I am an experienced technologist and business leader with a career spanning nearly 40 years in international consultancy and executive corporate roles across a diverse range of industry sectors, working in Europe, North America, Asia and Australia.I have held multiple Director appointments and led technology teams at Aviva and Suncorp and successfully built technology and AI companies that partnered with the likes of Amazon and Microsoft providing technology and AI services to government and financial institutions.As a Queensland resident since 2006, I was co-founder of Group X (now the Federal Digital Careers program) for which I was the QLD Chairperson for over a decade. After a 60% increase in ICT enrolment at University in QLD it became a national program in 2013, which has since had participation from millions of School students, thousands of teachers and has supported a public debate about STEM. I have consistently supported the Queensland State having researched, and lobbied Federal, State, and Local Government for seven years, to establish an undersea fibre optic connection direct to the internet from the Sunshine Coast, with the network finally commissioned and operational in March 2020. I co-founded the Silicon Coast start-up group in 2014, which has several thousand supporters, where I continue to mentor founders and support the growth of the Queensland Start-up Economy, and I have also served as The President of SunCoast Angels. In 2021 I co-founded FWD Fest which is now one of the 3 main start-up festivals held in Queensland each year alongside Tropic Innovation Fest and Something Fest.I am an Adjunct Associate Professor at The University of The Sunshine Coast, serving as a current member of the Planning and Resources Committee of the University Council, and have connections with all the Universities in Queensland specifically in research commercialisation.I was inducted into the Queensland Pearcey Entrepreneur Hall of Fame in 2018 and made a Fellow of the Australian Computer Society Hall of Fame in 2021 for my distinguished contribution to the field of ICT, and in 2022 I was given a special achievement award by the Queensland Chief Entrepreneur for a decade of consistently contributing to a connected and inclusive Queensland innovation ecosystem.If you are working in early stage organisations, or supporting their advancement, I’d love to connect.