Our founders
Our Founders
Ready Communities was founded by Kerry Grace and Dr. Chad Renando in 2023. Both founding partners have broad experience in regional community and economic development serving in a range of roles across business development, leadership, industry, academia, education and community engagement.
About
Kerry Grace
Kerry Grace has spent most of her career working across regional communities in Australia, across economic development, social impact and community capability.
Her work focuses on the point where conversation turns into action. She brings people together, creates clarity around what matters, and helps people see possibility beyond their organisation’s or community’s current situation.
She is known for her ability to create the conditions where things begin to move. Kerry is the founder of Social Impact in the Regions, a national conference built in regional Australia for the people doing the work and those investing in it. Since its inception, the event has contributed more than $1M into hosting regional communities.
About
Dr. Chad Renando
Chad has over 30 years’ experience in leadership positions in the public, private, and not-for-profit sectors in the United States and Australia. Following his role leading an award-winning incubator in 2017, Chad focused on understanding and supporting place-based initiatives to address systemic contributing factors to resilience in rural communities. His passion integrates his roles as a Research Fellow (Innovation Ecosystems) with the Rural Economies Centre of Excellence at the University of Southern Queensland, his work mapping and measuring systems through not for profit Startup Status, and as General Manager with the Global Entrepreneurship Network Australia.
Founder story
Ready Communities founders Kerry Grace and Dr. Chad Renando met at a transition point in both of their careers where they were simply fed up with the way things are done to create change in regional communities. Both bring a wealth of experience across business, leadership, regional development and social impact to the mix and together they have forged a business that bridges the intersection between community and economic development.
The co-founders joined forces just in time for the regional place-based practice movement. They blend their skills to provide potent and sustainable solutions for regional communities.