e-Learning Pioneer Shane Hill receives 2020 ACT Chief Minister’s Pearcey Entrepreneur Award

The Pearcey Foundation today announced Shane Hill, founder of Skoolbo as this year’s recipient of the ACT Chief Minister’s Pearcey Entrepreneur Award. The award was presented by Senator (retd) Kate Lundy representing the ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr at the Pearcey Round Table 2020 event in Canberra.

The Pearcey Award recognises entrepreneurs “for taking a risk, making a difference and inspiring others in the development of the Australian Information and Communications Technology industry”.

Shane Hill is also the founder and creator of Mathletics, Spellodrome, World Maths Day, Skoolbo, da Vinci Decathlon and now Storyathon and Writing Legends. Collectively, these learning communities have been used by tens of millions of students worldwide. Shane was a gifted student and champion international chess player. His early career as a school teacher followed multiple degrees from UNSW, Macquarie University as well as Sydney University before starting his own business including creating these two remarkable learning platforms: 

• Skoolbo is an award-winning learning program for four- to ten-year-olds. It contains over 10,000 activities in reading, phonics, spelling, numeracy, languages, science, financial literacy, art, music and brain games.
• Storyathon encourages students to write stories that are precisely 100 words in length. They are tiny narratives challenging students to tighten their language, experiment with words and focus their message. 

“Shane has made a significant contribution to online education.  Mathletics is one of the few acceptable screen time activities that my grandsons are allowed,” reflected Brand Hoff, Chair of Pearcey ACT.  “I am certain that during COVID lockdown thousands of families have made even greater use of Skoolbo, Mathletics and the other educational sites created by Shane. He is a well-deserved winner of the 2020 ACT Chief Minister Pearcey Award.” 

As the Pearcey ACT Award recipient, Shane Hill will represent the Territory in the National Entrepreneur Awards as a key part of Pearcey’s Annual National Medal and Hall of Fame presentations (see below for details).

The Pearcey Foundation would like to acknowledge the ongoing support of the ACT Government and the Chief Minister Andrew Barr for sponsoring and participating in this prestigious ICT award.

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

Other State Awards

NSW: to be presented on 13 October at the NSW Startup Hub. Nominations are still open. For more information, go to https://pearcey.org.au/nsw. It will follow the Pearcey Conversation entitled "Celebrating Women's contribution to Australia's computing industry" - to be held on Ada Lovelace Day, Tuesday 13 October 2020; 1.00pm - 5.00pm AEST with the support of the Tech Girls Movement Foundation. Speakers include: Ann Moffatt; Alison Harcourt; Helen Vorrath and Judithe Sheard. More details on this event coming soon.

QLD: to be held on 6 October at St Lucia Golf Club, Hillstone – event sponsored by ICEMEDIA and TechnologyOne. See further https://pearcey.org.au/qld.

SA: nominations are now open for the 2020 South Australian Pearcey Entrepreneur Award. A ‘virtual’ award event will be held during October. See further https://pearcey.org.au/sa. 

TAS: nominations are now open for the 2020 Tasmanian Pearcey Entrepreneur Award. A ‘virtual’ award event will be held during October. See further https://pearcey.org.au/tas.

VIC: the 2020 Victorian Pearcey Entrepreneur Award was presented to CEO of Blackmagic Design Grant Petty (https://prwire.com.au/pr/91649/world-leading-innovator-of-creative-technologies-receives-the-2020-victorian-pearcey-entrepreneur-award) 

WA: to be presented as part of the 2020 Lateral INCITE Honorary Awards in late October. Nominations are now open. The INCITE Awards are Western Australia's premier awards event in the ICT industry. The awards, aiming to showcase ICT brilliance are powered by the Western Australian Information Technology and Telecommunications Alliance (WAITTA). For more information on the WA Pearcey Awards, see https://pearcey.org.au/wa.

National Pearcey Awards

2020 Pearcey Medal, Hall of Fame and National Entrepreneur of the Year Awards will be presented on Thursday 19 November 2020; 6:00pm - 9:30pm in Sydney. Details on the planned dinner celebration are still to be confirmed, subject to COVID-19 restrictions. See further https://pearcey.org.au/national-awards.

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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