Leigh Harris is a Cairns based Aboriginal business owner and serial entrepreneur with traditional connections to the Kanolu people of Central Queensland and Gungarri people of South East Queensland who is also proud of his Italian and Welsh heritage.

Leigh has been active in the design, digital creatives and ITC space for over 20 years and owns and operates ingeous studios a multidisciplinary digital design studio. Trained as a Public Relation officer with Aboriginal Hostels Limited in Canberra, in the late 1980’s he moved to Cairns in 1993, Leigh works with local, national and international organisations in the creative and digital creative innovation space.
 
In 1996 he was awarded an Australia Council Fellowship for the Arts for digital innovation and experimentation of innovation in Cape York Peninsula communities.
In 2003 he established ingeous studios a creative digital innovation agency that works with local, national and international organisations in the creative and digital new media space. In 2010 together with co-collaborator Steven Pelham Leigh create Australia’s first Indigenous developed multi-platform directory tool, which was available on iOS, Andriod and SmartTV’s.
 
A qualified graphic designer certified as an Adobe Creative professional and new media specialist Leigh has been published by Cambridge University for his work in the use of new technologies in Indigenous health and social engagement spaces and has been featured in AustralianIT, SmartStartup, CNET and the Financial Review for innovative use of technologies in the Indigenous space.
 
Over the past 20 years in the creative and digital space. Leigh continues his passion in design and innovation in digital media space with social innovations OpenLingo, SkoolCents, ROR Digital and believes that digital innovation and the digital economy can bring about greater opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians.

In late 2016 Leigh co-founded D:HIVE an Indigenous led digital innovation hub aimed at bridging the digital and technology gap for Indigenous Australians, migrants, refugees and people with disabilities. In particular D:HIVE’s concentration is in regional and remote Australia which still in 2018 are still the most disconnected from the digital and tech worlds.

Leigh believes strongly that together we can all become changemakers of tomorrow through increased digital ability and tech inclusion. DHIVE is leading the charge in innovative approaches to reshaping the digital and tech world from the grass-roots and is becoming a powerhouse for digital innovation, learning, collaboration in regional and remote Australia.