Melanie Yap leads Ellis Jones’ social impact work. She heads an expert team delivering shared value strategy, social innovation, impact measurement, and initiative design projects, nationally. Melanie has more than twelve years of experience working across business government and not-for-profit sectors to develop, implement and evaluate social impact strategies and programs.

More recently, Melanie has worked with businesses such as Marks and Spencer, Opal Aged Care and Virgin Media to co-design and implement shared value strategies, engaging both employees and supply chains globally. Her work with Marks and Spencer led to the development of a new factory-centred approach to worker training, that has now been adopted in UK, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, East Africa and China.

Melanie is a passionate social researcher and an impact evaluation evangelist. She has developed impact frameworks and conducted research and evaluations for both for profit and not-for-profit clients. These range from international organisations such as INSEAD and the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts to social enterprises and national schemes such as the Clean Energy Council and Future Energy Skills.

A qualified lawyer, Melanie previously worked as a senior legal officer with the Australian Attorney-General’s Department and as a Child Protection Specialist with UNICEF Papua New Guinea.