Hamilton Collins was founded in 2010 by Chris Burnett, a seasoned Entrepreneur, Executive Manager, Board Director and Management Consultant.
Chris has a great deal of experience in early-stage commercialisation, business start-ups and investment case assessment, having been engaged as a Commercialisation Adviser to the Commonwealth Government since 2012 and consulting since 2014 to QLD State government and various RDCs on the commercialisation of novel IP in multiple market sectors. He also has extensive experience as an entrepreneur, having founded five companies of his own and been CEO/ chair of fourteen businesses so far during his professional career.
Over the past eleven years, Chris has gained a deep and extensive understanding of the Australian start-up community and expanded his extensive domestic and international networks within the national innovation ecosystem. He has worked with well over 300 early-stage startups/ SMEs looking for government support and personally helped the founders navigate over 50 of those companies through investment and their commercialisation journey across the “valley of death” to commercial success.
Chris holds tertiary degrees in engineering, law and business - and applies that broad set of foundation skills daily to work with government, boards and colleagues, and especially to help entrepreneurial management teams build great companies.
Chris has strong interest in, understanding of and can speak to many of the National Reconstruction Fund critical technologies and market sectors, including: Advanced manufacturing and materials; Artificial intelligence (AI); Advanced information and communications; Quantum; Autonomous systems, robotics, positioning, timing and sensing; and Clean energy generation and storage technologies. He also has experience in renewables / low emissions technologies, precision agriculture, medical devices, primary resources and defence.