The most important conservation problems are the ones nobody has figured out how to structure yet. That's where we start.

We bring rare expertise at the intersection of conservation program design, strategy, and innovative finance. We help organisations turn complex environmental challenges into programs that are clearly evidenced, fundable, and built to deliver real impact, particularly in reef and coastal restoration and nature-based solutions.

Services

Conservation Program Design

This is where I do my best work. I help organisations take a complex environmental challenge - messy, contested, underdefined - and turn it into a program that people understand, believe in, and want to back. That means working through the logic of change, designing for impact from the outset, building in the evidence you'll need later, and making sure the program is deliverable in the real world, not just on paper. It also means getting the strategic architecture right from the beginning: the governance, impact framework, stakeholder relationships, and long-term positioning that give a program its bones. Many initiatives begin with strong intentions but without that underlying structure; helping shape those foundations early is often the most valuable thing I can do. This work often involves facilitated workshops - bringing internal and external stakeholders into the room to co-design the program, develop a theory of change, or build an impact framework together. I've found that the best program designs emerge from structured conversation, not just desk work. I've designed programs at every scale, from early concept through to full implementation, and I know what separates the ones that work from the ones that don't. This often extends into grant writing and proposal development - translating the program design into a compelling bid for the funders who need to back it.

Over the last five years, I designed and fundraised for most of the Great Barrier Reef Foundation’s project portfolio, including:

  • The TED Audacious ReefSeeding Initiative - an international program bringing emerging reef restoration technology, community led-implementation and sustainable finance for the Great Barrier Reef and the Pacific

  • Blue Carbon Program - the first blue carbon program along the Great Barrier Reef, designed to unlock barriers to implementation of blue carbon projects across the reef.

  • Traditional Owner-led Nature Based Solutions Program - a program focused entirely on Traditional Owner-led conservation and economic development

Strategy & Policy

Whether you're an NGO trying to figure out where to focus, or a government agency developing a conservation strategy, I can help you cut through the complexity and get tosomething clear, actionable, and defensible. I bring both the ecological grounding and the strategic clarity to work across scales - from a single program to a whole-of-organisation or whole-of-system question. I'm particularly experienced working at the interface of science, policy, and practice, where the hardest and most important decisions get made. Much of my most valuable work happens in cross-sector and multidisciplinary settings, where conservation, finance, policy, and community governance need to work together and someone needs to translate across those worlds, align incentives, and help different perspectives find common ground. If your challenge sits at one of those intersections, that's where I'm most useful.

Innovative Finance & Funding Strategy

The conservation sector is at an inflection point. Philanthropic capital alone will never be enough - and the most exciting opportunities right now sit at the intersection of conservation outcomes and innovative funding mechanisms. I help organisations understand the landscape, identify the right funding models for their work, and position their programs to attract non-traditional capital. My background in conservation finance, combined with my Kinship Conservation Finance Fellowship, means I can speak fluently across the ecology-finance divide, which remains rarer than it should be.

Impact Reporting & Evaluation

Good impact reporting isn't just about ticking a funder's box. Done well, it tells a compelling story about what changed and why - and it sets you up for what comes next. I help organisations design evaluation frameworks that are rigorous without being burdensome, and write impact reports that work for multiple audiences: funders, boards, government, and the public. Having designed and run the programs myself, I know what good looks like from the inside.

How I work

I move quickly. After 15 years navigating complex conservation challenges, I can read a situation fast, identify what actually matters, and get to work — without extensive ramp-up time. I work across the full spectrum, from high-level strategy through to implementation, and I don't hand over a document and disappear. I take a big, messy idea, build the framework that gives it order, and stay with it until it works in the real world. The most important conservation challenges are messy, contested, and uncertain — and I don't flinch when things get hard. I'll challenge the thinking in a room, reframe when needed, and keep going until we find a path through. And I know when to bring others in: I'm not territorial about expertise.

I'm a systems thinker who stays grounded in people. I hold the big strategic picture — institutions, incentives, governance, relationships — alongside the human realities on the ground, and I help rooms find clarity rather than imposing it. A significant part of how I work is through facilitation: whether it's a program design workshop, a theory of change session, or a multi-stakeholder co-design process, I bring structure to conversations that might otherwise go in circles, and help groups reach decisions they can actually act on.

Current clients include The Great Barrier Reef Foundation, Watershed Change, and the Kinship Foundation.