Mara Bún appointed ACF’s first female president

Mara Bún has been appointed the Australian Conservation Foundation’s first female president.

Ms Bún is the former chief executive of Green Cross Australia, and sits on the board of Australian Ethical, Gold Coast Waterways and Enova Community Energy. Previous employers include CSIRO, Macquarie Bank, Canstar,  Allen Consulting Group, Morgan Stanley, Choice and Bush Heritage.

“I am honoured to be joining Australia’s oldest national environment organisation as president,” Ms Bún said.

“Throughout its history the ACF has been central to the most important campaigns to protect Australia’s beautiful natural spaces and safe climate.”

She said it was a critical time for the environment.

“As the cost of renewables declines exponentially, we must take this opportunity to replace our aging, polluting energy infrastructure with clean alternatives. We need to secure climate and energy policies that encourage investment in Australia’s clean energy transition.

“Climate change is an unparalleled threat to our way of life and the wildlife we share this continent with. We will only halt these threats and restore our natural world if we empower everyday Australians to take action to protect our clean air, clean water and liveable plane.”

The appointment was welcomed by ACF chief executive Kelly O’Shanassy.

“It is wonderful to welcome ACF’s first female president,” she said.

“Mara brings a wealth of experience after a remarkable and diverse career working in business, finance and charities. Those experiences will be enormously valuable to the work of ACF.”

Ms O’Shanassy also thanked outgoing president Geoff Cousins.

“ACF has gone from strength-to-strength during his time as president and his leadership on the Stop Adani campaign in particular has been an inspiration. I know that Geoff will continue to campaign strongly to protect the beautiful Australian landscape that he adores.”