“There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they’re falling in.”
Founders statement
HiJo comes from a place of genuine need and raw passion. A need for our youth to have the tools for improved emotional connection at school and a passion for providing peace of mind to parents around the world that their child is being heard and given every opportunity to thrive at school.
I was one of many thousands of parents who would drop their child at school every day wondering if they had done the right thing, it’s scary and you question yourself constantly.
At HiJo we spent many months in design thinking sessions, workshops and focus groups with hundreds of teachers, parents and students in both Australia and the US working through how these key stakeholders envisaged a truly ‘wellbeing focussed’ classroom.
We listened, discussed, white boarded and drafted so many incredible, some whacky, but mostly amazing ideas on how to empower students more when it comes to their learning journey and personal wellbeing. Also, how to best support teachers with a simple yet powerful tool to better understand their classroom.
One of the key concepts to come out of this process was that wellbeing can’t be invisible, it needs to have a visual and physical presence that the student can build trust in. HiJo was born.
So much of my life has been spent in teams and understanding how important it is to have great people around you who share a common goal. I am so proud of the team at HiJo and I look forward to taking YOU with us on this journey to eliminate the phrase, ‘If only we had known’.
Paul Salmon, Founder
HiJo is a data services business focused on identifying and informing early intervention for young people at risk of developing a mental health condition.
Our vision is to be the global benchmark for wellbeing in education.
We seek to help improve the physical and emotional wellbeing of future generations by interacting directly with students to help improve their emotional intelligence awareness and skills.
We believe the information and data that we collect, and aggregate can significantly change the way the education system, as an industry, deals with the rising mental health concerns facing our young people.
The change we create can shift:
Gut Feel to Insight
Escalation to Intervention
Subjective to Objective
Emotive to Data-driven
Noise to Focus
“HiJo is an innovative product that directly aligns with the vision of the Del Mar Union School District. We are in the ‘unrelenting pursuit of the extraordinary school experience,’ and achieving this requires that our students have access to high quality products that support student personalization and agency”
Team
FOUNDER & CEO
Paul Salmon
Successful professional athlete, media personality and businessman in Australia for over 35 years. Inducted into the Australian Football League ‘Hall of Fame’. Paul has also been an entrepreneur since the age of 17 having built a number of start-ups to successful exit.
HiJo is an extension of his passion to empower our youth to better connect the physical world to the digital world and has been years in the making. Paul also enjoyed an extensive media career and was awarded the Victorian Father of the Year in 2000 along with the AFL ‘Personality of the Year’ and the ‘Australian Sports Medal’ to name a few. He is a leader in the community in his ambassadorial roles for charities over many years.
SCIENCE & RESEARCH LEAD / ADVISOR
Professor Jo Salmon
Alfred Deakin Professor.
Wife of Paul and world leading researcher in children’s physical activity. Jo’s expertise in research and school based programs has been integral to the development of HiJo.
Director of the Institute of Physical Activity and Nutrition at Deakin University, a ‘Highly Cited’ Researcher 5 years running, Founder of Transform-Us and the Australasian Society for Physical Activity [ASPA].
EDUCATIONAL ADVISOR
Dr Natalie Lander
An Alfred Deakin Postdoctoral Research Fellow, in the strategic research centre ‘Research for Educational Impact’ (REDI), at Deakin University. Natalie has a Bachelor of Applied Science and Education (RMIT University), Masters in Educational Psychology (QUT), Honours in Health Sciences (Deakin University) and a PhD (Deakin University).
YOUTH ADVISOR
Renee Bilby
Third-year Commerce student majoring in Economics and Finance as well as Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship course at the London School of Economics as well as Entrepreneurial Finance. She loves various art mediums, hiking and camping as well as volunteers as a Scout Leader.
LEAD TECHNOLOGY ADVISOR
George Stavrakakis
George is the former Director of both the Public and Education sectors at Microsoft. He lead the education team across multiple functions including sales, marketing, channel sales and programs
ADVISORY BOARD CHAIR
Sophie Valkan LLB, B.Com, GradDip CSP, CPA, GAICD
Sophie’s expertise covers business management and structure including strategic planning & facilitation, corporate structuring, marketing, IT, legal, risk, governance and finance with significant experience in business systems, due diligence, business acquisitions and divestitures.
SCIENCE ADVISORY TEAM:
Professor Craig Olsson Director Centre for Social and Early Emotional Development, Deakin University Expertise as a developmental psychologist focusing on children and young adult behaviours.
Associate Professor Matthew Fuller-Tyszkiewicz
Director, Data Science Unit – Deakin Strategic Research Centre for Early Emotional Development, Deakin University
Expertise in identifying individual and environmental-level determinants of mental and physical health.
Professor Doug Creighton
Deputy Director, IISRI, Deakin University. Brings expertise on modelling, simulation, AI and data analytics.
Professor Jeff Simons
Professor in Kinesiology specialising in psycho-social aspects of motor behaviour. California State University, East Bay, San Francisco.