Shirley Gwynn has been appointed CEO at TALK5, Australia’s first AI-powered, voice enabled Work Health and Safety (WHS) software platform breaking down cultural, literacy and language barriers to bridge the gap between safety protocols and frontline workers.
A seasoned business transformation specialist and CX pioneer, Gwynn has been at the forefront of the Australian tech startup scene for almost a decade following a successful international career as a corporate and government analyst and advisor.
“I really believe in TALK5’s mission,” said Gwynn. “We’re here to make safety universally comprehensible and accessible, irrespective of language or culture.”
Gwynn met TALK5’s founder George Bancs through a mutual friend in late 2022. Impressed by Gwynn’s track record in growing and scaling successful tech startups alongside some of Australia’s most impressive tech founders, Bancs invited her to join the organisation’s advisory board.
In recent months she has taken on the role of CEO, and said she’s excited to work alongside George and our growing team to not only scale the business, but to lead the charge in AI-powered safety technology empowering a wide range of industries”.
In November 2023, TALK5 launched ‘Mina’ – the world’s first virtual safety, health coach and assistant, delivering voice-to-text and text-to-voice tools, in over 15 languages. This technology delivers essential safety instructions in each worker’s preferred language, eradicating potential misunderstandings caused by language differences.
It’s a project close to Gwynn’s personal background as a migrant, having emigrated from Beijing to Sydney with her family as a teenager. She says going directly into an English-speaking high school was “a very scary process”, and she understands the impacts of cultural, linguistic and language barriers on learning and comprehension.
Alongside Bancs, Gwynn’s vision is for TALK5 to redefine how language and safety intersect in the workplace.
“What I love is the early-stage building part of an exciting young business, making an impact,” she says.
Back in 2015, Gwynn was the first key go-to-market hire for global tech company SafetyCulture.
“My years with Safety Culture gave me a really solid introduction to the work, health and safety space and instilled in me an obsession with safety and the importance of developing (and constantly evolving) an incredible product that delivers the best customer experience,” she said.
As their Global Head of Customer Success Gwynn achieved 40x MoM revenue growth and scaled the company from less than $1 million ARR to over $45 million, before joining recruitment disruptor Hatch in 2020. At Hatch, she led the industry-shaping development of their COVID-19 Labour Exchange, which placed thousands of workers in temporary employment in 2020.
Following Hatch, Gwynn joined Immutable, an NFT and blockchain technology platform, to lead all partnerships efforts.
Now, as TALK5’s CEO, Gwynn is passionate about the software platform, saying it may ultimately “help save lives” as there’s “an increasingly diverse workforce, who are largely operating in high-risk sectors, with a sophisticated and efficient approach to work, health and safety training”.