Somerset Celebration of Entrepreneurship 2020

Don is the founder and CEO of Synengco, a well-respected, agile engineering firm based in Brisbane that focuses on adding value to asset industries by enabling them to increase production output with additional regard to environmental sustainability and real time assessment of their operational and potential risk. Don’s desire to engineer solutions to reduce the environmental impact of business while offering real commercial viability stemmed from his early years spent identifying recurring mechanical failures and designing early warning systems to improve performance. Michael is the Founder of Kynd, a Gold Coast startup that is reimagining the ‘care’ industry. Kynd empowers people of all-ages and all-abilities to choose and use the right carer, based on unique needs. It introduces a high-value, low cost model with locals caring for locals, using mobile apps. A serial entrepreneur, Michael founded Snotels in 2010 and launched the world’s first ‘alpine only’ hotel brand with 30 sites across Europe. He has advised investors and family offices across the Middle East, Europe and Asia and mentored startups with the Risa is passionate about inspiring students to reach their potential by introducing them to the world of entrepreneurship. She visits high schools to support students in engaging in the design thinking process, and to learn about ideation, prototyping and pitching. Risa also assists UQ Ventures with business development, program design and training, and is editor of the Discovery e-newsletter for teachers. After publishing a children’s picture book in 2015, Risa has worked in a range of marketing and presenting roles within the Brisbane startup ecosystem, as well as at a youth-development non-profit in Singapore where she facilitated entrepreneurship workshops. Rosa-Clare is an entrepreneur, a teacher and an expert in startup marketing. With a background in tech startups, Rosa was a founding member and leader of Hometime, an Airbnb management business. Applying her e-commerce knowledge to lead generation, Rosa was able to increase Hometime’s revenue by 750% in under 18 months. Now, Rosa is the Co-Founder of Crockd - a Millennial Art Therapy brand that has managed to reach nearly 10,000 customers in 6 months. She also runs an online marketing course called Bootstrap Marketing that helps startups to bootstrap their marketing to avoid using expensive digital agencies. Gold Coast Entrepreneur and Somerset Alumni, Megan Ziems, grew up surrounded by the finest fabrics and designs in her mother’s production factory. Megan was involved in ethical manufacturing from a young age, and this has remained extremely important to her. In 2010 she started the brand, Grace Loves Lace, after her own wedding experience left her disillusioned with the structured and traditional wedding “uniform” that the market was saturated with at the time. Megan took to the fashion industry and made a name for herself in sales and marketing. From these professions and experiences, Megan began building the global empire that Grace Loves Lace is today.

Branson Entrepreneurship Centre. MICHAEL METCALFE Kynd

DON SANDS Synengco

E N T R E P R E N E U R S GUEST

RISA UTAMA UQ Ventures

ROSA WILLIS Crockd

MEGAN ZIEMS Grace Loves Lace