Jillian Kilby is not afraid of the big decisions. As an engineer and farmer’s daughter from Coonamble, in the central west of New South Wales, Jillian has leant on her rural values right through her career.

This courage has seen her go against the grain most of her life and bounce from Coonamble to Sydney to Walgett to Silicon Valley and back to the Central West.

Now she’s breathing new life into country heritage buildings while helping regional start-ups increase their capability, capacity and confidence because she knows all too well how lonely a road it can be starting a small business in the bush.

It takes a certain level of guts to dig deep and blow up your life and Jillian has done it not once, but twice on an extraordinary scale.