StartupAUS appoints Peter Bradd as its first CEO

Peter Bradd, founding director of StartupAUS, has today been appointed as the organisation's first CEO, with Andrew Larsen joining the organisation's board and Steve Baxter giving up his board role to become Chief Advocate. The move comes after the StartupAUS board mapped out its plans for the year in February, with the appointment of a full time CEO a key part of the organisation's plans for growth. Bradd, founder and CEO of ScribblePics, has been a vocal member of the Australian startup community through his role at StartupAUS, and as founding director of Sydney's Fishburners coworking space. He has also been Entrepreneur in Residence at Fusion Labs, helping corporates find disruptive and innovative products and business models. Bradd said that his major goals as CEO are to increase progress within government, industry, and the startup ecosystem. "What StartupAUS has been able to achieve to-date is a testament to the hard work of volunteers, the amazing goodwill of the startup eco-system and the support of our sponsor organisations...however, we recognise that we’ve only scratched the surface of what needs to be done. We need to shift the bar on technology entrepreneurship in Australia, and take advantage of a once in a generation opportunity to transform our economy," Bradd said. “There has been progress, however our shift into exponential growth is too far behind. We have the passion and the drive but we do need more founders, more tech-skills and a world-leading ecosystem to support them.” Alan Noble, engineering director at Google Australia & New Zealand and StartupAUS board member, said the appointment of StartupAUS's first CEO reflects both the maturing of Australia's startup economy and the progress of the organisation as it moves from a voluntary body to a more "professionally run entity." "Peter’s experience as a startup founder and his pioneering work establishing Fishburners as one of Australia’s leading startup communities, along with his work on our board over the past two years made him the clear front-runner for this new role,” Noble said.  StartupAUS is currently planning the third Startup Spring festival. It hopes to attract over 200 events.