Introducing Peter Osborne, the newly appointed CEO of Cremorne Digital Hub, an innovative tech hub bringing together venture capital, training and education, and industry to supercharge Victoria’s digital ecosystem. 

With a career spanning three countries and 25 years in senior leadership roles across global corporations, Peter brings a wealth of experience and a passion for nurturing innovation to his new role. Having collaborated with some of the world's most innovative companies and leaders, including Philips, Seek and Harvard University, Peter is well-equipped to guide Cremorne Digital Hub towards becoming a hub of collaboration, talent development, and digital innovation.  

We met with Peter to discuss his vision for CDH and how he plans to use his expertise to help propel Victoria's tech ecosystem to new heights. 

What inspired you to take on the role of CEO at Cremorne Digital Hub? 

We’re on the verge of a changing tide in and around Victoria with building a sense of momentum. Over the years, some great luck has allowed me to live abroad and work with some incredibly entrepreneurial big businesses and scale-ups across Australasia, the USA and Europe. However, Melbourne is my home and I want to do my best work here. We have extraordinary talent, visionary leaders, and world class educators all willing to step in to put Victoria on the world stage as best practice for technological innovation. There’s nowhere I’d rather be than here, now.  

Can you share your vision for the future of Cremorne Digital Hub under your leadership? 

Cremorne Digital Hub can help build out the local digital innovation ecosystem... Australians tend to be very humble, but I believe we should think bigger, be bolder and back ourselves a bit more than we do now.  

Melbourne and Victoria are a breeding ground of best-in-class innovators and problem solvers, backed by the brightest entrepreneurial future leaders and known around the world as a landing place for industry and tech talent. [We can provide the] right support [to help them on their] way, which is where Cremorne Digital Hub can play our part.  

How do you plan to foster cross-industry collaboration within the Cremorne Digital Hub ecosystem? 

I often say that great ideas don’t have a birthright, they need to have the life breathed into them. Industry is looking for business solutions, and for people who understand that solving worthy problems through a commercial lens is the key to successful scalability.  

Creating an environment where we convene to solve “burning platform” problems allow everyone involved to hit the ground running and land on commercially viable collaboration pathways. Also, when we overlap on challenge areas that combine industry, education, talent, and venture capital priorities, it’s the perfect formula for creating value. Our partners are incredible, and highly supportive of Cremorne Digital Hub taking on the challenge, because everyone wins in this scenario.  

What specific initiatives do you have in mind to attract and nurture tech talent in Victoria? 

We’re starting with a Scaleup Program and co-delivering it with our friends at Boab AI. Five businesses have been selected to participate, all with AI playing a significant part in their product, and we’re going to help them find scalable pathways.  

Around the end of March, we’re also opening our newly renovated collaboration space in Balmain Street, Cremorne – in the old Gravox building. We’ll be inviting select scale-up ventures and experts in to use this space as a collaboration hub with our industry and training and education partners.  

What opportunities do you see for Victorian tech companies to expand globally through the Cremorne Digital Hub? 

Global expansion means solving problems that extend well beyond our own border. We all need to think big, be bold, courageous, and visionary.  

International expansion is high on most local tech companies’ agenda, and it should be. We believe there are known reasons why local tech companies often fall flat when they look offshore and try to grow into international markets, and we will be addressing them all head on, and modelling the commercial acumen and growth planning needed for successful international growth. This will include up-skilling founders, harnessing our partnerships network, and building new capabilities that allow those with real potential to thrive.  

How will partnerships between Cremorne Digital Hub and training and education institutions like the University of Melbourne, RMIT, La Trobe, and Bendigo Kangan Institute, benefit industry? 

Education is a core pillar, and our educational partners are all very keen to help students, and researchers, build commercialisation options. With researchers for instance, what is the commercial potential of their work, and how can universities better align research to industry needs? For undergrad and postgrad students, what is the best toolkit they can learn for when they head into the workforce that makes them valuable and sought after? There are also micro-credentialing opportunities, to quickly up-skill workers in a fast-moving digital world. The possibilities are almost endless and we’re very glad to have our education partners involved.  

How do you plan to engage with the local community and stakeholders to ensure their involvement and support for the Hub's initiatives? 

Cremorne is a small suburb, bursting at the seams with tech businesses that have grown to huge multi-unicorn proportions, like REA and Car Group. We know there’s more to come. We’re lucky to be able to almost wrap our arms around our community here, and it’s very relationship driven, so everyone knows everyone else.  

Regardless, Cremorne Digital Hub exists to serve our stakeholders and community, [in Cremorne and beyond], so our thesis involves proving value in everything we do. That’s a hard ask while we’re building momentum, but that’s certainly the goal, and it’ll help us build and maintain the strong engagement we all need to drive change and model excellence.  

What excites you most about the future of technology and innovation in Victoria, and how do you see Cremorne Digital Hub contributing to that future? 

Victoria has everything it needs to be a new epicentre of innovation and venture creation. Places like Tel Aviv in Israel, Shanghai in China, and Phoenix, Chicago and Austin in the USA have all sprung up in recent years to compare in many ways with the likes of Silicon Valley. Why can’t we do that here? I see no reason why not, and so many reasons why we can craft a thriving digital innovation community in much the same way. I believe it’s crunch time for us to get on board, take advantage of all the assets we have here at home, and make that happen. 

Connect with Peter on LinkedIn, or find out more about Cremorne Digital Hub.