Carole Renouf
Chief Executive Officer
Garvan Research Foundation

Carole has pursued a career in the non-profit sector for over 20 years. Initially trained as a teacher and writer, she spent a number of years in health promotion/education with NSW Health in areas such as HIV/AIDS, healthy lifestyle and leisure for seniors. Subsequently Carole ran her own business, producing educational resources for a range of private and public sector clients including a stint as a producer with Beyond 2000.

In the 1990s Carole joined the Australian Consumers Association (publishers of CHOICE magazine and www.choice.com.au) as a senior policy officer specializing in food and health, and initiated and ran Australia’s first consensus conference on genetically modified food (consensus conferencing is a democratic method of citizen participation in policy-making). In this role she negotiated with Government and industry and acted as one of the ACA’s media spokespeople.

After being recruited to as Director of WWF Australia’s marketing and communications, Carole focused on building her skills as a professional manager and leader, securing a scholarship at the AGSM for its Accelerated Development course. During her tenure at WWF, she successfully grew the supporter database up from 20,000 to 60,000.

A stint at the University of New South Wales leading marketing and development for the Science Faculty then saw her move to the Garvan Institute of Medical Research in late 2005 as CEO of Garvan Research Foundation (the Institute’s marketing and fundraising arm).

Carole’s role as CEO entails building a community of support for Garvan to enhance its reputation as one of the premier research enterprises in Australia and to secure gifts to support research and grow the endowment fund. In her three years in the role philanthropic contributions have grown from an average of $3.5m per year to over $8m in 2008. Carole is responsible for management of a large number of key relationships for the Institute extending across the individual and corporate donor community, Government and collaborator organizations.