Program speakers

Jenna Palumbo

Head of Impact Investing

Jenna Palumbo is the Head of Impact Investing at Minderoo Foundation where she oversees Minderoo’s $100M Strategic Impact Fund. Following an early career in corporate finance, Jenna joined Social Finance UK in 2010 where she worked on early social impact bonds to reduce recidivism and youth unemployment. At Social Finance, Jenna was heavily involved in the development of Big Society Capital, a A$1 billion social investment bank, which she joined as a founding Investment Director in 2012. At BSC, Jenna specialised in outcomes commissioning, leading investments into 5 new SIBs, the world’s first Social Outcomes Fund, as well as social property and intermediary funds.

In 2014, Jenna returned to Australia to lead Social Ventures Australia’s WA office before becoming the national Venture Philanthropy Director. In 2017 Jenna joined NSW Government as Director of the Office of Social Impact Investment where she oversaw $200M of outcomes contracts across a range of policy areas and launched Australia’s first outcomes “rate card”. Jenna joined Minderoo in June 2021 to work on the Strategic Impact Fund.