The Australian has published its third annual list of 100 innovators, and at least seven Greek Australians are in it.
The List: 100 Innovators highlights Australia’s best leaders in categories like energy, software, technology, AI, finance, manufacturing, hardware and infrastructure, cyber security, medicine and healthcare, education, agriculture, environment, food, retail and e-commerce, space, travel and art and design.
John Paitaridis – CyberCX
Sector: Cyber security
John Paitaridis is the chief executive officer at CyberCX, Australia’s leading cyber security organisation, where individuals undergo cyber security training with a workforce of more than 1300 professionals.
In what has been called Australia’s largest private sector commitment to cyber security training, last year CyberCX launched a recruitment program that promises to deliver 500 specialists into the sector over the next three years.
“Our view is we need a fundamental mind shift away from competing for the same scarce cyber talent, and we’re doing that by investing in training and development for new cyber security professionals from a range of backgrounds and experiences,” Paitraridis says.
Paitraridis, who formerly worked in the telecom field, was an executive at Optus, where he led their enterprise and business group, and Telstra.
Spiro Rokos – Slyp
Sector: Fintech and finance
Spiro Rokos co-founded Slyp alongside former fellow PayPal executive Paul Weingarth and former ANZ group data officer Mike Boyd.
Slyp is a tool that allows receipts to be sent directly into a customer’s banking app in near real-time.
The idea came about in 2016 when Weingarth realised it was time to update the paper receipt, and it is now backed by the big four Australian banks.
Customers can pay as normal, and then the receipt will ‘slyp’ into their bank app immediately, ready for viewing or interaction at any time.
“In the digital world we live in, paper receipts are no longer serving the purpose they once did,” Weingarth says.
“Customers require quick and seamless access to itemised records of their product purchases, and Slyp Smart Receipts does just that.”
George Peppou – Vow
Sector: Food
Co-founded by George Peppou and Tim Noakesmith, Vow is Australia’s first cell-based meat company looking to provide a sustainable and unique alternative to meat production.
Vow creates new meats from animal cells including those that have never been seen on the supermarket shelf before, including extinct animals.
Headlines were made when the company used DNA of a woolly mammoth to make a meatball.
In an interview with the ABC earlier this year Peppou said they aren’t looking to replace traditional meat, but rather an alternate option.
“I’m a Greek boy, so my family’s love language is various forms of lamb,” he said.
“I and my family would be very happy to incorporate (cultured meat) into our diets as an additional, new choice that offers things that traditional meat can’t.”
Alex and Chris Naoumidis – Mindset Health
Sector: Medicine and healthcare
Melbourne-based brothers Alex and Chris Naoumidis founded Mindset Health in 2018, a startup of a number of hypnosis-based apps that manage the likes of irritable bowel syndrome, menopausal hot flushes, and to help quit smoking.
Mindset Health has more than 30,000 paid monthly subscribers, and earlier this year raised $17.8 million in funding.
“The global demand for our hypnotherapy programs – driven by healthcare practitioners, who recognise their effectiveness in supporting patients and recommend their use – has proven our thesis and demonstrated the deep market appetite for easy-to-use solutions that can help people manage and live well with underserved health conditions,” Alex Naoumidis says.
The brothers were previously behind the dress-sharing app Covet.
Kate Lambridis – Human
Sector: Medicine and healthcare
Human is a startup co-founded by former Canva senior product manager Kate Lambridis and head of product Georgia Vidler, which offers a product to help doctors and patients access the best medical information and research into chronic conditions.
More than half of the global population lives with some form of medical condition, Vidler says, and there was a gap in the market for a simpler way to access medical information, research and real-time health data that could help.
Vidler told Financial Review last year that she and Lambridis have both experienced the frustration of finding quality info for complex health issues.
Lambridis said “it was genuine lived experience, like incredible, painful experiences that we’ve gone through that led us to want to solve this problem.”
Athan Didaskalou – July
Sector: Retail and e-commerce
Entering the market in 2019, July sells luggage suitcases/bags, and has raised millions in capital to expand its product line and make a move to Asia.
Co-founded by Three Thousand Thieves boss Athan Didaskalou and Brosa co-founder Richard Li, July is popular choice of luggage products -with one option having an ejectable battery that can charge mobile devices and tablets.
July now collaborates with major airlines and has expanded to the US, China, Hong Kong, New Zealand and the UK.