2021 CofE Festival Guide

G U E S T entrepreneurs

Tom Pirie Tom Pirie was born May 2002, diagnosed with an intellectual impairment in his early years, Tom, graduated from high school in 2020. Tom also had severe scoliosis making his spine the shape of an ‘S’, he bravely underwent surgery in 2019 and now has 2 titanium rods running up the length of his spine. Tom started collecting bottles and cans from his neighbours a few years ago, he found this a great way to connect and communicate with people whilst doing something he enjoyed. Today people across Australia and internationally know him as 10 Cent Tom. He decided once graduating from school that he wanted to turn his passion of recycling into a career. Tom has placed over 100 wheelie bins across the Gold Coast and all the money he receives from the bottles and cans is saved towards opening up his own 10 Cent Tom Recycling Depot and employing people with disabilities.

Dr Sarah Pearson Dr Sarah Pearson FTSE, has extensive global executive leadership experience spanning FTSE 100 multinationals, international C-suite roles in the public and private sector, leading brands such as McKinsey & Co and Cadbury, startups and Venture Capital (MSV and GIF, ~1$bn). She has led innovation ecosystems nationally and internationally, been an entrepreneur and intrapreneur, Board Director and Advisor for numerous innovative organisations, and Chief Scientist for DFAT. She holds a PhD in Particle Physics from Oxford, is the author on eight international patents, for cancer diagnosis and novel confectionary, and is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering.

Tomas Piccinni Tomas is a program officer with UQ’s Ventures team. He leads and coordinates the design and delivery of entrepreneurship programs for High Schools. Tomas holds a Bachelor of Economics and a Master of Business at UQ. Before moving to Australia, he occupied corporate finance positions in multinational companies such as Accenture and IBM. Tomas is passionate about solving social and environmental issues through entrepreneurial initiatives. This comes through in his work with social enterprises and young social entrepreneurs to help grow the community and the impact it can have in the world.

Jack Ray Jack was born and raised on the Gold Coast where he attended Somerset College. In 2005 he graduated from Bond University with a Bachelor of Business Law. Following graduation from university, Jack worked as Development Manager for the publicly listed Consolidated Properties Group and Trinity Funds Management Group in a role which included the construction management and leasing of several Coles and Woolworths anchored shopping centres. Prior to becoming Executive Director of Ray Group in 2009, Jack was Ray Group’s Director of Sales based in both its DP Village Mount Hotham and Salt Village, Kingscliff project marketing offices.

Yupin Robson Yupin has worked in the Healthcare industry since 1999 for both Pharmaceutical and Medical Device companies. She has an extensive track record of medical sales and marketing experiences within the Australian and International markets. Yupin recently concluded a 20+ years corporate employment journey. She is now CEO and Director of Obsid Pty Ltd, a consulting firm and a Healthtech start-up Edify Medical Pty Ltd which aims to improve medical education by breaking down barriers in language, access and cost associated with learning.

Dr Kelvin Ross Dr Kelvin Ross has over 30 years of experience in software engineering and enterprise IT applications. Kelvin started his IT career in defence, and completed a PhD in safety critical systems engineering. He has worked in the commercial sector across many domains, including significant projects in healthcare. Kelvin is the founder and non-executive Chairman of KJR, CTO to Datarwe, A Director of the Queensland AI Hub, IntelliHQ, a non-profit developing the ecosystem for AI innovation in healthcare. He is an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Institute for Intelligent and Integrated Systems, Griffith University. He is a Director of AIkademi, and has held several roles in national technical working groups (NATA , ACS).