Tori Cutajar, Karina Dooley and Brooke Hermans of Projectura accept their award from Anthony McFarlene, director of Murray-Riverina Business NSW. Photo: Brett Costello.
Three Riverina-based organisations picked up major prizes at an annual black-tie awards event run by Business NSW – the state’s peak business representative body – held in Sydney on Friday 18 November.
The NSW Business Awards 2022 was a grand final-like occasion, which brought together all the winners of awards nights held in each region, to announce the statewide champions across 15 categories.
Projectura, a Corowa-based consultancy, won the Excellence in Micro Business award; Albury’s Boys to the Bush, a not-for-profit that helps disengaged young men, took out the Outstanding Community Organisation prize while fellow Albury business Meet Pat, which designs clean water drinking stations, claimed the gong for Excellence in Exports.
Projectura director Karina Dooley said she was surprised to win the Region Riverina-sponsored localised Murray-Riverina award, so she could barely comprehend how three women working remotely could claim the statewide gong.
“We are absolutely ecstatic, we have made a number of changes over the past years and this is good recognition that shows we are on the right track,” she said.
“It’s put Corowa on the map for all the right reasons.”
READ ALSO: Time is now for Corowa trio with win at NSW Business Awards
The consultancy boasts an impressive resume of recent achievements. The group has developed a newcomer attraction and retention strategy for Red Cross Australia, engaged with 100,000 people across eight rural councils to devise community strategic plans, run consultation workshops for the Victorian Government, evaluated a school-to-industry pathway program and conducted strategic reviews of health services.
“Region Riverina is thrilled that the winners of the award category we sponsored locally won the statewide grand final in Sydney. We love to highlight positive achievements in our area and Projectura has shown you don’t need to live in the city to do innovative, exciting work,” Region commercial director Adam Drummond said.
Boys to the Bush, who run camps and mentoring programs for disengaged young men, were also delighted by their achievement.
“This is not only recognition for the great work we do with the kids, but also for how we operate as a business. We are so thrilled to share this news with you all and thank each of you for being on the journey with us,” the group wrote on their Facebook page.
Boys to the Bush co-founder Tim Sanson addresses the crowd at the NSW Business Awards. Photo: Gregg Porteous.
Business NSW CEO Daniel Hunter said all award recipients had gone above and beyond with respect to innovation, diversity and inclusion, sustainability and leadership.
“It’s great to see so many businesses displaying such impressive forward thinking to tackle the needs of NSW communities,” Mr Hunter said.
“It has certainly been a challenging few years for NSW with floods, bushfires, a mouse plague and of course the COVID pandemic.
“After not being able to meet in person for the 2021 business awards, it’s fantastic that so many of us are able to celebrate our resilience and show that NSW means business.”
The Business of the Year award went to Zepto Payments, founded in Byron Bay in 2017. The payments technology company enables businesses to make, manage and receive payments in real time by connecting them directly to their customers’ bank accounts.
FULL LIST OF NSW BUSINESS AWARD WINNERS (MURRAY-RIVERINA BASED WINNERS IN BOLD)
Outstanding Employee: Hayley Shute, Aussie Ark
Outstanding Young Business Leader: Raghav Murali-Ganesh, CancerAid
Outstanding Business Leader: Laura Prael, LEP Digital
Excellence in Micro Business: Projectura (Corowa)
Excellence in Small Business: Topsoil Organics
Excellence in Large Business: Warrigal
Outstanding Start Up: Compassion Creamery
Excellence in Innovation: Zepto Payments
Excellence in Sustainability: The Hi-Vis Group
Excellence in Export: Meet PAT (Albury)
Employer of Choice: C7EVEN
Excellence in Diversity and Inclusion: iClick2Learn
Outstanding Community Organisation: Boys to the Bush (Albury)
Outstanding Local Chamber: Business Lismore
Business of the Year: Zepto Payments
Loading ...
