Catch Corinne on Do Radio: It's Not About Trees with John Lunn 06-12th October 2025
Corinne Proske serves as the Chief Executive Officer of Trust for Nature, one of Australia’s oldest and most respected conservation organisations, focused on protecting ecosystems on privately owned land in Victoria. Since her appointment in late 2022, Corinne has blended deep expertise in environmental science with leadership across the not-for-profit, government, and commercial sectors.
She holds a Master’s in Environmental Science and began her career in microfinance, helping build inclusive financial systems as Founder/CEO of fintech Speckle, and earlier in roles with Good Shepherd Microfinance and Jobsbank, a social enterprise focused on inclusive workplace outcomes . A Churchill Fellowship (2009) and MoneySmart Award (2013) recipient, Corinne combines financial ingenuity with environmental stewardship to drive transformative change. Inspired by nature she can often be found at the bottom of the ocean talking to the fish.
Show Notes:
In this episode of It’s Not About Trees, John Lunn speaks with Corinne Proske, CEO of Trust for Nature and former leader in microfinance at National Australia Bank.
From her early years in Australia with migrant parents, Corinne describes how her love of the natural world shaped her outlook and career. She reflects on 15 years in banking and microfinance—building systems that gave financial inclusion to those on the margins, especially women—and the lessons she carried into her current role protecting private land for nature conservation.
Corinne shares the challenges of starting an ethical fintech for payday loans, the painful collapse of that venture during COVID, and how it ultimately re-anchored her in her original passion: safeguarding ecosystems.
She now leads Trust for Nature, which uses conservation covenants to legally protect land forever. Corinne explains the importance of blending Western science with Indigenous land management practices, from fire to farming, and why nature conservation must be funded at scale through new financial models.
This conversation weaves through hope, fear, and resilience: from rooftop solar revolutions and corridors for wildlife, to the looming threats to oceans and the Great Barrier Reef. At its heart, Corinne insists that collaboration, fairness, and human connection are as essential as science in building a livable future.
Highlights include:
- Growing up with a deep-rooted connection to trees and activism.
- Building microfinance systems inside a major bank and advocating for fairness in finance.
- Lessons learned from ethical fintech, failure, and resilience.
- Transitioning into environmental leadership at Trust for Nature.
- The “magic power of forever” — using legal covenants to protect land permanently.
- Learning from Indigenous fire and land management practices.
- The dual challenge of climate change and biodiversity loss, with oceans as a critical frontier.
- Why finance, collaboration, and human care are key to scaling conservation.
Book, Song, Quotes
- Silent Spring — Rachel Carson
- Beds Are Burning — Midnight Oil
- “My father told me: you can either strap yourself to one tree and save them one at a time, or you can get the keys to the bulldozer and save the forest. I’ve now got the keys to the bulldozer — and we’re protecting the forest.” — Corinne Proske
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