Mara Bún is President of the Australian Conservation Foundation, Australia’s proudly independent national environment organisation involving half a million people who speak out for a world where forests, rivers, people and wildlife thrive.
Mara was born and raised in São Paulo Brazil, was educated in the US, and has called Australia home for 30 years.
Her early investment banking career with Morgan Stanley’s merger & acquisition and high technology groups was during Wall Street 1980s boom/busts. She escaped to Nepal for 2 years, supporting earthquake reconstruction and rafting magnificent rivers. Mara migrated to Australia leading finance and advocacy for environment and consumer NGOs in the 1990s. She led Internet Equities Research at Macquarie Bank during dotcom years, then led business development for the CSIRO. For 8 years Mara was CEO of Green Cross Australia, an NGO founded by Mikhail Gorbachev dedicated to climate resilience.
Mara is a Company Director on boards of social impact leaders Australian Ethical Investments and Enova Community Energy. She Chairs the Board of Gold Coast Waterways Authority, a Queensland Government agency managing 160 kilometres of magnificent waterways that are vulnerable to climate impacts. She also is strategy consultant to Food Agility Cooperative Research Centre and commercial linen supplier Simba Global where she pioneers lean/agile approaches to evolving digital services that transform productivity and sustainability.
