Gina Anderson - People Profile

 Gina Anderson, Chief Executive Officer, Philanthropy Australia

Gina Anderson joined Philanthropy Australia in November 2005. She has diverse experience in large and small, public and private organisations, having held general management, human resources, corporate community and communications roles. Prior to joining Philanthropy Australia Gina was General Manager Human Resources for St Hilliers, an integrated property development and construction company. She had seven years at Westpac Banking Corporation in a variety of management roles including Head of Community Involvement. This was a national role with responsibility for the Westpac Group’s corporate community involvement strategy, sponsorships and relationships with community, not-for-profit organisations and charities, and for the oversight of staff matching gifts and volunteering programs.

In 1997 Gina initiated, structured and implemented a pilot program “Mentoring in the Community” with Cleveland Street High School. Under this program staff from the Westpac Institutional Bank mentor Year 10 and Year 11 students providing citizenship education rather than career education. This program was the first of its kind in Australia and ran in both Sydney and Melbourne. A television documentary of the pilot entitled “Two Tribes” was screened by ABC TV on 18 May 1999, under the Inside Story banner. As a result of the enormous amount of community interest, Gina published a report providing guidelines and implementation methods used in the mentoring program that has been widely used and cited by not-for-profit organisations across Australia.

From 1992 to 1995 Gina lived and worked in Jordan, a moderate Islamic, developing country. She was the personal assistant to HRH Prince El Hassan Bin Talal, and gained valuable experience of the creation of political and policy responses to issues of refugees, human rights and interfaith dialogue. During this time the Washington Declaration and the Treaty of Peace between the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and the State of Israel were signed. Gina was privy to the secret negotiations (which were conducted in English) and was responsible for the preparation and production of both documents for both countries. These were prepared in secret, under pressure and in tight security.

Gina is a former Director of both Father Chris Riley’s Youth Off The Streets and Landcare Australia Limited.

Gina was a participant in the 2008 Australian Federal Government 2020 Summit, and is a member of the National Roundtable for Nonprofit Organisations.