Associate Director
As Associate Director of the ICC, 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.
Marketing, Communications and Project Officer
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.
Administration and Project Officer
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.
Digital Officer
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 co-founded local 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.
“Our state needs to compete on the world stage to create the next wave of industry defining companies – the kind of companies that bring outsized benefits in terms of social impact, wealth creation and an entire ecosystem of jobs.”
In July 2018, the ICC announced Kirk Drage as our then inaugural Entrepreneur in Residence. Drage is the Chief Executive and Co-founder of LeapSheep, a subscription advisory and startup building platform that aims to revolutionise the rate of startup success.
After 12 years at Microsoft holding many roles, including Head of Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital Relations for Asia Pacific based in Singapore, Drage spent time in Silicon Valley developing Artificial Intelligence products and services before returning home to Adelaide in 2015.
Drage wants to support passionate and committed entrepreneurs with disruptive business ideas to create the next generation of hyper-growth startups.
“What’s not to love about this role?” Drage says. “Supporting early stage startups has developed into a real passion. As an entrepreneur and investor, I’ve made my fair share of rookie mistakes, it’s both highly challenging and rewarding to help founders avoid these common pitfalls. If we can focus on making brand new mistakes, we’ll either have a chance of running the gauntlet to success or at the very least, we’ll have a potential book project titled the ‘Innovative New Ways to Kill Your Startup’,” Drage says with a smile.
Drage met ICC Manager Jasmine Vreugdenburg after returning from the US and says he “seeks out” people like Jasmine who have “both a ‘pay it forward’ and ‘power connector’ mindset - fundamental elements to nurture the collaborative culture needed to support early stage companies”.
Vreugdenburg says Drage brings global experience and perspective to Adelaide, critical to helping new founders who are wanting to grow a globally successful and competitive business. “By growing founders here, we hope to build and maintain a culture of globally successful entrepreneurs in South Australia. Kirk understands the bigger picture and the global environment that current startups are competing in. He brings great awareness and his key networks to the startups we support in the ICC.”
Drage hopes to “support the development of investable startup companies and inspire serial founders” during his residency. “Our state needs to compete on the world stage to create the next wave of industry defining companies – the kind of companies that bring outsized benefits in terms of social impact, wealth creation and an entire ecosystem of jobs.”
