Leila Henderson - Publisher - Newsmaker

Named ZONTA Woman Entrepreneur of the Year in 2012, Leila is one of a handful of female technology business founders in Australia. She combines hands-on experience developing successful web-based businesses with many years of training business owners in the art of communication. Leila developed the first Australian press release distribution service to be accredited by Google News in 2004. Now a third generation cloud-based PR and Social Marketing Platform, Newsmaker has a customer base of 9,000 companies representing over 30,000 brands. She has helped South Australian companies numbering in the hundreds to win national awards, customers and capital. She has served as a judge for the National AIMIA Awards for the past five years, and sits on various boards and committees including as current State President of the Public Relations Institute of Australia (PRIA), the Australian Interactive Media Industry Association (AIMIA) and The Adelaide Network. Leila’s background is journalism, in Toronto, London and Sydney, where she worked in senior roles for Australia’s leading publishers including the Australian Women’s Weekly and The Australian. Leila’s interest in entrepreneurship has led to her strong involvement in and support for the local startup community and she has been an active participant in the Adelaide – City of Entrepreneurs program, Startup Spring, MEGA and many other programs. She has founded a new peer-mentoring group for Women Technology Founders to encourage more women to take up leadership roles.