The Entrepreneurs

ACT Chief Ministers Export AwardsOn Wednesday 1 March 2023, The Capital Export Community along with the 2023 ACT Chief Minister's Export Awards was launched at the International Terminal of Canberra Airport

Emma SpencerWhile there is a lot of focus on the challenges faced by neurodiverse individuals, it’s important to also look at some of the strengths that adult ADHDers bring to the workforce.
Walt Disney, Sir Richard Branson, Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad and aviation entrepreneur David Neeleman are all well-known entrepreneurs with ADHD1 (Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder).

Andy CastleSmartphone technology has transformed the way we do business and organise our daily lives. We use our phones to check email and social media, for online shopping and banking, as well as making calls and sending messages. The number of mobile phone users worldwide is thought to reach over 7.2 billion in 2022. On the other hand, every day someone is fumbling through their pockets or handbag looking for their key, fob or access card to get into their home, office, gym or workplace. Safetrust removes the need for this key finding ritual by delivering contactless access. Using virtual credentials stored in your mobile phone or wearable (i.e. smart watch), Safetrust enables the user/wearer to move seamlessly through secured doors, elevators, turnstiles and parking garages. Safetrust leverages the existing access infrastructure to provide a fast, cost-effective, and convenient upgrade path to touchless virtual credentials.

Vikram SharmaFounded in Canberra in 2008, QuintessenceLabs is a pioneer in quantum cybersecurity. The company provides centralised enterprise encryption key and policy management, a high-speed true random number generator, ultra-secure quantum key distribution, and highly secure encryption for data in uncontrolled environments. This means QuintessenceLabs can protect data, wherever it resides: on a physical premises, in the cloud, or in hybrid IT ecosystems.
Integrating quantum technology with high-value security, QuintessenceLabs has been recognised for its innovative products around the world, including most recently, as global finalists in the XTC 2021 Extreme Tech Challenge. In 2020 they were selected by the World Economic Forum to join the 2020 Global Innovator Community as well as winning a prestigious 2020 CyberTech100 Award.
Discussing some of the lessons learned during their exporting journey, Dr. Vikram Sharma the CEO of QuintessenceLabs, says that from the beginning they recognised that cybersecurity is a global play and as a result being global is in the company’s DNA.

Peter LilleyPeter LilleyInstaclustr helps organisations of all sizes deliver applications at scale by managing their open-source data infrastructure. Founded in 2013 by Ben Bromhead and Adam Zegelin, Instaclustr is a one stop shop for deploying, managing, and monitoring all components of the data layer and related infrastructure.
With offices in Australia, Europe and the United States, Instaclustr has grown by 389% in the last3 years and ranked 283 in 2020 on Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500™, a ranking of the 500 fastest-growing technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences and energy tech companies in North America.

Bill MobbsProviding products and solutions to the global healthcare market, can be a lucrative business, but it also requires continual innovation and speed to keep up with rapidly changing medical needs. The other challenge is trying to create change in an established market. ITL Health Group (ITL) is a Canberra based company that launched in 1994 and today holds 40 product patents and sells products to 55 countries throughout North and South America, Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Australia. ITL supplies products directly to health providers or works with strategic partners around the world to provide products and solutions to healthcare markets and to empower individuals to manage their own health.

Rachael GreavesMedieval castles were always thought of as fortresses where battles were launched, and soldiers protected from the enemy. But these structures also served as centers of administration and symbols of power. It is the latter image than Castlepoint system uses to describe its approach to the management of data.

Shannon NotleyA coolant is a substance, typically a liquid or gas, that is used to reduce or regulate the temperature of a system. We are all familiar with the idea of our cars needing coolant that serves to transfer heat and prevent engine damage caused by freezing or boiling. The application of coolants however is much broader. Computer cooling, for example for high performance gaming computers, is required to remove the waste heat produced by computer components, to keep the system operating within temperature limits and avoid any malfunction.

Uppercut GamesFounded in 2011 by Ed Orman, Andrew James and Ryan Lancaster, Uppercut Games is an independent video game development studio based in Canberra. In 2012, Uppercut expanded to include John Travers and Evan Zachariadis, with Ben Driehuis joining in 2014. Interactive games are not only a major part of contemporary culture but contribute substantially to the economy. According to the Interactive Games & Entertainment Association (IGEA)1 $184.6mil in income was generated by Australian Game development studios in 2019/2020. The industry grew its revenue by 29% since 2019, with the impact of COVID-19 seeing many people in lockdown searching for entertainment.

Dr Christopher WarrenTourism Australia defines sustainable tourism as travelling that balances the needs of people and place alongside profit. This means not only protecting the natural environment but also enriching the tourism experience by incorporation stories about people and place. There are a growing number of tourists who care about their impact on the environment and the communities they visit, providing a range of opportunities for the tourism industry. Seventy six percent of tourism's footprint is due to travel, 24 percent in the accommodation sector and the remainder from recreational activities. Underpinning this is the need to create a profitable and sustainable industry that delivers employment and economic benefits to the communities involved. My Green Butler won the national Banksia Award for sustainability and has since been selected by the United Nations Environment Program as its leading example of sustainable tourism twice, for its focus on helping tourist accommodation reduce the resources used, costs of operations and pollution all while increasing guest satisfaction.

Space Services AustraliaSpace was the last frontier and the domain of government agencies with deep pockets. But reducing launch costs, advances in technology, and rising public sector investment is likely to create a trillion-dollar industry. Space Services Australia has developed world-leading software that allows an organisation to build a spacecraft like you would a Lego kit. Spaces Services Australia works with component providers to make digital replicas of their parts. These can then be connected in a simulation to allow companies to quickly try different ideas and configurations for their proposed spacecraft.

Aristotle MetadataAristotle Metadata started out as a software project a number of years ago. At the time, founder Sam Spencer had been working on metadata modelling and practical registry design for the Australian Bureau of Statistics and the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. His work in the public service allowed Sam to see the potential of how metadata could be used to help improve services.

Matthew WilsonPenten is a Canberra-based cybersecurity company that provides secure wireless devices for classified information exchange to Defence and other government agencies in Australia and overseas. Penten's products include AltoCrypt technology which secures sensitive information in a small device, the size of a USB and on a commercial phone; TrapDocs, which helps to detect and track unauthorised access to documents and files; and Tactical Communications Security, which creates entirely sovereign communication solutions for battlefield, emergency and disaster situations.
Penten employs 132 staff and assists clients in over five countries, including the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Canada and the US to protect their systems and data against digital threats. Focussed on true innovation and pushing the boundaries of technology, the ethos of the company is to try and solve problems that haven’t been solved globally before.

QuintessanceLabsInformation can be considered the lifeblood of many organizations by virtue of the competitive and strategic advantage it can provide. It is clearly an asset worth protecting. According to Dr. Vikram Sharma, CEO of Quintessence Labs, encryption provides one of the strongest mechanisms to protect this valuable asset. The key to data security is to understand what data you have and what value it brings to the entity, and protecting it appropriately.
Based on quantum physics, the two key elements of QuintessenceLabs’ offerings are true random number generation, which is an essential element of successful encryption, and the use of quantum effects to securely transport encryption keys from one location to another. These capabilities are integrated within a software suite to provide very strong data protection. And while the technology sounds complicated, it has been carefully developed to be simple to use and flexible enough to work in any corporate environment.