ScaleUP Showcase - Speakers

Keynote Speaker

Vinnie Lauria

Founding Partner, Golden Gate Ventures

We are excited to welcome Vinnie Lauria to Brisbane to share their insights and perspective about Scaling Queensland to the World.

Vinnie is a two-time Silicon Valley entrepreneur turned venture capitalist. He is the Founding Partner of Golden Gate Ventures, a global early-stage VC firm launched in 2011 with US$300M in assets under management and 100+ investments. Over the past 14 years, Vinnie has served on more than a dozen startup boards, including unicorns like Carro and Carousell. He was an early investor in Stripe and AngelList, and helped take startups like Lomotif public on the NYSE.

Before founding Golden Gate Ventures, Vinnie built two startups in Silicon Valley: Meetro, a pioneering location-based chat app (shut down with many lessons learned in 2007); and Lefora, a social network platform acquired by a public media company in 2010. He also founded Silicon Valley NewTech, one of the Bay Area’s largest startup demo events at the time.

Vinnie has been a guest lecturer at Stanford, Berkeley, and the National University of Singapore, and is a Kauffman Fellow. Earlier in his career, he spent four years at IBM, helping shape the company’s strategy around social software for the enterprise. A lifelong technologist, Vinnie is deeply passionate about building startup ecosystems worldwide and joined his first startup as a developer while still in high school.

Welcome & Morning Speakers

Rongyu Li

Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Vice-President (Global Engagement), The University of Queensland

With a track record leading global strategy and partnerships at major universities across Australia and New Zealand,brings deep expertise in international education and higher ed administration. His work has shaped federal and institutional innovation policy, strengthened sector-wide advisory groups, and advanced UQ’s leadership in rankings, global mobility, and entrepreneurship.

Rongyu Li brings extensive leadership experience in global engagement and international education across major universities in Australia and New Zealand. He has played a key role in shaping innovation and entrepreneurship policy at federal and institutional levels, strengthening sector-wide advisory groups, and advancing UQ’s profile in global rankings, international partnerships, and entrepreneurial initiatives.  Rongyu leads strategic programs that expand UQ’s global reach through student mobility, industry engagement, and entrepreneurship development. 

Jasmine Vreugdenburg

Deputy Director-General Innovation, Department of Environment, Tourism, Science, and Innovation

Jasmine is a passionate leader with more than 20 years’ experience helping innovation ecosystems thrive - across government, universities, and the startup world. Her work has focused on everything from research commercialisation and startup acceleration to building innovation hubs and attracting investment, all with the goal of turning big ideas into real-world impact.

She’s currently the Deputy Director of Innovation at Queensland’s Department of Environment, Tourism, Science, and Innovation, where she helps shape the state’s innovation economy. In this role, she leads programs and policy that support deep tech, research commercialisation, and future-focused industries.

Nicola Wightman

Ventures Relations Manager, QIC Ventures

Nicola Wightman is Venture Relations Manager at QIC Ventures, a venture capital investor in Queensland startups and scaleups. She brings experience across accelerator programs, government innovation initiatives, corporate IT, and small business. At QIC Ventures, Nicola leads engagement across the innovation ecosystem—working with founders, investors, universities, and government to foster collaboration and support the growth of emerging companies. QIC Ventures is a leading investor in Queensland’s startup ecosystem, supporting companies from seed to Series C+.

Dr Dean Moss

CEO, UniQuest

With over 35 years of experience spanning science, academia, business, and commercialisation across Australia, the US, and the UK, Dean Moss has led numerous biotech ventures, including founding the successful UK start-up York Medical Technologies. He has served on boards of several Australian biotech companies, managed raising more than $200M in venture capital, and currently chairs the Group of Eight Universities Innovation and Commercialisation Group. Dean also holds the title of Adjunct Professor at UQ and has played a key role in advancing university technology transfer and commercialisation nationally and globally.

Maja Sliwinski

Investment Director, Kilara Capital

Maja has over 20 years of global investing experience in the public and private markets focusing on deal sourcing, structuring and portfolio management. Maja holds an MBA from The Wharton Business School and a Dual Degree in Finance and Computer Science Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania.

Maja was the head of PE at Tannara Capital and previously a co-founder of a $700m hedge fund in New York.

Tickets are selling fast - get yours today

Choose how you experience ScaleUP Showcase Pitch Night:

• Full Experience: Attend the entire ScaleUP Showcase during the day - including expert panels, breakout sessions, networking, and the Innovation Showcase - and stay into the evening for Pitch Night.

• Pitch Night Only: Join us just for the exciting Pitch Night finale.

• Combined Discount: Save when you buy both events together with our combined ticket option.