Steph Curley

CEO of Surfrider Foundation Australia & Environmental Activist 

“A passion for community, surf breaks and coasts are deeply embedded in everyone we work with.” - Steph Curley

Today we know Steph as the kick-butt CEO of the Surfrider Foundation, a not-for-profit sea-roots organisation dedicated to the protection of Australia’s oceans through conservation, activism, and education. But we first met her when she was Ben & Jerry’s Australia Activism Manager for 4 years, leading some of our most impactful activism campaigns. 

As part of our team, she partnered with non-profit grassroots organizations to fight for climate justice across Australia. She led our campaigns to protect the Southern Sea from fossil fuel exploitation, rebuild the Australian economy with sustainable energy sources, and oppose PEP-11, a proposal to open an offshore oil and gas field from Sydney to Newcastle.
 

On her journey to becoming a full-time activist, Steph recognised the importance of collaborating with a wide variety of people in order to achieve her goals. From experts, activists, and political figures to people experiencing the impacts of climate change firsthand, every voice is essential to the movement.

She says her biggest challenge is confronting “the indifference shown by those making decisions about fossil fuel expansion towards the communities who have every right to be concerned about how projects like this will affect them and their way of life.”

As CEO of Surfrider, she leads 18 branches of the organisation spread across Australia. Each one is working to unify communities and make their voices heard to decision-makers across the nation. Oh, and they do quite a bit of surfing, too.

Want to support Steph on her mission to get decision-makers to become friends with the ocean? Join the Surfrider movement today!