Colette is a passionate participant and supporter of the startup and innovation ecosystem. She has had hands-on experience in startups, corporate innovation, research commercialisation and customer experience roles in North America, South Africa, Australia and the UK, which saw her recognised annually as StartupDaily’s Top50 Women in Tech and awarded the AWLA Emerging Leader in Technology 2016. She has both started her own, and run startups for others, and has led landmark corporate innovation programs and ventures. She now looks after growth of the startup ecosystem at AWS, leading an excellent team passionate about enabling founders to start and successfully scale cutting edge startups in Australia and New Zealand.

Before joining AWS, she was Chief Innovation Officer at BlueChilli, consistently recognised and awarded as one of Australia’s fastest growing and most innovative companies. Through their venture studio and accelerator programs, they worked with entrepreneurs and corporate innovators to build 147 new tech startups. During her six years, she created BlueChilli's innovation division, drove the company's business transformation and international expansions, and led the APAC sales, marketing & programs teams.

Colette tries to be helpful to people who want to change the world and is a frequent speaker and mentor. She also volunteers on boards in the innovation, education, climate change, and diversity & inclusion space. She has a Bachelor of Commerce, International Business from the Haskayne School of Business and is fluent in Afrikaans and English. She sits on the Board of Apropela, acts as an advisor on SheStarts and is seen regularly as a speaker, judge and panellist on her favourite topics – startup and innovation.