Libby Ward-Christie

Principal Industry Fellow

Libby Ward-Christie is Principal Industry Fellow at the Centre for Social Impact Swinburne and Founder and Director of The CSI Swinburne Social Startup Studio.

In her role at CSI, Libby works across both teaching and research and is a member of the Centre Management Team.

She lectures in social entrepreneurship and is a leader and member of several CSI research projects relating to social enterprise and social finance.

With over 20 years’ experience in the community sector, Libby is a recognised leader in social enterprise strategy with technical expertise in business strategy, governance, capital provision and operations, with a focus on social enterprises that address disadvantage.

She has extensive networks in both the social enterprise and social finance fields, and has advised scores of social enterprises.

As Head of Investment and Advisory at Social Traders, she created innovative support platforms for social enterprises, including The Crunch, Thrive and the organisation's Social Investment Portfolio - a $5m private capital and advisory initiative.

Libby has an MBA (Melbourne Business School) and was awarded their ‘Outstanding Recent Alumnus’ in 2016. She also has a BA, a BSc (Hons) and a MLArch from the University of Melbourne and is currently undertaking a PhD with CSI on social entrepreneurship.

She is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and was Director of a large Victorian social enterprise for eight years, also sitting on its Strategy and Audit Committees.

Libby also served as a social enterprise and social finance specialist on Generosity Magazine's editorial advisory board between 2016 and 2018.

lwardchristie@swin.edu.au