Experience
Where the opinions come from.
Not a CV. The experiences that shaped how I think, from more than 25 years in technology across Australia and Asia Pacific, and what each one taught me. Not everything worked, and some of the most useful lessons came from the parts that didn't.
Early career
The lessons didn't start with the senior roles.
Before the bigger roles there was Microsoft channel work, Canon and Axceler, already building partner channels across ANZ and APAC. There were also career changes, difficult environments and plenty of learning the hard way.
Alongside work came SKLPS, which I founded and led for five years, helping students and young professionals moving to Australia with their careers.
NetSuite
Eight years of scale, ecosystems and learning to lead at size.
- 80+
- people
- 8
- years, ANZ and APAC
Around eight years at NetSuite, through a period of serious growth, with senior leadership responsibilities across Australia, New Zealand and Asia Pacific. Over that time the team I helped build and lead grew to more than 80 people, alongside one of the strongest partner ecosystems in the region.
The business grew steadily through that time, and developing leaders who could run their own teams mattered as much as the numbers. That was the work of a lot of people, and being part of it showed how much leadership changes as an organisation gets bigger. What works with ten people doesn't work with eighty.
Real scale starts when success no longer depends on one person. And high performance and treating people well are not opposing ideas. Most of how I think about teams, ecosystems and execution was formed here.
Airwallex
What happens when speed, people, product and growth collide.
- First
- Head of Sales in Australia
- 2 to 35
- commercial team, roughly
Airwallex, during hypergrowth. The title was Head of Sales. As Airwallex's first Head of Sales in Australia, reporting to the Head of Growth, the role involved helping build the Australian sales capability from an early stage.
The role meant helping build the commercial foundations for significant growth: hiring and developing the commercial team from roughly two people to thirty-five, and operating at the speed a company in hypergrowth demands. Those were company and team outcomes. A great product and a lot of talented people drove the growth, and my job was to help the commercial side keep up.
Hypergrowth rewards clarity more than process. You make decisions with half the information, you hire for character because the role will change under them, and culture is set by whatever you tolerate in the busiest weeks.
BlackLine
Building something new inside something established.
VP Sales, Mid-Market APAC: building the APAC mid-market capability and establishing a new growth motion inside an established global finance automation company.
Recognition: Finalist, Management Excellence (Vendor), ARN Innovation Awards 2022.
Starting something inside a large company means earning trust internally as much as winning customers. And automation is at its best when it takes the drudgery away and leaves people with better work and better decisions.
MYOB
From sales leader to business leader.
- ~50
- people
- +24 pts
- employee engagement
Leading MYOB's Practice business meant responsibility for the whole thing: commercial performance, P&L, retention, new products, customers and a team of about 50.
Over that time commercial performance improved, churn came down, margin improved, and Silverfin established a growing customer base. Just as important, employee engagement went from 44% to 68%.
Results and engagement can rise together, and usually do when people understand what they're working towards. This was the role that turned a sales leader into a business leader.
PlayHQ
Technology and sport, finally in the same place.
For years, a technology career and time as a community sport volunteer and administrator ran in parallel. At PlayHQ, as Head of Sports Partnerships ANZ, they met.
The work sits with sports governing bodies and strategic partners, on the technology that runs competitions and participation, and on the commercial strategy behind it. It means understanding the real pressures on sporting organisations, administrators and volunteers, and thinking about how sports technology, data and AI will develop across Australia, New Zealand and the wider region.
The best technology in sport gives volunteers their weekends back.
What comes next
Taking those lessons into board work, mentoring and writing, while staying close to the technology that is changing everything.
Coverage, interviews and recognition from these years are collected on Elsewhere.