about us
Meet Our Team
Meet the masterminds behind our mission, each bringing their own unique skills to collectively create and instigate change!
carmen rudd / Founder & creator
After founding Zig Zag Hub – a co-working conglomerate for startups, Carmen saw a rise in young aspiring entrepreneurs with bright ideas wanting to establish connections with other like-minded individuals looking to build a community. This led to bringing entrepreneurship education into schools to ignite younger people’s passions to build their own future. Carmen consequently founded the Young Eyes Festival of Innovation – a program designated to spotlight and support innovative thinkers and change makers, before expanding the Young Eyes brand to include a suite of programs to meet the needs of young entrepreneurs in a rapidly changing technological landscape. Carmen aspires to offer alternative paths to success other than traditional education while ensuring all students have equitable access to entrepreneurial learning regardless of individual socio-economic situation or life circumstances.
andre hollis / lead software engineer & facilitator
Andre joined Young Eyes in the founding year of the Festival of Innovation, seeking to utilise his extensive skills in software programming and engineering to better the world. While the Young Eyes online platforms, programs and portals are products of Andre’s creativity and technological aptitude, his talents extend beyond such domain. Andre balances both the technological and personal side of entrepreneurship regularly stepping away from the screen and into schools to facilitate workshops and seek further inspiration from the young eyes he programs for. Andre is currently in his final year of his Master of Computer Science at the University of Wollongong and serves as a Charity Board Member for Cloud School.
Asher Noble / Junior Software Developer & Administrator
lucy mckenna / Education & Innovation Manager
After enjoying 10 years of success in business stakeholder relationship management roles within the not for profit sector, Lucy commenced studying her Master of Teaching at the University of Wollongong as she believed education was her means through which to effect real and meaningful change. Lucy is fuelled by a passion to develop a different approach to education, one that meets the needs of 21st century learners, entrepreneurs and innovative thinkers. With standardised and traditional approaches to education initially failing to meet her learning needs, she perservered, ultimately experiencing remarkable academic success. Lucy radiates unmatchable positivity and has an unmistakable zeal for challenge. With her keen interest in educational excellence including novel experience, tangible learning and digital technologies, alongside her respect for brain science including synapses and plasticity as well as a love of educational psychology (including positive psychology, cognitive struggle and growth mindset) she brings a wealth of knowledge, experience and energy to the Young Eyes team and all workshop facilitations and program creation.
