Murray Hurps
Murray Hurps is UTS’ first Director of Entrepreneurship, tasked with growing the number of student-founded startups coming out of UTS and nurturing the Ultimo precinct’s vibrant startup environment. Murray plays a key role in developing and sustaining pathways connecting UTS graduates and student founders to the startup ecosystem locally, regionally, and internationally, including commercial accelerators, venture capital and international destinations. Murray also leads initiatives to ensure Ultimo continues to expand its historical position as a significant contributor to Sydney's startup ecosystem.
As part of the leadership team of the UTS Innovation and Entrepreneurship Unit, led by Executive Director Professor Margaret Maile Petty, Murray contributes to the strategic direction of the unit, driven by a cross-faculty approach.
Murray is passionate about Australian startups, and sees the biggest risk and opportunity for Australia to be the number of people launching scalable companies. He believes universities are uniquely positioned to move Australia's entrepreneurial needle in the right direction and is committed to ensuring UTS provides the best encouragement and support to the largest number of potential startup founders.
Murray has a long list of credentials in the Australian startup ecosystem, with a 20-year career spanning an array of ventures and organisations. He is well-known for his role as CEO of Fishburners from 2014 to 2017, growing it into Australia’s largest startup community from 100 desks to 750 desks and supporting 845 startups in that time.
Prior to that, Murray co-founded and led Startup Muster, the largest survey of the Australian startup ecosystem, after 14 years of starting and building different Australian startups. Most recently he was Program Director for FUELD, Westpac's data-focused accelerator program.
Murray remains a board member of Startup Muster, the Australian Information Industry Association, WorkVentures, Spark Festival, and an advisory board member for the Data Analytics Centre.