Melina Chan

Advisor - Community and Culture, Inspire9

Melbourne

Melina is a global citizen, social entrepreneur and community organiser with a passion for facilitating groups and individuals to do great things. Over the past 15 years Melina’s work has included cross-sector collaboration, co-founding award-winning social enterprises in Cambodia, and growing the coworking community of Melbourne.

In 2006, Melina co-founded the Social Entrepreneurship Unit with World Vision Australia. Keen to work in the field, she relocated to Battambang, Cambodia in 2008 with the AusAid Youth Ambassadors program where she worked closely with a local NGO. During her time in Cambodia, Melina co-founded the social enterprise, Kinyei Cafe and Soksabike Tours to generate and support innovative social projects. Both initiatives are still going strong and have recently been recognised globally for their excellence in sustainable tourism and people development.

Returning to Melbourne in 2013, Melina steered the ship of Inspire9 as the coworking space's General Manager, coordinating the lively community of startups, freelancers and creatives. She's now moved into a Community & Cultural Advisory role with Inspire9, allowing her to sink her teeth a bunch of other exciting projects. Melina is now working on ASEANSE 2016 as the program designer, she's co-facilitating the Local Food Launchpad with City of Melbourne and developing experience design programs with the local government, as well as sitting on the board of directors of South-east Asian peacebuilding organisation, the Sarus Program.

She enjoys a well-mixed cocktail, a great [soy] coffee and learning new languages through immersion and necessity.