Matthew Salier

Matthew is presently Director of the New Venture Institute at Flinders University which he founded in 2013. He has a passion for the conversion of innovative ideas addressing problems that add new value in our society and his background reflects this. This role sees him drive the innovation and entrepreneurial focus for Flinders University. This includes helping students and others develop new businesses by leveraging the assets of the University as well as increasing business engagement across the various faculties. Matthew has built a dynamic community from within the university and the broader Adelaide Innovation community with a reputation for action and community leadership. He has extensive commercial acumen and experience in start-up venture creation. In this role he is an advisor, mentor, and coach to numerous start-up founders throughout Australia and sits on the Board of numerous start-ups. Matthew has played a crucial role in developing the very early stage startup activity in Adelaide, ensuring the activities and resources that NVI can bring to bear from Flinders University complement and amplify the broader ecosystem.
Prior to his time in Adelaide, Matthew has extensive experience in brokering corporate engagement including a focus on socially responsible capacity building in the not-for-profit sector. Prior to moving to Adelaide in 2013, Matthew was a member of the national leadership team at The Smith Family. Here he ran the Strategic Projects and National Volunteering divisions, growing the number of volunteers involved in the Smith Family’s program from 3,500 to over 7,000. Working with socio-economically disadvantaged students whilst at The Smith Family, his understanding of those that are amongst the most vulnerable in our community is well developed. As National Manager strategic projects Matthew lead revenue diversification initiatives including creating several spun out business units.

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