Jarek has over 10 years of experience in voice technology, starting with leading R&D initiatives in Orange (Polish Telecom). He is completing a PhD at Auckland University of Technology on Accessible User Interfaces.

Jarek is the first Alexa Champion in New Zealand, and runs the Auckland Alexa Meetup.

His entrepreneurial experience includes three start-ups, one of which resulted in a successful exit. In 2015, Jarek was selected as the winner for the AUT Innovation Challenge. Completed the Lightning Lab accelerator programme in 2016 and secured an additional investment from AUT Ventures. In 2017, Sonnar was selected for the Vodafone Xone programme.

Sara completed a conjoint in Bachelor of Laws and Arts, majoring in International Relations.

Having spent the last few years working across various non-for-profits and government agencies, Sara is excited to put those experience to the test by growing Sonnar Library from the ground up. Her expertise lies in management, strategic planning, and fundraising.

Jeong completed a BSc in Software Engineering at the University of Auckland. He specializes in Voice Applications and Accessible Mobile Application development.

Together with Jarek, Jeong completed Lightning Lab and Vodafone Xone accelerator programs. He’s applications won multiple awards including Alexa Multimodal Challenge and Warner Music Hackathon.

It will be difficult to find an assistive technology development that Thomas doesn’t know about. With decades of experience working in the field with users, and as a person with lived experience with vision loss, Thomas is an renowned expert in Assistive Technologies and innovations.

He evangelises the power of tech to open up the world for people with disabilities and works with organisations to ensure their products and services are accessible.

Jan has extensive entrepreneurial experience and is an alumni of  Y Combinators Accelerator. His company, Hapara, began in New Zealand in the Manaiakalani school cluster in 2011 and now has offices in Auckland and Silicon Valley. His team includes ex-Googlers, PhDs, HBS grads, and top-tier educators who are all dedicated to building great products for schools.

Today, Hapara has a range of products that were all built to support educators as they create authentic, personalized learning experiences.

Dad, engineer and serial entrepreneur. Frayne is a repeat offender when it comes to challenging conventions and innovating.

Having a technical mind with a commercial focus, Frayne pursued an entrepreneurial path early, conceptualising, designing and commercialising products from bottled water and telecommunications, to mobile marketing, e-commerce and healthcare.

With wide-ranging experience in early-stage ventures and product commercialisation, Frayne has presided over several successful exits and continues to invest and operate in early-stage companies.

Frayne holds a degree in mechanical, electronics and computer systems engineering with post-graduate business administration, although he values curiosity and creativity more than formal education.

Frayne specialises in lean startups, product commercialisation and creative business models.