ICC team

As Associate Director of the ICC, and Community Leader for Ignite SA, Jasmine is responsible for exploring new and more effective ways of doing business every day.

For more than six years, she has led the UniSA’s flagship startup initiative, Venture Catalyst. Under her watch in 2016, the program received two Knowledge Transfer of Australia awards for ‘Best Entrepreneurial Initiative’ and ‘People's Choice Award’.

Leading a team of highly skilled staff who are passionate about bringing innovation to life, Jasmine is inspired by fostering communication and collaboration between talented graduates and entrepreneurs with innovative ideas and those with the experience to help new businesses launch and existing businesses to flourish.

With a focus on managing support programs for startups and uncovering new means of support within the university, her team has facilitated many industry focused education, workshops and events to further encourage progress.

She has been instrumental in driving and supporting a wide range of entrepreneurial initiatives within the University of South Australia, resulting in the development of a new incubator and accelerator program in the space sector. The South Australian Space Industry Centre committed $3.6M in support over a four-year period commencing in 2018 to the creation and support of startups in this field.

Prior to this role, Jasmine gained more than 15 years of policy and program experience, working in both the higher education and State Government sectors in innovation and technology knowledge transfer units. Her management of both entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship in both the UK and Australia are testament to her ability to effectively unite multiple stakeholders to deliver strong partnerships that deliver exceptional results in innovation.

As Project Lead at the ICC, Craig is instrumental in ensuring that the best possible outcomes are reached for all internal and external stakeholders. His passion for building teams and fostering relationships make him the ideal person to drive innovation as he is a natural at tapping into the potential of everyone he meets.

Craig’s expertise in planning and delivering complex projects helps to bring order to the rapidly growing scope of the ICC. His ability to manage projects, programs and events enable entrepreneurs and startups to thrive in this community. It is testament to his mantra that communication is the key to successful project delivery.

With over 15 years' international project management experience, Craig has a broad skill set. His career highlights include spearheading international relations at Olympics and the World Economic Forum, as well as managing overseas trade mission on behalf of government. Proving he is truly multiskilled, Craig also bakes a remarkable biscuit.

Georgia brings a passion for writing and storytelling to her role as the Marketing, Communications and Project Officer for UniSA’s ICC.

Georgia’s ability to engage a wide range of stakeholders is based on her experience working in the corporate, not-for-profit and higher education sectors. She specialises in managing both proactive and reactive media enquiries, creative PR campaigns, proofing and editing, corporate communications, and brand and marketing management.

More than eight years working in communications roles has seen Georgia greatly develop her flair for writing and editing and hone her passion for exceptional customer service and attention to detail.

Her ability to write for different mediums and audiences has seen Georgia’s content published in sectors including aged-care, local government, sport, not-for-profit, health, business and research.

Georgia manages the ICC’s marketing team including the digital and social media officers and loves to keep the office spirits high.

Julia Collins has been working at UniSA since 2016 and joined the ICC team in July 2018 to provide administration and project support. Previously working as an Executive Assistant working in both Adelaide and United Kingdom, Julia brings to the team a wealth of administrative experience in various sectors including education, investment management, finance and engineering.

Alex Ferrabetta is the brains behind all things digital for the ICC. He began working at the ICC in 2018 after previous roles for the University’s digital teams working on marketing automation, web authoring and creative marketing collateral.

Alex also has his own startup as a co-founder of video game studio, Melonhead Games working as an Environment and Graphic Artist, utilizing both his marketing knowledge and digital skills.

He has a Diploma of Screen and Media, an Advanced Diploma of Interactive and Digital Media and a Bachelor of Creative Arts, Digital Media.

As the ICC's social media officer, Miranda is responsible for planning, implementing and monitoring the ICC and Ignite SA’s social media strategy. Insatiably curious about the ever-changing world of social media, Miranda loves nothing more than creatively connecting with audiences to share the Ignite SA journey.

Since graduating from UniSA’s Bachelor of Communication and Media in 2018, Miranda has worked on numerous social media projects for UniSA's Match Studio, School of Creative Industries, Open Day, the Innovation & Collaboration Centre and The Duke of York’s Pitch@Palace event.

Denni has 10 years’ experience engaging regional communities. She has managed a range of programs including collaborating with not for profits, schools, local and state government, community organisations and Traditional Owner groups. Denni has a passion for regional communities and through her role as the Community Program Coordinator for the Regional ICC she aims to create a space to empower regional innovators to compete on a global scale.

Denni graduated from UniSA’s Bachelor of Sustainable Environments with Honours in 2012. Prior to this role she worked in natural resource management and state government sectors as a result she has lived and worked in some of the most beautiful parts of the country.

Kirk Drage is CEO and co-founder of LeapSheep, a subscription advisory and startup building platform revolutionizing the rate of startup success. Drage’s career has been driven by three keen interests; deep technology, global business models and human psychology. He spent 12 years with Microsoft, ultimately based in Singapore as Head of Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital Relations for Asia Pacific managing a team responsible for a portfolio of 20 innovation centres and 8000 startups across the region. More recently, he has been developing artificial intelligence products and services at startups in Silicon Valley before returning home to Adelaide in 2015 to launch LeapSheep – a platform for founders and early stage investors, with a vision to “transform the rates of startup success”.

Drage is also an early stage angel investor with a passion for empowering people with the abilities to develop global companies, create jobs, distribute wealth and generate positive social impact.

Media release August 2018:
ICC appoints first Entrepreneur in Residence

Richard Turner is a renowned Australian entrepreneur, leader and innovator. He has founded four successful companies across four different industry sectors, was South Australian Entrepreneur of the Year for two of those companies (14 years apart 1996 & 2010) and Australian Entrepreneur of the Year for the Cleantech sector in 2010. His most recent venture, ZEN Energy was recognised as the fastest growing company in South Australia for 2010 & 2011 and the fourth fastest growing company in Australia in 2012 (BRW magazine). Richard is a specialist in re-invention and industry disruption, he is passionate about sustainability and wants to ideally assist companies that are driving change for the better, believe in their purpose and add value to future generations.

Media release October 2019:
Top SA entrepreneur to join Australia’s university of Enterprise