State Awards
The Pearcey State Entrepreneur Awards are aimed at encouraging and rewarding fresh and innovative talent in the ICT profession.

The Pearcey State Awards recognise outstanding entrepreneurs in ICT within each Australian State who have:
The Pearcey Foundation embraces all aspects of the ICT industry from traditional Information Science to the latest technological advances in social networking, multi-media, games and internet technologies - 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 Tasmanian Pearcey Entrepreneur for 2022 was presented to Andrew Davies, founder and CEO of Taz Drone Solutions, by Hon Madeleine Ogilvie MP, Minister for Science and Technology. The presentation was part of the Pearcey Foundation's National Event at the TasICT Conference Gala Dinner on the evening of Friday November 11th at the C3 Convention Center in Hobart.
The 2022 SA Pearcey Entrepreneur was presented to Flavia Tata Nadini, CEO and Co-Founder, Fleet Space Technologies. The presentation was made by Mohann Koo at a special event at the Stone and Chalk Startup and Scaleup Hub.
The 2022 NSW Pearcey Entrepreneur of the Year award was presented to Dr. Mark Englund of FiberSense, by David Thodey, AO, on October 31 at the Sydney Startup Hub. Founded in 2015, FiberSense provides SONAR like sensing capabilities over optical fiber telecoms cables, providing awareness of objects and events near the fibre cable infrastructure. The service is being taken up by the world’s most valuable companies including Amazon, Google and Meta..
The 2022 Queensland Pearcey Entrepreneur Award was presented jointly to Rebecca McDonald, founder and CEO of Library for All, and Sarah-Jane Peterschlingmann, managing director and owner of ATech. The awards were presented in Brisbane by Jill Martin, Director of Start Up & Scale Up Programs, Department of Tourism, Innovation and Sport at an event hosted by Monica Bradley.
At a special Round Table event, the Chief Minister, with former Senator Kate Lundy announced the winners of the ACT Chief Minister Pearcey Award were Adam Zegelin and Ben Bromhead, the technical inspiration behind Instaclustr. Instaclustr helps organisations deliver applications at scale by operating and supporting their data infrastructure through its SaaS platform for open source technologies.
The 2022 Victorian Pearcey Entrepreneur Award was presented to Jason Lohrey, founder and CEO/CTO of Arcitecta. The award was presented at a special dinner in Melbourne by Kathy Coultas, Director of Technology & Innovation, Department of Economic Development, State Government of Victoria.
The 2022 WA Pearcey Entrepreneur Award recipient is Mahmood Hussein, Founder and CEO Global Drone Solutions (GDS). The Pearcey Award was part of the 31st WAITTA Incite Awards on Friday 12 August 2022.
The 2021 Pearcey Entrepreneur Award was presented to Mohan Koo, co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of world leading cybersecurity provider DTEX Systems. The Award was presented at a small ceremony on 15 November 2021 at Lot 14 in Adelaide, attended by Pearcey Committee members, previous Pearcey Entrepreneur Awardeees, and special guests Andrew Nunn, SA Chief Entrepreneur and Alan Noble, ex CTO, Google.
Nina McMahon, co-founder and CEO of PopUp WiFi was the recipient of the 2021 Tasmanian Pearcey Entrepreneur of the Year Award. This year's award was presented on 12 November in Hobart during the gala industry dinner following TasICT's Annual Conference and in collaboration with the Tasmanian Branch of ACS as well as TasICT.
The NSW Entrepreneur of the Year was awarded to brother and sister team Jordan O'Reilly and Laura O'Reilly OAM. The presentation was held online on October 14, as part of Spark Festival. Jordan and Laura have cofounded both not-for-profit and profit-for-purpose businesses helping people with disabilities and their families manage their needs and support services. Over the last ten years, they have helped hundreds of thousands of people and proven that for-purpose business can have significant social impact.
Brisbane, Australia - 6 October 2021 - The Pearcey Foundation today announced Michael Holmstrom, CEO and co-founder of STEM Punks as this year's recipient of the Queensland Pearcey ICT Entrepreneur Award.
Canberra 28 Sep 2021: The Pearcey Foundation today announced Daniel Shaddock, founder and CEO of Liquid Instruments as this year's recipient of the ACT Chief Minister's Pearcey Entrepreneur Award. The award was presented by Andrew Barr, ACT Chief Minister at the Annual ACT Pearcey Round Table (held virtually this year).