It is a tremendous pleasure to announce this year’s finalists for the 2024 Paul Shetler Disrupter of the Year category of the InnovationAus Awards for Excellence.
Paul Shetler was a former chief executive of the federal agency originally known as the Digital Transformation Office, recruited from the United Kingdom to drive the development of digital services in this country.
Mr Shetler died suddenly in early 2020 after suffering a heart attack, but not before making a tremendous and positive impact on the way that government approached digital delivery.
He was a classic disrupter, an original thinker who cut through creaking processes and moribund culture to drive change. A big part of his legacy remains in the smart, energetic people that Paul surrounded himself with, who are still out there, getting things done.
It is for these reasons that the Disrupter of the Year Award is named for Paul Shetler.
Australia produces great people, and it is a pleasure to announce these finalists for this award:
- Michael J. Biercuk, founder and CEO of Q-CTRL
- Sarah Crowe, founder and director, OOXii Global
- Saara Jamieson, founder and CEO, Cool Beans Underwear
- Hayley Saddington, founder and CEO, Peak Medical
The winner will be announced at a black-tie gala dinner held at The Venue in Sydney’s Alexandria on October 30. You can book you seats for this massive innovation networking event here.
Hayley Saddington founded Peak Medical in mid-2021 to help drive change in the digital health market. Peak Medical is a digital rehabilitation company with a product that incorporates AI to deliver medical software to improve patient outcomes in the orthopaedic sector.
Ms Saddington had previously founded HALO Medical Device after developing a new goniometer, a tool used by therapists, doctors and veterinarians to measure joint movement and help recovery from injury.
She gained national attention when she won the People’s Choice Award with her device on the New Inventors program on ABC-TV and SharkTank Australia.
Dr Sarah Crowe is an ophthalmologist in private practice in Sydney and is the founder and CEO of OOXii Global. Dr Crowe is on a mission to change the way that people are able to access eyewear glasses – particularly among the world’s disadvantaged communities.
She has enjoyed working across many Pacific Island nations, training basic health workers on how to conduct eye tests and dispense glasses. This inspired her to develop the OOXii Vision Kit and to found the 4eyesVision Foundation to get affordable glasses into the hands of people in remote and under-resourced communities.
Dr Crowe is a Rhodes Scholar, a Good Design Award winner for Global Social Impact, and a UNSW Positive Impact Award recipient.
Saara Jamieson is the founder and CEO of Cool Beans Underwear and the inventor of the world’s first testicular cooling medical device underwear, now registered with the Therapeutic Goods Administration of Australia.
Ms Jamieson is a former researcher at the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute before establishing Coole Beans Underwear six years ago. The Cool Beans product is aimed at improved fertility through naturally optimising sperm health.
She has secured patents for the Cool Beans Underwear product Australia, New Zealand, the US and Europe and has established partnerships with two distributors – one in Australia and the other in the UK.
Professor Michael Biercuk is the founder and CEO at quantum technology startup Q-CTRL, a global pioneer in quantum software that raised a US$72 million Series B venture capital round – the world’s largest ever for quantum software.
Under Professor Biercuk’s leadership, Q-CTRL is poised to transform industries from finance and pharmaceuticals, to logistics and defence. This is especially the case with Q-CTRL’s focus on quantum sensing, where the company’s advances are accelerating industries like navigation, minerals and natural resource management, as well as Defence.
Q-CTRL secured the first-ever OEM software integration into a major cloud quantum computing platform (IBM). Professor Biercuk is a co-winner in 2021 of the inaugural InnovationAus Australian Hero Award and won the 2015 Australian Museum Eureka Prize for Outstanding Early Career Investigator.
The InnovationAus Awards for Excellence 2024 are supported by: Australian Computer Society, Investment NSW, Department of Industry, Science and Resources, Technology Council of Australia, TechnologyOne, National Artificial Intelligence Centre, Reason Group, Q-CTRL, University of New South Wales, and IP Australia.
Protecting your great ideas with intellectual property (IP) rights can lead to lasting benefits for your growing business. IP refers to creations of the mind, such as a brand, logo, invention, design or artistic work. Head to the IP Australia website to find out more about IP, and how it might help your business.
Find out more about the InnovationAus Awards for Excellence by clicking here. Or reserve your tickets to the black tie gala dinner here.
Do you know more? Contact James Riley via Email.