REVEALED: South Australia’s top 40 leaders under 40
Meet today’s 40 Under 40 winners, Aaron Hill, Amy Nikolovski, Andres Donoso and Ben Smit. These top young leaders are paving the way in Adelaide’s finance, law, consulting and technology industries.
Aaron Hill
Deloitte Access Economics partner Aaron Hill leads the business’s civil government sector practice across Australia, as well as the practice in South Australia and the Northern Territory.
In his role, Hill works with central, economic and industry agencies and environment departments in a bid to help inform decisions, drive reform and serve public interest.
His clients across Australia range from global corporates, major universities and cultural institutions through to Commonwealth, state and city governments.
Hill’s work has played an important role in driving public policy in South Australia, and our landmark analysis was the Make it Adelaide Series, where the economic future of South Australia focused on encouraging more people and businesses to choose to work here, driven by eight sectors in line with the state’s competitive advantages and global trends.
Prior to his role with Deloitte, Hill worked across the public sector as an economic adviser to the SA Premier, a policy adviser to the Deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer and worked in other advisory roles.
He began with Deloitte as an associate director in 2014 before being named partner in June 2019.
Amy Nikolovski
Leading legal firm Duncan Basheer Hannon (DBH) Partner Amy Nikolovski has been a staunch advocate for women in business and law in all aspects of her professional life.
In her role with the firm, she has led by example, paving the way for young women as the youngest person to be named partner and as the first female to be made equity partner in more than 20 years.
Last year, she served a term as President of the SA Law Society, becoming the fourth woman in the Society’s 140-year history to do so.
Nikolovski also co-founded charitable foundation Doing Business in Heels, with DBH Senior Associate Julie Height in 2015. The charity was designed to connect and empower the State’s business women from all backgrounds and industries by providing support and financial relief through fundraising and networking events.
Nikolovski said she hoped by creating safe workplaces for women and those from diverse backgrounds more minorities would be drawn into the legal field.
As well as leading DBH, Nikolovski is the Law Council of Australia’s Equal Opportunity Committee SA representative and Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee Chair.
She has also run multiple Subways including one in Gawler Green, and owned the Walkerville Anytime Fitness until November 2019.
Andres Donoso
Donoso & Sons Commercial Manager Andres Donoso has a broad scope of experience, having worked across sectors including mining, defence, hospitality and the arts.
As Commercial Manager for his family-owned business, Donoso has helped the company expand into Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. While as Director of live music venue the Fat Controller he helped found a mentorship program for the state’s young musicians.
Donoso & Sons provides investment management services to organisations from all industries and has seven wholly-owned subsidiaries. Its portfolio includes businesses D&S Resources, Fat Controller Club and Wunderhaus Media Agency, all of which Donoso is Director.
In his role with mining management company D&S Resources, Donoso said he had assisted with the company’s rapid national grown and included offices in Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth.
Meanwhile, while overseeing the Fat Controller the business had started a new music industry mentor program – Backstage Class.
The program is designed as a pathway for budding Adelaide-based musicians trying to break into the contemporary arts industry. By matching young people with industry professionals, it aims to provide hands-on experience and practical advice about the music sector.
The Whyalla-born entrepreneur also develops strategic marketing plans for advertising, branding, media and event planning campaigns as Wunderhaus Media Agency Director.
Ben Smit
Ben Smit is Cofounder and CEO of software company Teamgage, a business which gathers employee feedback and provides improvement guidance to organisations and teams.
Since launching commercially in 2016, Smit said the South Australian startup had doubled its revenue every 12 months and had been adopted by clients including Westpac, Santos, CSIRO as well as the New South Wales and South Australians governments.
Smit said the company was in the midst of expanding its global presence.
Based out of innovation hub Lot Fourteen, Teamgage has been selected for a range of awards and programs including the 2019 Adelaide City Awards Best Smart Business and Microsoft’s first scale-up program in Sydney in 2018. Teamgage co-founder Noelle Smit was also named in InDaily’s 40 Under 40 in 2018.
In April, Teamgage also added a new survey tool to its platform which aimed to assist companies support in supporting staff as they worked from home.
Teamgage is Smit’s second business. In 2008 he founded student engagement software company Code 360, which he said was still used by universities across Australia.
Smit said, despite the commercial success of his companies, he measured his achievements through the workplace culture he fostered. He said, as a result, Teamgage maintained its original staff.