Robyn Denholm

About Me

I’m the Operating Partner at Blackbird, where I work closely with later stage companies, where I coach and mentor Founders and their operating teams to help them reach their full potential, Through the Founder success team at Blackbird we also provided valuable resources/networking/best practice sharing to all our portfolio companies and the Australian startup ecosystem. I’’ve had a long career as an operator in technology and engineering companies both in Australia and the US. I am also the current Chair of the board of Tesla Inc, and The chair of the Tech Council of Australia.

What do you do at Blackbird?

I work with a handful of our most ambitious late stage company founders to reach their beautiful potential. I'm also leading the Founder Success team to build programs and networks that help the whole Blackbird portfolio and the entire Australian and New Zealand Startup ecosystem.

What did you do before Blackbird?

I've been fortunate enough to work in finance and operational roles with some phenomenal global technology companies, including Toyota, Sun Microsystems, Juniper Networks and Telstra. I've served on the boards of Echelon Corporation and ABB previously, and I'm presently the Chair of the Board of Directors at Tesla.

What do you believe that others do not?

I am a technology optimist. I truly believe that we can solve many of the world's challenges through innovation. You just have to look at the advances that have been made over the last 10, 20 or even 100 years in the medical, engineering and technology fields to see that the propensity of humans to invent new ways of doing things is endless.

What ideas are you excited by right now?

How we turn our natural advantages in Australia and New Zealand (great talent, great universities, great natural resources, access to capital) into growth drivers for innovation over the next 30 years and beyond.