Ian O'Rourke

BIO

Ian has been involved in technology businesses and start-ups for over 22 years and has built businesses in Australia, Taiwan, Silicon Valley and the UK. One of these, Oovie, became Australia’s largest DVD kiosk operator before being acquired by Hoyts, the country’s top entertainment group. Another venture, Treeview Estates, has created a 148-home retirement village outside of Sydney. Formerly Ian was based in San Francisco heading Asian sales for Intershop, an eCommerce software start-up. From the early stages through a successful Nasdaq IPO and beyond. He established Intershop’s Asian operations growing sales from zero to US$8m in under three years. Ian has grown Adthena since 2012 to its current position as the premier global provider of competitive intelligence. Recent key achievements include a growth rate up from 50% to greater than 100% and a 92% increase in sales value as well as staff engagement scores exceeding 80%. Ian has also secured significant investment from Candy Crush entrepreneur Mel Morris, who now brings unmatched experience to Adthena’s board as it expands its operations in the US, UK and Australia. Ian likes to foster a culture of great products, getting things done, responsibility, freedom and continuous improvement. While Adthena itself has won many major industry awards, Ian’s entrepreneurial determination has also been recognised with the Developing Entrepreneur Award at the WCIT Enterprise Awards – commonly regarded as the ‘Oscars for technology entrepreneurs’. A double graduate of the University of Queensland, Ian is also a fluent Chinese speaker having lived and studied in Taiwan. He is married with two children and is an avid rock climber.