Meet the guest judges: Smart50’s biggest panel yet

We were so excited to return to an in-person format for the Smart50 that we wanted to go big. So, we searched inside and outside of the business community to put together our deepest panel of judges yet. These leaders, thinkers and storytellers join us in finding the best and most innovative and resilient of the Australian small business community.

Want to get your company in front of them? There’s still time — entries are open until October 7. Start your Smart50 entry today.

The Resilience Award

Steph Claire Smith, COO and co-founder, Keep it Cleaner

Smith is the COO and co-founder of Keep it Cleaner, an Australian health and wellness app. This June, she shared her advice for fledgling entrepreneurs looking to start their own ventures.

The Resilience Awards celebrates the Australian SMEs showing adaptability, leadership and grit in the last year. With all the challenges going, this award has perhaps never been so important. Smith and her co-founder Laura Henshaw built Keep it Cleaner after past experiences with toxic diet and exercise culture, aiming to foster a more positive, happier approach to health and wellbeing.

Laura Henshaw, CEO and co-founder, Keep it Cleaner

Henshaw joins co-founder Smith as a guest judge for The Resilience Award category. She has a monthly column in Vogue Australia and has appeared on The Project and in body+soul, Women’s Health, Elle, Yahoo and the NZ Herald. Between them, Smith and Henshaw have more than 80 health food products stocked in supermarkets across Australia through a separate business venture that licences the Keep it Cleaner brand.

Wayne Morris, CEO at Fifo Capital

Morris is passionate about helping Australian businesses grow by making smarter finance solutions more accessible. He constantly challenges businesses and governments to look beyond ‘vanilla’ forms of finance and move towards more scalable, future-proof solutions to create resilience across the business sector.

The People Power Award

Adriarna Nunn, head of people and culture at Cobild

The People Power Award is a new entry to the Smart50 program. We’re looking for a winner that demonstrates an enlightened approach to hiring and supporting its people, and we have help at hand. Cobild, which bills itself as ‘a construction company with a difference’ has continuously been named in best places to work lists in recent years and is certified as a Family Inclusive Workplace. With Nunn at the helm of people and culture there, she’s sure to bring expertise to the decision when choosing a People Power Award winner.

Ben Thompson, CEO and co-founder, Employment Hero

With a background in finance and employment law, and as a business owner himself, Thompson has more than 20 years’ experience in the Australian employment landscape. He thrives on creating innovative solutions and disruptive people management offerings that redefine markets. He credits his success to building a team of A-players and communicating a clear vision — to make managing employment easier and more rewarding for everyone.

The Community Hero Award

Alexi Boyd, CEO, COSBOA

The Community Hero Award is our chance to celebrate businesses that have supported their wider community in a productive, uplifting or charitable way. Boyd is a passionate proponent for small businesses working together, connecting and sharing resources and ideas. After the upheaval of the last few years, from COVID-19, from floods, from economic uncertainty, she’s been inspired by the tenacity of small businesses everywhere, “to support each other and to continue supporting their community, even when they themselves are working hard to keep their doors open”.

Priyanka Ashraf, founder and director, The Creative Cooperative

With a particular focus on women of colour, the The Creative Cooperative strives to redistribute capital more fairly through equitable hiring and training, and by connecting women with mentors most suited to their needs. Priyanka Ashraf won The Community Hero Award last year, and returns this year as a judge on the award.

The Retail Champion Award

Jane Lu, founder and CEO, Showpo

It’s the retailers, the customer pleasers, the consumer trendsetters that often lead the way for others in the world of business. E-commerce is under constant pressure to innovate product, provide an outstanding customer experience, and stay ahead of competitors. For these reasons and more, we love keeping an eye on the latest and greatest in the world of retail.

Since 2016, Jane Lu has grown Showpo into a global fashion brand that sells to millions of customers worldwide. Showpo won the Top Retailer Award in 2014’s Smart50, so Lu is the perfect fit to help us pick a winner this year. Last month, she shared her thoughts on staying ahead of competitors while retail and consumers face turbulent times.

Sarah Mullen, COO, Adore Beauty

As chief operations officer at Adore Beauty, Mullen is responsible for the brands, customer fulfilment centre and customer experience teams. Her advice for retailers today? Innovate and fous on your team.

“How can you innovate to deliver a truly exceptional experience that your customers really need and want? Be willing to push your thoughts outside of your comfort zone and do things differently.

“Your team is crucial to overall business success. How do you create a strong culture that retains your team and enables them to be high performers and deliver exceptional value? How do you genuinely care for them through a unique value proposition?”

The Innovator Award

Jane Martino, innovation consultant and chair and co-founder, Smiling Mind

Whether it’s the small tweaks that help us get through the day to day, or the big ideas that bare new business babies altogether, innovation should always be celebrated and encouraged.

Martino is excited to rejoin the Smart50 program again in 2022 as a guest judge, and isn’t too concerned about the challenges facing those in business today. “It’s actually these times where some of the best ideas and best businesses are born,” she said in a recent chat. “We’re forced to make hard decisions, we’re forced to do things differently, we’re forced to look at things in a different way.”

Adam Schwab, co-founder and CEO, Luxury Escapes. SmartCompany columnist

Adam is the co-founder and CEO of Luxury Escapes, a global online travel business with almost 500 team members across four continents. Check out his latest thoughts here on his author page.

The Sustainability Award

Julie Mathers, founder, Flora & Fauna and CEO, Snuggle Hunny

It’s the topic that’s never far from anybody’s mind as our planet faces a monumental challenge. Mathers and her business ventures bring an impressive background of sustainability award wins and credentials to the Smart50 program, and she’s keen to see what’ll be in store for this year’s entries. Businesses are getting on board sustainability and, in many areas, leading the way. Speaking with SmartCompany recently, Mathers said sustainability must be viewed as business critical — a feat that’s not always easy but that can be approached from different angles when times get tough.

Michel Hogan, brand counsel

Hogan advises organisations about purpose and values, and most importantly, the risk of making the wrong promises. She’s worked with organisations in Australia and the US for 30 years. Earlier this month, she spoke about how sustainable business can be used to foster relationships with customers that go beyond the transactional.

The Rising Star Award

Christina Gerakiteys, CEO, SingularityU

Everybody wants to get into the Smart50 but not every business can wait the three years required to land them on the list. For those, there’s the Rising Star category. It’s our chance to celebrate the newcomers, startups that are making big waves early on — and it’s often where we uncover some of the biggest brands of the future. 

This year helping choose a winner is Christina Gerakiteys, a sought-after speaker, facilitator and program designer, who creates interactive educational experiences driven by design thinking.

The Regional Award

Ben Tyers, editor, The Local Rag

Tyers grew up in country Vic and since that time, he’s had a passion for regional sites and attractions. After four years at Urbanlist, he decided a similar guide was in order for places outside the big cities, and founded The Local Rag. He’s watched the changing face of regional businesses through challenging years and is keen to tell their stories.

“Even if you go an hour and a half out of Melbourne, and find these smaller towns, there’s just a completely different way of living and a way of life and different issues and I just think that also probably doesn’t really get into the mind of people that live in the city,” he said.

Nate Sampimon, co-founder, Riparide

Sampimon is a long-time member of Melbourne’s startup community and now focuses on Riparide, the fast-growing travel startup operating across Australia, New Zealand and the US. Its aim is to help people escape the daily grind and reconnect with nature. In a recent chat with SmartCompany, he explained how the brand’s storytelling-led approach fosters stronger connections between guests and hosts, and people from the city with regional communities.

The Marketing Award

Ben Cairns, consultant to the liquor industry

It’s one of the great dilemmas out there for any business: getting your name out there and cutting through the noise. In 2022, Smart50 will be looking for the brand that demonstrates creative marketing to launch new products, build awareness and find new audiences. Cairns is helping us choose a winner, and brings a career’s worth of experience in the liquor industry, where he’s worked on branding at the biggest names in beverages, including at the Fosters Group and Diageo and been instrumental in launching newcomer brands, too, in his time as senior manager of commercial, marketing, sales and brand development at East 9th Brewing.

Smart50 entries close on October 7. Start your entry today!