2012 Judges

Tim King

Managing Director, Deutsche Bank

Tim King is head of Australian company research at Deutsche Bank, and also has responsibility for carbon research. He has more than 15 years of analytical experience. Before joining Deutsche Bank in April 2003, Tim was head of Australia/New Zealand telecommunications and construction materials research at a global investment bank. Prior to this, he ran pan-Asian capital goods research for a broking firm in Singapore for two years, and before that worked for an investment bank as a top rated Australasian building materials analyst for six years. Tim has an MA (first-class hons) from the University of Canterbury (NZ), and studied finance and economics at the Institut fur Weltwirtschaft (Kiel, Germany) and University of Rochester (USA). Tim is also a CFA charterholder.

Peter Bradd

Founding and Executive Director, Fishburners.
CEO and Founder, ScribblePics

Peter Bradd is founder of ScribblePics, a business that makes web sites and iPhone apps to let you turn your photos into real postcards. Their clients include Qantas and Jetstar. When Peter isn't dreaming about the holiday fun he sees in all all the postcards, he's running Fishburners, which is perhaps asia pacific's largest tech co working space, home to over 100 tech businesses.

Jessica Fliegner

Investment Associate, Southern Cross Venture Partners

Jessica is an Investment Associate with Southern Cross Venture Partners, a Venture Capital Firm with offices in Palo Alto and Sydney and over $400m under management. She primarily works with entrepreneurs across the technology and renewable energy space to help them establish successful companies. Prior to joining SXVP, Jess spent three years as a management consultant. Jess has a M.Sc from Oxford University and Engineering and Arts Degrees from Melbourne University.

Celia Hodson

CEO, School of Social Entrepreneurs

Celia Hodson joined the School for Social Entrepreneurs (SSE) Australia as Chief Executive in July 2012 and brings a wealth of experience as a business person, entrepreneur and founder of one of the UK's most successful social enterprise schools, The Eastern Enterprise Hub. In her role at The Eastern Enterprise Hub, Celia established SSE East so is already part of the SSE global family and has first hand experience of supporting and advocating for social entrepreneurs. Previously Celia's UK based roles have included Chief Executive Officer at Cambridge Co-operative Development Agency, Deputy Chief Executive at the Social Enterprise Coalition and Chief Executive of Choose Suffolk. She has also held numerous board positions with UK based nonprofits and social enterprises. She is passionate about partnership development, corporate engagement and social enterprise development.

Omar Samad

CEO, Vibewire

For the past three years, Omar's purpose in life has been to empower young people in creating change on important social issues.

Graduating with an extended major in marketing at the University of Sydney in 2010, Omar is now a 24 year-old with the experience of several communication, marketing and management roles under his belt.

Since beginning as a volunteer at Vibewire in 2009, Omar has engaged with mainstream youth audiences, and facilitated awareness and conversation with this age group on issues of significance to Australia by collaborating with industry representatives. Omar was the Communications Coordinator behind electionWIRE, a project that Vibewire ran in partnership with Google, which brought youth perspectives to the table during 2010 Federal Election. He also directed promotions for the successful fastBREAK innovation series - an event series that Vibewire ran in conjunction with the Powerhouse Museum since 2010.

In early 2011, Omar became the Coworking Space Manager at Vibewire, where he connected and collaborated with numerous social startups that launched from the Vibewire Hub. He provided networking opportunities and skill-building sessions for projects including the 11ElevenProject, Major Raiser, InFullView, Paws For Life, Refugee Buddy, Gallery for Justice etc.

Now leading Vibewire as the CEO, Omar is able to combine his two major passions - social change and youth media. His end goal is to raise awareness, create conversation and make a difference on social issues of concern to young Australians. Foremost among them are mental health, homelessness, Indigenous Australians, media ethics, disability and climate change.

Mark Pesce

Mark Pesce is an inventor, writer, entrepreneur, educator and broadcaster. In 1994 Pesce co-invented VRML, a 3D interface to the World Wide Web. Pesce has written five books, including VRML: Browsing and Building Cyberspace and The Playful World: How Technology is Transforming Our Imagination, which used toys such as Furby and PlayStation to explore our interactive future.

Mark Greig

Commercial Director, Pollenizer
Managing Partner, Elevation Capital

Mark is an active Angel investor in Australia, and has helped many local entrepreneurs by providing them with expansion capital and hands on strategic support. As Commercial Director at Pollenizer, Mark holds responsibility for investment decisions, founder selection, strategic partnerships, international growth strategy, corporate governance and capital development. Pollenizer is well known in the Australian early stage venture community as a team-based incubator with operations in Sydney and Singapore.

Outside of Pollenizer, Mark is a Director of Elevation Capital, Brandscreen, GetListed and MMGN.Mark has also worked locally and internationally in the Mobile industry in senior sales and marketing roles for global blue-chip operators like SingTel Optus and Vodafone (UK).

Kim Heras

Co-founder, Pushstart

Kim is co-founder and Managing Director of PushStart, a startup accelerator program in Sydney and a Director of Fishburners, Australia's leading tech startup co-working space. He has worked in the Australian tech startup community for over 10 years, as an entrepreneur, as the former editor of The Next Web, Australia and as an event organiser. Kim is the founder of Open Coffee Sydney - Sydney's longest running and largest tech startup meetup with over 2200 members. Previously Kim was the Community Manager, Australia & New Zealand, for MyHeritage.com, the world's largest family-based social network with over 70 Million members and 1 Billion profiles in family trees and also worked as the Commercial Manager at Ensyst, a Sydney-based IT services and solutions provider.

David Rickards

Managing Director, Social Enterprise Finance Australia

David was the Head of Research and an Executive Director at Macquarie Bank for the past 16 years, coordinating a team based throughout Australia, Asia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. David is an authority on global equities and capital markets, with particular expertise in strategic analysis and risk assessment. He is now devoting himself to the establishment and growth of SEFA, where he is managing director. Before joining Macquarie he was responsible for establishing the risk management company BARRA International in Australia. David is also a Director, and Treasurer, of Bush Heritage Australia.

Michael Gilbert

Director of Investment Sales, Chesterton International

Michael Gilbert graduated from the LSE in 1981 following which he immediately started in business as a ladies clothing manufacturer supplying major retail chains in London such as Top Shop. Following the dissolution of a partnership he started working in the City for a firm of stockbrokers as a salesman/analyst specialising in the textiles and apparel sector. Following the 1987 stockmarket crash and the migration of much of the sector to Asia he started dabbling in real estate and is now a Director of Investment sales at Chesterton International in Sydney. Chesterton International is a wholly owned subsidiary of APP which is turn owned by Transfield Sevices an ASX listed company with a market capitalisation in excess of $850m.

Moira McAllister

Senior Finance Manager, Exodus Foundation

Moira is a senior finance manager, currently working for the Exodus Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation that exists to meet the immediate needs of disadvantaged and marginalised people, through the provision of food to the homeless as well as the delivery of proven and innovative youth and literacy programs to young people. Prior to this, Moira was an Associate Director in Corporate Finance at the University of Sydney, and has also worked in various SME’s and not for profit organisations, with marketing and management responsibilities. Moira is a CPA with a degree in Business and a MBA from Deakin University.

Would you like to join us as a mentor or a judge for Sydney Genesis 2012? Email Julia Di Kang at business.competition@sydney.edu.au