Cliff Obrecht

Clifford Obrecht is an Australian technology entrepreneur. He is a co-founder and the chief operating officer of Canva, which he founded with Melanie Perkins and Cameron Adams. Obrecht and Perkins have pledged to give more than 80 per cent of their wealth to charitable causes through the Canva Foundation.

Early life and education Obrecht was born to Stan Obrecht, a government employee, and Mary Obrecht, a schoolteacher. He grew up in , a suburb north of Perth.

Career While studying at university, Obrecht and Perkins developed Fusion Books, an online design tool for school yearbooks. In April 2026, TechRadar reported that Obrecht and Adams presented Canva's approach to AI-generated designs as retaining editable layers, allowing either the user or the software to revise individual elements rather than regenerating an entire image.

Philanthropy Obrecht and Perkins signed the Giving Pledge in 2021 and committed to donate more than 80 per cent of their wealth through the Canva Foundation.

In July 2026, the couple launched the Global Goals Platform through the foundation. The initiative began by surveying people about changes they wanted in their communities and the wider world, with pilot programmes in the United States and Wollongong. , Forbes estimated Obrecht's individual net worth at 7.6 billion.