Nicola Hazell is one of Australia's leading voices on gender equality and social innovation. As SheStarts Director and Head of Diversity and Impact at Australia's top startup accelerator BlueChilli, Nicola is a driving force behind the effort to change the ratio for women in tech leadership.

Since it's launch in 2016, the SheStarts Accelerator has received international acclaim as an exemplar of best practice for inclusive entrepreneurship and was named Australian Accelerator of the Year in 2017. The program has now invested in two cohorts of female entrepreneurs from all over Australia, helping the founders to take their ideas and turn them into globally scalable, high-impact tech companies. Nicola is also the Executive Producer of the SheStarts Documentary series, which in its first season took out Silver at the prestigious Mumbrella BEFEST Awards, after it reached more than half a million views - showing women you don’t have to be a dude in a hoodie and sneakers to be a tech entrepreneur.

With a background in media and public affairs within NGOs, politics and television news, Nicola is a passionate contributor to the global dialogue on gender equality and social innovation. She is a member of the OECD Expert Advisory Committee on Digital Transformation; a non-executive director of Australian advocacy organisation The Parenthood; and a mentor and judge for national awards programs including the Telstra Business Women's Awards, the Walkley Awards for Media Innovation, Women’s Agenda Leadership Awards and FYA's Young Social Pioneers.

A regular on the international speakers circuit, Nicola has been invited to speak at the APEC Women Business Leaders’ Summit in Seoul, the OECD Forum on Inclusive Growth in Paris, Australia’s inaugural Myriad Festival, Wild Digital and Vogue Codes, sharing the story of Australian women in tech leadership with audiences around the world.