disability Archives - Don't Stop Us Now

AI Visionary – Lee Yearsley

April 11, 2024April 12, 2024
by Claire

Every now and then we meet with a guest who blows us away by the scale and worthiness of their vision. And there’s no doubting this week’s guest is one of those.

Lee Yearsley is an AI veteran and entrepreneur with a unique track record that speaks to her skill of anticipating the future. Raised in Zimbabwe and South Africa, Lee sold her last AI company 10 years ago to IBM. It was the first company in the world to deploy AI in businesses such as banks, insurance companies and health care.

And now Lee’s at it again channelling her philosophy of building a global AI company that the world will need, not today, but in 5 years time. Her vision is big; she wants to reach more than 100 million customers worldwide.

Lee’s business is called Akin and her determination to use technology for good has seen her incorporate as a public benefit corporation (that’s an American legal entity that embeds a business model that benefits both shareholders and society).

Akin is bringing a new and more advanced type of AI to market, called Adaptive Reasoning.

It already has customers ranging from NASA to healthcare companies with disabled clients.

Now despite the fact Lee has a track record of founding and exiting several businesses, she shares with us just how difficult it is to raise funding as a female founder.

In this episode you’ll hear:

How Lee was positively dissuaded, if not barred, from studying computer science at Uni because she was a woman
How she says she ignores the accepted wisdom of how to build a successful startup and that others should ignore it too
How pervasive AI systems already are and how much they’re influencing the decisions we make in a negative way; and
The creative and unique way Lee goes about envisioning, building and growing her business.

We were lucky to spend time with Lee after she spoke at the Impact Investment Summit in Sydney recently.

Enjoy this episode with the visionary and genuinely pioneering Lee Yearsley.

Useful Links

Akin AI

Lee on LinkedIn

Credit top left photo – Dion Georgopoulos

Interview

Ann Sherry – The Positive Change Agent

April 9, 2019
by admin

Ann Sherry is a change maker who’s notched up so many extraordinary achievements during her decades long and inspiring career to date that it’s hard to know where to start. Suffice to say Australian women have a lot to thank her for as one of the many things she’s responsible for is introducing paid maternity leave to corporate Australia.

She also transformed the cruise industry in Australia as CEO of Carnival Australia, notching up double digit growth every year despite having to deal with significant challenges.

Today Ann sits on multiple boards including Carnival Australia where she is Chairman, she is also Chair of UNICEF Australia, and a Non Executive Director (NED) with one of the country’s biggest banks, National Australia Bank (NAB), as well as Sydney Airport, Rugby Australia, the Museum of Contemporary Arts Australia and Palladium.

Ann has many accolades for her extremely varied career to date including a Centenary Medal, an Order of Australia and the overall winner of the Women of Influence award in 2015.

In this episode you’ll hear:

How having a baby with Downs syndrome at just 21 didn’t stop her from pioneering his care and returning to work when he was still young
How she’s learnt to be resilient and not be phased by others judging her
Why she thinks women need to take more risks
And why she controversially bought a host of brightly coloured pant suits shortly after becoming one of the first senior women at a major bank.

For listeners who outside of Australia, near the end of the episode we talk about how there’s recently been a Royal Commission in to banking in Australia – it’s basically a court-style public inquiry into misconduct which unearthed some serious misconduct across the industry.

So please enjoy this fascinating discussion with the inspiring and truly entertaining Ann Sherry.

Links to Ann:

Twitter

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 40:34 — 37.3MB) | Embed

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Interview

Marie Johnson – Breaking Digital Boundaries and Challenging Stereotypes

February 12, 2019
by admin

On the show this week is Marie Johnson, an Australian entrepreneur with a passion for digital and AI.

Marie’s cutting edge work today is all the more incredible when you hear her story….

She was married as a teenager, then soon found herself pregnant and living in a caravan! Despite not having the chance to take her studies further immediately after school, Marie went on to juggle motherhood and study, and earnt several degrees.

One thing led to another and Marie took on CIO and other senior technology roles, particularly in Government, and in 2006 she was named “Innovative CIO of the Year – for Australia” (according to CIO magazine).

Marie now leads the Centre for Digital Business – a company she co-founded with her husband (yes the same one she married all those years ago). She’s a passionate believer in finding ways to use digital technology including AI to make life more equal and fair for everyone.

In this episode you’ll hear:

Why you should have a long and a short game plan
What it’s like as an older woman in technology
How she copes with adversity
How she co-designed the world’s first digital human, Nadia, with the disabled community and
How her husband’s four heart operations and her grandsons are shaping the digital ventures Marie is working on now

Enjoy this episode with the forward thinking Marie Johnson.

We were amazed by this video Marie shared with us (below) showing the incredibly human conversational skills of her current project: creating a Digital Human Cardiac Coach. We think she and the team at FaceMe are doing a truly incredible job. Prepare to be blown away by AI in action: