Jamila Gordon

Last updated
Jamila Gordon
Portrait de Jamila Gordon2.jpg
Line art of Jamila Gordon's face
EducationA degree in IT from the La Trobe University
Occupation(s)CEO and founder of Lumachain
SpouseRevel Gordon

Jamila Gordon is a Somali Australian entrepreneur. She is the chief executive officer and founder of an Australian SaaS company applying AI and Blockchain to food supply channels (Lumachain). [1] After escaping the Somalian Civil War at the age of eighteen, she was a displaced person in Kenya before moving to Australia, where she received a degree in IT from the La Trobe University. [1] Gordon later served as the CIO at Qantas and Leighton Holdings/CIMIC, and as an executive at IBM. [1] She was subsequently named as Microsoft's Global Awardee in the International Women's Entrepreneurship Challenge 2018, [2] Australia & New Zealand Innovator of the Year in the Women in AI Awards 2020, [3] NSW Pearcey Entrepreneur of the Year 2021. [4] She was recognized as one of the BBC's 100 women of 2021. [5]

Contents

Early life and education

Jamila Gordon was born to a nomadic family in the hinterland of Somalia and brought up in a small village as one of 16 children. [6] [7] As the eldest daughter, she was expected to play a key role in running the family home from approximately five years old, and these responsibilities took precedence over her education. [8] Her family moved to Mogadishu when she was 11 years old to avoid a drought. [9] Once civil war broke out, she became a displaced person in Kenya. [7] [10] There, Gordon met an Australian backpacker, who helped her move to Australia. [7] After arriving in Australia, Gordon took English courses at TAFE NSW [11] and enrolled in an accounting degree at La Trobe University in Melbourne. [12] She switched her major to software engineering after taking a programming elective and eventually graduated with a Bachelor of Business and Information Technology degree in 1995. [12] [13]

Career

Early

Gordon stated she worked as a dish washer and a kitchen hand at a local Japanese restaurant during her years in college. [7]

After college

After graduating, Gordon was employed in software development and subsequently project management. [14] She continued her work in software for British Gas and later at Emirates Airlines. [14] She was later employed by Deloitte, then as a senior project manager at IBM. [14] In 2001 IBM relocated her to Europe, working across cities in multiple countries where she had led global rollouts at IBM customers including Solectron, AXA Insurance and ABN AMRO Bank. [14] In 2007, she was hired as a chief information officer for Qantas airways, and then for Leighton Holdings/CIMIC. [14]

Lumachain

In April 2018, Gordon founded Lumachain, a company that provides a blockchain and computer vision software for the meat industry, with $3.5 million in seed funding, in a round led by the CSIRO venture capital fund (Main Sequence Ventures). [8] [15] Its stated aim is to add transparency to global food supply chains and provide an auditable record to prove if an item comes from ethically responsible sources (e.g. worker conditions, health code compliance). [15] [16] In 2019, the company partnered with Microsoft, [17] [18] JBS S.A. [19] and CSIRO [20] for a large scale trials.

Awards

Personal life

Gordon is an advocate for diversity and inclusivity of women in STEM, [14] and is helping refugees from various backgrounds in succeeding in Australia. She cites in particular her experiences in child labour as a driving factor in her socially responsible business work through technology. [7] [8] In this capacity she has previously volunteered as a board member at the CareerSeekers and the CareerTrackers social organizations. [23] She is also a global ambassador at the IWEC Foundation and serves as a member on the Advisory Council of Questacon. [24]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Microsoft</span> American multinational technology corporation

Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became highly influential in the rise of personal computers through software like Windows, and the company has since expanded to Internet services, cloud computing, video gaming and other fields. Microsoft is the largest software maker, one of the most valuable public U.S. companies, and one of the most valuable brands globally.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pymble Ladies' College</span> School in Pymble, New South Wales, Australia

Pymble Ladies' College is an independent, non-selective, day and boarding school for girls, located in Pymble, a suburb on the Upper North Shore of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

The Business Council of Australia (BCA) is an industry association that comprises the chief executives of more than 100 of Australia's biggest corporations. It was formed in 1983 by the merger of the Business Roundtable – a spin-off of the Committee for Economic Development of Australia – and the Australian Industry Development Association. The organisation is headquartered in Melbourne with offices in Sydney and Canberra.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pia Andrews</span> Australian computer specialist

Pia Andrews, born 1979, is an open government leader and the Special Advisor, Digital & Client Data Workstream Lead for Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ellyse Perry</span> Australian cricketer and soccer player (born 1990)

Ellyse Perry is an Australian cricketer and former soccer player. Having debuted for both the national cricket and national soccer team at the age of 16, she is the youngest Australian to play international cricket and the first to appear in both ICC and FIFA World Cups. Gradually becoming a single-sport professional athlete from 2014 onward, Perry's acclaimed cricket career has continued to flourish and she is widely regarded to be one of the greatest woman cricketers of all time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sonja Bernhardt</span> Australian technologist and entrepreneur

Sonja Bernhardt is an Australian information technology industry figure involved in mentoring and role model programs for women in IT. She was founder and Inaugural President of WiT in Queensland in 1997 and co founder and Inaugural President of AWISE in 2005, not for profit industry groups running community based projects and programs to encourage women and girls into technology careers. She is responsible for the 2007 Screen Goddess IT Calendar, IT's Million $ Babes Awards and Doing IT Around the World.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sandy Carter</span> American computer scientist, marketer, and businesswoman

Sandra “Sandy” Carter is an American businesswoman, speaker and author. She was a general manager at IBM from 2013 to 2016, vice president at Amazon Web Services from 2017 to 2021 and is currently the chief operating officer at Unstoppable Domains.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blythe Masters</span> British economist (born 1969)

Blythe Sally Jess Masters is a British private equity executive and former financial services and fintech executive. She is a former executive at JPMorgan Chase, where she was widely credited for developing the credit default swap as a financial instrument.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ginni Rometty</span> American business executive (born 1957)

Virginia "Ginni" Rometty is an American business executive who was executive chairman of IBM after stepping down as CEO on April 1, 2020. She was previously chairman, president and CEO of IBM, becoming the first woman to head the company. She retired from IBM on December 31, 2020, after a near-40 year career there. Before becoming president and CEO in January 2012, she first joined IBM as a systems engineer in 1981 and subsequently headed global sales, marketing, and strategy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Naomi Simson</span> Australian businesswoman

Naomi Simson is an Australian businessperson, entrepreneur, podcaster and blogger. After launching the Australian online success story RedBalloon in 2001, Naomi went on to co-found Big Red Group with partner David Anderson in 2017. Headquartered in Sydney's CBD, Big Red Group is the largest marketplace of experiences in ANZ, and home to leading brands including Adrenaline, Experience Oz, Experience Oz Local Agent, Lime&Tonic, and RedBalloon. 

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Siobhan Reddy</span> South African-Australian game executive

Siobhan Reddy is a South African-Australian video game executive. She is the studio director of Media Molecule, a video game development studio based in Guildford in the United Kingdom, most famous for their debut title LittleBigPlanet.

Mary Josephine O'Kane, AC an Australian scientist and engineer, is the Chair of the Independent Planning Commission of New South Wales. She is also a company director and Executive Chairman of O’Kane Associates, a Sydney-based consulting practice specialising in government reviews and research and innovation advice to governments in Europe, Asia and Australasia.

Early Australian female aviators were generally active since 1927 when it became possible for an Australian woman to hold a pilot's licence and fly within Australia. Women had participated in gliding, or taken a licence overseas, but they had not been permitted to fly a plane under licence within Australia. The first Aero Club in Australia was established in 1915.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joy Buolamwini</span> Computer scientist and digital activist

Joy Adowaa Buolamwini is a Canadian-American computer scientist and digital activist formerly based at the MIT Media Lab. She founded the Algorithmic Justice League (AJL), an organization that works to challenge bias in decision-making software, using art, advocacy, and research to highlight the social implications and harms of artificial intelligence (AI).

Fiona Elizabeth Balfour is an Australian business executive in the field of information technology. She has been named Chief Information Officer of the Year in Australia four times: 2003, 2004, 2005, and 2006. In 2006 she was awarded the Pearcey Award for distinguished lifetime achievement and contribution to the development and growth of Australian IT professions, research and industry. In 2017 she was appointed to the board of the Western Sydney Airport Corporation by Urban Infrastructure Minister Paul Fletcher. In May 2021 she was appointed to the board of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation by communications minister Paul Fletcher against the recommendations of an independent panel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">IBM Cloud</span> Cloud computing services provided by IBM

IBM Cloud is a set of cloud computing services for business offered by the information technology company IBM.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deborah Raji</span> Nigerian-Canadian computer scientist and activist

Inioluwa Deborah Raji is a Nigerian-Canadian computer scientist and activist who works on algorithmic bias, AI accountability, and algorithmic auditing. Raji has previously worked with Joy Buolamwini, Timnit Gebru, and the Algorithmic Justice League on researching gender and racial bias in facial recognition technology. She has also worked with Google’s Ethical AI team and been a research fellow at the Partnership on AI and AI Now Institute at New York University working on how to operationalize ethical considerations in machine learning engineering practice. A current Mozilla fellow, she has been recognized by MIT Technology Review and Forbes as one of the world's top young innovators.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kyndryl</span> U.S. information technology company

Kyndryl Holdings, Inc. is an American multinational information technology infrastructure services provider, headquartered in New York City and created from the spin-off of IBM's infrastructure services business in 2021. The company designs, builds, manages and develops large-scale information systems. The company also has business advisory services. It is currently the world's largest IT infrastructure services provider, and the fifth-largest consulting provider.

Maja Vuković is a computer scientist, doing research in Artificial intelligence, Blockchain and Cloud Software among others.  She has been appointed an IBM Fellow in 2021 and in IBM she was responsible for technical and research strategy for AI driven Application Modernization.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Bio - Jamila Gordon". Questacon - The National Science and Technology Centre. 6 May 2019. Archived from the original on 3 February 2022. Retrieved 6 April 2021.
  2. 1 2 WECNY. "Awardees". IWEC Foundation. Retrieved 6 April 2021.
  3. 1 2 "Australia - New Zealand". Women in AI (WAI). Retrieved 6 April 2021.
  4. 1 2 "2020 NSW Award » Pearcey". pearcey.org.au. Archived from the original on 2 March 2022. Retrieved 6 April 2021.
  5. ↑ "BBC 100 Women 2021: Who is on the list this year?". BBC News. 7 December 2021. Retrieved 16 December 2022.
  6. ↑ Blakkarly, Jarni (16 January 2018). "My Australia: From washing dishes to Qantas executive". SBS News. Retrieved 7 April 2021.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 Gordon, Jamila (6 November 2020). "How Artificial Intelligence creates opportunity for all". TEDxSydney. Retrieved 7 April 2021.
  8. 1 2 3 Vickovich, Aleks (29 July 2019). "Former Qantas executive raises $3.5 million for anti-slavery blockchain startup — inspired by her forced labour as a child in Somalia". Business Insider Australia. Archived from the original on 4 February 2022. Retrieved 7 April 2021.
  9. ↑ Blakkarly, Jarni (3 May 2018). "My Australia: From washing dishes to Qantas executive". iamamigrant.org. Archived from the original on 17 May 2021. Retrieved 21 May 2021.
  10. ↑ Mudditt, Jessica; Walker, Nic (1 May 2018). "What I've learned: Jamila Gordon". Company Director. 34 (4): 80 – via Informit.
  11. ↑ 2018 Annual Review (Report). Australian Institute of Company Directors. 1 October 2018. p. 23.
  12. 1 2 "Square the Ledger profile: Jamila Gordon". www.latrobe.edu.au. 2020. Retrieved 21 May 2021.
  13. ↑ "Women and Leadership: Looking Beyond the Global Health Crisis". The New York Times. 17 November 2020. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 21 May 2021.
  14. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Connolly, Byron (27 February 2017). "Jamila Gordon: The CIO who escaped the Somali Civil War". CIO. Retrieved 7 April 2021.
  15. 1 2 "Lumachain lands $3.5 million for tech tackling modern slavery in food supply chains". SmartCompany. 29 July 2019. Retrieved 7 April 2021.
  16. ↑ "Jamila Gordon". Meat Business Women. Archived from the original on 4 February 2022. Retrieved 21 May 2021.
  17. ↑ "AI, IoT and blockchain trace meat from paddock-to-plate at nation's largest food processing company, JBS, in Australian-first trial". Microsoft Australia News Centre. 18 November 2019. Retrieved 21 May 2021.
  18. ↑ Satya Nadella features Lumachain in his Sydney keynote address , retrieved 7 April 2021
  19. ↑ "Agtech: Artificial Intelligence trial tracks JBS beef from paddock to plate". Beef Central. 19 November 2019. Retrieved 21 May 2021.
  20. ↑ "Paddock to plate: Lumachain beefs up the data trail". www.theaustralian.com.au. The Australian. 19 November 2019. Retrieved 21 May 2021.
  21. ↑ "Awards recognise high achievers". www.latrobe.edu.au. La Trobe University. Archived from the original on 26 September 2021. Retrieved 30 May 2021.
  22. ↑ "BBC 100 Women 2021: Who is on the list this year?". BBC News. 7 December 2021. Retrieved 16 December 2022.
  23. ↑ "Jamila Gordon | LinkedIn". LinkedIn .
  24. ↑ "Jamila Gordon, CEO and Founder of Lumachain". www.humanrights.unsw.edu.au. Australian Human Rights Institute. Retrieved 21 May 2021.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.