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 

64 North Terrace, Kent TownAn historic Adelaide mansion has undergone a multi-million-dollar metamorphosis that has transformed the heritage-listed 19th century pile into a 21st century landmark.

The property - formerly housing the Parkin Theological College and Pepper Studios - is a distinctive visual and historic element in Kent Town, a fringe suburb east of Adelaide’s CBD.

Constructed in 1865 of bluestone and sandstone rubble with brick quoins, the original two-storey building contains picturesque detailing with a facade of profiled brick, scalloped barges and a cantilevered balcony.

When Adelaide-based technology entrepreneur Simon Hackett paid $3.5 million for the property in 2012, he decided to restore it to its former glory while bringing it aesthetically, structurally and functionally into the 21st century.

“It is such a beautiful property that had been extended and maintained quite haphazardly over the years,” said Simon. “We wanted these renovations to make this an Adelaide landmark building for the next 100 years.”

AvSoft CEO Bevan AndersonAustralia’s award-winning flight planning software developer AvSoft has substantially enhanced its AvPlan EFB (Electronic Flight Bag) iPad app with an arsenal of new features.

As well as integration to send flight plans from AvPlan EFB to Jeppesen FliteDeck and a more complete picture of changing weather patterns, AvPlan EFB version 5.0 delivers audible cockpit notifications, a refuelling price database and new calculators for the lowest safe flying altitude and pre-planned gliding ranges.

AvPlan EFB, used by thousands of professional and amateur pilots in Australia, New Zealand and the US, is developed in Melbourne by AvSoft, a privately owned company that last month won the Aerospace Australia Ltd Civil Industry National Innovation Award for 2015.

AvSoft CEO Bevan Anderson said AvPlan EFB’s latest free software upgrade would benefit subscribing pilots in all three countries. “This is a huge release, which has features coming out of its ears,” he said.

Simon Hackett at Base64Technology entrepreneur Simon Hackett today reveals plans to enhance Base64, his $7 million renovated office complex built around an historic Adelaide mansion, by installing Australian-developed energy storage and management systems.

The core of the system will contain high energy density zinc-bromide flow batteries supplied by pioneering Brisbane-based energy storage company RedFlow (http://www.redflow.com).

Base64 has ordered a RedFlow LSB (Large Scale Battery) unit, a six-metre shipping container-style storage system that uses 60 RedFlow “ZBM3” 11-kilowatt hour (kWh) flow batteries to achieve a total storage capacity of 660 kWh.