At CEO (Boardroom Media) we track over 1,000,000 startups and over 5,000,000 people who hold key positions in these companies. We use this directory of startups to highlight top employees, founders and board members we think deserve more appreciation than they are currently getting.
This list showcases the top Sydney based CEO’ operating in the Internet of Things space. If you think a CEO’ is missing from this list, feel free to contact our editor on [email protected].
The individuals on this list have been included because of exceptional performance in one of the following categories:
- Innovation – Operating as a key part in an extremely innovative business or startup.
- Growth – Operating as a key figure in the growth and upscale of a market leading business or startup.
- Management – Showing exceptional management skills.
- Societal impact – Putting their business on the map for their positive societal or environmental impact.
Our Data – We source our data from OSINT (open source intelligence) and public directories such as Crunchbase, SemRush and many more. The data from these sources should be treated with a degree of caution and verified yourself.

David Solsky
Chief Executive Officer, Co-Founder of Envizi
A passionate technology entrepreneur, David’s vision and leadership have helped drive Envizi to become a global market leader. Before launching the company as CarbonSystems in 2008, David spent a decade in the IT industry as an entrepreneur, building several successful companies in Australia and New Zealand. These included Databank Technologies, a startup that became the Australian market leader in disaster recovery and information management services. Prior to this, David spent seven years in the Corporate Finance and Assurance divisions at PricewaterhouseCoopers, and this experience helps ensure Envizi’s solutions meet the rigorous information-integrity standards of the corporate sector. David plays a key role in the ongoing design and evolution of Envizi’s technology platform and oversees the development of the company’s global partner channel.
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About Envizi: Data and analytics to optimize buildings and business.

Mark Bradley
Executive Chairman & CEO of Cognitive Software Group
Mr. Bradley graduated from the University of NSW in 1981 and joined IBM Australia as a computer programmer in IBM’s internal computing division. In 1982 he moved to field sales in the role of Sales Engineer until 1984 when he was appointed as Account Manager for a steel-making Division of Australia’s then largest company, BHP. In 1986 Mr. Bradley was appointed Sales Manager within the mainframe sales division. In their first year together, Mr. Bradley’s team set IBM Australia’s record for mainframe sales by a single sales team in a single year. In 1988 Mr. Bradley formed an international collaboration between IBM customers to jointly build a next generation billing system, and graduated from the Macquarie University Advanced Management Program. In 1990 Mr Bradley graduated from IBM’s Advanced Management Program in Tokyo. In 1991, after two years in an IBM Headquarters role managing upgrades to IBM revenue management systems in Asia, for which he was awarded an IBM Management Excellence Award, Mr. Bradley was appointed IBM State Manager, South Australia. In this role, he sat on the South Australian Board of the national Australian Quality Awards Foundation, and became a key adviser to the State Government’s Information Technology and Telecommunications industry strategy team, during which time he assisted the State Government to develop its whole of government IT outsourcing strategy. In 1994, after the global IT industry went into a severe downturn, Mr Bradley elected to have a two year break from IT and was headhunted to establish a direct salesforce for Qantas Airways. Over the following two years Mr Bradley’s new sales team won almost the entire corporate and government customer base from the rival airline, Ansett Airlines, said to be the largest market share shift in Australia corporate history. In 1996 Mr. Bradley returned to technology joining telecommunications start-up AAPT Limited as Director of Sales and Marketing. Attracted by opportunities of the emerging Internet, in August 1998 Mr. Bradley ended corporate life to found his own start-up company, Online Australia Pty. Ltd. This was followed by a second start-up venture, Tralee Software Group, in 2001, when that company invented breakthrough technology for next generation data integration and messaging over the Internet, and applied for its first patent. The technology invented was years ahead of its time utilizing XML-like virtual structures and in-memory processing to automate transformation of data from one format to another, a growing need for internet based electronic commerce. After the award of patents for the above inventions Tralee turned its focus to commercialising what was clearly a disruptive new technology. In early 2012 a White Paper was commissioned from London-based respected analysts Bloor Research, who hailed the technology as world leading in its class and a necessary component of a future “Semantic Web”. As a result, Tralee repositioned itself as an Australian resreach and devlopment company focused on Semantic Computing, the “holy-grail” of Artificial Intelligence. Accordingly, Tralee renamed itself as Semantic Software and has since emerged as Australia’s leading Artificial Intelligence solution provider.
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About Cognitive Software Group: The Cognitive Software Group helps Enterprises or Government build their own AI data systems using the cognitiveAI software platform.
Michael De Nil
CEO & Co-Founder of Morse Micro
Michael has over 15 years experience in low power digital chip design and worked at Imec and Broadcom before founding Morse Micro.
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About Morse Micro: Morse Micro is a semiconductor startup developing Wi-Fi HaLow / 802.11ah chips for the Internet of Things (IoT) market.
Nicole Rogerson
CEO of Rockmelon
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About Rockmelon: Rockmelon is reimagining the products and services available for children with autism and their families around the world.

Ben Brophy
CEO & Co-founder of Upwire
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About Upwire: Global cloud communications platform with a drag and drop interface.
Jared Oken
Co Founder CEO of Rayven
Deep technical, analytical, commercial and hands on operational experience. Has successfully established, grown and sold several technology companies, over the last 15 years. Currently holds an active position as a director and advisor for several companies.
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About Rayven: Rayven provides a codeless AI and IoT platform that is used in industrial control, real-time analytics, and industry solutions.

Darren Younger
CEO, BRICKLET of Lakeba Group Pty Ltd
I am the Chief Growth Officer of the Lakeba Group. Established in 2015, Lakeba is an established technology innovator, or “Reverse Incubator” recognised for developing an innovative business platform for conceiving, creating, and commercialising at scale, disruptive, digital solutions. Based in Manly, Australia, we have a global team of over 150 people with offices in Italy, India, USA and UK.
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About Lakeba Group Pty Ltd, Quixxi: Lakeba Group is a privately held global venture catalyst firm.
Afnan Hannan
Co-Founder & CEO of Okra Solar
Afnan Hannan is a Co-Founder and serves as the Chief Executive Officer at Okra Solar.
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About Okra Solar: Okra Solar is a technology solution that enables solar generating communities to share and utilize more energy.
Jordan O’Reilly
Co-Founder and CEO of Hireup
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About Hireup: Hireup harnesses the power of technology to revolutionise the way Australians with disabilities find, hire and manage their support workers.
Robert Morrish
Chief Executive Officer of Haventec
Robert Morrish is a seasoned technologist with over 28 years’ experience taking innovations from concept to commercialisation. He has a history of leadership in software and systems engineering, business strategy and enterprise architecture. Robert joined Haventec as CEO in March 2016 from Macquarie Group, where, as the head of COG digital architecture and strategy he was instrumental in transforming Macquarie’s digital API platforms. Previous to Macquarie, Robert was involved in two other successful Australian start-ups that expanded into global markets: Sabela Media and Decide Interactive. Robert is an accomplished Paralympian (1988 British Volleyball team), PADI dive master and Afro/Cuban percussionist.
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About Haventec: Haventec helps organizations build trust by maintaining their customers’ privacy in every interaction.
Tim Lea
CEO of Veredictum
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About Veredictum: Veredictum is developing a smart ownership and distribution platform to protect Film and Video producers.
Jack Bowcott
Co-founder and CEO of Goki
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About Goki: Goki sells hardware & saas modules to hotels, hostels & airbnbs.
Terry McMullen
CEO of OpenSparkz
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About OpenSparkz: OpenSparkz is a highly automated, scheme agnostic, API-driven, low cost, loyalty and offers enablement platform.
Andrew Thorn
Founder and CEO of DigitalMaas
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About DigitalMaas, White SEO: DigitalMaas is a Local Marketing Platform that allows your business to easily manage its Google My Business locations at scale.

Shane Cox
Founder & CEO of Instrument Works
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About Instrument Works: Instrument Works develops new set of tools for data collection in the research and industrial environments.