Bern Blake Email & Phone Number

Melbourne, Vic, Au

South Melbourne, Vic, Au

Launching Q1 2024.

South Melbourne, Victoria, Au

North Geelong, Victoria, Au

The world's most used Skills management solution, Skills Base creates a digital twin of your team's and organization's skills.This enables you to a) allocate the right people to the right jobs at the right time, b) to set people up for success by making sure they have the skills they need with targetted training c) manage change and transformation, and d) scenario plan so that your skills and your strategy are aligned.

Denver, Colorado, Us

Biarri Networks is transforming Fiber Network Engineering globally with maths, machines, mind-blowingly talented people and an ocean-deep passion to help our customers succeed.

Brisbane, Queensland, Au

Biarri Networks is applying patented, commercial mathematics to help the world get connected faster.Our Network Optimization services have already helped to connect many millions of homes to fiber optic networks and saved billions of dollars in project design and construction costs.We are now on a mission to take this expertise to the rest of the globe.

Melbourne, Au

Executive responsibility for taking a 3 page power point deck and building a viable, high growth business out of it. Within 12 months of first concept this business had a brand, a high performing team, a clearly identified value assumption and a minimum viable product being used in anger. Within 3 years the business has become the industry standard in its product category, established a couple of new product categories and attracted more than 45,000 Construction-industry SMBs into its network.This is a product that is "loved" by its users and as part of the global Aconex business, BidContender has a very exciting future.

Melbourne, Victoria, Au

Driver of Melbourne IT's 2 largest and most profitable business units, "Business & Consumer" (Retail Channel) and "Global Partner Solutions" (Reseller Channel). Beyond P&L accountability, the early strategic focus of this role was to bring many of the SMB insights from the B&C Business Unit into the Reseller Channel. Despite dramatically different sales channels, we were able to create shared strategy, products and technology across these two business units.This enabled the continued growth and profitability of the B&C business unit and positioned the Reseller business unit to weather substantial headwinds and market pressures.

Melbourne, Victoria, Au

Drove all aspects of the Business & Consumer Business unit including its 4 brands and P&Ls (Melbourne IT, WebCentral, Domainz and RegisterFree). This represented more than 300,000 SMB customers or about a third of Australia's SMB population. Completed a comprehensive program of change including substantial structural and cultural transformation, a dramatic improvement in customer incites, segmentation, product diversification and the establishment of a number of key strategic initiatives such as creation of the eBusiness Centre. The combined benefits of these initiatives allowed the business unit to meet or exceed all growth and profitability targets during this period and created a successful Sales & Marketing template that could be translated into growth in other markets, channels and acquisitions.

Melbourne, Victoria, Au

Primarily responsible for supporting the CFO in a range of Corporate development activities and projects including M&A targeting, profiling, due-diligence, opportunity assessment, negotiation and execution. Developed a range of horizon 2 and 3 options for the Melbourne IT executive and board to consider and project-managed a number of projects such as integration of a small acquisition. Worked with Business and Functional Unit Leaders to support their strategy development, operational planning and project execution.

Domainz was Melbourne IT's first acquisition. As the "transplanted" GM I had executive responsibility for all aspects of integration and subsequent ongoing management of the business. As my first true GM role, I was able to test and hone my skills as a leader, strategist, marketer and operational manager. I made plenty of mistakes but believe I also got a lot right, identified what knowledge gaps I had and set about filling those gaps. Within 6 months of the acquisition and after an aggressive program of transformation, the business had achieved a return to profitability and within 12 months was delivering some of the best growth and profitability metrics in the group.

Melbourne, Victoria, Au

With responsibility for the online direct sales channel of the Melbourne IT business I was able to introduce a focus on granular performance metrics that had previously not existed and subsequently supported a dramatic growth in online sales. During this time there were also a number of key projects that I either project-managed or contributed to substantially in setting up Melbourne IT's growth in subsequent years.These included commercial project management of MIT's response to the deregulation of the com.au domain name market, the introduction of new global domain space products (.biz, .info, .name) and Melbourne IT's strategy for those. I also developed the business case and was commercial product owner for Melbourne IT's affiliate sales channel which facilitated global partner deals with Microsoft, Yahoo Japan and other Tier 1 partners.In this role, I also worked intimately with Business Unit and Sales Channel heads to begin Melbourne IT's product diversification beyond domain names into shared hosting, web design, SEO and other related products.

Melbourne, Victoria, Au

Responsible for establishing and managing the global support and service operations of Melbourne IT during its most dramatic period of growth and change. In this period, the business morphed from a small Melbourne start-up into a global, publicly listed business within a matter of few months. It was the dot-com roller-coaster at its most insane. The growing pains of the business were sudden and extreme and this is where I learned how to hire the right people, the importance of setting and maintaining the right culture and discovered that I had an ability to maintain perspective and humour irrespective of the pressure or chaos of the situation.Most importantly, I learned how to build and motivate teams, how to delegate effectively, how to coach and develop individuals and the critical differences between being a manager and a leader.

A small graphic design and web marketing business, this was my first crack at building a business off my own back. The product and customer facing aspects of the business were a success with the acquisition of a number of very satisfied SMB, corporate and government clients.The internal commercial aspects of the business were badly managed through lack of experience and this is where I learned that a great product and great service aren't enough for a successful and sustainable business. I also learned perhaps the most critical lesson of being a business manager - that passion and belief are important for true innovation but brutal commercial honesty and metrics must always underpin decision making.

H2H Games was one of the earliest multi-player gaming platforms in Australia (if not the world). My responsibilities included management of my first (albeit very small) marketing budget, commercial product ownership and my first people management responsibility (of my one team member).This role gave me the taste for technology product development, start-up environments and the attraction of an annuity-based subscription models and networks.

Developed advertising concepts for Schweppes, Cottees, the Victorian government and others. Was able to learn the power and pitfalls of market research and focus groups. I also had the opportunity to learn tried and tested methodologies for product naming and positioning in a Consumer environment which I subsequently applied to a B2B context.Had the extraordinary privilege of being able to work alongside the great Cesare Leonardi, who's maxims on assessing the effectiveness of a piece of communication I still apply to this day.

As a junior copywriter I got to earn my stripes developing press, radio, outdoor and TV advertising for Tattersals, CUB, Ansett, Nissan and NAB among others. I also had the opportunity to be mentored by some of the greatest minds in the business such as Russel Howcroft, Chris Dewey and Geoff Seebeck.While I learned an incredible range of things in this role, the one thing that was etched in my brain and I still apply today is that advertising doesn't sell - it just communicates a solution to a problem. Understanding the customer problem intimately is at the heart of everything and should always, always, always be the pivot point and litmus test for good product and marketing choices.

Bachelor Of Arts, Cultural Studies, English

Master Of Business Administration (M.B.A.)

Master Of Technology (M.Tech.), (Defferred)