LEWIS-GRAY, Elizabeth

2019 Distinguished Alumna

Degree

Master of Business Management

Graduation year

2000

Current position

Managing Director and CEO

Employer

Gekko Systems

In 1995 while Elizabeth Lewis-Gray was studying a Master of Business Management at University of Ballarat she started a business from her back yard marketing her husband Sandy’s, mineral processing inventions.

Today that company, Gekko Systems, is one of the most successful businesses in its field, boasting over 400 installations across 44 countries. Based in Ballarat, Gekko has developed into one of our region’s key employers and producers and is recognised as one of the most innovative, environmentally conscious, socially aware and commercially trustworthy mining hardware companies in the world.

Elizabeth has made impressive contributions to the mining sector, mineral processing innovation, business leadership, and environmental management. In 2011 she founded the Coalition for Eco-Efficient Comminution which promotes alternative strategies for improving energy efficiency in the mining sector.

In 2013 she became Chair of Austmine, the peak industry body representing mining equipment technology and service suppliers; and in 2015 she was appointed Chair of the Federal Government’s Mining Technology and Services Growth Centre.

In addition, Elizabeth has been a key member of prime ministerial, mining industry and professional business delegations associated with the mining sector and has won numerous business and entrepreneurial awards.

Elizabeth was inducted into the Australian Businesswomen’s Hall of Fame in 2000 and named one of the top 20 Names To Know In Mining by the Canadian Institute of Mining, and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of our University.

In a traditionally male-dominated industry, Elizabeth has earned international respect as a business woman of the highest calibre.