2022 Queensland Pearcey ICT Entrepreneur Award Recognises Two Award-winning Female Entrepreneurs

The Pearcey Foundation today announced Rebecca McDonald, founder and CEO of Library for All, and Sarah-Jane Peterschlingmann, managing director and owner of ATech, as joint recipients of the 2022 Queensland ICT Entrepreneur of the Year Award. 

The awards were presented in Brisbane by Jill Martin, Director of Start Up & Scale Up Programs, Department of Tourism, Innovation and Sport at an event hosted by Monica Bradley.

The Queensland Pearcey Awards recognise outstanding ICT professionals who have demonstrated innovation, taken risks, made a difference and are an inspiration to others in the industry and the wider community. Nominees for the award this year alongside Rebecca McDonald and Sarah-Jane Peterschlingmann were Ali Stokes, Anna Harrison, Britnee Chamberlain, Justin Falk, Maree Beare, Matt Kirby, Petriea Skitek, Tim Hadwen and Thomas Dowling.

Rebecca McDonald

 “As founder and inaugural CEO of the non-profit Library for All, now part of Save the Children Australia, Rebecca's team delivers digital education programs in 14 countries, including Vietnam, Laos, Papua New Guinea and Ukraine. They currently reach over six hundred thousand children every day,” said Paul Gampe, Chair of Pearcey QLD.

Rebecca is an award-winning global authority on the nexus of technology and education for low-connectivity environments. She has spent the last decade leading a team of literacy advocates, authors, technologists, and change-makers focused on supplying digital books and educational products for millions of children disconnected from traditional publishing and educational ecosystems.  Rebecca’s expertise spans technology-based educational tools for remote communities, software as a service (SaaS) product development, digital-first publishing and distribution of illustrated children’s books, and strategic planning for Save the Children’s global technology and development initiatives. An entrepreneurial humanitarian at heart, Rebecca commits her life to the belief that reading is a basic human right.

Sarah-Jane Peterschlingmann

“Starting as a web developer, Sarah-Jane helped to grow ATech from humble beginnings to multi-million dollar revenues and an impressive list of high-calibre clients including airlines, software as a service companies, and all levels of government. ATech provides military-grade Australian cloud hosting, managed services, and web development through its flagship 'X as a Service' product offering,” said Gampe.

Sarah-Jane is managing director and owner of ATech, an international award-winning company that delivers cloud hosting and web development for mission critical websites. Sarah also held seats on the Central Queensland University ICT Advisory Board, plus the Australian Computer Society (ACS) and Women In Technology (WIT) executive committees.  Sarah-Jane holds a Bachelor of Information Technology majoring in Artificial Intelligence from Central Queensland University and an Executive MBA from the Quantic School of Business and Technology.

The Pearcey Foundation would like to acknowledge the support and sponsorship of TechnologyOne and Soda without whom the gala event would not have been able to take place.

As Pearcey QLD Award recipients, Rebecca McDonald and Sarah-Jane Peterschlingmann will represent the State in the National Entrepreneur Awards as a key part of Pearcey’s Annual National Medal and Hall of Fame presentations (see below for details).

For more information about previous QLD Pearcey Entrepreneur Award winners, go to https://pearcey.org.au/qld. 

Other State Awards

ACT Awards: the ACT Award was presented to Instaclustr co-founders Ben Bromhead and Adam Zegelin at an event in Canberra. See the full announcement at: https://prwire.com.au/pr/105462/delivering-more-than-the-sum-of-its-parts-instaclustr-co-founders-ben-bromhead-and-adam-zegelin-receive-2022-act-chief-ministers-pearcey-entrepreneur-award. 

NSW Awards: the NSW Awards will be held in Sydney on 31 October 2022. For more information about the event and to book, go to https://www.pearcey.org.au/community/event-rsvp/?event_id=24.

South Australian Awards: nominations can be submitted at https://www.pearcey.org.au/awards/nominations/state-nomination-form. 

Tasmanian Awards: held in conjunction with the national awards, the Tasmanian Awards are on 11 November 2022. Nominations can be submitted at https://www.pearcey.org.au/awards/nominations/state-nomination-form.

Jason Lohrey, CEO and founder of Arcitecta was announced as the 2022 Pearcey Victorian Entrepreneur Award at an event in Melbourne that also featured the 2022 Pearcey Oration, which was given by The Honourable Ed Husic MP, Federal Minister for Industry and Science. See further https://prwire.com.au/pr/105051/technology-achievement-inspired-by-the-arts-arcitectas-jason-lohrey-receives-the-2022-pearcey-victorian-entrepreneur-award.

The 2022 Western Australian Pearcey Award was presented to Global Drone Solutions’ Mahmood Hussein as part of the 31st WAITTA Incite Awards on Friday 12 August 2022. More information here: https://prwire.com.au/pr/104607/global-drone-solutions-mahmood-hussein-top-gun-in-western-australian-pearcey-awards.

National Pearcey Awards

The recipients of the prestigious 2022 Pearcey National Awards – including the Pearcey Medal, Hall of Fame and National Entrepreneur Award – will be announced at an event in Hobart on Friday 11 November. Registration details are still to be finalised.

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About the Pearcey Foundation

The Pearcey Foundation Inc. is a non-profit organisation established in 1998 to raise the profile of the Australian Information and Communications Technology (ICT) industry and profession. It was created in the memory of one of the greatest pioneers of the Australian ICT industry, Dr Trevor Pearcey. By celebrating the heroes in our industry, past, present and future, the Foundation is looking to attract and encourage young Australians into this most exciting of global, high technology sectors of our nation.

Web: www.pearcey.org.au

Twitter: @Pearcey_org #PearceyAwards

LinkedIn: Pearcey Foundation #PearceyAwards