BRISBANE: InDaily 40 Under 40 x PLATFORM & ELEVATE | Meet Queensland’s InDaily ’40 Under 40′ Finalists

Industry Innovator Award

Matt Crossan arrived in Australia in 2014 with $3000, no qualifications, and a dream. After completing an electrical apprenticeship in Ireland, he worked in remote WA, gaining hands-on experience in civil construction. Driven to support the clean energy transition, he became a wind turbine technician across Europe and Africa before founding Cosmic Group, now a leading renewable energy company in Australia, NZ, and Japan. Employing over 100 people, Cosmic delivers wind farm services nationwide. Matt also launched Zendit, an AI-powered project intelligence platform. He’s now scaling both ventures globally, inspiring others to believe in themselves and pursue bold goals.

Inspiring Future Leaders Award

In 2021, Deejay Egan founded DCC Industry Group with a vision to deliver compassionate and community-first support services, empowering individuals and communities, particularly Indigenous Australians. In a few short years, DCC has grown into a national enterprise with over 650 staff across Queensland and Western Australia, providing multidisciplinary care in youth services, disability support, allied health and culturally safe labour hire.

DCC’s holistic and inclusive approach has been shaped by Deejay’s experience across justice, child protection, homelessness and disability services sectors. Under his leadership, DCC has launched specialised divisions, all working together to meet diverse community needs.

40 Under 40 Finalist

Amy Gomes is a Queensland-based critical care paramedic, author and social entrepreneur that has served her community since 2008, finding purpose not only in emergency care but in giving back beyond the ambulance. In 2014, Amy founded One Little Heart to help fund more publicly available Automated External Defibrillators in communities through creative, gift-based donations, including self-published and funded What Paramedics Do, a children’s book designed to educate kids about emergency care and reduce medical anxiety.

Game Changer Award

Saara Jamieson is the founder of Cool Beans Underwear, a Queensland-based medical device company revolutionising men’s health. After struggling to conceive and discovering gaps in male fertility care, she used her medical research background to co-create the world’s first testicular cooling underwear. Four months of use led to a natural pregnancy and the birth of Cool Beans in 2024. Now a registered medical device, it’s prescribed for fertility support, prostate recovery, hernia repair and vasectomies. With athletes and patients on board, Cool Beans is sparking vital conversations about testosterone, mental health and men’s wellbeing, one cool bean at a time.

Paul Venus is a highly experienced lawyer specializing in commercial litigation, dispute resolution and commercial law, across Australia.

With over 29 years of experience, he has acted in all levels of the Australian Court system, including the High Court of Australia, Federal Court of Australia, Supreme Courts of Queensland and New South Wales, District Courts, and Magistrates Courts.

His expertise spans practice areas which are characterised by high levels of regulation. Those include Competition and Consumer law, Intellectual Property Protection, Privacy, Franchising, Technology, Defamation law, Insolvency litigation, and Banking litigation. He is also an experienced franchising and commercial mediator, who is familiar with the Mandatory Codes of Conduct prescribed by the Competition & Consumer Act.

As a trusted adviser, Paul is known for his responsiveness to client needs, clarity and commerciality of advice, and strong advocacy. Clients, ranging from multinational corporations to SMEs to high-net-worth individuals, rely on Paul for counsel. They turn to him when making difficult decisions, requiring help in stressful situations, or seeking to navigate legal complexities to achieve high value outcomes for their business. His approach to providing practical context to legal problems and achieving exceptional outcomes for clients has earned him high praise from his clients.

Paul also has substantial experience in contract disputes, negligence cases, corporate law disputes, and shareholder disputes.

In addition to his litigation expertise, Paul brings a wealth of knowledge in commercial and corporate law. Real world industry knowledge has been gained by Paul from non-executive director roles in the Electricity and Health sectors. Paul has also gained experience in not-for profit organisations as a non-executive director in a research foundation and a charitable trust.

Paul’s expertise as a commercial lawyer, and excellent drafting skills enable him to provide strategic commercial advice and negotiate a wide range of agreements for clients. He has substantial knowledge advising clients on directors’ duties and responsibilities, conflicts management, continuous disclosure, board decisions, responses to regulator notices and investigations.

Paul holds a Bachelor of Laws and Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Queensland, a Masters of Laws from Queensland University of Technology, and a Certificate of Arbitration and Mediation from the University of Adelaide. He is admitted as a legal practitioner in the High Court of Australia, Supreme Court of Queensland, Supreme Court of New South Wales, Supreme Court of South Australia, and Supreme Court of the Northern Territory.