About
Why Helen. Why EconAbility. Why now.
Dr Helen Hoang is an economist, social innovator and founder working at the intersection of economics, inclusion and interactive technology.
Growing up with scarcity in Vietnam, studying through international scholarships, migrating to Australia and later recognising her ADHD shaped a lasting belief: ability and opportunity are not the same when systems are difficult to access.
WHY HELEN
Dr Helen Hoang is an economist, founder and social innovator working at the intersection of economic decision-making, storytelling and interactive technology.
She earned a PhD in Economics from the Australian National University and worked across Australian Government economics, research and data. Through her founder work, she has already taken complex economic ideas from concept to published books, digital prototypes and tabletop simulations.
EconAbility brings those strands together around one question: can the way economic decisions are presented be redesigned so people with different minds and circumstances can participate more equally?
FOUNDER PROOF
EconAbility grows from Helen’s experience across economics, government, research and interactive product development.
PhD Economics, ANU
PhD in Economics from the Australian National University, with research spanning innovation, trade and the determinants of economic growth
Health Economics & Government Data
Australian Government experience across health economics, health expenditure, hospital and wellbeing data
Founder & Product Creator
Creator of books, digital games, learning tools and tabletop simulations that turn complex economic ideas into practical experiences
Government-supported innovation
Recipient of the 2025 Innovation Connect (ICON) Grant, supported by the ACT Government and Canberra Innovation Network. Published thought leadership
From Evidence to Action
Helen holds a PhD in Economics from ANU and three master’s degrees. She spent nearly four years at the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, working across hospitals, health expenditure and child wellbeing.
She later founded EconTech and translated complex economic ideas into books, digital games and tabletop simulations. Her Economics for Kids series became an Amazon category bestseller, while EconTech prototype development received ACT Government Innovation Connect support.
EconAbility is the next step: applying this proven capability to accessible everyday decision-making.
Built With Lived Experience
EconAbility’s development team includes neurodivergent lived experience, including an autistic final-year ANU Computer Science developer contributing to digital product development and neuroinclusive design.
Helen is connected with Canberra’s social-enterprise and innovation community, including The Mill House Ventures.
From simulation to inclusion
Kingdonomics explores scarcity, resource allocation, uncertainty, trade and cooperation.
EconAbility extends this thinking by asking what happens when people start from different circumstances with different access to money, time, transport, support and resilience.
Dr Helen Hoang
Founder & Project Lead
Leads the EconAbility vision, research direction, product development and partnerships.
Econability Director since 2025
the wonderful team
Kevin Chu
Software Engineering & User Experience
Kevin is a talented software engineering and UX contributor currently studying Computer Science at the Australian National University. Having experienced learning challenges associated with autism, he worked with remarkable dedication to achieve an ATAR of 99% and now hopes to use his journey to inspire and support other neurodiverse learners.
His perspective helps EconAbility design technology with greater empathy, accessibility and real-world understanding.
How EconAbility grows
Watson, Australia
Gameplus, Technology park 49 Phillip Ave Watson, ACT, 2602
Phone:
+61 4 5179 5179
Email:
hello@econtech.org
and shape it with us
Help us build a more accessible way to navigate economic choices. We are looking for people and organisations with lived experience or expertise to help shape, challenge and test EconAbility.