Winning in SA: Our 40 Under 40 celebrated
The state’s young leaders and change-makers were celebrated at InDaily’s annual 40 Under 40 awards last night, with Catherine Harper of Barossa Veterinary Service receiving the prestigious First Among Equals Award.
This year’s 40 Under 40 First Among Equals Award winner Dr Catherine Harper purchased Barossa Veterinary Service (BVS) in 2016, intent to maximise animal health and well-being by inspiring change in how owners think and care for their animals.
Concurrent to this was the desire to make a difference to the vet industry – which faces significant workforce pressures including high rates of burnout and mental health issues – and create a meaningful, inspiring workplace for employees.
Under her leadership and focus on caring for clients, team and community, BVS has added a third location, increased turnover five-fold and grown from 11 to 35 employees, while also supporting the community with an emergency after hours service, sponsorship and volunteering.
Harper was one of a series of individual winners across 11 categories at this year’s 40 Under 40 Awards. (scroll down for the full list).
450 guests joined the celebrations in the William Magarey Room to recognise this year’s 40 Under 40.
Among those attending were Governor Frances Adamson, who awarded the First Among Equals, Lord Mayor Jane Lomax-Smith and Treasurer Stephen Mullighan.
The Treasurer said it was encouraging to see “yet another wave of incredibly passionate, enthusiastic and successful South Australians leading the way in so many different areas of endeavour”.
“Many of you are doing jobs and undertaking successful careers in areas that really couldn’t have even been imagined maybe only 15 years ago, not just in areas that we’ve gotten used to these days, such as online commerce or app development or gaming, but increasingly these more sophisticated, targeted areas of entrepreneurialism, whether it’s in sectors like space technologies, cyber, quantum technologies, in the opportunities that our growing defence economy is providing our state into the future,” he said.
Mullighan said entrepreneurs have always made a massive contribution to the state and he was committed to continuing to support people with new ideas.
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“We have a thriving [entrepreneurial] ecosystem which is the envy of other parts of the country,” he said.
“I want to pay credit, in particular, to the previous government here in South Australia, with the vision that they had to repurpose a significant part of our capital city to support entrepreneurialism at Lot Fourteen.
“Rest assured that our government now is committed to continuing that vision by continuing to invest in supporting young South Australians, bringing their endeavours to success, creating an ecosystem of people who can support one another as they go through the journey of trying to develop and commercialise their expertise across different fields of endeavour.”
