Jewellery software entrepreneur Raeleen Gillett has been awarded one of Queensland’s most prestigious information technology awards.
Raeleen, the creator of the SWIM (Savings With Improved Management) software system for jewellers, was named the 2008 winner of the Queensland Pearcey Foundation Award in Brisbane.
Now CEO of global software company Octahedron, Gillett was just a university student, studying computers and law, when she first developed a management program for her parents’ retail jewellery store, Gilletts Jewellers in Brisbane, in 1997.
When her success in the family business was followed by much interest from other jewellers, Raeleen founded Octahedron in 2000 and launched SWIM software onto the Australian market the following year.
The product was translated into three languages in 2003 and then redeveloped into a web-based plug-and-play platform in 2005.
In 2007 the Rapaport Group bought a 50 percent shareholding in Octahedron and this year the company opened its first US office and now continues to forge growth across a growing number of other international markets including the UK, Canada, Singapore, Malaysia, South Africa and New Zealand.