Michelle Cheah

Michelle Cheah is a skilled partnership broker and purpose-driven intrapreneur committed to social impact and climate action. She believes in the critical role of community-led solutions and shared-value partnerships to create an equitable, climate resilient future where people and nature can thrive.

Michelle has 20 years of experience developing and implementing community development projects and facilitating multi-sector initiatives that address complex social issues. She has held leadership positions in the not-for-profit sector and managed community engagement programs in Australia and internationally. Currently, she is driving social value creation in infrastructure and city shaping projects at Arup, and is the Partnership Adviser for the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Business Partnerships Platform.

Driven by a strong sense of social justice, Michelle combines her background in international development, corporate responsibility programs and social impact advisory to harness business and government investments in decarbonisation and enable carbon projects that reduces emissions while supporting sustainable livelihoods. Building on her focus to deliver meaningful social, economic and environmental benefits in communities, Michelle’s Churchill Fellowship project seeks to investigate community-outcome driven models for scalable carbon investments that address social needs and improves community resilience.

Michelle holds a Bachelor of Law, a Bachelor of Commerce, Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice and Masters in Participatory Development and Anthropology from the Australian National University, and Sustainable Supply Change Management from the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainable Leadership. As a voluntary Board Director for the xPand Foundation and the Partnership Brokers Association and Member of the Shared Value Project Leadership Council, Michelle supports the advancement of professional practices for public-private partnerships and the capacity building of change-makers that are committed to a more sustainable future for all.