TAKING on an ailing company running on a $4 million cumulative loss is no easy task, but when Simon Kalinowski bought Brisbane-based Mandalay Technologies he faced just that.
At the age of 24, having graduated just two years earlier at Southern Cross University (SCU) while managing a pharmaceutical distribution company, Kalinowski knew a business opportunity when he saw one.
“Through my leadership and ability to take the company through change, I redesigned Mandalay’s business model creating a 30-fold increase in revenue over the last 12 months and positioning Mandalay as a stand-alone company in its industry,” he says.
“It now services over 350 clients across Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.”
Mandalay services the waste management, quarry and logistics sectors with the software needed to carry out these operations. So while the company operates internationally, closer to home the company
provides a hand held tablet solution for data capture in waste management, conducted by the Isaac Regional Council in central Queensland.
Other Australian projects include IT network security for the City of Greater Geelong, software and hardware support for waste management company SITA Victoria, as well as data capture for the Townsville City Council. The bachelor of business graduate was awarded SCU’s Young Alumnus of the Year in 2009, for his business and philanthropic work with the university’s Healing Circle project, which aims to raise $7 million to fund five key priorities for indigenous people.
The project, which is run by SCU’s Gnibi College of Indigenous Australian Peoples, brings together proven methodologies for addressing trauma and healing to help individuals shape their future and promote
progressive change.
“This is work about which I am truly passionate – it is crucial to invest in better outcomes for Indigenous people and I challenge other business organisations to get behind the project,” he says.
“It is slow and personal but it has the ability to profoundly affect individuals and communities who can become far more self-sustaining when they have gone through this process.
“What’s clear, above all else, is that change doesn’t happen while waiting for someone else to start first.”
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