Jamila Gordon

Jamila Gordon is a Somali Australian entrepreneur. She is the CEO 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]

Jamila Gordon
EducationA degree in IT from the La Trobe University
Occupation(s)CEO and founder of Lumachain
SpouseRevel Gordon

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

During college, Gordon stated she had 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, and after that - 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
  • 2009 La Trobe University Distinguished Alumni Award.[21]
  • 2018 Global Awardee, Microsoft International Women Entrepreneurship Challenge (IWEC).[2]
  • 2020 NSW Pearcey Entrepreneur of the Year Award, Pearcey Foundation.[4]
  • 2021 Australia & NZ Innovator of the Year, Women in AI Awards.[3]
  • 2021 BBC's 100 women.[22]

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 particilar cites 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]

References
  1. "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. WECNY. "Awardees". IWEC Foundation. Retrieved 6 April 2021.
  3. "Australia - New Zealand". Women in AI (WAI). Retrieved 6 April 2021.
  4. "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. Gordon, Jamila (6 November 2020). "How Artificial Intelligence creates opportunity for all". TEDxSydney. Retrieved 7 April 2021.
  8. 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. "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. Connolly, Byron (27 February 2017). "Jamila Gordon: The CIO who escaped the Somali Civil War". CIO. Retrieved 7 April 2021.
  15. "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. 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.
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