Swipejobs founder Katrina Leslie named Australia’s EY Entrepreneur Of The Year after building billion-dollar recruitment business

For 26 years, the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year Awards™ have celebrated the ambition, innovation and ingenuity of Australia’s business founders.

Hosted by professional services firm EY Australia at Melbourne’s Regent Theatre on October 22, the awards recognised 27 national finalists across six categories, from emerging innovators to established industry heavyweights.

And the winners are:

• Consumer Winner: Lou Tandy, The APT Travel Group
• Emerging Winner: Omar Sabré and Zane Sabré, MAISON de SABRÉ
• Industry Winner: Dave Riches, GenusPlus Group Ltd
• Services Winner: Daniel Tucker AM, Carey Group Holdings
• Social Impact Winner: David Elliott OAM, Australian Age of Dinosaurs Ltd
• Technology Winner: Katrina Leslie, SwipeJobs

The top honour of EY Entrepreneur Of The Year went to Katrina Leslie, founder and chair of Swipejobs.

Founded in 2013, the Australian hiring platform is using AI to reshape recruitment, matching jobseekers with employers based on their skills and preferences. Now operating in the US and UK, Swipejobs generated $1.3 billion in revenue in 2025.

Swipejobs’ global success is a testament to the strength of Australian entrepreneurship, with previous EY Entrepreneur Of The Year winners collectively supporting approximately 135,000 jobs and contributing $21.4 billion to Australia’s GDP.

It’s a sentiment echoed by Naomi Simson OAM, chair of the independent judging panel, who praised Leslie’s ability to turn an ambitious idea into a global business.

“As fFounder and cChair of Swipejobs, Katrina stood out for her forward-thinking approach and ability to turn bold ideas into a globally scalable business,” said Simson.

“She has challenged traditional thinking about what recruitment can look like, creating a business model that is reshaping the industry. We need more role models like Katrina in the entrepreneurial community.”

A career spent rewriting recruitment’s rules

For Leslie, a Queensland cattle farmer’s daughter, the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year award represents the latest milestone in a career spent challenging how businesses find and hire talent.

With more than 30 years of experience in recruitment, she’s witnessed the industry’s evolution from ‘help-wanted’ signs in shop windows and newspaper columns to sophisticated online hiring platforms.

Her career began with roles in recruitment at Westpac, Microsoft and BHP before she ventured into entrepreneurship in 1997 with the launch of assessment and career services company IPS. She went on to establish applicant screening and ranking provider ePredix and applicant tracking and sourcing platform HRX in 2005.

Despite her extensive experience and entrepreneurial success, Leslie is more interested in what lies ahead than what’s already been achieved.

“If you want to get out of bed and drive a car at 100 kilometres an hour, you can’t be looking in the rearview mirror at the same time,” said Leslie.

With Swipejobs eyeing further international expansion, Leslie’s focus remains firmly on what comes next.

That includes a trip to Monaco in 2027, where she’ll represent Australia alongside national winners from more than 60 countries, vying for the title of EY World Entrepreneur Of The Year™ 2027.

Excellence in every category

Consumer Winner: Lou Tandy, The APT Travel Group

Taking out the Consumer category was Lou Tandy, co-owner of The APT Travel Group, a business with nearly a century of experience delivering premium travel experiences.

Today, the group welcomes 60,000 guests annually across six continents, balancing its longstanding reputation with the evolving expectations of modern travellers.

With a century in business on the horizon, Tandy is focused on what the next chapter of Australian travel looks like.

Emerging Winner: Omar Sabré and Zane Sabré, MAISON de SABRÉ

What began as a premium take on the everyday phone case has grown into MAISON de SABRÉ, a luxury accessories brand spanning leather bags, wallets and bag charms, with co-founders Zane and Omar Sabré winning in a stacked Emerging category.

With no previous experience in fashion or luxury, the brothers turned their outsider perspective into an advantage.

“Rather than asking how luxury products had always been designed or sold, we asked what customers actually valued and where the category had stopped evolving,” said Zane Sabré.

Industry Winner: Dave Riches, GenusPlus Group Ltd

This year’s Industry winner, Dave Riches, has turned GenusPlus from a Western Australian powerline business into a billion-dollar infrastructure powerhouse.

Since 2009, GenusPlus has grown into a national operation helping power Australia’s future, from electricity transmission networks to renewable energy and telecommunications projects.

Services Winner: Daniel Tucker AM, Carey Group Holdings
Since founding Carey Group Holdings in 1995, Daniel Tucker AM has grown the mining, civil works and training services company into what is now Australia’s largest 100% First Nations-owned commercial enterprise.

Three decades on, Tucker remains focused on the principles that have guided the company’s growth.

“The key is delivering consistently on safety, quality and outcomes, while staying true to why the business exists,” he said.

Social Impact Winner: David Elliott OAM, Australian Age of Dinosaurs Ltd

From discovering a dinosaur fossil while mustering sheep on his Queensland property in 1999 to establishing one of Australia’s most significant dinosaur fossil collections, David Elliott OAM has spent more than two decades bringing Australia’s prehistoric past to life.

Now recognised with the Social Impact award, Elliott has transformed the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum into both a scientific institution and a major driver of regional tourism.

According to Elliott, tourism in the Winton region has doubled in just over a decade, while the growth of local jobs and businesses has contributed to population growth of approximately 10%.

Startup Daily is the media partner for the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year program.

Catch up on our videos and articles featuring all of this year’s finalists.