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QUT Business School graduate and tech entrepreneur Matt Fairhurst has been named the QUT Young Alumnus of the Year for his business leadership and advocacy for those less fortunate.
Matt is the co-founder and CEO of Skedulo, an award-winning, world-leading company in disruptive intelligent mobile workforce management.
After graduating, Matt teamed up with a QUT Science and Engineering Faculty alumnus, James Davies, and they began working on an enterprise software product which ultimately resulted in the creation of an order-to-invoice application. It was while building a small company together around this app that Matt realised the incredible impact smartphones would have on the future of work, particularly to manage flexible, field-based workforces through task management and scheduling.
In 2013, Matt and James joined forces again to create Skedulo – a deskless productivity cloud-based platform that helps enterprises manage, schedule, dispatch, and support workers on the go. In six years, Matt has transformed the company from a Brisbane-based start-up to a global business with 170 employees, and offices in Brisbane, Sydney, San Francisco, Vietnam, New York and London.
Under Matt’s leadership, Skedulo offers the donation of employees’ time, capital and its’ technology in support of communities and programs, as well as volunteering initiatives serving local parks, homeless shelters and orphanages as part of a broader Skedulo program.
David Sinclair, Chief Revenue Officer of HardHat, has known Matt for several years, and speaks highly of Matt's leadership and desire to help others.
“Skedulo is a success due to Matt's passion for his business, his staff and his customers,” he said.
“Many of his customers support the most vulnerable people in society and under Matt's leadership, Skedulo has provided those customers and clients with the highest level of support and care.
“Many other technology businesses would be unable to replicate the same level of commitment and care that Skedulo has shown to such an important industry sector.”
In response to COVID-19, Matt has demonstrated high resilience and generosity to governments and medical institutions by releasing a capacity-based appointment booking service for public health agencies who are on the frontline battling the coronavirus. The offering is available for free throughout the northern hemisphere’s summer months to enable organisations to streamline scheduling and help support the unprecedented surge of appointment requests and traffic.
Although physically based in San Francisco, Skedulo has maintained its product technology and innovation headquarters in Brisbane, and Matt maintains his connection with the university by sharing his knowledge with QUT students and alumni. Over the last three years he has also attended alumni receptions with fellow US-based graduates.
The annual QUT Outstanding Alumni Awards recognise outstanding graduates of the university, and its predecessor institutions, who have displayed exceptional professional, academic or research achievements and contributions to the community.
Each winner and their achievements will be celebrated at the Outstanding Alumni Awards dinner on October 12 at Room Three-Sixty at QUT Gardens Point campus. The QUT Outstanding Alumnus of the Year will also be announced at the event.
This year, we have a second Young Alumnus of the Year. Find out more Reba Brammer, the QUT Creative Industries Faculty Young Alumnus of the Year award winner.