25 July, 2022

E143 – Wayne Gerard, Co-Founder & CEO of RedEye, Queensland Chief Entrepreneur

Wayne Gerard wears a number of hats. By day, he is the Co-Founder & CEO of RedEye and the current Queensland Chief Entrepreneur. He lives on a working farm outside of Brisbane, is a trail runner and is deeply passionate about innovation, entrepreneurship, the climate, helping others and making a difference with the time we have! 

Wayne spent 10 years in the ARMY straight out of school, first as a tactical communications officer and later with a key role to build the ARMY’s first drone. This opportunity led to a job offer with Boeing, then a Queensland tech company (Lincom) before starting his own consultancy company. Following a devastating flood that affected his property in 2011, Wayne reevaluated his position, wanting to move away from being the product of his business. 

During a trip to the US, Wayne came up with an idea for a SaaS business – a single instance multi tenant cloud as a solution for engineering companies. RedEye was born with BHP the very first customer. Fast forward 10 years and Wayne has taken up position as Queensland Chief Entrepreneur – a position he will hold until the end of 2022. 

His key focus priorities in this role include: 

• To help the existing industry to be as sustainable and successful as possible by partnering with QLD innovators, entrepreneurs and researchers 
• To build the next emerging industry and new economy
• To focus on regional – entrepreneurship and innovation can happen anywhere, from Longreach to Gladstone or Cairns 
• To unlock partnerships with the Brisbane 2032 Olympics

During their chat, Ian and Wayne cover a range of topics, all highlighting Wayne’s desire to make a difference and help others – particularly those in the innovation and entrepreneurship space. One of the key takeaways: Resilience is learnt as you go on your journey. Know you’re not alone. It’s hard work but keep going. What you’re doing is going to make a difference! 

QUICKFIRE ROUND 

• Book: Lifespan by Dr David Sinclair 
• Podcast: Rich Roll, The A16Z Podcast 
• News Source: tries not to focus on the news – prefers to focus on customers 
• App: Garmin, Strava – for trail running 
• Fav Tech CEO: Elon Musk 
• Productivity Tool: Redeye 
• TV Show: The Terminal List 
• Ted Talk Topic: Building resilient economies for innovation