Stone & Chalk appoints ex-Accenture leader Stela Solar as new CEO

Technology innovation and start-up support organisation Stone & Chalk has appointed Accenture’s former generative AI lead Stela Solar as its new chief executive, replacing founding member Chris Kirk.

Stela Solar has been with Accenture in Sydney for the past eighteen months, before which she served as general manager of the National Artificial Intelligence Centre and co-chair of the Commonwealth AI Consortium following an earlier decade at Microsoft.

Solar now joins Stone & Chalk as its new CEO, heading an organisation which has since its establishment in 2015 guided thousands of Australian tech start-ups to almost $4.5 billion worth of funding to date, creating more than 100,000 jobs along the way.

“Stone & Chalk already plays a central role in Australia’s innovation ecosystem,” Solar said. “Our startup founders are building Australia’s sovereign tech capability and I’m excited to lead an organisation that accelerates innovation. My focus will be on building the infrastructure, talent pipelines, and support systems that help Australian startups move fast enough to compete globally.”

A UNSW commerce and arts graduate with a masters in interactive design and electronic arts (also currently undertaking a second masters in space operations!), Solar spent a decade at Microsoft from 2011, latterly as global director for AI solutions sales & strategy in the tech giant’s Seattle headquarters, before returning to Australia and later joining Accenture in late 2024.

Initially upon her return, Solar helped to establish the National AI Centre, which sits within the Department of Industry, Science, & Resources as the government’s peak AI body, and served as its inaugural director for three years. In addition to the Commonwealth AI Consortium, she also acted as an advisory committee member for the Monash Data Futures Institute during this time.

“Stela brings a rare combination of experience across startups, government, corporations, and the broader Australian innovation ecosystem,” said Stone & Chalk chairperson Richard Kimber, a former regional managing director for Google. “She also brings a strategic leadership perspective, strong personal drive, and team orientation that are key requirements for this important role.”

Key priorities

Stone & Chalk said that developing a shared services model – “designed to plug critical business functions such as hiring, marketing, insurance and operations into startups” so that founders can better focus on customers, product and innovation – would be among Solar’s first priorities, as well as championing initiatives around their well-being and resilience.

The accelerator has also set an ambitious target of supporting 10,000 Aussie startups over the next decade, having in the past year alone delivered more than 500 events nationally, with the advance of AI naturally on the agenda. Meanwhile, Stone & Chalk has been deepening its relations with global leaders such as OpenAI, AWS, and Microsoft, while KPMG is a long-time local partner.

“Artificial intelligence presents both the greatest opportunity and the biggest challenge for technology companies today,” Solar said upon joining what is self-described as Australia’s largest innovation ecosystem. “No single player can succeed alone; it requires collaboration across the entire value chain, from researchers and universities to government and industry.”

Solar takes over from Chris Kirk, who has been with Stone & Chalk since its foundation and served as CEO for the past two and a half years. Under Kirk’s leadership, the organisation said, Stone & Chalk had expanded from a single fintech-focused hub in Sydney to now cover tech innovation across a broad range of sectors with further bases added in Adelaide and Melbourne.

“Stela is widely recognised as a leader in advancing AI,” Kirk said. “She is known and trusted across the startup community. She deeply understands the challenges facing emerging tech businesses because she’s worked across every dimension of the ecosystem. I have enormous confidence in this transition and couldn’t be more excited about the next chapter for Stone.”