Farah Farouque

Chair, Board of Management, The Social Studio

Melbourne

Farah is Board Chair of The Social Studio, a dynamic Melbourne social enterprise tapping into the design talents of young people from refugee backgrounds. The not-for-profit, headquartered in Collingwood, includes a fashion school, retail store and ethical clothing label and is a place of belonging and creative development for culturally diverse communities. Farah joined the organisation as a founding board member in 2009 when she was working as a journalist at The Age. "The Social Studio, with its business model anchored by empowerment, diversity and sustainability, was an antidote to a reactive newsroom facing its own headwinds,'' Farah says. "I am privileged to play a part in TSS which celebrates its 10th anniversay this year and has inspired a number of other social enterprises across Australia along the way.''

Farah’s journalism career has taken her to hotspots from the Canberra and Victorian parliamentary press galleries to international assignments, including reporting on the 2002 Bali bombings and the 2004 Boxing Day Asian tsunami aftermath. In 2012, she decided to make a professional transition into the community sector taking up a key advocacy role at the national anti-poverty group, Brotherhood of St Laurence, where she is the Principal Advisor, Public Affairs and Policy.

Farah also serves on the board of the Islamic Museum of Australia, and in 2017, she featured in the Islamic Council of Victoria’s awareness campaign #25MuslimWomen. Farah’s career pathway has also been profiled in Sideways To The Top: 10 Stories of Successful Women That Will Change Your Thinking About Careers Forever (Melbourne Books), and her awards include an Asialink /Melbourne University fellowship based in Jakarts, Indonesia.