Roshan's Work
I work at the intersection of venture creation, systems research and community impact.
About
The through-line of my career is emerging technology — direct-to-consumer, web3, now AI. I work at that early edge because the field is still open there — the defaults haven't hardened, and there's room to reimagine how something works and rebuild it in people's favour.
Today that is mostly two things: philanthropic capital, through Elevate and IRSA, and ventures and partnerships, which is the work I do at Deakin University Founder Pathways.
I've seen entrepreneurship from most sides of the table — starting my own companies, intrapreneurship inside larger businesses, and ecosystem building with the Wade Institute and universities; the full history lives on LinkedIn. I contribute op-eds to Alliance Magazine and publish research on SSRN.
Current Projects
Elevate.Gift
Recoverable capital for mission-driven organisations — grants that come back. Elevate funds work a charity can't yet finance, and as that work earns, the grant recovers into the pool and funds the next organisation. It isn't a loan: no debt on the balance sheet, no personal guarantees, and where recovery doesn't land it simply stays a grant. Running in Australia and the United States.
Institute for Regenerative Systems Architecture (IRSA)
A research and innovation institute developing practical models for regenerative governance, capital and institutional design.
rbg.ventures
Our family's shared venture studio — a home for ideas, prototypes and long-horizon innovation.
rbg.foundation
Our family's philanthropic and community arm, supporting causes aligned with our values.
Areas I Write and Think About
- regenerative finance
- institutional resilience
- philanthropic innovation
- long-horizon design
- systems architecture
Those threads run through everything below — the research works out the structure, and the op-eds argue it out in public.
Research
- Perennial Social Capital: A Fourth Capital Class Enabling Multi-Cycle Social Value Creation
- Regenerative Capital Theory: Beyond Debt, Equity, and Grants
- Why Public–Private Partnerships Fail: A Structural Diagnosis of Capital Misalignment
- The Perpetuity Trap: Why Foundation Endowments Misallocate Capital
- The Single-Use Architecture of Philanthropic Capital: Why the Grant's Defining Feature Is Also Its Defining Constraint
Op-eds
- Alliance Magazine Why philanthropy is a loser's game — and how it can beat wealth accumulation
- Alliance Magazine We have more agency than we think
- Alliance Magazine The language we were all missing
Speaking
Talks I give
- How philanthropy can be the most powerful force in the economy
- AI governance for boards and institutions
- Regenerative systems architecture: capital, institutions, AI
Two examples of what that looks like in a room.
The Open Question: Shared Protocols for a New Operating System
Global Philanthropy Forum · Closing marquee session, ‘Capital as Code’ · San Francisco, March 2026
Closing the ‘Capital as Code’ segment, drawing together the threads from across it. An exploration of how philanthropy's current structures often reproduce scarcity and limit organisational resilience. The talk shares principles for designing regenerative capital that strengthens authority, gives organisations space to govern themselves, and weaves trust and autonomy into funding systems — inviting the audience to imagine shared protocols that make philanthropic resources interoperable, resilient and purpose-driven.
On stage with
- John Fullerton
- Ford Foundation
- GiveDirectly
- B Lab
- Ownership Works
- Artha Impact
- Bold Ventures
- Global Fund for a New Economy
- Generation Pledge
- Full Spectrum Capital Partners
- #HalfMyDAF
- Evolutionary Futures Lab
The Smartweb Future: creating a secure future on the web, where everyone can participate, create and generate wealth
Storey Hall, RMIT, Melbourne · September 2018
A fireside chat with Rong Chen of the Elastos Foundation on the smartweb and the open-source opportunity around it.
Partners
- Elastos Foundation
- RMIT School of Computer Science & IT
- RMIT Blockchain Innovation Hub
- City of Melbourne
- Melbourne Innovation Districts
- University of Melbourne
- OSIA
Invite me to speak
I speak to funders, boards, universities and founders — keynotes, panels and workshops. Tell me the event, the date and who's in the room, and I'll come back to you.
Highlights
- Contributor, Values 20 (V20) — the values-focused engagement group of the G20, 2026 cycle
- Speaker, Global Philanthropy Forum — The Open Question: Shared Protocols for a New Operating System
- Scholarship, Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD)
- Board Observership, State Library Victoria
- Ormond Visiting Fellow
- Corrs Chambers Westgarth Scholarship, Master's in Entrepreneurship