Stories of FACTs: Female Ambitious Creatives in Tech

Jacqui Louez Schoorl is the CEO and cofounder of Jaxsta Enterprise. Her career spans two decades across film, television and music.

At 12 years of age Jacqui started volunteering (at MTV) in an effort to get her foot in the door. By the time she graduated high school she’d been offered a position at Channel 9 and over a number of years worked on top rating programs including Australian Survivor, This Is Your Life and The Midday Show.

From there Jacqui extended her career into film and worked tirelessly in various film production roles while on the side she was expanding her film interests by becoming one of the crucial founding members of IF Magazine, working alongside David Barda and Stephen Jenner (who later received AFI Awards for their contribution to the Australian Film Industry).

But it was in 1997 when Jacqui was offered the role of assistant to Director George Lucas and Producer Rick McCallum for the production of Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, that her film career took Jacqui to new heights. Her EA role grew to include managing the households of cast members Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman and Hayden Christensen, and ultimately saw Jacqui generate over $1.5 million AUD in product sponsorship for the Star Wars franchise.

Jacqui then set up her own production company JJ Town Films in partnership with Josh Pomeranz (Spectrum Films) and began producing music videos and a short film, before returning to her EA role for the next Star Wars installment.

As Jacqui moved between film industry and music industry roles, she worked in as EA to director Baz Luhrmann and Academy Award-winning Production Designer Catherine Martin, during which time they completed their world famous Chanel No. 5 campaign starring Nicole Kidman.

EMI then head-hunted Jacqui to join their team in a marketing manager role, as well as acting music video commissioner for their local acts. During her two-year tenure at EMI Jacqui oversaw the production of a number of music videos whilst also overseeing two of the biggest album releases for 2007 including Tina Arena’s Songs of Love and Loss and the Spice Girls Greatest Hits reunion album.

Jacqui also worked in a senior executive management role for Amalgamated Holdings as the National Film Promotions Manager. In January 2013 Jacqui produced her first feature film In Cold Light starring Matt Nable (Riddick, Son Of A Gun) and Felix Williamson (The Great Gatsby). All the while in between projects, Jacqui coproduced a number of music videos and worked on a number of VFX (visual effects) masterpieces including the production element of UK singer Will Young’s world tour directed by Michael Gracey (Dir The Greatest Showman).

For the past five years Jacqui has been working solely on her biggest project to date, a game changing platform and website for the music industry and for fans of music: Jaxsta. The world’s biggest official music database.

Beta testing took place at the beginning of 2017 and the platform is currently under construction, ready for a global launch in 2018.

Jacqui founded the Women In Music Sydney chapter in the last quarter of 2014 which has grown from 30 professional women to 1000+. Women In Music Sydney is a non-profit organisation bringing together a dynamic group of dedicated music professionals to network, learn and in the process create a supportive community.

Jacqui is proud to be a Dementia Advocate for Dementia Australia. Her role consists of working with Dementia Australia to help shed some light on the Alzheimer’s journey. It’s an important role that Jacqui cherishes having lost her beloved father to the fatal disease in 2013.

Jacqui has recently spoken at the Women In Focus conference, BigSound 2017, General Assembly, Australian Music Week and Music Australia - Contemporary Music Roundtable Conference, ARIA Masterclass series and Vivid 2017.

Jacqui is an alumni member of CBA’s (Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s) Women In Focus Program.

Lindsay Rogers is co-founder and managing director of Chello, a creative agency that uses film and design to tell sincere stories for brands of all sizes — from Volkswagen to the tiniest of start-ups.
At the strategic helm of a creative business, she’s humbled to have picked up a few awards from Telstra, B&T, Mumbrella and Forbes. While working closely with a range of clients, Lindsay has gained unique insights into the challenges facing brands today and the ways that both technology and creativity are expected to address these challenges.

Tara’s kindergarten teacher told her mother that Tara would grow up to be the prime minister of New Zealand, or the devil itself. After casting a career in politics aside, Tara found herself in the halls of Whybin\TBWA Auckland working in advertising. It was here that she and her creative partner gained international attention by floating shares in their creative future, successfully funding themselves to Cannes. During her time at TBWA, Tara had a complete disregard for convention.

She was named in Campaign Magazines Top 50 emerging talent portfolio, and submitted several entries into the iconic ABSOLUT portfolio, one of which was the creation of a limited edition ABSOLUT bottle design. In 2012, Tara swam the ditch to join Saatchi & Saatchi Sydney. It was at Saatchi’s that a common thread started to emerge in her work, Tara’s strong desire to do good.

From creating children’s books that test the eyesight of children, to an MS Society ‘numbing soap’ that brings home the effects of the condition (TED ‘Ideas Worth Spreading’), to creating real-time marketing platforms that reunite lost dogs with their owners, and cofounding RARE a diversity initiative for under represented groups in the creative industries, Tara continues to disrupt the status quo and as a consequence has won over a hundred international awards during her advertising rebellion.

Andrea Lau is cofounder and director at data visualisation company, Small Multiples. In her role, Andrea leads the user experience and delivery of projects for Small Multiples’ government, media and innovative ASX-listed clients.

As Director, Andrea is responsible for spearheading business development, providing data visualisation direction, and educating organisations on the value of communicating stories through data.

Andrea brings over 10 years’ experience in digital services having worked as a UX designer at ABC, Interaction Consortium and MediaSmart. With a particular interest in educating others on the power of data visualisation, she has worked as instructor at General Assembly, Masterclass Tutor at Guardian News and tutor/lecturer at the University of Sydney.

Andrea holds a Bachelor of Design Computing (Honours, University Medal) from the University of Sydney.

Lauren is a chartered accountant with a creative arts degree. Working in the arts made it clear that accounting was the career path where she could best help creatives to make a living from doing what they love. In her eight years at Generate, most recently as an equity partner in the business, Lauren has worked with individuals and businesses in film, television, music, marketing and theatre, across taxation, structuring and business planning. She gets most enjoyment out of teaching clients how to better understand the financial aspects of their businesses by explaining concepts without accounting jargon.