Organisations

Brian Collins is an entrepreneurial leader, investor, and ecosystem builder with more than 15 years’ experience leading startup accelerators, founder education programs, and innovation initiatives across Australia and globally. He has held senior leadership roles with global accelerators including AngelHack and Startupbootcamp, led fintech strategy for Amazon Web Services in Australia and New Zealand, and supported thousands of founders across more than 160 cities worldwide. Brian is currently Deputy Chair of FinTech Australia and a co-founder of Triple Bubble, a fintech-focused venture fund with Dom Pym and Judy Anderson-Firth. He currently is the CEO of Enterprize, the Tasmanian startup platform providing both startup hubs and innovation programs across the state.

Georgie left one of the most powerful AI companies in the world at the exact moment AI became the most competitive technology in human history. She’s way more passionate about helping people level-up in AI Literacy during what is, let’s be honest, an overwhelming time.

While everyone else is either catastrophising or pushing AI down your necks, Georgie is focused on helping people feel capable, not crushed.

Drawing on 15 years in the tech industry and a global network built across engineering, consulting, and tech investing, she shares the stories and learnings shaping the future of AI with everyone. She hosts In The Blink of AI, APAC’s leading AI podcast, and writes a weekly Substack column called Attention Is All I Need. Long-form conversations, headline perspectives, and curated community events that are honest but optimistic.

Charlie works with startups and scale‑ups on people, culture, and operational design, combining behavioural science and adult development with a direct, practical style. They’ve coached 27 founders and worked with Atticus, Ailo, Lendi Group, Nutromics, Neighbourlytics, Atlassian, and Wade Institute.

Charlie is driven by one question: why do smart teams keep making the same scaling mistakes at 30, 50, and 100 people? This program replaces copy‑paste playbooks with stage‑appropriate structures and founder behaviours that actually work in the real world.

Katelyn brings extensive experience in research, education, and program design, having developed and delivered learning experiences across a range of cultural and institutional contexts. Originally from California, she has built an international career spanning startup, university, and corporate environments in the United States, France, Italy, Denmark, and Australia. She has taught management, marketing, and entrepreneurship at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels, driven by a deep conviction that education can create meaningful change within and across communities.

Katelyn holds a PhD in Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Behavioural Strategy from Copenhagen Business School, a Master of International Business from the University of Melbourne, a Master of Science in Marketing Management from Bocconi University, and a bachelor’s degree in Cultural Anthropology and International Politics.
A highly regarded learning designer, Katelyn has developed a range of innovation and entrepreneurship programs for Wade Institute and other organisations, most recently leading the design of Wade’s Innovation Fundamentals program. She previously served as Director and Head of Learning Products and Innovation at Wade Institute of Entrepreneurship.
Katelyn is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Engineering Technology at the Technical University of Denmark.

Dan is a passionate advocate for using business and finance to create a sustainable and equitable future. As a founding partner at Ecotone Partners, he brings extensive experience in impact investing, having previously served as CEO of Impact Investment Group (IIG), one of Australia’s largest impact fund managers. Prior to this, Dan was the inaugural CEO of Impact Investing Australia, where he helped shape Australia’s contribution to the Global Steering Group on Impact Investing. With a 13-year career at JBWere and Goldman Sachs JBWere in various senior roles, including COO and Acting CEO, Dan combines financial expertise with a commitment to positive social and environmental impact. Dan is a lead facilitator of VC Catalyst.

Pedram brings a wealth of global venture capital experience to the Wade Institute. He’s a founding faculty member of Stanford’s VC Unlocked program, a former Principal at Mayfield Fund, and a seasoned instructor at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. Over the years, Pedram has worked with hundreds of entrepreneurs and business leaders, from early-stage startups to Fortune 50 companies and institutions like the World Bank, across five continents. Wherever he is, Pedram’s passion lies in helping people turn bold ideas into impactful ventures.

Kate is the CEO of Tech Council of Australia. She has considerable experience in technological innovation across start-ups, academia, corporates, and government.rnAn experienced non-executive director, Kate is currently a member of Charles Sturt University Council. She previously led the development of an HR start-up through a listing on the ASX. She held the position of Senior Telecommunications Adviser and Deputy Chief of Staff the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy and has also worked as a General Manager at NBN Co.

Sally Bruce is an experienced executive with 35+ years leading businesses in financial services and technology in Australia and globally. She has deliberately built a career founded in heavily regulated corporates and across fast scaling tech, because she believes the next decade requires leaders who can operate in both worlds. Her career commenced at Macquarie Group where she worked for 20 years across all aspects of retail, private, corporate & property banking and investment management. Moving to NAB, she led all NAB’s Deposit products and Personal Bank’s Lending products before becoming the CFO of both the Personal & Business Banks. Sally then moved to be Group Executive at AMP and CEO of AMP Bank before taking the role of COO & CFO of the Culture Amp, a global technology company.

Concurrently, Sally has held commercial, not for profit board & committee roles. She has chaired several operating subsidiary boards of NAB and AMP as well being a member of the People & Culture and the Chair of Finance, Audit & Risk Board Sub-Committees of Culture Amp. Not for Profit or Member Association Board roles have included Chief Executive Women, Australian Banking Association, Walter & Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, National Basketball League, RISING Festival and Evolve @ Typo.

In addition to her board roles, Sally coaches and advises a small number of senior executives and CEOs and is a strong advocate for practical action on issues that make society fairer an

Paul is an international investor with extensive experience in Silicon Valley, the UK and Australia. Following a prolific career in strategic communications and leading many startups through to major acquisition, Paul cofounded rampersand to invest in and support Australian early-stage technology companies.

Rayn has been an active angel investor for the past 7 years. He has invested in over 70 startups and funds including Blackbird, Instaclustr, Propeller Aero, Carbar, Eucalyptus u0026 Fresh Equities. Rayn is a venture partner at Archangel Ventures, an early-stage angel fund focusing on the first 2 funding rounds. In his free time, Rayn loves to collect startup tshirts and Linkedin recommendations.

Kylie is Co-founder of Flying Fox Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm, which makes it easy for private investors to build their own diversified technology portfolios. Flying Fox has now invested in more than 45 great Australian startups. Passionate about introducing more investors to the joys of early-stage tech investing, Kylie is a regular contributor to leading investor education programs including VC Catalyst and Airtree’s Explorer Program. rnKylie brings empathy to the founder experience, having founded two technology businesses. She has almost two decades experience as a corporate transaction lawyer and is a capable company director.rn

Gabrielle joined Main Sequence Ventures, a deep tech venture capital firm managing the CSIRO’S Innovation Fund, in 2019 bringing over 15 years of financial markets experience. She has a strong focus on ESG principles and is deeply involved in a number of company creation opportunities. Her goal is to help deep tech entrepreneurs and their teams access the knowledge, networks, and capital they need to build globally significant companies. Gabrielle previously worked in investment banking at ABN AMRO and Morgan Stanley and investment management at Challenger.rn

A seasoned entrepreneur and VC investor, Jules is currently Partner at Mindset Venture in Los Angeles. Prior to this, she was Partner at IBM’s Blockchain Accelerator in NYC and Co-Founder of Prose Ventures, an independent fund focused on professional services. Jules has exited three major startups including Evolve Law and Hire an Esquire. She has degrees from UCLA and LSE and is a Kauffman Fellow and mentor for young women.

Lucy is Principal on the VC investment team at Square Peg, whose focus is empowering exceptional founders across Australia, Israel and South-East Asia. Stages: seed, Series A, Series B. Lucy was previously a management consultant at Bain with experience across strategy, org design, private equity and digital products with an industry focus in financial services. She also worked at Go1 in their Series B stage to help scale their partnerships channel.

Nicole is founder of Start Small Ventures, an advisory firm providing capital raising and growth strategy support to startups and supporting early-stage investors with investment strategy and approach. She was previously Investment Director at Rampersand. Prior to that Nicole spent seven years in SEEK’s strategy team, following on from a number of years in strategy consulting and investment banking. Her journey has given her broad insight into investing, product strategy, general business operations and fast growth environments, all very useful when it comes to finding—and helping—the best tech startups in the country.

Will is Managing Partner at Giant Leap, Australia’s first and only 100% impact venture capital fund manager. Giant Leap invests in exceptional, rapidly scalable businesses that blend financial returns with deep social and environmental impact, across three impact themes: sustainable living, health and wellbeing and empowering people. Will has 15+ years of experience in financial services specifically within venture capital, private equity, property investment and corporate finance. . He is also a non-executive director of Alberts Group and a mentor with Startmate. rn

Hugh began his entrepreneurial journey while studying medicine at Monash University in Melbourne. Founding Dialogue Consulting during his studies, he provided risk management and strategy advisory services to various clients. In 2013, he launched Schedugram, later rebranded as Sked Social, to streamline Instagram scheduling. Recognising the challenges faced by first-time founders, he co-founded Galileo Ventures with James Alexander in 2020, focusing on seed-stage investments and mentorship. Hugh has been recognised by Forbes and Australia’s top 30 under 30 founders. He holds a BHumSci/BMedSci(Hons) and is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Sam is a Partner at Blackbird, a multi-stage venture capital firm with $2 billion in assets under management. Originally from Australia, she now heads up the office in Tāmaki Makaurau (Auckland), where she raised its inaugural $60M New Zealand fund in 2020 and its second $80M New Zealand fund. Sam has broad investment interests including digital healthcare, robotics and IoT and B2B software, including AI. Sam sits on the boards of Halter, Harrison AI, Partly, FirstAML, Foundry Lab and Workyard. Sam is passionate about diversity in technology and venture capital and spear-headed the release of the Model Code of Conduct for the Startup Community as well as a venture capital internship program for women.rnPrior to joining Blackbird she was a legaltech startup founder, an e-commerce product and strategy manager, and practiced in corporate and litigation teams at Minter Ellison before career-pivoting into startups in 2010.rn

Josh has 10+ year’s building community and programming across the Victorian startup sector and is passionate about diversity, inclusion, and innovation in the tech sector. In his role at LaunchVic, he supports the growth of the Victorian startup ecosystem, with a focus on early-stage AgTech. Josh wants to empower founders to reach their ambitions by creating and delivering engaging events, programs, and content that connect them with resources, opportunities, and networks. Outside of work, Josh supports the queer tech community with the local chapter of Out in Tech, a global non-profit organization and is also President of Melbourne’s Queer Rowing Club.rn