Welcome
Hello, and welcome to my home page on the web. There isn’t really much going on here, more just a front end for my webmail etc. For those that are interested in learning a bit more about me personally or commercially, feel free to click around and have a look.
My background is basically a sales guy who a long time ago learnt how to use technology to reach the masses. After running BBS’s for years to support our computer business, I built my first commercial web site around 1994 and quickly moved into full blown eCommerce sites. Did a stint next in Web Marketing and SEO which lead to a couple of years of hammering affiliate programs and Google Adsense across the web.
In 2007 I went back into mainstream retail as the CIO of Gloria Jean’s Coffees one of Australias largest franchises. In 2010 looking for a new challenge I joined Telstra in their newly created role as head of Retail Technology.
Career Timeline
2010: Telstra – Retail Technology and Efficiency Manager
Responsible for developing world class systems and processes to help enable Telstra Retail’s vision of delivering 10/10 satisfaction levels to every customer. The scope of the role includes leveraging benefits from existing systems and platforms, working across Telstra to ensure Retail systems and processes are integrated into multi-channel strategies, and evaluating the introduction of new technologies in order to enhance customer experiences in store and achieve channel wide efficiencies.
2007 – 2010: Gloria Jean’s Coffees International – Chief Information Officer
Managed the technology and communications requirements for Gloria Jean’s which operates in 35 countries with over 1000 stores and some 10,000+ team members. Role covers everything from servers, to workstations, to disaster recovery and business continuity plans, to web portals, to online training systems, to point of sale technology, to sales and product mix polling, to benchmarking, to presenting internationally to franchise partners and the board etc. Basically provide the technology vision and leadership for the company to ensure capability and consistency across the brand.
2002 – 2007: Sustainable IT – Founder and CEO
Sustainable IT was started as a venture to capitalise on my SEO knowledge and we ended up operating over 2,000 web properties simultaneously world wide with some 1 million plus active users. Specialised in the development and management of online communities and became one of Google’s highest paid affiliates in Australia (if not globally) and was a member of the “Fedex Club”. Developed strong expertise in outsourced web development, rapid prototyping of web concepts, and global hosting with employees in Australia, England, the Netherlands, India, China and Russia.
2001: Decide Interactive – Senior Business Development Manager
Decide Interactive was Australia’s leading Search Engine Optimisation Company providing consulting services to most of Australia’s leading blue chip organisations including AMEX, News Corp, Fairfax, NRMA. Our team held the #1 result for the term “search engine optimisation” on Google for 6 consecutive months which was unprecedented in the industry. Most colleagues have since gone on to become senior players in Google, Yahoo, and other large search companies. Role was effectively hardcore SEO strategist.
2000: Halescom Pty Ltd – Co-Founder / Technical Director
Halescom was a start-up Technology Company, which grew from 4 employees in August 1999 to over 90 employees before it was sold to CBD energy limited (ASX code: CBD) in 2001. In short the technology we pioneered provided a full outsourcing solution for third party ecommerce strategies. Halescom also supplied a MASSIVE range of I.T. and consumer electronic products to some of Australia’s largest web portals via their own branded web shops but powered by Halescom. Started on Microsoft Commerce server and migrated to the IBM WebSphere Platform.
Other milestones;
- 1999 – Appointed Commercial Manager Harvey Norman South Australia.
- 1999 – Went to Adelaide as part of team assigned to open first Harvey Norman Super Store in SA.
- 1998 – Established Wholesale Direct one of Australia’s first true ecommerce sites.
- 1997 – Established Strategic Online Services as a dedicated online computer retailer
- 1996 – Started selling IT products Australia wide via Computer Way website (one of first to do so online)
- 1996 – Appointed Director and General Manager Computer Way Pty Ltd
- 1996 – Graduated Bachelor of Information Technology – Major in Information Systems
- 1995 – Residential Tutor Charles Sturt University
- 1995 – Awarded Residential Scholarship by CSU-Mitchell
- 1995 – Awarded Scholarship by Wang / Bull Information Systems
- 1994 – Started selling IT products via BBS Australia wide (largest range at the time “online”)
- 1994 – Commenced Bachelor of Information Technology
- 1993 – Established one of Australia’s largest BBS’s
- 1993 – Appointed Marketing Manager Computer Way Pty Ltd
- 1992 – Graduated Bachelor of Business – Major in Marketing and Management (CSU)
- 1991 – Family started one of Australia’s first computer retail stores – Computer Way Pty Ltd
- 1990 – Grace Bros (part-time)
- 1990 – Commenced Bachelor of Business (CSU)
- 1989 – Myers (part-time)
- 1989 – Graduated HSC Sydney Church of England Grammar School (Shore)
Current Interests
The following is just a general list of some of the current or upcoming technologies I’m interested in and follow.
- Ecommerce – Long time fan, but think it hasn’t evolved significantly yet
- Better Phone – One that I can dock to an external monitor and keyboard
- Social Commerce – Users driving businesses from the bottom up
- Social Shopping – Friends driving purchase recommendations
- Browser based POS – Needs to run in the cloud to be truly multichannel
- Minimalist websites – Highly efficient / effective one page wonders
- Cloud based apps – Instant scalability
- Geotargeting / Location based retail apps
Travelling Australia
After leaving Gloria Jean’s I decided to take the opportunity to travel Australia for 6 months. I bought a Ford Transit van and with help from friends converted it into a “stealth campervan”. From the outside it looks like a normal courier van, but on the inside it is fully self sufficient with a full size bed, room for all my clothes, and a 100 AH deep cycle battery that allows me to run my fridge, laptop, cameras and phones almost indefinitely without the need to ever plug into power. I can choose to either “free camp” or stay in caravan or national parks along the way.
The route I have chosen is to go from Sydney to Melbourne, then up to Adelaide following the coast – so Great Ocean Road etc. From Adelaide I cut across to Mildura to spend a week with a best mate and his family for his 40th, then from there down to Melbourne to stay with another good friend for a week via Ballarat. From Melbourne I will go across to Tasmania and spend 2 weeks there before going back up to Sydney for Christmas. Will then travel all the way up the east coast of Australia to Cooktown which is the furthest north you can drive without a 4×4. From Cooktown I will head inland to Tennant Creek, then to Alice Springs and to Ayers Rock. From there I will head back up to Darwin and then across to Broome in Western Australia. Down the coast from there to Perth, and then back across the bottom and back up to Sydney. Should be a blast!
Post note: Completed the trip and it was indeed a blast! Australia is one VERY BIG place. Now working on a travel website.
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