Bernadette Spinks

Bern is a strategic leader, passionate about driving impactful change through innovation, collaboration, and investment. With over two decades of experience, she has successfully secured more than $1.1 billion in funding, shaping groundbreaking initiatives across health, social services, energy, building and agriculture.

A dynamic collaborator, Bern specialises in developing investment-ready, high-impact projects that address complex industry, social, and environmental challenges. Her expertise spans strategic development, evaluation and impact assessment, project management, and grant writing, helping organisations transform ambitious ideas into reality.

Bern has worked extensively with universities, research organisations, industry, government, and not-for-profits, guiding them through to securing funding and delivering transformative projects. She has played a key role in twelve successful Co-operative Research Centre (CRC) bids, obtained funding from programs such as the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) and facilitated co-design initiatives to innovate social services.

Bern is a Director at CIS, has an MBA from the Melbourne Business School, a Graduate Diploma in Human Nutrition, and a Bachelor of Applied Science.

Her motivation is seeing visionary projects come to life, making a tangible impact on industries, communities, and society.