South Australian Pearcey

2011 South Australia Pearcey Entrepreneur Award

The 2011 SA Pearcey Entrepreneur Award was presented to Matthew Michalewicz at a reception held at InnovateSA Board Room (19 Greenfell Street Adelaide) on Thursday evening, 17 November 2011. Matthew, Founder and CEO of SolveIT, has pioneered the development of cutting-edge technology to solve complex business problems. He is a person who has demonstrated that he is not only capable of taking risks in starting up and running innovative software companies which have made a significant difference to business but also serves as an inspiration to others to achieve great outcomes. As well Henry Detmold & Mark Fortunatow were recipients of Highly Commended certificates in a tight contest.

The 2011 South Australian Pearcey Award winner was selected from the following outstanding candidates:

• Dr Henry Detmold – currently Research Leader at Univ of Adelaide’s Centre for Visual Technologies and Founder and CTO of Snap Network Surveillance Pty Ltd
• Stephen Dunn – invented and patented a prize winning web based check-in system for hotels and allied applications. Currently commercialising concept after winning a Commercialisation Australia grant
• Mark Fortunatow – co-founder and CEO of publically listed (ASX) MGM Wireless Pty Ltd, a leading provider of school attendance management and social messaging software
• Matthew Michalewicz – serial entrepreneur and co-founder of SolveIT Software specialising in advanced planning & scheduling, supply chain network optimisation, demand optimisation and predictive modelling application software
• Tod Pedler – serial start up entrepreneur focussed on content management and mobile technologies with latest being Mobile Nation – a mobile publishing platform
• Clint Walker – serial entrepreneur, built visual effects company in Adelaide and sold it in Hollywood (USA) and is now rolling the dice again in Silicon Valley with Run with Robots, a software development platform for on-line games running across the web and mobile devices - all developed in Adelaide

The Entrepreneur Award is a State award, rolling up into the Benson National ICT Entrepreneur of the Year Award, and is aimed at encouraging and rewarding fresh and innovative talent in the ICT and Digital Media professions. It is awarded to an individual mid career who has demonstrated innovative and pioneering achievement and contribution in their chosen industry. The winners will be drawn from contributors across all aspects of the ICT and Digital Media industries including but not limited to) computing science, the Internet, communications, social media and networking, interactive media, games and the like. The idea is to embrace all those younger professionals in the ICT and Digital Media sectors and not exclude anyone.

Sponsors 2011

• South Australian Branch of the Australian Computer Society.
• Dr Simon Ronald
• Dr Ross Williams