Kelly O’Shanassy, Australian Conservation Foundation

About This Episode

Our guest today is Kelly O’Shanassy who is the CEO of the Australian Conservation Foundation.

The Australian Conservation Foundation is Australia’s national environment organisation. Their more than 600,000 members speak out for a world where forests, rivers, people and wildlife thrive. They embody the philosophy that “The power of the people is greater than the people in power”.

Kelly is at the helm of this dedicated movement. Growing up as the daughter of a police officer and a teacher, Kelly learned early on not to judge people for where they are in life. If they want to do better; she doesn’t judge and sees her role as helping people change – this applies equally to an individual who wants to make a difference in the world to the CEO of a billion dollar resource company.

In this episode we hear about Kelly’s upbringing growing up in a fairly tough neighbourhood where people had little money but were rich in courage and community spirit and how this shapes what she does today. We also talk about the lessons she has learnt in trying to move the dial on big businesses performance on protecting the environment and what she does today to get businesses to be part of the solution – and it is not what you think…