The Beginning of the Embarr Story
Embarr was founded by Graham Pole, who grew up in the Adelaide Hills and learned from an early age to have a healthy respect for bushfires.
Joining the Country Fire Service (CFS) in 1979, Graham has seen the impact of bushfires both as a volunteer firefighter and as a resident of a bushfire zone. He has been on the front line of many bushfires including Ash Wednesday (1980 and 1983) and more recent, Pinery (2015) and Cudlee Creek (2019) and witnessed first-hand the loss of properties and the ongoing impact of the devastation caused by catastrophic bushfires.
Graham says “I know from my CFS experience that during a bushfire, local fire authorities will protect life first, properties second and then proceed to contain the fire threat. When properties are appropriately protected, owners are more likely to leave the area and not attempt to return home, reducing the potential for loss of human life and allowing the fire authorities to focus on controlling the bushfire. Knowing this, I started thinking about how a bushfire sprinkler system could be automated so that residents could evacuate early, knowing their homes were protected.”
The idea for Embarr’s Argus system was conceived when Graham was unable to find an effective automated bushfire sprinkler system that met the recommendations of research published by the CSIRO and the Bushfire CRC. Over the past 7 years following research conducted at the Universities of Adelaide and South Australia and product development it is now possible to offer an affordable Embarr Argus system for anyone living in a bushfire zone.
Meet the Embarr Management Team
Graham Pole
Founder/CEO
Graham is the founder of Embarr. He has over 40 years of experience in bushfire fighting at the CFS, in addition to an extensive experience in sprinklers systems design and installation.
Graham spent the last 7 years designing Embarr Argus to be the world’s most intelligent automated bushfire sprinkler activation system.
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Hugo LeMessurier
Strategic Advisor
Hugo is an experienced entrepreneurial business leader with a proven track record of implementing complex business solutions in multinational and SME businesses. For over a 25 years Hugo has held directorships and senior management positions in start-ups, listed and multinational organisations in the USA, EU and Australia.
He specialises in developing and investing in high growth businesses and teams commercialising innovative technologies with global potential. Hugo is a strategic and corporate advisor at Embarr supporting the commercialisation of its products.
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Nick Riesen
Consulting Physicist
Dr Nick Riesen is a physicist with science and engineering backgrounds. He has significant experience in commercialisation of photonics within Australia and serves to advise Embarr on future R&D directions.
Nick leads a university-based research team developing the latest ember detector prototypes for Embarr systems.
Mark Gamtcheff
Marketing Manager
Mark is an experienced marketing manager and senior marketing consultant who has worked across diverse industries including tech startups and web development companies, household consumer products and FMCGs, and the automotive and defence sectors.
He is highly skilled in all areas of digital marketing, eCommerce, social media, and brand strategy and design.
Mark guides marketing strategy at Embarr and implements tactics to grow the business.
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