The Pearcey State Entrepreneur Awards recognise outstanding achievers in ICT within each Australian State and Territory who have:
The Pearcey Foundation embraces all aspects of the ICT industry from traditional Information Science to the latest technological advances in social networking, multimedia, games, Internet technologies and artificial intelligence - the very broadest spectrum of the Australian innovative sector.
Nominations are welcome at any time.
The awardees are selected by state-based judging committees.
Each year, one of the awardees is selected for the Pearcey National
Entrepreneur Award.
The Pearcey Foundation announced Leigh Jasper, the co-founder and former CEO of Aconex, co-founder and co-CEO of Firmable, co-founder and chair of SecondQuarter Ventures and chair of Glitch Capital, as the recipient of the 2026 Pearcey Victorian Entrepreneur Award. The award was presented at a dinner in Melbourne by Professor Ed Hovy, executive director of Melbourne Connect.
The 2026 NSW Pearcey Entrepreneur of the Year Award joint recipients are Pieter Danhieux and Fatemah Beydoun, co-founders of Secure Code Warrior. The award was presented at a special Pearcey Foundation event in Sydney on 22 October by Laura O'Reilly OAM, who received the award in 2021.
Dr Padma Gadiyar, founder and CEO of Smilo.ai, received the 2026 Queensland Pearcey ICT Entrepreneur Award. The award was presented to Dr Gadiyar by the Hon. Steve Minnikin MP, Queensland's Minister for Customer Service and Open Data and Minister for Small and Family Business at a gala dinner held in Brisbane on Tuesday 6 October 2026.
Rachel Gately and Michael Gately, co-founders of Trellis Data, are the joint recipients of the 2026 ACT Chief Minister’s Pearcey Entrepreneur Award. The award was presented by the ACT Chief Minister, Andrew Barr at a small event on 29 September 2026.
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