Hoang Anh Cat

Connector, Foodie, Public servant, Social entrepreneur, Technologist

I love building energetic teams to realise grand ambitious ideas. To deliver purposeful projects & help sustainable businesses flourish. With a background in environmental engineering and urban planning, over the last 15+ years I’ve been working with start-ups, scale-ups & governments, in areas like - development, water, agriculture, climate science, policy, energy, urban-nourishing, big-data, environment & bring technology to life. I am known for my passion for education & supporting research/tech’ for development globally. An active member of the mentoring community, I am also the founder of a female-focused mentoring platform aimed at connecting old world wisdom with new world curiosity. A firm believer in taking the path least travelled, I have been fortunate enough to enjoy a vivid & colourful career. From engineering to commercialising & scaling tech, from spin-off, to start-ups & scale-ups, science diplomacy to Prime Minister trade missions, from curating TEDx to bringing the first Driodcon (android developer conference) to Beijing, hitch-hiking with venture capitalists and beyond. Delighted to connect with you & excited hear your ideas!

Ensuring workplaces are - kind, safe, satisfying & rewarding for women. Education - acess, quality & transformation. Learning - cultivating curiosity, feeding the mind, forever venturing deep & wide

Duality of life: in the brightiest light there is a shadow of darkness & in depths of darkness there is a warmth of light.

Technology Commercialisation

I can't quite remember when I first discovered TED, I feel like its kind of always been in my life. It's given me that jolt of inspiration when life has felt dull, it's fed me ideas, concepts & insights in the most delicious of ways & more recently during woeful COVID-times, its been a wonderful stream of endless hope for the future. I'm really grateful that TED exists. So grateful that in 2020, inspite of the global pandemic raging throughout Australia, I worked diligently with a group of incredible women to keep the TED flame alit...in our very own TEDxPaddington. The experience felt somewhat dream-like (like climbing a mountain of impossibilies), unimaginably rewarding (in the most unexpected of ways) & completely life-changing - highly recommended!

Synthesising food flavours...when I bite or slurp a spoonful of scrumptiousness, the flavours will dance like notes in my mouth and my mind will hear the symphony of those notes. It’s with this magical power that I can synthesise each flavour (note) I am tasting. I would also often imagine and conduct mini thought experiments on how the symphony could change. How it could be altered, recreated, emphasised in some way or improved. It’s a lot of fun but no one knows, as I try to keep it on the down-low (like Remy from Ratatouille).