Team

Coaches

Clare Hallam

COO | Director | Startup Coach

Co-Founded 25+ startups in the Pollenizer portfolio. Clare has a proven track record of managing Pollenizer ’s investment portfolio (investment processes and decisions) Led numerous portfolio company investment due diligence, asset sales, and the share sale of Spreets, a $40m exit from the portfolio. As a coach, mentor and often a therapist Clare cares fundamentally about helping founders and startups. Guiding them to be both commercially and culturally successful.

x-lab.com.au

Allen Haroutonian

CEO | Venture Builder | Start-up Mentor

An experienced start-up mentor, having run the renowned Pollenizer start-up incubator, Allen started his career in electronics assembly, going on to work with global icons Apple & IBM, as well as roles driving global expansion for Australian start-ups. His work with AgriFood & Fibre innovators since 2016 has exposed him to trailblazers who are using technology and business model innovation to re-invent the industry.

x-lab.com.au

Project Team

Liz Alexander

Agribusiness Development Coordinator | AgFrontier Lead | Likes Dogs

Based in Emerald, Queensland, Liz Alexander leads CHDC’s award-winning Central Highlands Accelerate Agribusiness (CHAA) initiative which works with stakeholders to identify the competitive advantages for the region, and deliver strategic interventions and programs to grow, promote and realise value and opportunity for all agribusiness. In her role, Liz developed and facilitates the AgTeCH events held annually in Emerald and Mungindi since 2017. She is an experienced non-executive director and serves as the Deputy Chair of Plant Health Australia, and as a director for the Cotton Research and Development Corporation, for which she chairs the Intellectual Property and Commercialisation Committee.

chdc.com.au

Sonya Comiskey

AgTech Community Officer| Project Manager | French Beef Producer

Based in Emerald, Queensland, Sonya Comiskey is AgFrontier’s AgTech Community Officer, managing the grass roots level engagement between the cohort, program delivery and external stakeholders. She is an experienced project manager with a breadth of experience in agriculture, civil construction and building projects. Sonya has a passion for French heritage beef and is founder of a premium niche beef brand for domestic and export markets. A 2018 Nuffield Farming Scholar, Sonya’s key areas of interest encompass collaborative value chains, provenance-led brands and enabling technologies such as Blockchain to credential provenance and traceability as well as market collaboration.