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Geoff Rohrsheim wins South Australia’s 2017 Pearcey Award

Announcement posted by Pearcey Foundation 27 Sep 2017

QLD and NSW Tech Entrepreneur of the Year Award winners still to be decided
The Pearcey Foundation today announced the winner of the 2017 South Australian Pearcey Entrepreneur Award. The award was presented to Kloud Solutions co-founder Geoff Rohrsheim at an Australian Computer Society (ACS) Leaders luncheon held on Wednesday 20 September in Adelaide.

In announcing the award, Rick Harvey, Head Judge of the Pearcey Foundation, noted that Rohrsheim is an outstanding serial entrepreneur demonstrating his innovative skills not just in South Australia, but also nationally and internationally. “The Pearcey Award is more than just for success, as it is also for peer recognition by other outstanding Australian entrepreneurs who have taken a risk, made a difference and are an inspiration to others,” said Mr Harvey.

Apart from revealing the winner of the SA Pearcey Award, the ACS event highlight was a presentation from the City of Adelaide’s Chief Information Officer, Peter Auhl, on the importance of the Ten Gigabit City network. Mr Auhl was then joined by a panel of government and industry leaders to discuss the benefits of the network to the South Australian economy.

“The exciting and groundbreaking innovation of Adelaide’s Ten Gigabit City network was the perfect backdrop to the Pearcey Award announcement, and the recognition of Geoff Rohrsheim’s contributions to the local tech industry over many years,” continued Mr Harvey.

“I am delighted to be selected for this award, especially as this is a peer recognition award by so many other outstanding entrepreneurs in Australia,” said Mr Rohrsheim on accepting the Pearcey Award.

A native of Adelaide, Rohrsheim has had a typical entrepreneur’s diverse education and business experience. Commencing his career in the military, he studied Aeronautical Engineering at RMIT (ADFA) in the late 1980s followed by a Master’s degree at the University of Adelaide in the early 1990s.

After leaving the defence forces in the early 1990s Rohrsheim started his consulting career in Melbourne before returning to Adelaide where has started (and sold) several businesses including Strategic Data Management (SDM) and Kloud Solutions. His latest efforts have seen him start three new companies: exposé: Data Exposed, Hatch Creations and Cevo, as well as sustaining his eHealth interests via Chamonix a company he started with colleague Jamie Potter, and ASX-listed Alcidion – a health tech business of which he is a board member. Rohrsheim also mentors many younger entrepreneurs in all of these businesses.

Rohrsheim is actively promoting and helping South Australian business more generally as a director at Business SA, which is the chamber of commerce with 4,000 SA businesses, the Royal Automobile Association of South Australia (RAA) and RAA Insurance.

For more information about the 2017 South Australian Pearcey Entrepreneur Award, go to https://pearcey.org.au/2017-sa-award.

Other State Awards

A number of other State Awards have already been announced:

ACT: the joint winners were Mark Riley, co-founder and CTO of ContentKeeper and Phillip Williamson, co-founder and Chief Innovator at Intelledox.

VIC: the winners were husband and wife team Collis and Cyan Ta'eed, co-founders, owners and managers of Envato, a major global marketplace for creative assets and creative people based in Melbourne.

WA: WA’s inaugural Pearcey State Award was presented to ICT startup mentor and leader Matthew Macfarlane.

The QLD winner will be announced at an event on 4 October 2017, and the NSW winner on 24 October 2017 at a networking function in Sydney.

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 and on Twitter: @Pearcey_org