Simon Hackett

Simon at Base64 3Simon Hackett is an Australian business leader who combines entrepreneurial energy with technical expertise. After building Internode into Australia's largest privately-owned broadband company, Simon sold Internode to iiNet Ltd, Australia’s second-largest provider of DSL broadband services. After serving as a non-executive director on the iiNet board for 18 months, Simon resigned that role in November 2013 to become a non-executive director of NBN Co, the government-owned company building the National Broadband Network. Simon has also invested in a number of innovative Australian start-up technology companies.

For media assistance, call John Harris on +61 8 8431 4000 or email john@impress.com.au.  

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Simon Anna and Raini WSimon and Anna Hackett with Rainee helping from the back seat

A grassroots fundraising campaign set up by Australian cleantech investors Anna and Simon Hackett has raised more than $200,000 to support the Climate 200 initiative in just three days.

Based on the belief that Australia's political system is too broken to tackle climate change, Climate 200 was established by Simon Holmes a Court to support local independent candidates for the next Federal election who stand for cleaning up politics and following the science on climate change.

Simon Hackett first became known nationally as an Internet entrepreneur through his company Internode. Since selling Internode in 2012, Simon and Anna have actively invested in a range of innovative and cleantech companies, including ASX-listed Redflow. 

Anna and Simon believe the only way to clear the current climate policy gridlock is for more genuinely independent Australians, who follow the science, to be elected to the Federal Parliament at the next election. To achieve this goal, on October 1, they offered to match donations to Climate 200, dollar-for-dollar, to as much as $100,000.

Before the end of Sunday, October 3, more than 500 donors had given $102,500, which Simon and Anna have matched to raise a total of $205,000 for Climate 200. Click here for the campaign details.

 

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Simon Hackett (left) with Jorg Hacker and an ARA planeSimon Hackett (left) with Jorg Hacker and an ARA plane
"“In many cases, remote sensing data taken from fire-affected areas disappears into a black hole"

Adelaide-based Airborne Research Australia is creating free 3D high-resolution maps of devastation caused by fires in the Adelaide Hills and Kangaroo Island to help communities recover and reduce future fire risks.

The maps, which contain unprecedented detail and are available from the Airborne Research Australia (ARA) website, are intended to assist communities, emergency services agencies and researchers to plan recovery from SA’s summer infernos, to better understand fire behaviour and develop future fire defence strategies.

ARA collects data for these high-resolution maps from low, slow flights by crewed motorgliders equipped with LIDAR *, hyperspectral sensors ** and high-resolution RGB cameras ***. ARA renders this mapping data in three dimensions (3D) and animates it as flythroughs to simplify viewing.  Click here for an example, which was compiled using sophisticated software donated to this ARA project by Veesus Ltd in the UK.

ARA founder and Chief Scientist Jorg Hacker, who is also Professor Emeritus at Flinders University, said this high-resolution mapping data would help plan for community recovery and future fire prevention. “In many cases, remote sensing data taken from fire-affected areas disappears into a black hole, so the general public either never sees it or sees only a down-sampled low-resolution version,” he said.

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Pia Peterson WEvoke founder and CEO Pia PetersonAustralia’s first fleet of chauffeur-driven, zero-emissions cars, Evoke, has launched in Melbourne, providing Victorian customers with the carbon-free transport they have long requested.

Launched in Sydney in 2015, Evoke operates a fleet of electric cars that can each avoid emitting more than five kilograms of carbon dioxide into the air every time it takes a passenger from the Melbourne CBD to the airport.

Evoke founder and CEO Pia Peterson said the Melbourne launch was due to customer demand. “Melburnians who use our cars in Sydney have long asked us when we would be there,” said Pia. “It is great to now provide them with comfortable emission-free transport at both ends of their journey.

More News...

  1. Hackett Foundation backs SA-based world leader in climate change measurement (15 April 2019)
  2. Airborne Research Australia soars with the Hackett Foundation (09 December 2016)
  3. VAF demos $90,000 Sony 4K laser projector in SA (28 November 2016)
  4. Simon Hackett invests in Tesla chauffeur service (20 October 2016)
  5. Henry Austin savours the sound of success (13 September 2016)
  6. VAF debuts new limited edition EVO1 speaker at HiFi Show (28 June 2016)
  7. VAF kicks off 2016 relaunch at WOMADelaide (07 March 2016)
  8. VAF turns up national sales volume in 2016 (03 March 2016)
  9. Hackett Foundation sponsors WOMADelaide 2016 (06 October 2015)
  10. Adelaide mansion time-shifts into the 21st century (27 April 2015)
  11. New version puts wind under AvPlan’s wings (20 April 2015)
  12. AvPlan EFB soars with Australian aerospace award (24 February 2015)
  13. NBNco director Simon Hackett joins RedFlow board (21 November 2014)
  14. Hackett ticks the boxes for Charles Todd Medal (07 November 2014)
  15. AvPlan launches Android version (13 October 2014)
  16. Australian tech startup BlueChilli announces $5M investment round (02 September 2014)
  17. Simon shares iPhone 5s photo tips (13 June 2014)
  18. Simon Hackett invests $2.2 million in RedFlow (21 May 2014)
  19. AvPlan takes off in the USA (12 April 2014)
  20. AvPlan takes off in New Zealand (24 January 2014)