Chris Kirby

Founder / Executive Director

Chris Kirby has a personal vision for everyone in Australia to have the opportunity to live a life of value. It’s a vision he brings to life by engaging in collaborations across communities, NGOs, businesses and governments.

He has a track record of driving organisational change and sector-wide collective approaches to complex opportunities. A laser like focus on strategy ensuring the complicated is made manageable and that clarity of purpose is at the heart of all activity.

He has been deeply involved in the supplier diversity space and the growth of the Indigenous business sector: signing up CommBank as one of the first corporates to support the creation of what is now known as Supply Nation; promoting procurement in Reconciliation Action Plans when Deputy CEO of Reconciliation Australia; undertaking a study on barriers to diverse procurement among major businesses; and as CEO of Supply Nation as a maternity cover in 2016.

Prior to joining the For-Purpose sector Chris worked for 20 years in the corporate world in marketing and social responsibility roles. Most recently this included heading up the Commonwealth Bank’s CSR team where he brought social enterprise thinking into the heart of a corporate.

Over the preceding two decades, Chris built his marketing experience working in London, New York and Sydney in strategy and new product innovation roles both in advertising agencies and at major consumer goods companies.