Almost twen­ty years ago, some of Australia’s lead­ing cit­i­zens decid­ed to con­front the chal­lenges and oppor­tu­ni­ties pre­sent­ed by an emerg­ing world, bring­ing to bear their col­lec­tive tal­ents and those of oth­er influ­en­tial glob­al fig­ures through the cre­ation of the Glob­al Foun­da­tion – a not-for-prof­it organ­i­sa­tion focused on serv­ing the longer-term pub­lic good and backed by pri­vate sec­tor and phil­an­thropic spon­sors and a diverse mem­ber­ship base.

Launched in Mel­bourne, Aus­tralia, in 1998, the Foun­da­tion has since become a trust­ed glob­al net­work and plat­form with a some­what unique con­ven­ing pow­er, enabling peo­ple from many walks of life to meet and work togeth­er in address­ing some of the great­est glob­al chal­lenges of our era – how do we mobilise for a fair and pros­per­ous glob­al econ­o­my; how do we ensure that our plan­et will be sus­tain­able for cur­rent future gen­er­a­tions; how do we ensure glob­al food secu­ri­ty for all? In so doing, the Foun­da­tion choos­es not to be ‘the sto­ry’, pre­fer­ring to sup­port the work of those in posi­tions of author­i­ty and influ­ence. Usu­al­ly, such ini­tia­tives derive from gov­ern­ments, how­ev­er the Foun­da­tion dis­tin­guish­es itself by work­ing from its non-prof­it base, enjoy­ing 100% pri­vate sec­tor and com­mu­ni­ty sup­port, while part­ner­ing with gov­ern­ments of the day, across the world and on a non-par­ti­san basis.

The Foun­da­tion works close­ly with many sig­nif­i­cant cor­po­rate and com­mu­ni­ty lead­ers and also with the most sig­nif­i­cant glob­al eco­nom­ic insti­tu­tions, such as the Inter­na­tion­al Mon­e­tary Fund, the World Bank and the Asian Infra­struc­ture Invest­ment Bank, along with faith-based insti­tu­tions includ­ing, but not lim­it­ed to, the Vat­i­can and the Angli­can Church.