2018 Cohort

Katie Liew – Underground Collaborative

After spending the better part of a decade in large mining and resources corporations, Katie decided to take time off and travel to Africa and developing countries where she was able to grasp the meaning of poverty in its truest sense, and rediscover her passion for volunteering and NFPs.

All the wrong turns she’d made in her career as an accountant was soon discovered to be a blessing in disguise, and now dedicates her time to starting up The Underground Collaborative.

The Underground Collaborative exists to create employment opportunities and housing solutions for the homeless, at-risk and disadvantaged, through collaborating with relevant industries, government and social services, and our community.

Fiona Bettesworth – Real Indonesia

Fiona is a young Australian social entrepreneur passionate about building the bilateral relationship between Indonesia and Australia through tourism. Fiona speaks Indonesian and has travelled extensively throughout the Indonesian archipelago. She wants to help Western travellers to be able to experience the real Indonesia. Fiona also has a professional focus on community development and currently works in that field in Australia whilst developing Real Indonesia.

Real Indonesia Pty Ltd is an Australian company connecting curious, conscious travellers to authentic travel experiences in Indonesia beyond the tourist strips of Bali. They partner directly with local non-profits and small businesses to deliver these experiences and aim to support sustainable tourism and local economic development throughout the Indonesian archipelago.

Emily Goodger – Makers to Market

Emily is an aspiring entrepreneur and passionate about social enterprise. Makers to Market is an e-commerce platform that features a collection of fair trade homeware and lifestyle products. Each product is hand-made and shares a story about the maker, their community and culture. Makers to Market aims to create meaningful trade opportunities for makers in underprivileged communities, provide greater employment and skills development opportunities and increase awareness about human rights issues, poverty and labour standards. The model encourages consumers to think carefully about the provenance, manufacturing process and materials of the products they purchase.

Karen Wellington – Fair Rideshare

As a systems change catalyst, Karen builds up people and the connections between them, for a better planet. A 2017 Westpac Social Change Fellow, alumni of the UWA Social Impact Program, and leader of the Fogarty Foundation’s CoderDojo WA program, she has led the grassroots development of over 100 computer programming clubs for families throughout Western Australia, partnering with schools, libraries and corporates such as Bankwest, Woodside, Deloitte and PwC. For her Masters in Community Development she is currently asking the question: “how can we use technology to support the resilience of social-ecological systems?”

Karen’s leading a team developing Perth’s first rideshare service to provide an ethical alternative to Uber, for Western Australians who believe in humanity and a fair go. By using blockchain and a platform cooperative model, Fair Rideshare will enable drivers to become owners of the service. Karen’s vision is a future where technology is used to humanise our work, support connections and enable local resilience.

Haweya Ismail – Mud and Musk

Haweya is the founder of MUD & MUSK, an ecommerce platform for customisable DIY skincare. In 2016 MUD & MUSK was selected against 150 applicants as the winner of Bschool’s Idea Nation competition, receiving a prize of $20,000 to help launch the startup. The startup also received several other award for its novel concept and its focus on social impact.

The MUD & MUSK platform launched June last year and has since sold over 1200 DIY kits. Their main activity is sourcing raw ingredients ethically and sustainably from farmers in developing communities that is then made available for customers to create customisable skincare products. The platform aims to cater to the growing amount of consumers looking for more personalised, organic and traceable skincare – while also maximizing social impact by reducing barriers farmers face in gaining access to these markets.

Prior to running MUD & MUSK, Haweya worked as a Research Analyst for Perth think tank Future Directions International. She was also previously Global Voices Youth Delegate for the World Bank and IMF Annual Meetings in Washington DC.

Pete Winn – Karmapay

Pete is the founder of KarmaPay, a company with a mission to add social impact into every financial transaction on the planet. Pete migrated to Australia from the UK seven years ago and fell in love with the beautiful city of Perth, with a decade and half of consulting under his belt, Pete decide to leave that all behind and focus on a values led business that drives social impact.

KarmaPay lets you vote with your dollars. You buy what you want and instead of a bank taking the transaction fee, KarmaPay uses the proceeds to invest in impact assets around the world. We build schools and sponsor scholarships then use blockchain technology to show you exactly where the money and through your personal impact portfolio.

You walk into a bar and pay on your phone, you’re phone beeps, those drinks just closed funding on a school in Cambodia. 10,000 children are about to receive a free education and your friend asks why you’re smiling? You start a conversation and realise you’re part of something big.

Stephanie Dowden – 100’s and 1000’s

Stephanie has over 25 years of experience in children’s healthcare, in NZ, Australia and the UK. She spent 8 years as the lead nurse in the Children’s Pain Management Service at Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne and co-authored a textbook on children’s pain. Stephanie moved to WA in 2007 and set up the statewide children’s Palliative Care service at Princess Margaret Hospital, working as the lead nurse for 8 years before moving to a teaching role at Curtin University. Since July 2017, she has been working in a community setting in Cockburn and has become increasingly concerned about the widening gap between rich and poor and the impact on children’s health.

Existing health and welfare support systems have limitations for very vulnerable women. They are reliant on women accessing existing health structures, such as GP and Child Health Nurses that are often task focussed, inflexible and time poor. Unfortunately, these services are not well set up to support women with higher needs, who are transient and have multiple competing demands on their time.
100s and 1000s is an innovative program for pregnant or newly parenting women who have challenges in their lives. It delivers comprehensive pregnancy support, child health and mental health care alongside social support. Unlike other health services, 100s and 1000s offers essential personalised continuity of care for the first 1000 days when, where and how women and their children need it.

Alina Racu – Localtribe.io

Localtribe is a platform enabling repurposing of un-used commercial, government and community spaces for community-building initiatives. It is focused on recreating local communities and enabling sustainable smart cities by reducing unnecessary traffic through promoting live-local-work-local communities. The platform is adaptive and community-centric, allowing people to connect around sharing spaces, places and services within their community.

John Forfar – Tradr

John Forfar is the Founder and CEO of Tradr, a startup bringing immutable data tracking, reporting and analytics to recycled material flow. Prior to Tradr, John has been leading technical teams in the telecommunications, military and mining industries for 15 years. He is a big believer in technology bringing innovation and has immersed in startup culture through completion of MEGA NSW, Founder Institute and now Impact Spark accelerators. He is now completing his Master of Business Administration at University of Western Australia and looking forward to visiting Silicon Valley this August as part of his cohort’s International Study Program.

Tradr’s mission is to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable consumption and production. Its blockchain-based RFID tag-enabled waste reprocessing platform is a world-first that enables stakeholders throughout the waste supply chain – from consumers, councils, government, and waste recyclers – to track, manage and ultimately enable the reprocessing of all waste, including mixed paper and plastics that have become such a visible and serious problem for our communities and the global environment.