Woodina Underwriting Agency adds a new dimension to underwriting in Australia. Recognising the frustrations for brokers in obtaining quick turnaround of quotations for clients, whilst having the ability to discuss a risk with an underwriter rather than a “no touch” internet engine, Woodina focuses on speed of turnaround and flexibility. For the first time in Australia, an in-house law firm claims model was introduced to provide unrivalled support to clients.I joined as CTO at a time where Woodina Underwriting badly needed strong technical unification, direction and structure. As well as navigating in an unfamiliar industry and piecing together an unhealthy collection of legacy platforms, one of my immediate tasks in this role was to manage and resolve a number of badly left third-party vendor relationships. Through hard work and grit I managed to strengthen the technical solutions, build strong relationships with teams of all levels of company and to increase the confidence in the IT processes drastically.My role also encompassed a joint-CTO role and IT representative at the board level for a new insurance company, requiring me to deliver strong IT strategy and compliance documentation and guidance. Again, through hard work and a no-fail attitude, I managed to deliver exceptional results and value.Key Achievements:✔ Worked closely with stakeholders at all levels (both locally and in global locations) to lead the definition of the enterprise product suite vision. ✔ Worked closely with the board and executive teams to provide vision and to communicate long term roadmaps.✔ Grow the internal IT team to provide exceptional, long term capabilities in-house.✔ Continuously drive multiple, concurrent projects to meet key milestones.✔ Build internal and external stakeholder relationships through honest, transparent communication.

Ivory is a new Australian owned insurer, providing capacity to Australian underwriting agencies in the areas of Professional Indemnity, IT liability and General Liability insurance for small to medium sized businesses.

Direct reports: 3 engineering managers, 2 product managers, 1 senior engineer (located in Brisbane and Finland)Indirect reports: 20 engineers and testersReporting to: Senior VP, Product ManagementAfter a successful and enjoyable period managing the Site Applications engineering team to produce some incredible products and deliver them to a global market, I was asked to step into a senior product management position, to lead the planning and implementation of Topcon's enterprise solution strategy. This role requires careful orchestration of the integration of key company front and back-end services and to develop relationships with the many external parties keen to connect with Topcon's APIs.Key Achievements:✔ Worked closely with stakeholders at all levels (and in many global locations) to lead the definition of the enterprise product suite vision. ✔ Worked closely with the Topcon executive team to provide vision and to communicate long term roadmaps.✔ Continuously drive multiple, concurrent projects to meet key milestones.✔ Build internal and external stakeholder relationships through honest, transparent communication.

Direct reports: 11 developers, 1 testerReporting to: Senior VP, Machine Control Topcon Positioning Systems (TPS) is a global leader in developing and manufacturing precision positioning equipment. The company offers the largest selection of innovative precision GPS and GNSS systems, commercial lasers, optical instruments for surveying, civil engineering applications and machine control products. I joined the Site Applications Group as Software Engineering Manager to reunite and grow the development team, create a strong vision, build positive culture, improve quality and to work with product managers to deliver a suite of badly-delayed products to market. I was required to interface with many stakeholders globally (both internal and external to Topcon) to hone the products and deliver exactly what the market needed. Built on a cutting-edge cloud micro-service architecture, APIs provide access to a suite of different client technologies, including a ReactJS CesiumJS-driven web portal and C++ machine control GUIs. These utilisations have provided stunning results for customers.Key Achievements:✔ Worked closely with stakeholders at all levels (and in many global locations) to lead the definition of the Sitelink3D v2 product suite roadmap. Presented to the Topcon executive team on numerous occasions to provide vision and to communicate development progress.✔ Guided key Sitelink3D v2 products (3DMC Earthworks / Paving / Snow Groomer machine control for connected sites, Haul Truck mobile app and Remote Support) through product validation processes to deliver to dealers globally.✔ Continuously drove multiple, concurrent projects to meet key milestones. ✔ Strengthened the Sitelink engineering team with additional team members, introduced strong Agile processes, provided a clear technical vision and built business process to keep the team insulated and focused on the product roadmap.

Direct reports: 16 developers, 2 testers (located in Philippines), 1 UX designerReporting to: CEO Speedwell is Queensland's largest independent web and mobile development firm. Speedwell has developed award winning business-focused web and mobile solutions on .Net, iOS and Android stacks for national and international brands including Tourism and Events Queensland, Brisbane Festival, Personalised Plates QLD, Brisbane Airport Corporation, Di Bella Coffee, Allianz GA and many more. My role at Speedwell was to grow and lead a talented digital team in a fast-paced agency environment and to transform the struggling team culture into a vibrant and exciting one. With multiple projects on the go at any one time, the role required me to be constantly learning new technical skills whilst maintaining stability for my team and pushing to exceed customer expectations.Key Achievements:✔ Liaised with clients to establish project scope and deliverables.✔ Worked closely with project managers to clearly define development work.✔ Juggled numerous concurrent projects with competing deadlines between development resources.✔ Adopted Agile development processes and structure to the development team, thus creating transparency to management and clarity to developers.

Direct reports: 4 developers, 3 motion graphic artistsReporting to: CEO and executive team Blue Dog Training is a nationally recognised, award winning training company, specialising in innovative online training solutions. Since launching in 2005, Blue Dog Training has established itself as the Australian leader in the online issuing of Construction White Cards by developing cutting edge e-Learning technology. My role at Blue Dog Training was to mentor, strengthen and grow a struggling digital group into a thriving, creative and goal-kicking scrum team that was constant striving to push the boundaries in online learning technology. Using the very latest in open source technology, the digital team built truly impressive web-based training solutions to push Blue Dog Training far in front of the competition not only in terms of robust, scalable, cloud-based systems, but in forward-thinking and ingenuity. Aside from Blue Dog’s outstanding software development capabilities, I helped build a team of incredibly skilled motion artists to create video resources to supplement the online quiz material.Key Achievements:✔ Worked closely with the Blue Dog leadership team to led the design, development, testing and deployment of a new online data-driven learning framework. This framework replaced the legacy system and provided unprecedented visibility into customer usage statistics and seamlessly supported a wide range of modern devices.✔ Picked up the negotiations of poorly managed 3rd party vendor relationships to bring them to successful resolution for the organisation.✔ Continuously drove multiple, concurrent projects to meet key milestones. ✔ Strengthened the struggling development team with additional team members, introduced strong Agile processes, provided a clear technical vision and created a team culture that extended to the entire organisation, thus creating a high level of trust for the team.

During my time with DETE, I developed a detailed understanding for how Government operates at a Corporate IT level. I was exposed to some excellent technology and people and learnt how to manage expectations within a Government environment.My responsibilities included leading the delivery of highly sensitive data migration strategies and reports, conducting workshops with key business stakeholders and for the completion of deliverables within time and budget constraints.

Direct reports: 1 Developer + 2 Electrical EngineersReporting to: CEOA mid-sized, privately owned energy management hardware manufacturer, Auzion Technologies developed a detailed energy control and monitoring system for use in residential and business switchboards. The hardware could very accurately gauge the power consumption of circuits in the building and then stream the data back to a central database for future analysis. It also provided remote control of circuit relays and sensors.My role at Auzion Technologies required me to work with stakeholders to develop a strong product roadmap and I was responsible for the completion of deliverables within time and budget constraints. During this time, I also managed a project with Adelaide-based partner company, Embertec. With very different deliverables, priorities and timelines, it was a challenge to keep everything running smoothly and to ensure that all stakeholders were happy with the results.

Direct reports: 8 DevelopersReporting to: CEOI started with Corearth Technologies as a Junior Java Developer and gradually ascended to Lead Developer. This period of my career was a fantastic time of professional growth and I learnt the fundamentals of how to create IT vision, develop strong standards and build positive team culture in order to deliver great results for customers.Among other projects during my time at Corearth, a major one was a service-based online tool for telecommunication carriers to cost-effectively maintain their radio tower infrastructure. I worked closely with Corearth senior management and industry professionals to conceptualise this world-first idea that led to hassle-free, online production of radiation hazard reports, and offered a suite of attractive features such as map-based visualisation and 3D simulation.

We all have to start somewhere; and at the absolute grassroots was where I kicked off my IT career. I not only learnt a great deal about networking and the fundamentals of IT, but most importantly, I learnt how to communicate technical solutions with non-technical people. It was a fantastic place to start and I thoroughly enjoyed it.