Catherine has a long commitment to supporting innovative solutions to tough environmental and social challenges. She is currently an Enterprise Professor at the Melbourne Business School and the Melbourne Law School with a focus on blended finance and research impact respectively.

Catherine is Chair of the Australian Environmental Grantmakers Network and a Board member of Impact Investing Australia. Catherine led the Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation, the largest and oldest community foundation in Australia, for 12 years until early 2024. In 2016, the Foundation placed a climate lens and a gender lens across its work and added impact investment to its asset allocation. Priority impact areas included affordable housing, economic inclusion and social enterprise, climate change (mitigation and resilience), and sector capacity building.

Catherine is the author of Great Foundations: A 360° guide to building resilient and effective not-for-profit organisations (ACER Press, 2010). She completed a PhD titled Unlocking the innovation potential of philanthropic organisations at the Centre for Social Impact, Faculty of Business and Law, Swinburne University in 2019. She holds a current lawyer’s practising certificate and is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. Catherine was awarded a Medal in the Order of Australia for services to charitable organisations in 2020.