The next generation of influential Victorians
The young Victorians shaping as the stars of the future who will influence and make an impact in the next 30 years.
Victoria
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Dylan Alcott, wheelchair tennis champion, speaker.
A 11-time Grand Slam winner including the last six Australian Open wheelchair singles titles, plus won gold medals at the Rio and Beijing Paralympic Games in tennis and basketball. The 29-year-old from Hampton is also a motivational speaker and a radio host on Triple J. Established the Dylan Alcott Foundation to help young people with disabilities.
Sianna Catullo – Fashion advocate.
The 2020 Young Victorian Achiever of the Year nominee advocates for Aboriginal voices to be elevated and celebrated. Catullo, 23, is the creative force behind the Melbourne-based social enterprise Clothing The Gap which sells merchandise and provides education on social issues relating to Aboriginal Australians, with all profits supporting Indigenous communities.
Indi Clark – Indigenous leader.
Clark is a proud Muttai Mutti, Wemba Wemba, Boon Wurrung and Lardil man, originally from Mildura, who is now the Koorie Youth Council executive officer and has become a powerful advocate on Indigenous welfare and health issues across Victoria. Clark also won Mildura Rural City Council’s Young Citizen of the Year and Koorie Student of the Year awards.
Anthony Eisen – Financial technology trailblazer.
Eisen is the Melbourne half of the “buy now, pay later” platform Afterpay. More than 25,300 retailers and 7.3 million consumers around the world now use the service, which has grown even larger thanks to online shopping during the pandemic. Eisen is the chief executive of a company that is worth more than $29 billion in Australia alone.
Andy Fergus – Urban designer.
Fergus is one of the leading lights in urban design and creative city spaces. He has worked with the City of Melbourne’s civic design team, and is founding co-director of Melbourne Architours and studio leader at Melbourne School of Design.
Phoebe Gardner/Alex Arnold – Food innovators.
Out of the successful Melbourne Accelerator Program the pair’s Beyond Ag innovative circular-food system uses insects to consume food waste and then turns that insect protein into animal feed. The low-key enterprise has expanded to a new base in Footscray with work already under way to produce pet food and organic fertiliser from the insect matter.
Tim Gurner – Property mogul.
Founder of property development company Gurner, which specialises in ultra-luxurious apartments and launched in 2013. The Melbourne company has more than 20 projects, and has just secured planning approval for its $1 billion-plus Fisherman’s Bend tower precinct. Gurner began with one gym in Elwood 15 years ago and now catapulted his personal worth to about $500 million.
Tayla Harris – AFLW star, boxer
Harris is more than a two-time All Australian football player for Carlton. The famous “The Kick” image of her taking a shot for goal in 2019 has now been immortalised in bronze and, still just 23, she has become a trailblazer for women’s equality in sport. Also holds a 7-0-1 record in boxing and is the fourth-best active female middleweight boxer in the world.
Ahmed Hassan – Youth leader.
The director of Youth Activating Youth, a not-for-profit organisation helping young people with education and employment, Hassan, 23, is a respected leader in his community. Hassan also helped struggling families during coronavirus – even after contracting the virus himself and ended up in the hospital COVID unit. He has also worked on the Multicultural Youth Network and the African Australian Community Taskforce.
Bao Hoang – Food entrepreneur.
Hoang is founder and chief executive of the Roll’d Vietnamese eatery chain which now has 82 outlets and generates $75 million in sales every year. From a refugee family, Hoang, 38, and his mates set up the first Roll’d outlet in 2012 out of his love of his mum’s race paper rolls.
Effie Kats – Fashion designer.
After being dropped by a brand designer, Kats launched her namesake label in 2018 and business has boomed, becoming synonymous with bespoke pieces which celebrate every body. Kats’s designs are now go-to pieces for the racecourse and on screen, with Kelly Rowland, Carrie Bickmore, Moana Hope and Nicole Sherzinger all spotted in her custom designs. Has now also set up Bayse, a line of everyday basics.
Owen Kerr – Foreign exchange trader.
A country boy from Gippsland, Kerr and Brit Joe Davenport created a start-up in 2008 called Pepperstone which became a disrupter in the foreign exchange world, by processing transactions faster and cheaper, and serving thousands of clients from up to 70 countries. Kerr, now 36, runs the business out of its Collins St headquarters, processing billions of dollars each day.
Dr Skye Kinder – Rural health advocate.
The 2019 Young Victorian of the Year from Bendigo was honoured for her work in championing more support, training and services for rural doctors and medical specialists. The registrar psychiatrist helped patients and health workers mental health issues during the pandemic. And last month she was elected as vice-president of Rural Doctors Association of Victoria.
Bronwyn King – Oncologist, anti-tobacco campaigner.
A radiation oncologist, King is also founder of Tobacco Free Portfolios, a not-for-profit organisation that has created tobacco-free finance policies for more than 40 Australian superannuation companies and steered more than $12 billion away from tobacco companies. King was named 2019 Melburnian of the Year for her work with Tobacco-Free Portfolios. The former elite swimmer was also team doctor for the Australian swimming team for 10 years.
Ruslan Kogan – Online entrepreneur.
The 37-year-old behind Kogan and other e-commerce businesses, the Belarus-born trailblazer who grew up in Elsternwick public housing has created an empire worth billions. In 2006 he founded Kogan.com when he left his job at Accenture to sell cut-price flat-screen TVs. The company was listed on the Australian stockmarket 10 years later, at $1.80 a share, but now they are worth about $20.
Tan Le – Telco entrepreneur.
Former Vietnamese refugee and 1998 Young Australian of the Year Tan Le co-founded leading Silicon Valley bioinformatics company Emotiv in 2009. A pioneer of the emerging field of brain-computer interface where headsets read brainwaves to control virtual objects such as items on a computer screen. Her work is perhaps best summed up by her viral Ted Talk “A Headset That Reads Your Brainwaves” which has had 2.7 million views.
Zara McDonald and Michelle Andrews – Podcasters, authors.
In 2018, the two Melbourne journalists created the pop-culture podcast Shameless, which has now been downloaded more than 15 million times. The aim was to produce a podcast for “smart people who love dumb stuff’. Their rapid success and now 200-odd podcasts led the 26-year-olds to launch Shameless Media, and release their first book The Space Between earlier this year.
Jackson Meyer - Logistics entrepreneur.
Meyer launched his first start-up at age 22 when he had barely finished business school. Now the founder and chief executive of Verus Global logistics was ranked in the top “30 Under 30” entrepreneurs in industry, manufacturing and energy across Asia by business magazine Forbes. Now just two years later, his operation now has 14 sites around the world and 53 staff.
Clare O’Neil - Federal Labor MP
Elected to the southeast Melbourne federal seat of Hotham in 2013 at just age 32, O’Neil is seen as a key figure in the future of the Labor Party. Currently the Shadow Minister for Innovation, Technology and the Future of Work, O’Neil is also passionate about economics, law and Indigenous issues after living for nine months in Arnhem Land with her partner in 2011.
Georgina Oxley – City of Kingston Mayor.
Youngest female mayor to be elected to a council in Australian history when she was sworn in at 23 years and four months in 2018. Was re-elected as mayor the following year, and contested last month’s council elections again. A Chelsea resident, she began the council’s first ever family violence prevention plan in 2019.
Scott Pape – Financial advice guru.
Successful author of best-selling Barefoot Investor books on how to manage personal finances, Pape has steered thousands down the path of personal finance knowledge and economic security. His latest book aims to help children learn about financial literacy. He was thrown his own personal challenge when his family home in Romsey burnt down during bushfires in 2014.
Nick Pearce – Social enterprise retailer.
Pearce was just 21, when he and Marcus Crook co-founded Fitzroy-based HoMie streetwear brand, a social enterprise which sends all profits towards supporting young people affected by homelessness or hardship. The success earnt Pearce a Young Achiever of the Year for Leadership in 2017.
Yasmin Poole – Youth advocate.
Unashamedly outspoken, Poole is an award-winning speaker, writer and youth advocate. Described as a “human megaphone for Gen Z”, Poole already has a suite of accomplishments, consulting and engaging in youth politics. Was named the Victorian Government Joan Kirner Young and Emerging Woman Leader in 2018
Ben Simmons, NBA basketballer.
Simmons was the No. 1 pick in the 2015 NBA draft and has since been a two-time All Star and NBA Rookie of the Year. Known for his incredible defence and was the league-leader in the steals this season. Signed a five year deal with the Philadelphia 76ers that is worth $170 million. A genuine hoops superstar.
Steph Claire Smith & Laura Henshaw – Online fitness and health promoters.
The duo’s online program Keep It Cleaner has become a popular fitness companion for a community of health-conscious women since its launch in 2018 by offering thousands of downloaders workout plans, recipes, goal setting and run tracker functions. Smith was one of the original “fitspo” Instagram idols when her online workouts in 2013 took off.
Aaron Smith – Pilates franchise boss.
Since launching his first studio in 2010 in Melbourne, Smith’s KX pilates has risen to cult like status in Australia and overseas, with more than 68 studios now open. Pre-Covid, the franchise was turning over $20 million, making it one of the most profitable fitness businesses in Australia.
Adelene Teh – Architect.
Teh is co-founder of boutique property development firm, Beulah International which launched Australia’s first development with its own off-leash dog park. Teh was raised in Malaysia before completing her Master’s degree in architecture at the University of Melbourne.
Chantel Thornton – Breast cancer surgeon.
Known for enhancing patient experience and her signature pink branding, Thornton has a special interest in maximising cosmetic results with breast cancer surgery. She now leads the Epworth Hospital multidisciplinary breast cancer team, driven by her personal connections and a family history of the disease which affected three aunts, a grandmother and great grandmother.
Siobhan Tobin (physicist, Rhodes scholar)
Hailing from Buninyong, Tobin worked with the Physics Olympiad Program for several years, teaching science to high-school students. Now a Rhodes Scholar completing her PHD in condensed matter physics at Oxford University’s Quantum Material’s research group.
Ally Watson – IT advocate.
The Code Like a Girl founder, originally from Scotland, was a software developer who then created a leading technology school offering female coding camps, courses, internships and events.
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