Key Staff

CEO Jason Young’s background is in sales and management within the sports and motorcycle industries. His broad skill base includes business development, account and client support, and staff management and training. He has a wealth of experience in all aspects of the supply chain, from B2C brick-and-mortar retail and e-commerce to national wholesale distribution, product development, and marketing.

His firm belief in the importance of building lasting and trusting relationships across all areas of the business, from staff and suppliers to customers and communities, underpins his management style and is key to his success to date.

Jason has been part of the Ripper team since 2016, from the start-up phase to deployment with first-hand experience across all areas of the business. His previous roles included Chief Operating Officer and Business Development Manager. His expertise is in building and managing the right teams and developing key strategic partnerships to grow the Ripper brand in Australia and around the world.

Colin is an experienced ‘C’ level manager with over 30 years of experience in the commercial and finance sectors. He has a proven history in strategic planning, change management, business growth, innovation, financial management, project management, and sales.

Colin has held senior executive roles both in Australia and Internationally working with ASX and NFP organisations including Jupiter’s, Tabcorp, MSL, Brisbane Racing Club, and Southport Yacht Club, where he was CEO.

Backed by formal qualifications in finance and business, Colin is an affiliate of the Australian Centre for Management Accounting Development (ACMAD) and the Australian Institute of Marketing (AIM). He is a recognised public speaker and university lecturer and has consulted to some of Australia’s largest NFP organisations including Surf Life Saving Qld.

Leanne St George’s expertise as PR Media Manager has been a key factor to Ripper’s outstanding media coverage over the past four years; with over 6927 media reports with a cumulative audience of 125,408,967 and an ASR of $20,393,289.

She is director of Leanne St George & Associates and has worked with an impressive range of national sports and performance events and major sponsorships such as the Surf Life Saving Series, cricket, horse racing, golf, polo, V8 Supercar Championship Series, Indy car racing and Australia’s three major football codes of Rugby Union, Rugby League, and Australian Rules Football.

Leanne has traveled extensively on behalf of clients in Australia, New Zealand, China, and USA, and has worked with high-profile clients such as News Limited, Australian Rugby Union, Ferrari Australia, Alfa Romeo, and Polo Events Australia.

Jamie Holyoak is the Commercial Manager and Chief Remote Pilot for Ripper Corp, he holds a Cert III in Aviation, Cert IV in Spatial Sciences and RePL Sub 25kg.  His role encompasses both Drones and Data as a service, along side the management of flight operations. Jamie also offers specialised project consulting to scope and recognise project needs. 

Jamie specialises in spatial sciences, fauna and flora environmental sciences projects, such as koala spotting and weed/pest management, and renewable energies. 

Robotics and automation are future-facing concepts that are increasingly in action, so to be part of the technology revolution and be able to influence its evolution is a unique position that Jamie feels privileged to be involved in. Jamie also loves working with people to make their experience, whether they’re a customer or staff member, to be one where their unique objectives are realised. 

Outside of Ripper, Jamie enjoys working on, and driving, old Japanese imported cars!

Rod Welford is an experienced Chief Executive, strategist and thought leader in energy, sustainability and strategic policy. He is an Adjunct Professor in the Griffith Business School of Griffith University in Queensland.

Rod grew up with water safety and lifesaving in his blood. He has been a member of SLSQ and Burleigh Heads Surf Club since 1972 having been a Junior member before that. He is a branch, State and National surf competition medal winner, an SLSA competition official and served on former branch and State Boards of Examiners. At Qld State Centre, he was Chair of the Patrol and Rescue Committee in 1979-80, the first State Education Officer of SLSQ in 1980 and thereafter the first (honorary) Director of Coaching when the accreditation of Surf Sports coaches was first introduced in the early 1980s.

While an SLSQ delegate to the national launch of the first large format Surf LIfe Saving Training Manual in 1983, Rod was simultaneously State Technical Director of Royal Life Saving Queensland and member of the National Technical Committee responsible for drafting the revised Swimming and Lifesaving Manual of Royal Life Saving Australia. During the period 1977-1982, he also worked as a Professional Lifeguard for the Gold Coast City Council.

Rod was later elected to the Queensland Parliament in 1989 and from 1998 served as Minister for Environment and Heritage, Minister for Natural Resources, Minister for Justice and Attorney General and Minister for Education, Training and the Arts until retiring from Parliament in 2009, Thereafter, Rod became CEO of the Australian Council of Recycling, the national peak industry body for the recycling industry, a company director of multiple public and private companies. and from 2013, Executive Chairman of an international, award-winning sustainable energy design practice, Ensight. He led Ensight to win the Optus Business of the Year Award and Export Business of the Year Award in 2016.  He now works as mentor to emerging entrepreneurs, on the boards of various non-profit community organisations and provides advisory support to government, industry and community organisations.

Jenae is the Business Development Manager for Ripper Corp Commercial Division. She has over 20 years experience in management and solutions consulting across a wide range of industries. Jenae prides herself on understanding the clients needs and finding the best solution that suits. She has built her entire sales career not based on the industry she worked in, instead on this one basic fact, get to know people, ask questions, and listen, the rest takes care of itself.
A person is only ever limited by their willingness to have an open mind!

Since its establishment in 2015, Ripper Corporation has led the world in the utilisation of drones for search and rescue, developing among other innovations the first “droppable” surf lifesaving rescue pod in addition to SharkSpotter and CrocSpotter recognition technology, which are all underpinned by AI algorithms. Alongside their work with surf life saving they offer everything from RPAS training, to commercial strategy and surveys. Who wouldn’t love working for a company like this? The drone industry is fast paced and forever evolving making Ripper Corp an exciting company to work for.

Outside of work, Jenae enjoys being an amateur rally car driver, and motorbike enthusiast. She loves anything with an engine and speed.

Brad Mason is Ripper’s RPAS Instructor/Assessor and has qualifications in the following: 

• A RePL for Multi-rotor, Fixed Wing and Helicopter drones
• A Certificate IV in Training and Assessment
• CASA Instruments to train and assess Aviation Radio (AROC) and General English Language Proficiency (GELP)
• And over 300 hours of flight time

The story of how Brad got into the drone industry involves being forced into a career change after experiencing a work injury (many moons ago) and recognising that helicopters were his second passion. He developed a drone from a model helicopter, taught himself how to fly it and then applied to CASA for a licence. That was back in 2002, the same year that CASA promulgated the first drone regulations, so he’s been in the industry ever since the start of commercial drone operations in Australia. 

Working with Ripper comes with many benefits, but the below are the ones that Brad loves most about what Ripper does: 

• Working with a reputable company at the cutting edge of industry tech and the phenomenal people he gets to work with
• The challenges posed to develop solutions to make our technology operate safely in everyday dynamic environments
• Developing world class RPAS training courses and passing our knowledge to newcomers to the industry

AI enhanced flight operations are pretty special and will continue to break new ground, and Ripper Corporation is right there at the forefront of it which is great for Brad to be a part of. Their Koala spotting operations at night, particularly the recent water-based flight ops, demonstrate a level of operating experience that is second to none, and highlights the efficiency and efficacy of drones over conventional environmental research methods.

As our Maintenance Controller/Technical specialist, Will has qualifications in Sub 25kg and night rating. He is also studying a Bachelor of Mechatronic Engineering with Robotics and Aerospace minors. He will also be obtaining his Powered Lift Rating soon. 

Will manages and maintains the fleet of aircraft at Ripper, keeps the records up to date and building their Little Ripper platform. Additionally, he tests any new systems that are going to be integrated into the company and participates in some R&D as well. 

He strongly believes that the Little Ripper platform and all the improvements Ripper is doing is of great importance to the safety of the community, not only on the beach, but in all environments. Working at Ripper, he also loves that all the co-workers are passionate about drones and what they can do to help humanity, which makes the work environment extremely enjoyable. 

Outside of Ripper, you’ll find Will chasing his love of sports, watching and playing anything from cricket, to NRL and basketball. He also loves building his own designs and tinkering with his 3D printers and flying his own drones. Will also appreciates and loves cars, both driving them and fixing them!

As a Senior Pilot, Mark Phillips has a wide range of qualifications, including REPL Sub 25KG Fixed Wing, REPL Sub 25KG  Multi-rotor, REPL Sub 25KG, Helicopter and AROC.

He first got into the drone industry by building and flying his own drones, which led to the opportunity to start a drone department for a weather company. It was here that he was Chief Pilot, Maintenance Controller and Pilot for two years. 

The thing that Mark loves most about his job is being able to do so many different things flying drones. One day you could be doing RnD on a lifesaving dropping system for inflatable pods, and the next you could be filming world record attempts, with the next day being searching for koalas and so on. The opportunities are endless. 

The coolest thing Mark’s seen or done with a drone is not easy to pinpoint, as there are many, but some special ones have been filming The Spirit of Australia 2 boat, passing metres below his drone at over 400KPH (trying to break the world water speed record), live streaming the opening of the Invictus Games from the Opera House and being PIC of a rescue of two kids at Lennox Heads.

Outside of work, and family time, Mark likes to spend time with his friends or building and flying drones and R/C planes for LOS and FPV.