Zoe Eather

A multi award-winning engineer, Churchill Fellow and data scientist with extensive global experience, Zoe takes the overwhelm out of the technology conversation. She does this by sharing stories and insights which surprise, engage and educate about what is possible through technology and data. Zoe is determined to not do things the way we’ve always done them. Her engineering mind and unique background allow her to critically analyse her experiences and draw practical conclusions for the future with wit, humour and grace.

Zoe has a Master of Data Science from the University of Southern Queensland and a Bachelor of Engineering (Civil and Environmental) from the Queensland University of Technology.

In 2018, Zoe was awarded a Winston Churchill Fellowship which saw her travel to 9 countries in 9 weeks researching ‘smart mobility’ (think self-driving cars, flying drones and shared e-scooters). In 2019, Zoe was one of five Australian social entrepreneurs to be selected for the Australian ASEAN Emerging Leaders program. Zoe won the Rising Star Technology award in 2020 and in 2021 Zoe was named Queensland’s Young Engineer of the Year. This year Zoe has been selected to join the Homeward Bound global women in STEM leadership program which includes spending two weeks in Antarctica. 

Zoe keeps up-to-date with the latest trends and shares her learnings through hosting The Smart Community Podcast. Through her boutique consultancy My Smart Community, she works with government, academia and industry offering strategic advice on dealing with disruption, leveraging major infrastructure spend, smart technology in all communities and facilitating genuine collaboration.