Alan Noble (entrepreneur)
Alan Charles Noble is an Australian engineer, technology entrepreneur and founder of the not-for-profit marine conservation organisation, AusOcean.
Career[edit]
Noble studied at the University of Adelaide and Stanford University where he obtained a Bachelor of Electronic and Electrical Engineering and a Master of Computer Science Artificial Intelligence respectively.
He worked in established and startup technology companies in Japan, Silicon Valley and Australia. Some of his start-up technology ventures lead to acquisitions by Nokia and Riverbed Technologies.[1]
In 2007, Noble joined Google Australia, and in 2008 he was appointed as an adjunct professor at the University of Adelaide.[2]
Since the late 2000s, Noble has acted as an advisor to the Australian government, including for the Chief Scientist of Australia, the Australian Information Commissioner and the Government 2.0 Taskforce.[3]
In 2013, Noble founded StartupAUS, following on from his experience with the angel investment group SA Angels (2007-2014). In 2014, he appeared in Episode 1 of That Startup Show.[4]
In 2014, Noble was appointed as a director of the board of the South Australian Museum.
In 2016, the Kangaroo Island Wilderness Trail was surveyed by Google Street View Trekker under Alan Noble's lead.[5] Noble also bought property on Kangaroo Island that year. Meanwhile, his property at Willunga became the first residential customer of Redflow's ZCell off-grid energy storage system.[6]
AusOcean[edit]
In 2017, he established the not-for-profit organisation AusOcean[7] with marine scientist, Professor Sean Connell[3] with the objective of lowering the cost of long-term marine environmental monitoring. In 2018, AusOcean's Network Blue sensor rigs received approval to be deployed in the Port River in South Australia.[8] Immanuel College in Adelaide is one of Network Blue's partners.[9]
Noble resigned from his position as head of engineering at Google Australia in 2018 to focus on AusOcean.[10][11][12] AusOcean undertook underwater survey work in Smith Bay, Kangaroo Island in December 2018 and February 2019.[13][14]
Early life[edit]
Noble grew up in Warradale, South Australia and attended Brighton Primary School and Brighton Secondary School. After university, he lived briefly in the Netherlands before moving to Japan in August 1983. In September 1986, he moved to California, where he lived for sixteen years until returning to Australia in 2002.
References[edit]
- ^ "Alan Noble | 2017 Speaker Profile". TEDxAdelaide. 19 October 2017. Retrieved 23 October 2018.
- ^ "Adelaidean -- Google director is new professor". www.adelaide.edu.au. Retrieved 23 October 2018.
- ^ a b "About AusOcean". www.ausocean.org. Retrieved 23 October 2018.
- ^ "blog". Larkspur Communications. Retrieved 23 October 2018.
- ^ "Department for Environment and Water". Archived from the original on 23 October 2018. Retrieved 23 October 2018.
- ^ "Google's Aussie Engineering Boss Has Gone Off The Grid". Gizmodo Australia. 19 October 2016. Retrieved 23 October 2018.
- ^ ""The courage of my convictions": AusOcean founder Alan Noble on his passion for the ocean, his support network, and why he walked away from Google - SmartCompany". SmartCompany. 26 July 2018. Retrieved 23 October 2018.
- ^ "Partnering with AusOcean for seagrass monitoring – Estuary Care Foundation SA". estuary.org.au. 29 August 2018. Retrieved 23 October 2018.
- ^ "Network Blue". www.ausocean.org. Retrieved 24 October 2018.
- ^ "Google Australia's engineering head Alan Noble steps down to focus on a "moonshot" nonprofit - SmartCompany". SmartCompany. 26 February 2018. Retrieved 23 October 2018.
- ^ Duckett, Chris. "Noble calls time on Google Australia stint | ZDNet". ZDNet. Retrieved 23 October 2018.
- ^ "Google Photos creator Anil Sabharwal heads back to Australia". Financial Review. 23 February 2018. Retrieved 23 October 2018.
- ^ Gorton, Stan (6 November 2018). "KIPT releases updated seaport plans to shareholders". The Islander. Retrieved 6 November 2018.
- ^ "Engineering director quits Google for conservation sea change". ABC News. 31 October 2018. Retrieved 10 November 2018.