Catherine Brown

Catherine is a lawyer with a commitment to community philanthropy and social justice, and the chief executive officer of the Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation. After several years in commercial law, she worked in in-house legal, government relations and management within the not-for-profit sectors (including the Ms Society, Wesley Mission and Brain Foundation) before running her own consultancy in strategic planning, not-for-profit and community foundation organisational development, and philanthropy.  While consulting, she held government board roles including chair of the Queen Victoria Women’s Centre Trust, chair of the Greater Metropolitan Cemeteries Trust and deputy chair of the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital. She is the author of Great Foundations: a 360° guide to building resilient and effective not-for-profit organisations on ACER Press. Catherine joined the Foundation in 2011 to help grow the impact and profile of community philanthropy. She is undertaking a PhD by practice related research related to philanthropic foundations and innovation at Swinburne University.