Melanie Perkins is one of Australia’s most extraordinary women. From starting a company in her mother’s living room, Melanie has worked her way up to being the co-founder and CEO of one of Australia’s most valuable tech companies. She is an incredible example of someone who had faith in her vision and in herself, even when her ideas were merely a pipedream. 

Originating in Perth, Western Australia, Melanie dropped out of university to pursue her ambition of creating a company to help people design their creative dreams in an easy and intuitive way. This simple but visionary idea is what eventually led to the creation of Canva, the Australian company synonymous with any and every creative design project. Under Melanie’s leadership, Canva has gone from strength to strength. In 2021, the company generated $200 million of private equity investment, giving it a value of over $40 billion. This valuation is indicative of the visionary genius of Melanie, who created an incredibly powerful design tool that is free for everyone to use.

What makes her truly extraordinary, however, is her desire to hold things with an open hand. In November 2021, she and her husband Cliff Obrecht joined the Giving Pledge, an organisation made up of wealthy individuals who have promised to dedicate the majority of their wealth to charitable causes. Being one of Australia’s richest individuals this is a hugely generous act, and the manifestation of her belief that “there is enough money, goodwill, and good intentions in the world to solve most of the world’s problems. We feel like it’s not just a massive opportunity, but an important responsibility and we want to spend our lifetime working towards that.”

We believe that Melanie is the embodiment of determination, perseverance, compassion and generosity - values we cherish at Esther & Co. She is a woman of strength, ambition & conviction - one who held true to her dream even when others doubted it.

She is not only a person we admire, but a person we aspire to be like. We are proud to announce Melanie Perkins as our Woman of the Month for March.

Christian Bargholz