Flinders graduates and participants in New Venture Institute programs are prominent among South Australia’s most dynamic young business leaders heralded in InDaily’s 40 Under 40 Awards.
The online publisher announced its 2019 list of 40 young business leaders, which recognises the dedication and professional achievements of people under the age of 40, during a gala ceremony at the National Wine Centre on Friday, 7 June.
Among the recipients were Flinders graduates Adut Zita Deng Ngor, Chief Executive of Women’s Legal Service (SA); Michael Pagsanjan, Managing Director and Principal at MPS Law; and Simon Palumbo, Chief Technology Officer, Director and co-founder of Silentium Defence.
Several of the event’s big winners have been directly involved in Flinders’ NVI programs.
Aaron Superina, owner and director of landscaping, civil engineering and structural concreting company Outside Ideas, won one of six individual awards, receiving the First Among Equals Award for embodying the qualities of the 40 Under 40 ideal. Mr Superina established Outside Ideas in 2003 and has developed it into South Australia’s largest commercial landscaping company with almost 150 full-time employees, contracted to such prominent commercial properties and public spaces as Adelaide Oval and Adelaide Airport. His achievements have also been recognised at the Ernst and Young World Entrepreneur of The Year event in France.
Anton Andreacchio, an entrepreneur, producer and mathematician who has founded several companies across the creative industries, received the Inspiring Future Collaboration Award.
Mr Andreacchio has launched Convergen, an animation company that specialises in infrastructure visualisation; JumpgateVR, a VR/AR studio working across industries from construction to the contemporary arts; film production company Double Bishop; math consulting firm GMTI, and post-production services provider Artisan Post Group. He also serves on several boards, including the Entrepreneurship Advisory Board, South Australian Film Corporation, Adelaide Film Festival and ACE Open.
More 40 Under 40 achievers directly involved in NVI programs include David Pearson, Executive Director/CEO of The Don Dunstan Foundation; Imelda Alexopoulos, partner at PwC Australia; Louise Nobes, founder and CEO of KIK innovation & KIK enterprises; Steven Kidd, Managing Director of Pinnacle Commercial Interiors; and Themis Chryssidis, Managing Director of Sprout.
Others with connections to NVI programs were Jonathan Hall, co-founder of Presagen (Presagen co-founder Michelle Perigini has been on a NVI Study Tour to the US) and Cameron Donaldson, founder and director of Praxis Aeronautics (which worked with NVI on Innovative Manufacturing initiatives). Mr Donaldson won the Inspiring Disruptor Award for commercialising his invention of Solar Energy Harvesting Composite structures, the first structural solar encapsulation of its kind on the market.