A Board Chair’s job description generally includes responsibilities like ensuring proper information flow to the Board, facilitating strategy discussions and subsequent Board decision making, and developing a productive working relationship with the CEO. Lunching with acclaimed explorer and award-winning filmmaker James Cameron in your first month in the job would normally not make the list.
For Anna Shave, the new Chair of the Foundation for the WA Museum, it’s all in a day’s work. She is taking on all the usual responsibilities of a not-for-profit Board Chair, as well as spearheading the launch of a new fund to support the Western Australian Museum’s marine and ocean initiatives and programs.
Anna Shave has been a Non-Executive Board member of the Foundation for the WA Museum since 2022, and succeeded James McClements as the Chair earlier this year. From the start, her focus has been on the Foundation’s role in providing long-term funding support to the Western Australian Museum.
“I believe that the Foundation plays a key role in supporting the Museum’s work in research and education, and acting as the custodian for our natural, scientific and cultural heritage.”
“Having spent considerable time as a young person growing up between the Goldfields and Fremantle, visiting the Kalgoorlie and Fremantle Maritime museums was often a highlight. I can appreciate first-hand how important museums are, particularly as a place that encourages curiosity and learning for all.”
With the WA Museums strategic focus on the UN Sustainable Development Goals - including Goal 14, Life Below Water - the establishment of the Marine Sustainability Fund, a focused support fund for the Museum’s marine projects and initiatives, is a timely step.
The WA Museum is the State’s foremost custodian of Western Australia’s natural and cultural heritage, and a leading authority in marine history, archaeology, biodiversity and aquatic zoology. Through extensive laboratory work and fieldwork, the WA Museum contributes to significant research outcomes that deepen our understanding of Western Australia’s unique marine environment, and aid in conservation. New species, both extant and fossilised, are discovered, identified, named and published on an ongoing basis.
To support this vital work, the Foundation for the WA Museum has established the Marine Sustainability Fund as a separate core fund within the Foundation’s endowment fund and investment portfolio, in which donations to the Marine Sustainability Fund will be invested. The investment returns will provide certainty for the WA Museum to plan and bring to fruition major initiatives focused on the preservation, the history, the biodiversity and the future of WA’s marine environment. This Fund is an important pillar alongside other initiative of the Foundation, including the International Exhibition Fund.
According to Alec Coles, the CEO of the WA Museum, “Our marine environment has never been under such threat – yet we still know so relatively little about it. We can only assure its future health if we better understand it. We need to investigate its biodiversity, its ecology, the ways in which these are changing, and the degree to which this is due to human activity.
“Scientists from the WA Museum are constantly identifying new species of marine animals that we never knew existed, as well as charting both subtle and dramatic changes in the environment: for instance, which species are in decline, and how can we conserve them? Which species are becoming pests, and how do we control them? Furthermore, which species could provide medical or nutritional solutions for the good of humankind? A great example of the latter is provided by a marine sponge in the Museum’s collection: natural chemicals formed by that sponge have been identified as having great potential for the treatment of type-C breast cancer.”
“Our oceans are critical to the health of our planet and the WA Museum researchers play a significant role in helping us understand and conserve them. The Foundation’s Marine Sustainability Fund will provide significant and ongoing support for this important research, which is ultimately essential for all our futures.”
Anna Shave’s experience as a senior investment professional with over two decades of working in the corporate and financial services between New York and the Asia Pacific gives her a unique understanding of the support it takes to nurture and develop major projects. In the case of the WA Museum’s work to discover, explore and preserve Western’s Australia’s unique marine and ocean heritage and ecology, significant funding is required to ensure the WA Museum can play a leading role in marine sustainability now and into the future.
"The Marine Sustainability Fund is an exciting new initiative for the Foundation in our partnership with the Western Australian Museum. We live on this incredible island that we call home - Australia. And as we know, Western Australia covers the entirety of the west coast, with some spectacular beaches and ocean life stretching from the Great Southern out to Rottnest, up past the Abrolhos, and further north again. Those of us who live here, have family heritage or ties to WA, or personal interests in this region, can appreciate the importance of sustainability as a strategic driver. Our contributions now will help preserve and prepare this spectacular environment for future generations well beyond our lifetimes.”
So if James Cameron happens to be in town and is happy to help support the Foundation’s fundraising efforts, Anna’s view is “a huge, huge thank you, and bring it on!”.
