Future Agro Challenge Australia 2019
Startup Tablelands - Australian Host
Meet our next Judge for AusFAC!
Shaun knows the startup and innovation experience and what it takes to succeed. He’s the Co-Founder of a marketing startup he’s had success not just in attracting seed funding, but securing major Australian corporate clients.
It’s fantastic experience to have on our Judging panel as we get ready to crown 2019’s Australian Agripreneur of the Year!
Troy Bishop is the independent Regional Innovation Coordinator in a part-time capacity.
Troy has established himself as one of FNQ leaders in startups and business growth. He has successfully started a business that created opportunities for businesses with high-level business advice in all areas to ensure you have the right resources and services to be effective. Having a successful senior management career, including CEO of the GoLogic Group which established a world-first communications platform providing multi-level redundancy and multi integrated service provider system with the inclusion of an AI that provided service stability and economic sustainability. Troy has a wealth of knowledge on a wide range of industries and continues to grow his personal and professional development through connections and business opportunities.
Having a passion for startups and established businesses in the FNQ region.
Krista is a leader in agricultural innovation and is the Co-founder and Managing Director of Natural Evolution, a company specialising in green banana and other waste produce products. Krista’s interest in reducing waste and finding uses for unsaleable produce led to the development of Natural Evolution in 2015.
Following tireless work and research, she and husband Rob built the worlds first pharmaceutical-grade green banana processing facility and pioneered the process of turning produce in functional foods and cosmetics.
The business has experienced remarkable growth, expanding into international markets and winning sustainability and innovation awards in Australia and overseas. Krista’s efforts have earned her the prestigious AgriFutures™ Rural Woman of the Year 2018 and EY’s 2019 Northern Disruption Entrepreneur of the Year.
As founder and CEO of SwarmFarm Robotics, Andrew Bate is the chief visionary, leveraging his experience as a successful grain and cattle farmer and his deep knowledge of robotics to drive the successful development of the SwarmBot. Andrew has spent a lifetime in agriculture; he has trained as an agronomist at the University of Queensland and has spent the last 20 years farming near Emerald, Central Queensland.
In 2015 he founded SwarmFarm Robotics as a Startup technology company to commercialize robots for agriculture. Today, SwarmFarm Robotics has grown to be one of the leading robotics companies around the world with real working robots now being delivered to commercial farmers.
In 2018 he was awarded Australian Agripreneur of the Year at the Future Agro Challenge and in 2019 he came third overall in the world finals for the 2019 Global Agripreneur of the Year award.
Steve has a background in both technology and business and specialises in the development and commercialisation of new products of a technical nature. He has a domain background in the physical sciences with a PhD in physical chemistry. He has worked with a variety of technology-based enterprises, many with a focus on sensing technologies, and has assessed hundreds of products for commercial viability across the general technology space.
Steve has experience across the full range of the technical business area: through being an R&D scientist, R&D manager, founder and CEO of start-up companies (7 companies), manager of a manufacturing business within a large multinational corporate structure, and a business consultant. As a CEO of technology-based companies Steve has continued to keep close ties with R&D and product development and in most roles with technology companies has also made a contribution to the IP generated. Steve is an inventor on 20 patents to date.
He is currently a Commercialisation Adviser for the Accelerating Commercialisation program.
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