Melanie Perkins is an Australian technology entrepreneur, born in 1987 in Perth, Western Australia. She is best known for co-founding Canva, an online graphic design platform, alongside Cliff Obrecht and Cameron Adams. Today, Melanie Perkins serves as the company’s chief executive officer.
Melanie Perkins’ Early Life and Education
Perkins grew up in Perth to an Australian-born mother who worked as a teacher and a father of Malaysian, Filipino, and Sri Lankan heritage who worked as an engineer. She attended Sacred Heart College in the northern Perth suburb of Sorrento, where she trained in figure skating and ran a small business selling handmade scarves. After high school, she enrolled at the University of Western Australia, majoring in communications, psychology, and commerce.
From Fusion Books to Melanie Perkins’ Canva
Before Canva, Perkins co-founded Fusion Books, a web-based yearbook publisher she launched while still a university student. She ran the business from her mother’s living room, and it eventually grew into Australia’s largest yearbook design company. Through this venture, she noticed how difficult existing design software was for ordinary users, an observation that later shaped her vision for a simpler design platform.
Perkins and Obrecht spent time in Silicon Valley pitching their idea, facing rejection from numerous investors before eventually securing funding. In 2013, together with former Google executive Cameron Adams, the trio launched Canva with the goal of making design accessible to everyone, regardless of technical skill.
How Melanie Perkins Has Led Canva’s Growth
Under Perkins’ leadership, Canva expanded well beyond its original design tool into a broader visual communications platform, now offering workplace collaboration and artificial intelligence products. The company has grown into one of the most valuable privately held technology companies globally, used by millions of individuals, schools, and businesses worldwide. Perkins has also become a widely recognized voice on entrepreneurship and design, regularly featured in business publications discussing Canva’s growth and her approach to leadership.
Melanie Perkins’ Philanthropy
Perkins and Obrecht, who married in 2021, have pledged the majority of their wealth to philanthropic causes through the Canva Foundation. This commitment reflects a broader focus within the company, which also provides free access to nonprofits and educational institutions through dedicated programs. Through these efforts, Melanie Perkins has positioned Canva as a company built around accessibility, both in its product and its broader social impact.