Our People

Daniel Bennett joined Melbourne IT in 1998 and became Executive Vice President of ForTheRecord in January 2010. Daniel is responsible for leading ForTheRecord's operations globally and driving adoption of the company's world-leading digital recording services by public organisations.

Before moving into his current role, Daniel was ForTheRecord's Vice-President Sales from 2007 and previously held a variety of senior roles in Europe and the US with the Melbourne IT Group. These positions included Vice President of Business Development - Americas for the company's Corporate Brand Services division (now renamed Digital Brand Services) and before that he was based in London as the Head of Business Development for Western Europe for the same division.

Daniel founded the UK office of Cogent IPC (later Melbourne IT) in London in 1998 and is now based in Phoenix, Arizona.

Guye joined Melbourne IT in August 1999 and since that time has taken on a variety of IT leadership roles within the company prior to being appointed to the position of Group CIO, in August 2007.

In the role of Group CIO, Guye has responsibility for working with all divisions of the company to oversee the development of systems and the efficient operation of the Group's data centre facilities and related infrastructure. His role involves overseeing IT services projects across the globe to enable the achievement of business goals while ensuring that system and infrastructure designs achieve a robust, flexible and scalable architecture to meet the company's strategic objectives.

Guye has a Bachelor of Science degree, majoring in IT and has more than 25 years experience working in the IT industry. Prior to joining Melbourne IT, Guye worked for the IT division of a leading Australian bank where he gained extensive experience in project management and team leadership with projects spanning retail banking, finance, information management, strategic marketing and infrastructure services. Throughout his career, Guye has also led a variety of development, critical application support and production infrastructure teams in which he has gained an in depth knowledge of IT disciplines and methodologies.

 

Damon Fieldgate joined Melbourne IT in 2006 as General Manager - Business & Consumer for WebCentral and Domainz, soon after Melbourne IT's acquisition of WebCentral Group. In October 2008, Damon assumed the role of Executive General Manager, SMB eBusiness Solutions, where he is responsible for all SMB operations under the Melbourne IT, WebCentral, Domainz & Register Free brands.

During his tenure, Damon has been instrumental in overseeing the roll-out of the eBusiness Centre concept, which is aimed at assisting Melbourne IT's SMB customers to make sense of the internet via a consultative selling model.

Damon has been involved in IT services since 1998, since the inception of carsales.com.au, where in his role as National Sales Manager he played a significant part in developing the business during the early days of the commercial internet. Prior to entering the IT services field, he worked in retail banking for eight years, culminating in a role as Retail Bank Manager for a leading Australian bank.

Peter Findlay joined Melbourne IT in 2011 as Chief Financial Officer. Peter has significant experience gained from leading finance operations across a range of industries during the past 16 years, and leads Melbourne IT's finance function globally in his role as CFO.

He joined the company from Australian Music Group, the country's largest retailer and wholesaler of musical equipment, where he was CFO for a year and a half. Prior to that, Mr Findlay spent three years as Group Finance Director at specialist cleaning product retailer, Godfreys, and six years in senior finance roles with Linfox and Mars Petcare ANZ.

Mr Findlay began his career with six years at KPMG where he was a manager of the Strategic Vision consulting practice within the firm's Australian operation, consulting to large ASX-listed companies.

Mr Findlay holds a Bachelor of Business (Accounting) and is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants.

Glenn Gore was appointed Chief Technology Officer of Melbourne IT in June 2009. In this role Glenn is focused on the evolution of the company's products, the application of innovation and the architecture of major product systems. He also works closely with Melbourne IT's vendors to obtain best-of-breed solutions.

Glenn joined Melbourne IT following the WebCentral Group acquisition in September 2006, with responsibility for managing Melbourne IT's global technology strategy as Group Manager Architecture. Glenn joined WebCentral in June 2005 as Manager, Engineering.

Prior to joining WebCentral, Glenn built his significant knowledge of internet architecture and engineering through working with a number of internet companies. During the dot com boom he worked at OzEmail, which grew to become Australia's largest ISP in the late 1990s. Following the sale of OzEmail in 1999, Glenn was appointed to a role with UUNET in which he oversaw the extension of the world's largest internet network throughout the Asia Pacific region. His last position with MCI/UUNET was as Lead Engineer, Asia Pacific, where he worked on advanced network technologies and distributed systems.

Glenn is a keen advocate of virtualisation, automation and green computing.

Lori Harmon joined Melbourne IT in March 2009 as Executive Vice President – Global Partner Solutions, with responsibility for expanding the value created for existing reseller partners worldwide, as well as attracting new reseller partners across the globe.

Lori has more than 20 years of strategic and operational experience in the internet industry and has previously held senior roles in sales, support and marketing for some of Silicon Valley's leading companies. Prior to joining Melbourne IT, Lori was Vice President and General Manager of the Digital Brand Management Services business unit at VeriSign, Inc. During her time at VeriSign, Lori also led Global Customer Support, Inside Sales and Worldwide Sales Operations.

Before joining VeriSign, Lori held senior management positions at Interwoven, Brio Software and Network General with responsibility for inside sales, product marketing and professional services functions. Lori holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Information Systems from Appalachian State University.

Ashe-lee Jegathesan joined Melbourne IT in August 2008 as General Counsel & Company Secretary. In her role, Ashe-lee oversees the legal and corporate secretarial function of Melbourne IT's global operations.

Ashe-lee has more than 13 years' experience as a practicing lawyer, the last eight of which have been spent in-house with multi-national corporations. Most recently, Ashe-lee held a dual role as Executive Director Corporate Services, 3D Networks (Australia), leading the corporate and shared services functions, and as Regional General Counsel for its parent company, the Planet One Group of Companies.

Prior roles include in-house positions as Corporate Counsel with Nortel Networks (Australia) and BHP Steel and as a solicitor with Freehills and Maddocks Lawyers in Melbourne.Ashe-lee was a finalist in the Victorian section of the 2005 Telstra Businesswoman of the Year Award and is a member of the Law Institute of Victoria, the Australian Corporate Lawyers Association and the Australian Institute of Company Directors.Ashe-lee holds an honours degree in Law from the Australian National University.

 

Amber Kristof joined Melbourne IT as General Manager - Human Resources in October 2006. She is responsible for supporting the company's strong growth through the provision of recruitment, education, training and development services.

Prior to joining Melbourne IT, Amber spent two years with Walt Disney International where she gained extensive experience in strategic human resources both in Australia and internationally. Her most recent position as Ford's Asia Pacific & Africa Human Resources Manager in the Information Technology division also gave her an insight into the specific requirements of a technology based business such as Melbourne IT.

Amber understands the demands of a rapidly growing organisation and is passionate about enabling staff to manage change effectively. Under her leadership, Melbourne IT's global Human Resources team is focused on developing the company's internal and external brands to inspire, motivate, retain and entice the company's most important resource - people.

Amber undertook tertiary study at the University of Melbourne and holds a Graduate Diploma in Industrial Relations & Human Resource Management as well as a Bachelor of Science with Honours.

 

 

Paul Looker joined Melbourne IT in May 2006 as Group Manager, Risk & Audit. Paul is responsible for the execution of the Group's risk management, internal audit and insurance programs.

Paul has over 18 years' tax and finance experience and from 1998 spent six years as a Senior Manager in the Melbourne and Sydney offices of Ernst & Young. In this role, he was responsible for the design and delivery of tax risk management and process improvement methodologies and engagements to large corporate clients.

In 2004 Paul left Ernst & Young to establish a specialist tax system and risk consultancy practice, which he ran up until joining Melbourne IT. His clients included Qantas Airways Limited, Sigma Company Limited, and Melbourne IT.
Paul holds a Bachelor of Economics degree, (La Trobe University, Melbourne), a Masters of Taxation degree (University of Melbourne) and is a Member of CPA Australia.

 

Kanchan Mhatre joined Melbourne IT in May 2008 as GM - Operations & Strategic Development for the company's Digital Brand Service division. In March 2009, Kanchan was promoted to the role of Executive Vice President of Melbourne IT Digital Brand Services, with responsibility for driving profitable growth in the company's world-leading digital brand management & protection business.

Kanchan Mhatre has more than 20 years experience in the IT industry and prior to joining Melbourne IT held a Vice President position at Corporation Services Company (CSC). Mr Mhatre has extensive experience in integrating business operations and systems and driving profitable growth. During his time at CSC he was responsible for improving customer satisfaction while reducing operating costs, creating new products and managing operations to drive double-digit revenue growth. Before joining CSC, Kanchan held senior management roles at Register.com, StreamCenter Inc and Lucent Technologies.

Kanchan holds an MBA from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, a Masters of Science, Electrical Engineering from the Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey and a Bachelor of Science, Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in Mumbai.

Dr. Bruce Tonkin joined Melbourne IT in 1999, in the role of Research Director/Chief Technology Officer, and was appointed to the role of Chief Strategy Officer in June 2009.

In his current role Bruce is responsible for evaluating new partnerships and communicating, creating, executing and sustaining strategic initiatives to drive long term benefits for the Company. He aligns the decisions made within strategy planning, business development, process improvement and information technology to achieve the strategic plan.

Bruce also manages Melbourne IT's active participation in local and international Internet industry bodies, including ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), where he has been a member of the Board of Directors since June 2007. Bruce was appointed Vice-Chair of ICANN in June 2011.

Before joining Melbourne IT, Bruce worked in small private engineering consulting businesses, universities and industry research laboratories (including AT&T Bell Labs in the 1980s).

Bruce is also a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. Bruce holds a Bachelor of Engineering (1st class Hons) and a PhD in electrical and electronic engineering.

 

Peter Wright joined Melbourne IT in 2011 as the Executive General Manager of Enterprise Services. He is responsible for spearheading Melbourne IT's growth in agile IT services for enterprises.

With more than 28 years experience in the Australian technology industry, Peter has an enviable track record in leading the development of teams to broaden business models and scale business operations to drive strong sales, revenue and margin growth.

Prior to joining Melbourne IT, Peter worked as General Manager - Sales and Operations at REA Group, where he was responsible for the day to day sales and operations of the REA Group's Australian brands, including Australia's largest real estate website realestate.com.au.

Peter spent 13 years in various senior positions at Optus, where he played a leadership role in growing Optus' Internet and managed services businesses, and another two years at Alphawest as Northern Region General Manager where Peter played a key role in establishing Alphawest as a top 10 ICT services business in Australia.

He began his career with Telstra and worked for several years at Qantas' IT arm, Qantek (Qantas Information Technology).  Peter holds an MBA with the University of Technology, Sydney and has been a part time lecturer in sales management at the University of Technology, Sydney.

Mr Jones is a Chartered Accountant and a director of Canterbury Partners Pty Ltd which is a boutique corporate advisory business located in Melbourne. He has extensive experience in investment advisory, valuations, mergers and acquisitions, public offerings, audit and venture capital.

Mr Jones is Chairman of the Advisory Board of MAB Limited, a director of Computershare Limited and Treasurer of the Melbourne International Arts Festival Ltd. Mr Jones is former Managing Director of N.M. Rothschild and Sons (Australia) - Melbourne office. He is also a former Head of Audit and Business Advisory (Australia & New Zealand) and Corporate Finance (Melbourne) of Arthur Andersen.

Mr Jones was appointed to the Board on 12 March 2003, and was appointed Chairman on 1 November 2009.

Joining Melbourne IT in 2000, Mr Hnarakis spent two years in the role of Group General Manager, during which time he initiated many strategic global partnerships and managed the international Sales and Marketing, Product Management and Customer Service arms of the business. Mr Hnarakis was appointed to the position of Chief Executive Officer in November 2002 and was invited to take a seat on the Board in September 2003. Prior to joining Melbourne IT, Mr Hnarakis worked for News Corporation, Boral Group and the PMP Communications Group. Throughout the 1990s he held chief executive and senior line management roles with these companies including Managing Director of PMP's Canberra Press and Pacific Publications and Managing Director of News Corporation's Southdown Press. In June 2008, Mr Hnarakis became an IT Fund for Kids Ambassador for the Starlight Children's Foundation.

Mr Kiing is a director of Bridge Capital Pty Ltd, an Australian technology investment firm that manages a portfolio of investments in the IT sector. He currently sits on the Board of: Jumbuck Ltd an ASX listed mobile applications company; SII International, a world leader in visual intelligence software; and The Atomic Group, an integrated sports and entertainment company in Australia. Mr Kiing is also co founder of Tarazz.com an Asian based ecommerce portal.

Mr Kiing has extensive experience in mergers and acquisitions, capital markets and corporate finance. He travels extensively through the ASEAN region to promote a wide range of Australian investment opportunities to Asian institutions and private investors.

Mr Kiing was appointed to the Board on 19 December 2002.

Professor Morrison is Head of Bond University's School of Information Technology. His research and teaching interests span the design and development of large-scale distributed information systems and their application to e-Commerce, HealthCare and Education. He is a founding director of Melbourne IT and was a founding director of AuDA until his resignation in November 2001.

Professor Morrison served for 10 years on the Board of AARNet, the Australian Academic and Research Network. His earlier career path encompassed senior IT management roles and he brings particular expertise in project planning and management, business continuity planning, process engineering and IT audit and control.

He serves as an advisor to government and the higher education sector on telecommunications, copyright, online legislation and applications of IT. Professor Morrison was appointed to the Board in 1996.

 

Ms Sparks is a professional company director and experienced advertising executive.

She is a member of the boards of a number of Australian listed companies and not-for-profit organisations, including Blackmores Ltd, PMP Ltd, SFG Australia, DealsDirect.com.au and Chartis Australia Insurance Ltd. She is also Deputy Chair of the Sydney Dance Company and Racing NSW.

Ms Sparks is the immediate past President of Chief Executive Women.Ms Sparks' career includes senior roles in the pharmaceutical, management consulting and advertising industries, with her most recent positions including Group Managing Director for Young & Rubicam Group Sydney, and Managing Director of M&C Saatchi.

Ms Sparks' expertise as a non-executive director is in corporate strategy and business management, media and marketing in the traditional and digital space, digital technology and relevant applications, brand reputation and risk management.

She holds an MBA from Melbourne Business School.

 

Mr Stewart is a company director and management consultant. He was National Managing Partner of Minter Ellison, one of Australia's leading law firms, for eleven years, retiring in June 1999. He was also a non-executive director of Memtec Ltd, a high technology filtration company, from 1988 until 1997. Memtec listed on NASDAQ and then the New York Stock Exchange prior to being taken over by a US company in 1997.

Mr Stewart spent five years with Pacific Dunlop from 1976 to 1981 in a variety of general management positions within the Footwear Group. He is a non-executive director of Mitchell Communication Group Limited, Australia's largest independent media buying and communications planning group; Chairman of C E Bartlett Pty Ltd, one of the leading manufacturers in Australia of quality products in the fabrication of synthetic and canvas fabrics; a director of QSR International Pty Ltd, which produces the world's leading qualitative research software; and President of the Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Research Institute, Australia's premier health and research institute tackling the problems of obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

Mr Stewart was appointed to the Melbourne IT Board on 14 September 1999 and held the position of Chairman until 31 October 2009.

Mr Walsh has extensive experience in the global internet industry, primarily in the development of successful online businesses and expanding into new geographies. Prior to joining the Melbourne IT Board, Mr Walsh spent seven years as President, CEO & Director of leading online competitive intelligence firm Hitwise Inc.

His previous industry experience includes his role as COO of Australian internet pioneer, Sausage Software Limited (now SMS Management & Technology Ltd), where he was responsible for sales, marketing, product development and customer service. Early in his career, Mr Walsh worked as Senior Manager with Coopers & Lybrand (now PricewaterhouseCoopers).

Mr Walsh holds a Bachelor of Business (Accounting) from Swinburne University and is a Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants.

Mr Walsh was appointed to the Board in June 2008.