Cliff Obrecht

Clifford Obrecht (born 1985 or 1986) is an Australian billionaire technology entrepreneur, who is the co-founder (with Melanie Perkins) and chief operating officer (COO) of Canva and owns 18% of the company.^[1]

Cliff Obrecht
Born	1985 or 1986 (age 38–39)[1]
Nationality	Australian
Education	University of Western Australia
Title	Co-founder and COO, Canva
Spouse	Melanie Perkins ​ (m. 2021)​

Early life and education

Clifford was born to Stan Obrecht, a government employee and Mary Obrecht, a school teacher.^[2] He grew up in Kingsley, a suburb to the north of Perth.^[2]

Obrecht earned a degree from The University of Western Australia.^[1]

Personal life

In January 2021, he married Melanie Perkins on Rottnest Island.^[1][2]

Net worth

Obrecht first appeared on The Australian Financial Review Rich List in 2020 with a net worth of A$3.43 billion.^{[note a][3]} As of May 2025^[update], the Australian Financial Review assessed his and Perkins' joint net worth as A$14.14 billion, on the 2025 Rich List; making them the sixth wealthiest Australians.^[4] As of September 2022, Forbes assessed his net worth at US$6.5 billion.^[1]

Year	Financial Review Rich List[note a]		Forbes Australia's 50 Richest
	Rank	Net worth (A$)	Rank	Net worth (US$)
2019[5][6]	n/a	not listed	n/a	not listed
2020[3]	26	$3.43 billion
2021[7]	10	$7.98 billion
2022[1]	8	$13.80 billion		$6.5 billion
2023[8]	9	$13.18 billion
2024[9]	10	$13.62 billion
2025[4]	6	$14.14 billion

Legend
Icon	Description
	Has not changed from the previous year
	Has increased from the previous year
	Has decreased from the previous year

Notes

• ^[note a] : Obrecht's net worth is assessed in Financial Review Rich List as being held jointly with his spouse and business partner, Melanie Perkins.