Louise Walsh is the Chief Executive Officer of Philanthropy Australia, Australia's peak body for philanthropic trusts and foundations.

She brings extensive corporate, government, Not for Profit and philanthropic leadership and planning experience to the role.

Louise is the founding director of Artsupport Australia, an initiative of the Australia Council for the Arts to grow cultural philanthropy or giving. Established in 2003, Artsupport Australia is one of the leaders in the Australian philanthropic sector. It provides a free national customised mentoring service to artists and cultural organisations to build their fundraising capacity.

Artsupport Australia also encourages more strategic and structured giving by wealthy Australians and has been a key driver in the growth of private ancillary funds in Australia over the last 10 years. It also provides a free brokering service to wealthy Australians and corporate foundations to assist them to research and source funding options that use arts and culture to address their cause area of interest eg disadvantaged youth, mental health, Indigenous, women and girls, education and health.

Prior to establishing Artsupport Australia, Louise was the Director of Development at the Sydney Symphony.

Louise's career commenced as a solicitor at Allens Arthur Robinson before she was seconded in 1991 to be the community relations manager for the Sydney Olympic Bid. Louise then went on to be the head of sponsorships for the Sydney Olympic Games until 1998 when her career took another dramatic turn into the world of arts and culture and philanthropy.

Areas of Expertise