Last Tuesday, Gold Coast Hub founding partner, Opmantek was named Australian exporter of the year – Digital Technologies at the Australian Export Awards.
In its 55th year, the export awards are presented to honour Australia’s most successful exporters across a range of industries.
The award was accepted on behalf of the company by Maria Chicaiza – Opmantek’s commercial manager and first ever employee (in 2011) at the gala ceremony at Parliament House, Canberra. Maria spoke of the incredible business journey she had been part of over the past 6 years “Opmantek was my first role after graduating with my MBA from Griffith University and the first time I have worked for an IT company. There were only 3 of us in one small office, now we have offices and customers all over the world – I am so proud of everything Opmantek has accomplished!”.
It is outstanding for a Gold Coast company to top the list amongst 77 finalists that collectively generated more than $3.9 billion in export sales in 2016–17 and employed more than 31,000 people. The Australian Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment, the Honourable Steven Ciobo MP said “I congratulate this year’s winners and thank them, and all our exporters, for their contribution to Australia’s economy.”
Opmantek Chairman, Danny Maher said the the award was a fantastic achievement at the end of one of the Network Management Software developer’s most significant years. “This was a milestone year for Opmantek. We have made some key executive hirings in San Francisco as we further align the company to respond to demand in our high growth markets. During the award ceremony it was noted that this is the second time we have been honoured as Australian Exporter of the Year. The first was 2015 when we serviced 45,000 organisations world wide – now it’s 130,000 organisations – it’s been an amazing journey.”
Mr Maher said that the creation of the Gold Coast Hub would create a lasting legacy for the Gold Coast and serve as a vehicle for other regional technology developers to benefit from the customers, knowledge, processes and connections that Opmantek has built over the years “Opmantek has been Queensland’s ICT exporter of the year for the past 4 years – we have been a global business from day one under a repeatable customer focussed model using data driven metrics to build out our sales teams and markets. As we have grown, we have worked to create ongoing relationships with key customers and service providers in foreign markets with an expectation that Opmantek is the first of many globally relevant businesses that will be following in our tracks from the Gold Coast.”
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