Top 20 Under 40: Young Queensland entrepreneurs taking on the world

They are young, determined and taking the business world by storm. Meet the young entrepreneurs who made the cut for this year’s Top 20 Under 40 list.

Queensland’s young entrepreneurs are taking on the world. This is the eighth year The Courier-Mail has run its annual Top 20 Under 40 list. We feature a different batch of inspiring go-getters each year. They come from all different backgrounds and industries but have a common drive to succeed.

Thomas Bexon, 39

Thomas Surfboards founder

Thomas Bexon “shaped” his first Malibu surfboard as a 14-year-old, before going on to start Noosa-based Thomas Surfboards, a $3m business that now produces 2000 boards each year. Mr Bexon and business partner Jake Bowrey will open a retail outlet in Pererenan, Bali, this month as the business builds its international reputation among the surfing elite and expands manufacturing capacity.

The brand got a huge boost earlier this year after one of its surfboards was used by Harrison “Harry” Roach to secure the 2022 Longboard World Championship in Malibu.

Mr Bexon said that Roach’s win comes at an opportune time for Thomas Surfboards as it expands into Japan, the US, Taiwan, Europe and Israel.

Revenue has risen from $500,000 five years ago to $3m. Since Roach’s victory, Bexon says he has been fielding dozens of calls about the $2190 Noserider used by the champion.

Mr Roach and Mr Bexon met more than 15 years ago through their shared love of surfing. Mr Roach took up a sponsorship with the brand and they have been collaborating ever since.

He says the Covid-19 pandemic spurred major growth in surfing as it became one of the few activities allowed during lockdowns.

“The whole Covid thing really accelerated the popularity of surfing across all age groups,” Mr Bexon says.

“Everyone from seven-year-olds to people in their 70s or 80s are taking it up.”

He adds there also has been a surge in women and girls surfing.

Thomas Surfboards founder Thomas Bexon.

Amanda McKay, 35, and Matt McKay, 39

Freddy & Co co-founders

What started as a side hustle born out of frustration for a young mum has turned into a $1.3m full-time business for the mother of three and her former Socceroo husband.

Amanda McKay was a maths/science teacher schoolteacher – married to former Brisbane Roar captain Matt McKay – when she got the idea for the online play mat business while on maternity leave with her first child Freddy.

What started as a thought with ambition in 2016, went live on their Freddy & Co website – named after their son – a year later.

The non-toxic polyurethane 2m by 1.4m and 15mm thick play mats sell for between $159.95 and $189.95 online and Freddy & Co market their products through Instagram and baby expos, particularly the Pregnancy, Babies and Children’s Expo.

“I never in a million years thought that this little business of ours would be able to support our family,” Mrs McKay said.

The couple has just released Australia’s first TPU (thermoplastic polyurethane) foam play mat with an Aboriginal art design in collaboration with Sunshine Coast Aboriginal artist Sheri Skele.

On December 10 the McKays work life will take a different direction when they kick off a long-term plan to become digital nomads.

They will still be running their business and take a 12-month trip around Australia with their three young children – Freddy, Patrick and Ruby.

Freddy & Co co-founders Amanda and Matt McKay. Picture: Tertius Pickard

Dean Leibbrandt 32, Jaryd Leibbrandt 30 and Tegan Leibbrandt 31

Nakie co-founders

Brothers Dean and Jaryd Leibbrandt ditched their corporate jobs a year ago after their environmentally-friendly outdoor products side hustle started to turn really serious.

This year Nakie, which they founded in 2019 with Dean’s wife Tegan, expects to generate $6m in sales, up from $2.4m a year ago, fuelled by a sharp uptick in Black Friday sales in November.

Australia and Canada are the key markets and Dean says with overseas growth, especially the UK and Europe, the sales next year could rocket to $12m or $13m.

“We want to set up fulfilment centres in the UK and Germany and we also want to bring out a few more products next year,” he said.

“All the products we sell are about getting people outdoors.”

All Nakie products are made from recycled plastic bottles and the company plants four trees for every item sold.

“We’ve got our own reserve in Madagascar … and this year will plant about 240,000 trees,” Dean said.

The $129 hammock made from 37 recycled plastic bottles kickstarted the business and remains the bestseller. They have subsequently expanded the range to include bug nets, rain tops, blankets and $79 sand-free beach towels made from 28 recycled plastic bottles.

A love of the outdoors inspired the business.

“The three of us really enjoy camping, getting outside, and scuba diving, and every time we went, we saw how much plastic was in the waterways, so we wondered how we could make a difference,” he said.

Dean said the name Nakie means stripped back to nature – no technology, just enjoying the

outdoors as it is meant to be.

The company manufactures all its stock in China as it says there is nowhere in Australia that can mill plastics into the materials Nakie needs for its products.

The products are all designed in Australia by the Nakie team.

Nakie mainly sells through its own website and via Amazon.

Nakie co-founders Jaryd, Tegan and Dean Leibbrandt

Nina Nguyen, 35

Pakko founder and CEO

The founder of innovative local packaging company, Pakko, has had a ‘phenomenal’ year.

Nina Nguyen recently capped-off her award-winning streak by picking up the gong for Multicultural Entrepreneur of the Year at the Lord Mayor’s Multicultural Business Awards.

Her business Pakko has generated more than $5m in turnover this year and is looking for 30 per cent growth in 2023.

She started Pakko in 2017 after her parents, who are farmers, were struggling to find moisture-resistant and cost-effective packaging.

“I jumped onto Google and searched for a manufacturer. Importing is thought to be easier, but I faced challenges of exchange rates, language barriers, and quantities of boxes way more than I needed,” she said. “I thought other people must be struggling, so then I thought, what if I can offer custom packaging at a new level of convenience and affordability with no minimum order and all made here in Australia?”

Pakko now has thousands of clients across Australia and growing brand recognition.

Ms Nguyen, who was born at a Malaysian refugee camp to Vietnamese immigrant parents, was also a finalist in the Young Business Person of the Year category at this year’s Lord Mayor’s Business Awards. During the year she was recognised as an emerging leader by the printing industry and won the 2022 Telstra Best of Business Award in the category of progressing Australia.

“It’s been a phenomenal year,” she said. “It started with the Telstra award and since then it has skyrocketed. It’s tripled our business.

“It’s raised a lot of awareness (of the brand) not just in Brisbane but Australia wide.”

For the year ahead, Ms Nguyen wants to ramp up the company’s digital offering and improve efficiency.

“We want to make customer packaging easier for customers to order and design online,” she said.

And she also wants to bring down the lead time on orders to 8 working days, from 10 to 12, by streamlining Pakko’s processes.

Pakko founder and CEO Nina Nguyen. Picture: Liam Kidston

Luli Farrell, 27

ABI Interiors’ director and co-founder

For six years Luli Farrell, who co-founded ABI Interiors with her two brothers, has seen her company grow into an award-winning international business.

Based in Burleigh Heads with an office and manufacturing facility in Guangzhou, China, the bathroom and kitchen product supplier also has a presence in New Zealand and Britain.

ABI exports to 45 markets around the world, but Ms Farrell says they’re looking to broaden their reach.

“Our next target markets are South-East Asia and the Middle East. We’re focusing on markets where the certification and plumbing codes for tapware are transferable with Australian standards to help with streamlining the process,” she said.

“But at our core, we are simply striving to empower homeowners and trades to use premium

kitchen and bathroom products without the premium price tag.”

ABI Interiors recently won the e-commerce gong at the 60th Australian Export Awards.

Ms Farrell said they originally started selling retail locally and shipping domestically but committed to an e-commerce strategy which held them in good stead during the Covid-19 pandemic.

That can be seen in the figures. At the end of 2019 ABI had 27 staff and that has now grown to 220 and in 2021-22 they sold 753,803 items in Australia, New Zealand and Britain. Between 2020-21 and 2021-22 global sales growth reached 70 per cent.

Ms Farrell said their initial success stemmed from finding the “niche gap in the market”.

“Our approach is to create products that are not only durable, long-lasting and aesthetically

appealing, but offered at a cost never seen before in the industry.

“We always take a customer-first approach – putting our clients at the centre of our product

development strategies.”

ABI Interiors’ director and co-founder Luli Farrell.

Hailey Brown, 24

Vacayit founder and CEO

It was a conversation with a low-vision friend that set Hailey Brown on the path to challenge traditional tourism marketing.

Her friend wanted and needed to listen to be able to appreciate the tourism experiences most people take for granted with their sight.

And so was born Vacayit – Australia’s first audio storytelling tourism platform.

“Tourism marketing is so visual and someone who has low vision or is blind can’t make an informed decision," said Ms Brown, a young business person of the year finalist in this year’s Lord Mayor’s Business Awards.

“Our solution was to work with destinations and operators to create audio guides.”

The business has been fully operating for less than 18 months but has five staff and over that time has partnered up with local, regional and state destination marketing organisations that cover more than 40 per cent of tourism destinations in Australia.

“We’re working with marketing organisations and they work for a wide-range of members from cafe operators, to museums, to skydiving and resorts and more,” said Ms Bown who is neither blind nor has low vision.

With millions of people around the world who are either blind or with low vision, Vacayit has a huge pool of potential app users.

“We will start working on overseas next year,” Ms Brown said.

Vacayit founder and CEO Hailey Brown.

Tom Barry-Cotter, 34

Maritimo Australia managing director

It may be the business his father, legendary luxury boat builder Bill started almost 20 years ago, but Tom Barry-Cotter has put his stamp on the business.

The head of design and managing director of Gold Coast-based business Maritimo Australia, Mr Barry-Cotter – who is also a champion powerboat racer – said business was strong with a wave of new orders over the past few years.

Maritimo recently loaded six vessels, weighing 180 tonnes and costing $US18m ($A28m) to be exported to the US and will ship another seven luxury motor yachts worth $US21m ($A33m) stateside in January.

The company is forecasting a $100m turnover in 2022-23, up 25 per cent on the previous 12 months and has flagged another 25 per cent jump in revenue in 2023-24 before plateauing.

Australia and the US each account for 40 per cent of Maritimo’s sales while the remaining 20 per cent is taken up by New Zealand buyers and a growing number from other countries.

Maritimo’s headquarters at Coomera – where its 300 plus staff design, build, sell and service the luxury motor yachts – is in the centre of the $1bn Gold Coast boat building industry.

Mr Barry-Cotter, said they have had to “aggressively” recruit staff – including training dozens of apprentices – to keep up with the work.

He said Maritimo’s superyachts were specifically designed for Australian conditions which makes them unique.

“They’re built for the Australian coastline and the Australian coastline is very different from other parts of the world,” he said.

“All boating here is pretty much offshore and you have to go long distances between ports and potentially confront all sorts of challenges, especially bad weather.

“So our vessels have a far greater fuel capacity which opens them up for longer trips. That’s the key point of difference.

“Imported brands are built for use on lakes in Europe and the US, not the long distances and bad weather we have to contend with.”

Martimo chief executive Tom Barry-Cotter.

James Morrell, 33

Muval CEO

A self-taught web designer James Morrell has been an integral part of the success of one of Australia’s top ranked online household goods removalist booking platform.

Muval has become a part of what is known as the great migration – Australians relocating from the city to the country – and was formed to address wasted opportunities, removalists unable to backload for their return trip.

Incorporated in 2016 and fully moving two years later Muval which is owned by Mr Morrell, business partner Mahdi Chardi and a few other small shareholders, has 40 employees and there are expectations of adding more people to the team.

Mr Morrell said the original aim of the company was to disrupt the sector and create something that would take the stress out for households and removalists. Simply, the platform links customers to the right removalists who in turn pay a commission when they get a job.

Mr Morrell said in 2021-22 they completed $19m in movable bookings on the platform.

“We’re looking to extend that to $30m this financial year and we are aiming to increase our bookings from 21,000 by the same amount (58 per cent),” he said.

For the second year running Muval was recently named in Deloitte’s fastest-growing 50 tech companies.

From Brisbane’s western suburbs, Mr Morrell said after completing public relations and social science degrees at the University of Queensland he taught himself how to code and started a web development business.

“I was the web developer for Chardi’s website for his removal business, and he reached out to me and we kicked around ideas and to solve the backloading problem.

“We have created a website where removal companies can list where they have space when they are travelling interstate and customers could go on that website and book it in,” he said.

“This means that if the customer has a bit of flexibility you could get great rates because it's the removal companies return trip”.

Muval CEO James Morrell. Picture: Zak Simmonds

Kelly Taggart, 38

Roses Only CEO

Kelly Taggart has been with one of Australia’s largest online retailer of delivered flowers for 15 years and headed the company for the past two.

Over that time – with stints as chief operating officer, chief financial officer and company secretary – she has helped guide Roses Only through a national expansion and negotiated floods and the Covid-19 pandemic.

The company currently has 10 sites across Australia. In Queensland it has three floral studios at Brisbane, Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast as well as its headquarters.

Roses Only has more than 300 full-time and casual staff and about 100 different types of flowers and greenery in its range.

It delivered more than 10 million individual flowers in the past 12 months and Ms Taggart likes to say the company is “the business of delivering love”.

She said since the end of the pandemic the flower delivery sector has become more competitive but Roses Only will continue to seek growth.

“There has been a softening in demand from consumers and we have to work particularly hard for our orders,” she said.

“We’re looking for really good balanced growth. We’re looking at adding more brands and businesses to our mix.”

Roses Only CEO Kelly Taggart pictured. Picture David Clark

Aaron Smith, 39

KX Pilates founder

Australia’s largest pilates franchise network is steadily increasing its footprint across Australia and overseas.

Aaron Smith, who founded the company in 2010, said KX Pilates has 92 studios in Australia and is now also in China, Indonesia and Taiwan.

“We plan to have up to 150 studios over the next three to five years,” he said.

Mr Smith started his career as a personal trainer before heading overseas in search of fitness innovations. In London he came across a dynamic style of pilates that he ended up bringing back to his home town of Melbourne.

Mr Smith and his wife and business partner Andi Fiorenza, who came on board in 2013, and their three children moved to the Sunshine Coast at the start of this year. Ms Fiorenza will open her own KX Pilates franchise in Noosa early next year,

He said the franchise model was a natural fit for fitness businesses and all franchisees were either trainers or clients

“The franchise model works because the natural evolution of a trainer is they want their own businesses at the end of the day,” said Mr Smith who stepped down as CEO more than three years ago to focus on brand strategy innovation and international expansion.

“Most trainers are great at what they do but they have no idea about business and the franchise model works well for them.

“On the flip side you have clients who absolutely love this style of pilates, love the brand and also want their own studios. So while they may have the business skills, they don’t have the training skills and we provide that support to them.”

KX Pilates founder Aaron Smith.

Vincent Fletcher, 35

CartonCloud co-founder and CEO

A strategic $12m cash injection at the start of the year has allowed logistics software company CartonCloud to gain a foothold in the lucrative North American market.

CartonCloud chief executive and co-founder Vincent Fletcher said the Gold Coast based business now has signed up 12 new clients in Canada and the US to its transport and warehouse management system.

The business has more than 450 clients in Australia, New Zealand and overseas, and 60 staff including six in North America.

The US expansion was a significant milestone for the software company, which began in 2012 at a cold store and freight business in Sydney’s western suburbs and relocated to the Gold coast three years later.

“Entering the massive US logistics industry and building a team there opens up extraordinary opportunities for CartonCloud to secure new customers, build new industry partnerships and continue to improve our product for all of our global customers,” Mr Fletcher said.

CartonCloud’s warehouse, transport and integrated third party logistics management systems are designed to enable warehouse and transport businesses to streamline operations by automating a range of processes traditionally done using paper-based systems.

It supports optimising warehouse and transport operations, and providing data for business intelligence and planning.

Since 2017 the company has had consistent year-on-year growth.

“We’re shooting for about 40 per cent growth year-on-year which we pretty much have for this year,” Mr Fletcher said.

CartonCloud co-founder and CEO Vincent Fletcher.

Annie Flamsteed, 27

iNSPIRETEK founder and executive chair

Annie Flamsteed, the former competitive gymnast turned start-up founder of iNSPIRETEK, is optimistic for the new year as she gears up her business for US expansion.

After the mental health wellness management system raised $2.5m in funding, Ms Flamsteed developed infrastructure to be compliant with different data privacy laws in preparation for the company’s international endeavours.

iNSPIRETEK was born out of Ms Flamsteed’s burnout as a gymnast and it now provides young athletes with mental health tools, since the start of this year user growth has doubled to 20,000.

The 27-year-old recently assumed an executive chair role with sports industry leader Rodney Rapson appointed chief executive officer.

“Our whole company is about preventive health care and decreasing athlete burnout, mental illness … I really needed to spend more time speaking about the mission for the company and being executive founder allows me to do that,” Ms Flamsteed said.

The founder says the company is on ‘solid ground’ with plans to open a US base in mid to late next year and will raise strategic capital to reach a $50m valuation.

Ms Flamsteed estimates about 60 to 70 per cent of iNSPIRETEK’s revenue next year will come from the US.

“What all of our strategy is pushing towards is how fast we can get to a $100m valuation,” she said.

“We really need to get over [to the US] as fast as we can.”

iNSPIRETEK founder and executive chair Annie Flamsteed.

Dr James Fielding, 35

Audeara co-founder and CEO

As a medical doctor with a passion for music, James Fielding marries his two passions as CEO of Audeara.

With Dr Chris Jeffery he developed Audeara: a technology that uses your personal hearing profile to enhance your entertainment experience.

Founded in 2015 Audeara was floated on the Australian Stock Exchange in 2021. In the 2022 Lord Mayor’s Business Awards, Audeara won the Outstanding Small Business award and Dr Fielding was named Brisbane’s Young Business Person of the Year.

Dr Fielding, who gave up full-time clinical medicine in 2016 to focus on Audeara, said they formulated a successful hearing profile algorithm that tailors the sound output to the needs of the individual.

“Essentially, the headphones adapt to the hearing capabilities of the user which is determined by a hearing health check app,” he said.

“Audeara’s mantra is ‘clearer, not louder’ – preventing further hearing loss by keeping volume at a reasonable, healthier level. The algorithm works by only turning up the frequencies or sounds the listener needs to hear, according to their hearing profile. This in turn has the potential to preserve the hearing they have.”

Through his musical background as a drummer for Brisbane band The Dashounds, Dr Fielding also identified an opportunity to use entertainment as the hook to get people to pay attention to their hearing health.

“We originally planned to create a hearing health check device, but went beyond that to alter the way the music sounds, so you could have an enhanced personalised experience – which is awesome – while also accessing information about your hearing,” he said.

Audeara is planning to expand overseas in 2023.

“To do this, we are exploring new product developments and new partnerships that will help more people connect with themselves, their loved ones, their favourite movie or music,” Dr Fielding said.

Audeara co-founder and chief executive Dr James Fielding.

Alexander Bell, 28

Milton Rum Distillery co-founder and head distiller

After being smashed by the February floods, the award-winning Milton Rum Distillery has bounced back with a new home and future.

Head distiller Alexander Bell said they had to”start from scratch” after water went through their Cribb St distillery in Milton.

Although the business was offline for six months they still expect to sell between 9000 and 10,000 bottles this calendar year.

“We’ve been able to bounce back very quickly despite everything but it’s been a struggle,” Mr Bell said.

“Next year we’re expecting a really big one. We’re looking offshore and will be exporting a pallett of rum to Africa in January.”

Milton Rum Distillery now resides in the Craft’d Grounds precinct in Collingwood St, Albion, and through its miniaturised continuous column still – one of the most energy and resource-efficient stills in Australia – can produce 70,000-150,000 bottles a year.

A former elite amateur golfer, Mr Bell put the sticks away when he was 18 to complete chemical engineering and business managements degrees.

Not wishing to get into the oil and gas field, he said a rum distillery was the logical step and he contacted experienced hospitality entrepreneur Asa Boardman to come on as a partner.

One of the youngest awarded Master Distillers in the world, Mr Bell said he has always sought to change the perception about rum made in Australia.

“Australian rum has a distinct connotation to it which is more negative than it is positive and we aim to change that,” he said.

Milton Rum Distillery owner Alexander Bell. Picture: Zak Simmonds

Laura Campion, 37

LCC Group founder and brand director

After a stellar corporate career Laura Campion set up her own brand consultancy business determined to take a different path from the old-school, male-dominated, pressure-cooker creative agency world.

The agency she founded in 2016 rebranded itself last year and moved offices to 240 Queen St in the CBD in October this year with a workplace that suits working mums.

Ms Campion said she wanted to create a workplace where she wanted to work which allowed women the chance to work as well as look after their children.

“My early career taught me that if you’re not at your desk, you’re not working,” she said.

“It’s a terrible agency attitude that was ultimately costing the industry so much talent, particularly as female employees became mothers and needed more flexibility. I really want to challenge that mentality and prove that as a woman – and a mother – you can have it all.”

LCC Group employs 15 brand, marketing, digital and communications specialists working full-time or on flexible contracts – including two men on three days a week – with the majority being working mothers managing their work-life balance.

In the past financial year LCC Group notched up $1m plus in revenue with clients such as Orange Sky, Audeara, Aerohart, Anti-Ordinary, Cool Frank, Field Orthopaedics. It also helped reposition established businesses like Clean Cruising, Snowscene, Coxons Group, Quanta Group, Bridgeman, Redflow, InterFinancial and Lutheran Services.

Ms Campion said she received a greater perspective after giving birth to her son two years ago.

“Having a child changes your perspective in so many ways. I came out of it determined that there had to be a better way to run an agency, where talented working mothers didn’t have to fit back into the traditional, inflexible corporate mold,” she said.

“When you become a parent, there are so many sacrifices you have to make daily. Career shouldn’t be one of them.”

LCC Group founder and brand director Laura Campion.

Nic Blair, 36, and Matt Anderson, 30

Midnight Health founders

Brisbane entrepreneurs Nic Blair and Matt Anderson are on a roll, with their health-tech start-up Midnight Health recently attracting a $12m investment from insurance giant nib.

The cash injection is nib’s second investment in the digital healthcare platform giving the start-up a valuation approaching $50m.

Last November, the insurer kicked in $4m.

Midnight Health, founded by Mr Blair and Mr Anderson last year, already has more than 30,000 customers who can access a range of services including telehealth consultations, home delivered prescription medicines, skin care treatments and birth control.

Midnight Health, which operates under a number of brands including Youly and men’s health platform Stagger, attracted national headlines when it offered an emergency delivery service for the morning after contraceptive pill.

Mr Blair said that the recent pandemic had accelerated the adoption of e-health platforms, particularly online consultations.

“We probably had about 10 years worth of technological adoption during the pandemic,” he said.

Mr. Blair said the aim is to improve access to healthcare nationally, particularly in remote and regional areas where coverage can be poor.

Midnight Health operates through a network of 46 doctors, pharmacies and health care practitioners, providing services to more than half of Australia’s postcodes including the remote Kiwirrkurra community in Western Australia, 800km from the nearest big town.

Midnight Health co-founder Nic Blair

Jack Hutchinson, 30

Hutchinson Builders director

Jack Hutchinson Jnr, the scion of the Hutchinson Builders empire, joined his dad Scott on the board of the $3bn company earlier this year. The 30-year-old is certainly up for the job, with Scott Hutchison noting his son was keener to step up to the plate than he was at his age. “I also joined the board when I was about 30 but was not as keen on the responsibility,” Scott Hutchison said.

“It’s good he is keen because I won’t live forever and he will take over from me eventually.” Jack Jnr is a qualified quantity surveyor, a licenced builder and holds an MBA from London Business School as well as Bachelor of Property from Bond University.

The young man also has worked across various project and operational roles within Hutchies, as well as within other property, construction, and financial firms in both Australia and the United Kingdom.

It has been a big year for Jack Jnr who back in July married Indonesian-born Fatya Junissa Azlika after meeting her while studying in the United Kingdom.

Hutchinson Builders director Jack Hutchinson. Picture: Tara Croser.

Carly Cottam, 34

MOTIV Group founder and CEO

After working for some of the biggest names in the development industry Carly Cottam decided to take a punt and start her own boutique end-to-end residential project marketing service.

The former professional athlete who represented Australia in World Rowing Championships started MOTIV Group in 2020 and has established offices in Brisbane and the Gold Coast and has an $800m portfolio of residential projects.

After working for Consolidated Properties in Brisbane and ThreeSixty Property Group in Melbourne Ms Cottam said she decided it was time to do things differently.

“I saw a gap in the market, saw room to take a different approach and came back to Queensland,” she said.

“It’s very competitive out there and you need to be a bit different so we pride ourselves on being progressive and customer-centric. We don’t appreciate the cookie-cutter approach.”

The MOTIV team of seven provides strategy, site acquisition, place curation, and project sales and marketing services to some of the property sector’s biggest names, including Gurner, Polycell Property Group, Graya™, Pellicano and Tallis Property Group.

It’s been a big year for the entrepreneur. She married her partner former Bachelorette winner Sasha Mielczarek in Italy in July.

MOTIV Group CEO and founder Carly Cottam.

Danny Isaac, 35

Descon Group Australia founder and chairman

The privately owned design and construction company with operations in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and the Gold Coast started in 2013 with the establishment of Adcon, a structural operations business.

Adcon was consolidated in 2018 with Descon, the group’s design, construction and development arm to create Descon Group Australia – a vertically integrated group of companies with a $2bn plus project pipeline and a national workforce of over 1000 people.

After the Condev collapse earlier this year, Descon took over two Gold Coast projects –

Macquarie York’s Allure tower at Chevron Island and SGP Land’s Brooke Residences at Robina.

Descon is also building Iris Capital’s $800m mixed-use Victoria & Albert development on the Gold Coast which will be completed in 2025 and arlier this month, they paid over $70m for a 7880sq m site in the Olympic Village precinct in Hamilton, where it will deliver its own three-tower, mixed-use development.

Mr Isaac said the group’s development arm delivers a diversified income stream and a strong forward pipeline to complement its growing vertically integrated construction and engineering business.

“Descon’s depth of experience, together with its strong balance sheet and ability to deliver projects, from complete engineering and building structures to the entire design and construct life cycle, gives us a strong delivery advantage,” he said.

Descon founder Danny Isaac.

Kirsty Rourke, 36

City of Brisbane Investment Corp CEO

Ex-lawyer Kirsty Rourke always hits the ground running.

The chief executive of the City of Brisbane Investment Corporation (CBIC) earlier this year strapped on a 20kg backpack to hike through snow and rain up Australia’s tallest alpine peaks to raise funds for Youngcare, the charity that provides accommodation for young people and prevents them ending up in unsuitable housing such as aged care homes.

Ma Rourke has been at the helm of CBIC for almost three years, directing the $311m investment fund owned by the Brisbane City Council.

CBIC has delivered $166m in dividends to the council since 2008, including $55m for the provision of public green space across Brisbane. CBIC is now partnering with Youngcare to build assisted living units for young people in Brisbane.

Sites have been picked out at Everton Park and East Brisbane for the developments.

Youngcare says that currently, there are 28,000 young people with disabilities enrolled in the NDIS that are searching for an appropriate place to call their own home.

For Rourke, providing dignified housing for people with disabilities is crucial. Several years ago her mother Jenny, 66, had the first of several strokes that left her incapacitated.

City of Brisbane Investment Corporation CEO Kirsty Rourke.

Originally published as Top 20 Under 40: Young Queensland entrepreneurs taking on the world