Australia’s top five most powerful in technology for 2022 are Mike Cannon-Brookes, Ed Husic, Scott Farquhar, Robyn Denholm, Melanie Perkins
2. Ed Husic
Despite not having the word technology in his portfolio title, the new industry and science minister is seen by the sector as the best bet in a generation to fix the lagging national innovation agenda.
A decade ago, he was the force behind an inquiry into the overpricing of global tech products in Australia. Then, during Labor’s wilderness years, he buried himself in the trials and tribulations of the local industry while railing against the Coalition’s neglect of the portfolio.
He has entered government with a swag of policy plans and a good chunk of money to make them happen. Most obvious is a $1 billion war chest to invest in critical Australian technology efforts, which could be a godsend to local industry as global investors tighten their purse strings. He has also promised a new national robotics strategy, and placed the tech sector at the centre of the government’s plans to figure out the future of Australia’s jobs and skills policies.
3. Scott Farquhar
The other half of the Atlassian leadership double act is less powerful than his baseball cap-wearing partner, only by virtue of having a slightly lower public profile. The lack of Twitter slanging matches with politicians, and relatively fewer appearances on commercial TV mask the fact that his sphere of influence has also grown dramatically in the past year.
Like Cannon-Brookes, Farquhar has unsuccessfully (at the time of writing) sought to buy his way into the non-tech business world, with a play for renewable energy company Genex Power, and is also taking a prominent role in funding and shaping the tech sector.
Farquhar was granted one of the prized seats at the government’s Jobs and Skills Summit to explain how a crippling ongoing skills shortage should be averted, and he has continued writing cheques for emerging start-ups, through Skip Capital, while other VC firms have pulled back.
4. Robyn Denholm
Until this year, the chair of Tesla, one of the world’s most influential industry disruptors, has tended to fly beneath the radar. Now, in a concerted effort to step into a spotlight she doesn’t enjoy, Denholm is already influencing the government’s nascent policies around electric vehicles, energy and the tech industry.
In July, she called for an expansion in battery minerals and a national plan to meet the 2030 emissions reduction target. She was an influential figure at the government’s Jobs and Skills Summit through her role as chair of the Tech Council of Australia, where she advocated for changes to skilled migration rules, the creation of new digital apprenticeships and other policies aimed at a goal of 1.2 million tech jobs in Australia by 2030.
5. Melanie Perkins
In recent years, Canva co-founder Melanie Perkins has warranted a place on the Power list because of what her company represents to the current and longer-term health of the local tech industry. This time last year, she and husband Cliff Obrecht were running a young company valued at an astounding $US40 billion ($55 billion).
The valuation of Canva plays a disproportionate role in setting the valuations of Australia’s tech investment firms, which means Canva failing would seriously neuter the funding for the next generation of entrepreneurs. Canva is not failing, but it is falling.
A broader valuation crunch has led to one US backer writing down Canva’s value by 44 per cent. Perkins’ power now rests in the outsized importance to the industry of her being able to prove her company’s chops to a more cynical market. She has thrived in a frothy market, but 2022 is the year she gets to prove she is building something to endure market cycles.
The AFR Magazine annual Power issue is out Friday, September 30, inside The Australian Financial Review. Follow AFR Mag on Twitter and Instagram.
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