Sometimes the life you imagine for yourself doesn’t turn out as you planned. For the young Leanne Kemp, growing up in Queensland, swimming was a natural pursuit. The glorious sunshine. Water. What more could a girl want? Leanne trained each morning at 5am at the local pool. She loved the stamina and discipline she got from following the black line up and down the pool day after day. Swimming also showed her that even the best swimmers had to work really hard. Talent was half of the equation; follow-through was the other half. Leanne got a swimming scholarship to a top Brisbane school and dreamed of heading over to the USA once she finished secondary school to continue her swimming. Maybe the Olympic Games would be in her future.

Leanne didn’t see herself as good at school learning and her grades weren’t great, but she had something that would turn out to be much more important. She had curiosity. She was the kind of kid who asked questions ALL the time. On a car trip, she would pepper every conversation with: Why does that happen? Why is that like it is? Why… why… why? Her other favourite was: Are we there yet? Looking back, Leanne can see the connection between the why and the are we there yet? She wanted to understand her world and she also wanted to reach her destination as soon as possible

Leanne had two brothers. When the kids in her family got gifts, her brothers usually got tech presents like computers and games. She got sporting equipment like tennis racquets. Of course, as a kid, she was drawn to what her brothers had, and soon devised a cunning plan. Her brothers always slept in while Leanne was up at 5am for swimming. She would swim for two hours each morning and be home long before her brothers stirred. She would creep into their room and retrieve their computer games from under their beds. After a couple of wonderful hours playing, she crept in and put the games back. They never knew. But Leanne didn’t just play games, she figured out how to code and made the games harder to win. Her brothers never figured that out either.

Before Leanne got the chance to realise her dream of moving to the USA to continue her swimming career, tragedy struck her family. Both her parents died shortly after she finished secondary school. Leanne took on responsibility for her younger brothers and took any jobs she could to make ends meet.

To Leanne, life suddenly felt like glass-blowing demonstrations she’d seen. Glass is heated to volcanic temperatures and then the molten material is used to make strong but fragile structures. If they shattered, you could pick up the shards, melt them again, and start over. After losing her parents, the life she expected, shattered. It was time to reshape it and she had some big decisions to make. It felt like a different destiny awaited.

After working for another company for six months, Leanne felt like they weren’t approaching problem-solving in the right way but being a junior, she didn’t really have a voice. The only solution for her was to start up her own company. She realised that the skills she had as a child – determination and curiosity – were exactly the right skills to start up as a tech entrepreneur.

Leanne wanted her company to make a difference around the world. Her first interest was in the ethical sourcing of diamonds. Her company used the 40 unique points that make up the ‘fingerprint’ of a diamond and used blockchain technology to track a diamond’s journey from the mine, across borders, right to the shop that sells it. This helps ethical businesses avoid the so-called ‘blood diamonds’ mined and sold to fund wars. Leanne saw this as using technology for good. It fits in with a growing consumer conscience. For someone who grew up asking why? and are we there yet?, Leanne is still asking these questions. She predicts future problems and looks to technology for the solutions. Single use plastics. Ethical fashion. Safe battery storage and recycling. Perhaps the answer to are we there yet? is that the journey will always be ongoing. We are very lucky to have people like Leanne to keep asking why?

Leanne is the founder and CEO of Everledger. She co-chairs the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on the Future of Manufacturing. She was elected one of the World’s Top 50 Women in Tech in 2018. Leanne’s awards include the AIM Global Allan Gilligan Award 2019, Advance Global Australian Awards 2018 for Technology Innovation, and Innovator of the Year 2016 and 2018 at the Women in IT Awards (London). In 2018, she was appointed the Queensland Chief Entrepreneur in Australia.

CEO Leanne Kemp would like to see STEM changed to ESTEAM by adding Arts and Entrepreneurship to the acronym. She believes that Artists and Entrepreneurs can help bring STEM ideas to life.

Leanne suggests several ways young people can have an experience in her field.

• ‘Go to a hackathon,’ she says. Google ‘hackathon’ and see what’s available for students.
• Choose workshops for robotics and AI – Leanne believes that these will become the pathway in technology across the globe.
• Books and podcasts are a golden source of knowledge and understanding in this field. These can help young people immerse themselves in the world and connect with others who have similar interests.