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2009 NSW Pearcey ICT Entrepreneur of the Year
12th
November
2009
–
Sydney.
The 2009
NSW Pearcey ICT
Entrepreneur of the Year award was held at NSW Parliament this
evening and was awarded to Ian Gardner, founder of online video and
digital media specialist Viocorp
by the Hon Ian MacDonald MLC,
Minister for State Development, Primary Industries and Mineral
Resources.
“Not only has Ian built a great company, he has been a strong supporter
for the industry and other entrepreneurs, including being a co-founder of
the Innovation Bay.” Said Charles Lindop, Chair Pearcey Foundation
NSW.
““This year’s awards demonstrate
the global impact of
entrepreneurial talent in NSW. The Pearcey Foundation has one again
proven Australia has innovators equal to the world’s best,
and with the
global reach of the internet, we are seeing our innovators better able to
fully capitalise on their capabilities and conquer the world”.
“Our judges had a very difficult time in choosing a winner from such a
talented pool and we are giving recognition awards to all of them. In the
end Ian Gardiner pipped the others because of the scale of his
voluntary industry contribution, technology innovation and commercial
successes. Having said that, all these guys are great role models” said
Silvia Pfeiffer, CEO of video technology firm Vquence and chair of the
judges.
“We wish Ian and all the other entrepreneurs the very best of
endeavours in their careers, and thank them for already having done so
much for our industry”.
Receiving special recognition awards for their entrepreneurial talents
and industry contribution were:
Elias Bizannes, Vast.com –
founded “Silicon Beach” a web2.0
community of Australian entrepreneurs. Now pursuing entrepreneurial
ventures in Silicon Valley.
Scott Bradley-Pearce, Executive Producer One in Ten Productions,
who has contributed enormously to the development of the digital media
community in NSW.
Robert Castaneda, founder Customware, one of Australia’s fastest
growing global web and IT services businesses.
Tarik Hammadou, founder of award winning video camera
analysis/global security firm, Digisensory.
Level 3, 45 William Street
Melbourne VIC 3000
T: (03) 9614 8510
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E: admin@pearcey.org.au
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VIC: vic@pearcey.org.au
QLD: qld@pearcey.org.au
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Bart Jellema and Kim Chen, founders of the highly successful Web
coupon business Tjoos, and tireless supporters of the Australian
StartupCamp and BootCamp entrepreneur workshops.
Ryan Junee, an Australian silicon valley-based entrepreneur, who sold
his business Omnisio to YouTube in 2008 for $US15m.
Robi Karp, founder of software firm Fluffy Spider and open source
industry supporter, whose technology is now in hundreds of
millions of
embedded devices worldwide
Ben Keighran, a silicon valley based serial entrepreneur and founder
of venture capital backed mobile phone social media company
Bluepulse.
Aiden Williams, technologist and founder of Audinate, one of the most
successful spinouts from Australian research organisation NICTA
Jonathan Wolfe
serial entrepreneur and founder of several spinouts
from ICT research institutes at Sydney University, Macquarie University
and the Smart Services CRC
Anthony Woodward,
technologist and founder of Cloud Computing /
hosted infrastructure firm Bullet Proof Networks
The awards included a very lively debate on how to turn the youth of
today into the industry leaders of tomorrow,
“There is a great spirit of
entrepreneurship in Australia but still there is much that government,
academic and industry leaders can do to foster this and turn Australia
into the clever country” said the debate chair Mark Jones of Filtered
Media and the Australian Financial Review.
The Pearcey ICT Entrepreneur of the Year award includes a cash grant
and was supported by NSW Industry and Investment, the Australian
Technology Showcase, NICTA, the Australian Computer Society and
Freelancer.com.
About the Pearcey Foundation
Founded in memory of Trevor Pearcey, who built Australia’s first and
the world’s fourth electronic computer, CSIRAC, in Sydney in 1949, the
foundation is a group of concerned individuals fostering the aims and
achievements of the Australian ICT industry. Celebrating its 60th
anniversary this year CSIRAC is the oldest surviving computer in the
world. The Pearcey Foundation’s objective is to reinforce the
recognition, knowledge and appreciation of Australia’s ongoing
contribution to the development and growth of our
ICT professions,
research and industry.
Level 3, 45 William Street
Melbourne VIC 3000
T: (03) 9614 8510
F: (03) 9614 8201
E: admin@pearcey.org.au
STATE CHAPTERS
NSW: nsw@pearcey.org.au
VIC: vic@pearcey.org.au
QLD: qld@pearcey.org.au
SA: sa@pearcey.org.au
TAS: tas@pearcey.org.au
For more information on the NSW Pearcey Awards please visit
About Ian Gardiner
Ian (38) is the co-founder and CEO of Viocorp, one of the world's
leading online video companies. Viocorp is a software business in the
online video space. Its main product Viostream is a web-based video
content management system that allows content owners to manage and
deliver their content to end users. Customers include the Australian
Government, Microsoft, the Catholic Church and pretty much anyone
who wants to deliver video and audio content to end users using the
internet.
Ian co-founded the company in 2002 and has successfully grown it into
an established and profitable operation. Viocorp employs 35 staff from
its headquarters in Pyrmont.
Ian has been running technology start-ups for over 12 years. He was
the founding employee of newsbase.com, a successful news, analysis,
and business intelligence service from emerging markets. He also
founded and ran lastorders.com, an on-line off-license in the UK.
He is the co-founder and President of the Australian arm of the Oxford
Business Alumni. He sits on the Board of Metro Screen, a not-for-profit
company providing training and support for filmmakers. He is also a
member of the advisory board for Sydney University's Business
Information Systems department where he guest lectures on innovation
and entrepreneurialism. He is a founder and very active participant in
Innovation Bay, a networking group for executives in the high growth
Ian holds a Master of Engineering from the University of Oxford where
he also won two rowing blues in the Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race. In
his spare time he is a competitive cyclist, avid computer gamer,
husband and father of two boys (not in that order). He just raced in the
track cycling events at the World Masters Games where he won a
bronze medal in the 3km pursuit.
Level 3, 45 William Street
Melbourne VIC 3000
T: (03) 9614 8510
F: (03) 9614 8201
E: admin@pearcey.org.au
STATE CHAPTERS
NSW: nsw@pearcey.org.au
VIC: vic@pearcey.org.au
QLD: qld@pearcey.org.au
SA: sa@pearcey.org.au
TAS: tas@pearcey.org.au
He plays (badly) in the Viocorp 6 a side soccer competition and is riding
in the Sydney to Gong ride this year with a few of the other staff
members.
Viocorp has a huge opportunity in the video platform industry to become
a global player with significant reach. It is close to securing a contract to
deliver an online TV service including monetisation via advertising to
one of Asia's biggest broadcasters (expected to sign before Christmas
2009). This should be the first of many similar internet TV services
which Viocorp will be delivering around the Asia-Pacific region.
Ian’s achievements at Viocorp:
We have always prided ourselves on our extreme levels of innovation
and desire to do things better. We have been pioneers in the area of
building and selling video content management systems, and really
have helped define the market for these products in Australia. Over half
of our staff and a third of our revenue is ploughed back into product
R&D and we have a continuous product development and release
schedule which we work to.
NEWS 
