fringes of cities, with some households paying up to 85 per cent of their income on rent. But according to experts, solving the affordable housing crisis is beyond the scope of governments alone. In this episode of Not for Podcast, special contributor Rachel Alembakis, founder and publisher of The Sustainability Report, partnered with Pro Bono Australia News to investigate the challenges and opportunities for developing affordable housing. Leveraging private capital, including that of Australia’s $1.3 trillion superannuation industry, could unlock significant investment in the sector. But it requires collaboration between businesses, community organisations and governments. This episode features affordable housing experts and field practitioners: Mark Peacock, director of impact investing at Social Ventures Australia. Wendy Hayhurst, CEO of  the New South Wales Federation of Housing Associations. Debby Blakey, CEO of superannuation fund HESTA. Jamie Muchall, business development manager at Horizon Housing. Produced by Ellie Cooper.

Each year, Social Ventures Australia hold their Education Dialogue day, bringing together people from all different sectors of society to discuss issues facing education in Australia with a particular focus on improving educational outcomes for disadvantaged students. One of the keynote speakers at the 2015 event was Prof. Sir George Berwick, CEO of Challenge Partners UK, and formerly Principal of Ravens Wood School in Bromley. In this extended special interview, Sir George discusses the period of growth and success of London schools during the period of the London Challenge. Links: Challenge Partners website Prof. Sir George Berwick’s website Timecodes: 00:00 – Opening Credits 01:18 – Intro 01:34 – Social Ventures Australia Education Dialogue 16:42 – Interview with Prof. Sir George Berwick 01:10:07 – Discussion 01:18:28 – Quote and Sign Off

Michael Traill is passionate about applying business skills to care for the lives of people in need. During this conversation, Michael shares his thoughts on the importance of service, social conscience and his spiritual life. We hear about his experience doing rites of passages with his sons, taking family sabbaticals and how he naturally gravitates to people who are open, emotionally available and vulnerable. Ultimately, Michael reminds us of our pressing need to craft a new narrative. One that appeals to our common humanity - and who we really want to be as a community. Michael Traill was born in the small industrial country town of Morewell in Victoria. He graduated dux of his school, got an MBA from the Harvard Business School and by age 41 was running Macquarie Bank’s venture capital arm, overseeing $400 million worth of investments. One morning, in the late stages of a $20 million investment, he found himself not feeling the usual rush of adrenalin and excitement. On this occasion, he was more concerned about a team member in his son’s under 11’s Aussie rules team. His life direction was changing. It wasn’t long before Michael “jumped ship” and was the founding CEO of Social Ventures Australia. For the last 13 years he has dedicated himself to investing in social change.

In the final episode for 2013, Cameron and Corinne discuss the biggest events and achievements in education throughout the year, both political and personal, and we interview Suzie Riddell, Executive Director of Education for Social Ventures Australia, about their efforts to address social inequity in Australian Education.