Russell Bewsell Email & Phone Number

Brisbane City, Qld, Au

Queensland, Australia

2000 - PresentOverview:For over two decades, I’ve led Voice Recognition Australia (VRA), which has become the country’s largest provider of speech recognition software solutions. Through a strong focus on innovation and strategic market alignment, VRA has achieved over 20% year-on-year growth in the past five years, driven largely by our shift to the healthcare sector and our emphasis on annual recurring revenue services.Key Achievements:Leading Provider: Positioned VRA as the top Nuance partner in Desktop and Healthcare sales across Australia, holding this leading position for 22 consecutive years.Healthcare Focus: Led VRA’s successful move towards healthcare-focused services, capturing the demand for specialised voice recognition technology in medical settings.Expanding Reach: Built our customer base to over 37,000 users, making VRA one of the world’s most authoritative resources on voice recognition technology.Strategic Partnerships: Cultivated long-standing relationships with industry giants like Nuance Communications and Microsoft, ensuring our solutions remain at the forefront of technology.Current Focus:I’m currently driving an exciting transition from our traditional eCommerce and training model to a content-rich, niche technology website. This shift will provide in-depth information and subscription-based voice recognition services tailored for the healthcare and legal sectors.Previous Experience:Prior to dedicating myself full-time to VRA, I spent five years in a senior intelligence role with the Department of Defence in Canberra, where I honed my strategic thinking and leadership skills. Earlier in my career, I held a management role at United International Holdings, where I was involved in the rapid expansion of cable TV into the Australian market, while completing my degree at the Australian National University.

Canberra, Australia

 Led a team of analysts to support government decision-making, Lead, manage and direct an analytical team to undertake research, assessment and reporting of intelligence issues that are of strategic interest to Australia. Brief and write intelligence assessments for Australian Government officials. Collaborate and produce joint assessments with Australian and international partners on critical security issues. Regularly brief international strategic think-tanks, Australia’s allies and overseas officials.

Canberra

Built voicerecognition.com.au from the ground-up in 2000 to a multi-million dollar annual turnover ecommerce and IT service company by 2006.Duties Strategically plan product development and online communications. Manage multiple staff members and all aspects of human resources. Direct all aspects of customer service, sales, accounts and online web development. Deliver presentations to meetings/conferences about evolving voice recognition technology. Represent company at functions and industry conferences.Achievements Launched Voice Recognition Software Company in 2000. Developed Voice Recognition into the number one voice recognition website in Australia for over twelve years. Successfully negotiated with multi-national software companies. Advise/consult small business owners on customer service, sales and online marketing.Also responsible for:Web design and marketingCustomer ServiceCall Centre managementHuman resourcesInformation Technology and CommunicationsEcommerce development and project management

Orange, Wagga, Dubbo, Bathurst - Nsw

Regional Service & Sales ManagerDuties Responsible for customer service delivery for over 50,000 subscribers. Supervised 60+ regional customer service and sales staff. Managed the NSW regional customer service office.Achievements Redesigned the regional customer service strategy resulting in a monthly reduction in subscription cancellations by 10 per cent, the lowest in Australia.  Improved debt collection procedures and reduced total monthly debt in my region by approximately 20 per cent. This new system was deployed nationally by Austar.

Bachelor Of Arts (B.A.), International Relations And Affairs

Prince2 Practitioner (Project Management), Foundation And Practitioner, Foundation And Practitioner