Marita Cheng

Marita Cheng
Born Marita Cheng
(1989-03-05) 5 March 1989[1]
Cairns, Queensland, Australia[2]
Residence Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Nationality Australian
Ethnicity Chinese
Occupation Entrepreneur
Website maritacheng.com

Marita Cheng (born 5 March 1989) is the founder of Robogals. She was named the 2012 Young Australian of the Year.[3] She is the founder and current CEO of 2Mar Robotics, a start-up robotics company.[4]

Early life

Cheng was raised by her mother, a single parent[5] who worked as a hotel room cleaner,[6] in a housing commission apartment.[5]

Career

In 2007 Cheng founded Nudge, a company which provided reminders by phone or text message to help people manage their prescription drug schedules.[6] She founded Robogals in 2008[7] for the purpose of encouraging young women into careers in STEM fields.[6]

In 2011 Cheng was awarded a Churchill Fellowship, which allowed her to visit the U.S., U.K., Germany and Jamaica to learn about international approaches to science education for young women.[8] In November 2011, Cheng was named Victorian Young Australian of the Year for 2012,[9] and went on to be named as Young Australian of the Year.[3] In that same year she was also a winner in the Financial Review – Westpac 100 Women of Influence awards' Young Leader category.[10]

In 2013 she established a start-up robotics company.[11]

Cheng delivered the closing keynote speech at the 35th World Congress of the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts in Hong Kong in 2014.[12]

References

  1. ↑ myRobogals - Profile - Marita Cheng
  2. ↑ Packham, Laura (26 January 2012). "Young Australian of the Year honour for Cairns girl Marita Cheng". The Cairns Post. Retrieved 3 February 2012.
  3. 1 2 "Young Australian of the Year 2012". National Australia Day Council. Retrieved 27 January 2014.
  4. ↑ "2Mar Robotics - About". 2013. Retrieved 24 January 2014.
  5. 1 2 Katherine Firkin (15 September 2010). "Mum's little helper - Extraordinary citizens recognized for bravery". Herald Sun. p. 010.
  6. 1 2 3 Robyn Rankin (29 December 2010). "Marita Cheng". The Cairns Eye. p. 12.
  7. ↑ Bridie Smith (15 November 2011). "Rush in leading role among society's mentors". The Age. p. 5. The Victorian young Australian of the year was 22-year-old engineering student Marita Cheng, who founded Robogals Global in 2008 to encourage women to consider a career in the sciences
  8. ↑ "Quite a Fellow". The Cairns Sun. 13 July 2011. p. 1.
  9. ↑ "Victorian Australian of the Year award recipients 2012 announced". Australianoftheyear.org. 14 November 2011. Retrieved 27 February 2014.
  10. ↑ Upton, Louise (8 July 2013). "How Marita Cheng engineered success". Australian Financial Review. Retrieved 27 February 2014.
  11. ↑ Pennington, Sylvia (19 September 2013). "What Marita Cheng did next". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 27 February 2014.
  12. ↑ "WAGGGS 35th World Congress program". Retrieved 9 July 2014.
Awards
Preceded by
Jessica Watson		 Young Australian of the Year
2012 		Succeeded by
Akram Azimi
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