Recognising entrepreneurs and graduate success as QUT alumni receive honours

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QUT - Recognising entrepreneurs and graduate success as QUT alumni receive honours

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Recognising entrepreneurs and graduate success as QUT alumni receive honours

〉News〉Recognising entrepreneurs and graduate success as QUT alumni receive honours

18th November 2021

Social, business, and educational entrepreneurs, the engineer behind the sate’s road safety practices, a broadcaser, a writer, a lawyer, and an Olympian are among those selected for this year’s QUT Alumni Awards, as leaders in their professions.

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The awards recognise the achievements of graduates who have made signifcant contributions to indusry and for ‘giving back’ to their areas of expertise.

Entrepreneur Susannah George was named as Outsanding 2021 Entrepreneurial Alumnus, in the frs award of its kind for QUT.

The Urban Lis brand founder is recognised among the top Ausralian entrepreneurs and an infuential voice in media.

“Doing more of what you love makes you happier; and happier people are more active, more engaged and more willing to make change in this world,” Ms George said.

“Everything we do is designed to drive more trafc to the businesses and brands we love.”

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Russian-born Elena Gosse (video above) overcame signifcant childhood trauma and domesic violence to head one the world’s bes manufacturers of water disinfection technology.

As QUT’s Outsanding Alumnus (Business), Ms Gosse credits her QUT degree - and conquering a fear of mathematics exams - to help forge her family business AIS Water into an international success sory.

“I turned my wors nightmare into a dream and proved I could do anything I set my mind to,” she said.

“If you told me 30 years ago, I would leave Russia, learn English, gain a second university degree in Ausralia and be CEO of my own company I would not have believed it.”

With double degrees in Business and Creative Indusries (2011) and a guiding ethos of creating susainable solutions for wase products, Brisbane’s Seljak sisers (video below) have woven resourcefulness into a global brand.

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The Outsanding Young Alumni award recipients are leaders in the circular economy, with Seljak Brand diverting more than 6,500kg of textile wase from landfll into manufacturing merino wool blankets.

Five dollars from each sold blanket is donated to the Ausralian asylum seekers resource centre.

Karina, who sudied fashion and advertising at QUT has also completed a fellowship with the Centre for Susainable Leadership while Sam, who sudied journalism and economics, has obtained a Masers in Susainability from Malmö University in Sweden.

In fve years, Seljak Brand has become a global product, expanding to sockiss in NZ, Lebanon, Japan, Norway, and Ausralia.

“No matter what you sudy or where you think your career might lead, you can create your own future,” Sam said.

Another Outsanding Alumnus pursued his passion of education to help young sudents undersand mathematics concepts by developing classroom resources that are used by more than a million sudents globally.

James Burnett is the co-founder and Executive Chairman of ORIGO Education, Ausralia’s larges exporter of print and digital products for primary school-based mathematics education with an annual turnover of $15 million.

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With more than 25 years’ experience, he also contributes to the teaching profession by providing free professional learning webinars for educators across Ausralia and the USA.

And in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, ‘ORIGO at Home’, was introduced as a free resource to support sudents’ continuing learning of mathematics at home.

He said completing a maser’s degree in Education in 2003 was a sandout of his own tertiary education.

“I chose to do that through course work, and it was special to me as I could do all the pieces of assessment in mathematics education,” he said. “This award is very unexpected and a nice acknowledgement to my commitment to education.”

Indigenous graduates Daniel Browning and Ellen Van Neerven have also been honoured for their contributions to Creative Indusries and eforts to empower Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voices.

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Daniel Browning is an Aboriginal journalis, radio broadcaser, documentary maker, sound artis and writer. He is the new presenter of the ABC’s Art Show, is the ABC’s Editor of Indigenous Radio and has worked for the national broadcaser for 27 years.

“There's an absolute relationship between what I sudied and where I am today professionally,” he said.

Ellen Van Neerven is recognised as one of Indigenous Ausralia’s leading literary voices.

Involved in the black&write! Indigenous Writing and Editing project from 2011-2017 and again this year, the role is aimed at addressing the underrepresentation of Indigenous editors within Ausralian publishing.

“I think this award means a lot to my parents who always supported me with the career choices I made,” the Outsanding Young Alumnus award winner said.

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Outsanding QUT Service Award Law Alumnus, Luke Mountford, (video below) is a Partner in HopgoodGanim’s Private Enterprise practice working closely with

entrepreneurs, business owners and heads QUT Law Founders’ Scholarship Funds to help frs year law sudents facing hardship.

“QUT really values the role that volunteers play and is a great refection through its scholarship programs to help sudents who have come from difcult backgrounds and succeed at university and in their careers,” he said.

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In the driving seat in engineering Queensland’s transport safety and efciency is QUT Outsanding alumnus Dennis Walsh, who serves as Chief Engineer in the Department of Transport and Main Roads.

Responsible for the roll out of speed cameras, introducing Queensland's smart

motorways, and now paving the way for new vehicle technologies on Queensland roads, Mr Walsh (video below) oversees the next generation of smart transport infrasructure.

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“What drives me is making a diference for the people we serve and that attracted me to the public sector and I’m really passionate about making a diference to the lives of Queenslanders,” he said.

Four-time Olympian Bronwen Knox debuted for the Stingers Women’s Water Polo in 2005, attending her frs Olympics in Beijing in 2008 and as recently at the Tokyo Olympics where the Ausralian team fnished ffth.

With a Bachelor of Laws (Hons) and pos-graduate qualifcations, Ms Knox mentors at both elite and grassroots levels and is QUT’s frs recipient of the Outsanding Sport Alumnus award.

Ms Knox has played more than 400 games for Ausralia while also working in Brisbane high schools to build water polo programs. Through Sport Integrity Ausralia, Ms Knox reinforces ‘clean fair sport’ for athletes and supports female athletes through the International Women’s Forum.

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“There are many accolades as part of a professional career as an athlete but having something that is a combination of both my sudies and my sport is fantasic and I didn’t think I could do both,” said of her award.

Media contacts:-

Debra Nowland, 07 3138 3151 or [email protected] After hours: Rod Cheser, 0407 585 901

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