Last updated: 11 Sep, 2020
Published on: 7 Sep, 2020
Meet the PetHack 2020 Judges
Meet the judges
Vickie Davy (PetRescue)
PetRescue Co-Founder
Vix has been leading the PetRescue team along with PetRescue co-founder JB since 2004. She’s passionate about bringing the advantages of the for-profit sector to the NFP world, especially in the use of technology to help drive social change, driving innovation to grow capacity, and creating jobs to attract fresh talent to the animal welfare industry and create positive change.
JB (PetRescue)
PetRescue Co-Founder
An exceptional leader and innovator JB co-founded PetRescue with a vision to create a safer future for every pet in Australia, and 15 years down the road, his passion for animal welfare and innovative tech solutions has made PetRescue.com.au the most trafficked charity website in the country!
Patima Tantiprasut (PetRescue)
PetRescue GM
With almost two decades of experience in the tech industry, Patima has expertise in Design, Digital Strategy, Development & Product Leadership.
Matt MacFarlane (PetRescue)
Non-Exec Director
An investor and entrepreneur, Matt has been mentoring and supporting tech companies in Perth for over a decade.
Richard Hocking (Google)
Agency Lead
Richard Hocking is a Sales Consultant at Google and has always worked in Tech. Prior to Google he worked at Booking.com in Amsterdam where he learnt to embrace failure through a culture of rapid A/B testing and experimentation.
Nerissa Penfold (Google)
Head of Media Partnerships
Nerissa has two decades of experience in sales, marketing, and strategic partnerships in the tech sector, helping businesses grow and evolve through digital transformation. An advocate for ‘adopt don’t shop’ she currently has a dog, Jax, and 2 cats, Astro and Batman Cake. (Top tip: don’t let a 2-year-old name your cat!)
Michael Scutt (Google)
Senior Industry Manager, Financial Services
18 years in the marketing and technology space working across Canada, Europe and Asia Pacific. Mike brings a wealth of experience partnering with businesses of all shapes and sizes to help them drive growth through innovation and strategic consultation. He also adopted Bandi through Pet Rescue the same week he joined Google 5 years ago and is a passionate animal-loving Googler!
Moya Mathias (Google)
Account Manager, Financial Services
A kiwi who flys - Moya’s worked in marketing and advertising around the world including publishing in NZ, advertising agencies in London and now at Google in Melbourne. The biggest cat lover you’ll find which is useful as she has the biggest cat you can find.
Dominic Pym (Up Banking)
Co-Founder
Dom is an entrepreneur and technologist who launched Up (up.com.au), a next-generation Australian digital bank delivering super powered banking. Up is a clever way to organise your money and simplify your life, giving you the freedom to do the things you love. Dom's been involved in software, web and mobile development for over 20 years from start-ups to global enterprises in Australia, the UK, the USA and throughout Asia.
Amidst a growing neobank scene, Up was the first to launch in Australia in October 2018 and they have already amassed 250K+ very happy customers.
Up.com.au | @up_banking | #upyeah | @dompym
Anson Parker (Up Banking)
Head of Product
Anson is a digital expert and Head of Product at Up (up.com.au), a next-generation Australian digital bank delivering super powered banking. Up is a clever way to organise your money and simplify your life, giving you the freedom to do the things you love. Amidst a growing neobank scene, Up were the first to launch in Australia in October 2018 and have already amassed 250K+ very happy customers. Anson is the visionary behind Up.
Anson is passionate about the intersection between creativity and technology and is a strong advocate for a customer-first approach to product design. Combining an instinctive creative ability with a deep technical and strategic understanding, Anson has a long track record in delivering exceptional products, most recently working with technology start-ups in Australia and San Francisco after earlier stints at News Limited and Optus.
Lucinda Burtt (Facebook)
Product Design Manager, Facebook
Lucinda has been shaping design teams for more than 10 years. She currently supports a team of product designers and design program managers at Facebook working on tools to enable design at scale. A common theme across her work is finding the gnarly problems to solve, coaching resiliency and encouraging truly collaborative ways of working between design and development. Previously at Symplicit and Commonwealth Bank of Australia, she spent her formative years at Fairfax Media (now Nine Entertainment) in commercial innovation and product design for flagship news sites.
Lodewijk de Graauw (Freshstream)
Head of Portfolio Operations, Freshstream
Lodewijk de Graauw is a partner and Head of Portfolio Operations for Freshstream, a London-based mid-market private equity fund. Previously, Lodewijk was a partner at Bain & Company, where he led the European turn-around practice. He also worked in India (Delhi) and Australia (Perth), where he was a founding member of both offices. During his time in Perth he was a member of PetRescue’s Advisory Board. Lodewijk started his career as an entrepreneur, having owned and operated several start-up companies. He graduated from Tilburg University with two Masters’ degrees (cum laude) in Economics and Computer science, and earned his M.B.A. with distinction from INSEAD.
Sector experts
Dr Tim Adams BVSc (Hons) MBA
Business Development Manager
Guide Dogs Victoria
Tim has worked in a broad cross-section of roles within animal-related organisations including practising veterinarian, communications, retail, events, non-profit, welfare, membership associations and most recently at Guide Dogs Victoria. In addition to the animals themselves, Tim has always had an interest in the relationship between people and animals and the effects that each can have on the other - sometimes positive, sometimes not. Tim lives in Melbourne with his wife and two daughters, and a range of companion animals.
Nell Thompson
G2Z Program, Animal Shelter, Welfare and Management Consultant
Nell has worked in the animal welfare, care and veterinary sectors for over 20 years and was the Victorian G2Z representative in the first few years of the program. She is the current Secretary of the Australian Institute for Animal Management Committee.
Abbie Moore (Adopt a Pet USA)
Chief Operating Officer, Chief Product Officer at Adopt-a-Pet.com
Abbie is the Chief Product Officer and Chief Operating Officer at Adopt-a-Pet.com, one of the top industry leaders in the North American pet acquisition space, with millions of unique visitors and over 270,000 adoptable pets on the platform. Most recently, Abbie spearheaded the creation of Rehome, a groundbreaking product that facilitates peer-to-peer pet adoptions.
Abbie is passionate about no-holds-barred innovation and loves to find the sweet spot where customer value and business goals intersect. She’s a proponent of Lean Startup methodology, and has been written about by Eric Ries (she also contributed to Eric’s book The Startup Way). She specializes in organizational and product strategy and loves the OKR goal-setting framework.
Mia Cobb
Animal welfare science researcher & consultant
Dr Mia Cobb is a research fellow at the University of Melbourne's Animal Welfare Science Centre. Mia's research has explored human attitudes, animal housing and management practices, animal behaviour, stress physiology, citizen science, how animal welfare relates to the sustainability of animal-based industries, and all things dog. She is currently interested in how the intersections of animal welfare science, human psychology, science communication, and emerging technologies can help animals and people lead happier lives. Mia lives with a large mutt named Rudy.