Wollongong's Natalie Chapman is celebrating her business gemaker being named 2017 Telstra Business Award finalist.
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The Illawarra based technology transfer business focusses on taking new technologies to market and has been recognised in the micro-business category.
By promoting technology transfer from the lab into the world of commerce, gemaker helps to create and grow Australian industries and jobs, as well as enhancing the lives of all Australians with new and improved products and services.
Mrs Chapman is the managing director and said she was honoured to be named a finalist because the Telstra Business Award represents business excellence in Australi.
“The nomination is a great acknowledgment of all the staff whose tireless innovation and grit have helped to grow gemaker over the past five years,” she said.
“We hope that any recognition from this honour will shine a light on the work we do which is of national importance helping researchers, start-ups and innovative organsiations bring innovative products and services to market”.
“While our core purpose is to help grow Australian industries by promoting the commercialisation of Australian technology”.
“At gemaker, we believe in supporting the health of our ecosystem, not just our company. We hope that this opportunity will boost our ability to continue giving back to our community. We believe an ethical approach to business should include investing heavily in our core values which, for gemaker, include supporting women in STEM, young STEM entrepreneurship, and flexible work for work-life balance for our team.”
Mrs Chapman believes being named a finalist is a great validation of the importance of gemaker’s work in accelerating the commercialisation of Australian innovation and the company’s culture.
The Telstra Business Awards are Australia’s premier business award program. They recognise and reward the innovation of Australia’s most outstanding small and medium businesses.
“We would like to thank all our clients and the extended gemaker family, as well as congratulate the other finalists,” Mrs Chapman said.
The NSW awards ceremony will take place on July 18.
About gemaker:
Founded in 2011 when Natalie Chapman took a leap of faith out of a public research agency (ANSTO) into her own business.
The inspiration came from an Innovation and Entrepreneurship class in her MBA studies, and strongly supported by co-founder Athena Prib who joined her from New South Innovations at UNSW. With more than a decade’s experience in research commercialisation, and knowing that technology transfer is generally under-resourced in Australian research organisations, they saw an opportunity to put together an agile, scalable team of experts to whom this essential work could be outsourced as needed.
Now their team offers a broad range of technical and commercial knowledge and skills to fill resource gaps, or provide the additional, concentrated power needed to achieve sufficient momentum to successfully launch an innovation into new markets. gemaker is a nexus connecting Australian researchers, inventors, startups and SMEs to funding, industry partners and customers.
Since its inception, gemaker has grown from strength to strength, successfully making its mark in this competitive world of innovation and technology. This is reflected in its figures which have grown from $124,000 in its first year to over $650,000 projected for 2017 with 42 clients serviced, including research organisations, government departments, SME’s and start-ups.
Greg Ellis
Almost four decades in electronic, print and digital media. A writer, presenter, emcee, photographer and videographer with degrees in business management, marketing and human resources and tertiary qualifications in photography.
Almost four decades in electronic, print and digital media. A writer, presenter, emcee, photographer and videographer with degrees in business management, marketing and human resources and tertiary qualifications in photography.
