Our board of directors.
The people responsible for Geografia's direction and governance.
PhD Economic GeographyKevin Johnson · Managing Director
Kevin co-founded Geografia in 2006 and leads its systems modelling in economics and demography, after more than thirty years in economic and policy analysis, teaching urban economics at the University of Melbourne, and working in government research in Victoria and Western Australia. He built Spendmapp, Placemapp and Popmapp, and works with UN-Habitat on measuring sustainable urban development, applying systems thinking to demographic and economic questions across Australia and South-East Asia.
PhD Geography (Urban & Regional Planning)Matt Benson · Non-Executive Director
Matt co-founded Geografia with Kevin Johnson in 2006, after a career that began in local government facilities planning before moving into social planning and consultation. His focus has been land use and development planning, including land-use change surveys for the World Heritage Office in George Town, Penang. He now works for a Malaysian Government development agency, and continues on Geografia’s board.
GAICD, FCA (ICAEW)Liz Grainger · Non-Executive Director
A chartered accountant and a graduate member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, Liz has held executive roles at Deloitte in London and in the Federal and Victorian public sectors. She is a former board member of Craft Victoria, Arena Theatre Company, VicScreen, and The Mission to Seafarers (Victoria) Inc, and is currently a director of Melbourne Recital Centre, and the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission. She has also served as an external member on the Audit and Risk Committees of Victoria Police, the Southern Metropolitan Cemeteries Trust, and Film Victoria, and currently serves in this capacity for Energy Safe Victoria. In addition, Liz has provided consultancy services to a wide range of public and not-for-profit organisations in the areas of strategy, governance, public sector funding, and financial management.
How we work
Kevin Johnson and Matt Benson founded Geografia in 2006, and it has worked the same way since. The people who scope a commission do the analysis, and the people who do the analysis stand behind the judgement: in the room, under questioning, when the findings matter.
Where a commission needs specialist depth beyond the core team, we work with trusted national collaborators whose expertise we know from repeated projects, introduced openly and led by us. Among them the demographer Dr Tom Wilson, whose population models inform government planning across Australia.
Why it matters
Advice about a place carries consequences for the people who live there. Senior-led delivery keeps the reasoning close to the responsibility: the interpretation offered to a council is the interpretation its authors are prepared to defend.
- 2015
- Best Planning Ideas · Planning Institute Australia
- 2017
- Rural & Remote Initiatives · Economic Development Australia
- 2018
- Digital Entrepreneurs · Economic Development Australia, for Spendmapp
- 2019
- BRII feasibility-study funding · Commonwealth Government
- 2021
- City Life Labs Prize · Urban Development Institute of Australia, NSW
- 2025
- Community Wellbeing & Diversity, and the overall prize · Planning Institute of Australia (Qld), won by Logan City Council for applying a quality-of-life measurement process Kevin Johnson designed with UN-Habitat