She's the daughter of Australian fashion icon Carla Zampatti, but it is in her father's footsteps that Allegra Spender hopes to follow.
The chief executive and renewable energy advocate is vying to win the seat of Wentworth at the federal election, four decades after her father John Spender was elected as member for a different wealthy, blue-ribbon Sydney electorate.
The difference is, she's running against a Liberal, not as one.
Her grandfather too was a federal MP, for the Sydney seat of Warringah, and her decision to run as an independent bucks two generations of loyalty to the Liberal Party.
But the party's lack of action on climate change has forced her to carve her own path, she says.
"I can't stand by while our children's futures, our jobs, and our prosperity are threatened by a government that's out of touch on climate, out of its league in the new economy, and out of step with the rest of the world," Ms Spender said in a statement.
Ms Spender has been a leader since her high school days.
The former Head of School at Ascham School in Edgecliff, she studied at Cambridge University and Harvard Business School before going on to become managing director of her mother Carla Zampatti's fashion label.
She has since served as chair of the Sydney Renewable Power Company and helmed educational disadvantage charity the Australian Business and Community Network.
The 43-year-old will challenge sitting Liberal MP Dave Sharma for the seat.
He holds the electorate on a slim margin of 1.3 per cent after winning it back from another high profile independent, Kerryn Phelps, at the 2019 election.
Ms Spender told Nine newspapers her bid to oust him was "nothing personal".
"It's really about what he stands for. He says he is a moderate but he votes with Barnaby Joyce," she said.
"He hasn't been effective in driving the agenda for Wentworth."
She wants to see the country adopt a 2030 emissions reduction target of 50 per cent or more.
"Both from a climate point of view and an economic point of view, this is an urgent issue, and it's the next 10 years that's really important," she told Nine.
"It's an environmental crisis and an economic opportunity."
She'll also campaign for an independent federal anti-corruption commission and a second public high school in the electorate.
Ms Spender's campaign will officially be launched on November 27.
The electorate is the second smallest in the country but is the richest and has been held by a bevy of high-ranking politicians, including former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, a family friend of Ms Spender.
The seat has been a safe non-Labor seat since Federation and has elected only one non-Liberal since the party was formed in 1944.
In a 2018 by-election triggered when Mr Turnbull was ousted as prime minister and quit politics, Ms Phelps narrowly beat Mr Sharma.
