NEXTDC chief executive and managing director Craig Scroggie has been appointed the inaugural chair of Australia’s peak data centre industry body. Data Centres Australia on Friday unveiled its first board, made up of representatives from its founding member companies.
The new appointments include AirTrunk chief development officer Paul Slaven, Amazon Web Services’ Asia Pacific director of data centre planning and delivery Cameron Evans, CDC Data Centres chief strategy officer Jack Dan, and Microsoft’s Asia Pacific regional director of land development Karie Bradfield.
Also on the board are Data Centre Australia’s founding executives, CEO Belinda Dennett and head of operations and strategy Tim Marshall.
Ms Dennett said the board would provide “a robust governance foundation and deep industry experience” to represent members’ interests in a complex and rapidly developing ecosystem.
Mr Scroggie said the board would work “constructively with government, policymakers, the community, and other critical infrastructure stakeholders to support the delivery of digital infrastructure that is secure, resilient, and built to endure responsibly”.
From next week Microsoft executive Adrian Motherway will step outside the Canberra bubble and into a new Singapore-based role as the tech giant’s strategic partnerships leader Asia public sector.
Mr Motherway joined Microsoft in 2014 after a four-year run as assistant secretary chief digital officer at the then Department of Immigration and Border Patrol – now Home Affairs.
Posting to LinkedIn about the new role, Mr Motherway said he would be charged with the company’s “most strategic government, defence, health and national-security partnerships across Asia”.
Recruitment for the new position began around October last year. Microsoft inked a five-year mega deal with the Australian government this week for AI and cloud services; the contract’s value is yet to be disclosed.
Burgeoning Queensland-based startup Pure Battery Technologies (PBT) has named long-standing company investor Staffen Ever as its new chief executive.
The energy sector veteran succeeds the company’s first CEO Bjorn Zikarsky, who will transition to a board position. The shift comes just weeks after PBT announced a €23 million German government grant to expand its battery supply-chain projects in Germany.
Posting on LinkedIn, Mr Ever said “[PBT’s] focus is now execution, fully funding and delivering the Hagen expansion, progressing strategic partnerships, and positioning … for the next stage, including expansion pathways in Indonesia and the United States”.
The €90 million Hagen project will see PBT establish a battery recycling facility using the company’s low-carb refining technology. It is scheduled to begin operations in 2028.
Former Queensland government minister and Tech Council of Australia director Kate Jones has launched a strategic advisory firm, Linebreak.
Linebreak will specialise in “sport and tech-focused strategy”, Ms Jones said, building on her executive history across those sectors. Ms Jones was appointed vice-president of Paralympics Australia last year and is an NRL commissioner and NRL touch football director.
The former Queensland government minister for innovation was one of three major departures from the Tech Council of Australia’s board last year, creating speculation at the time of a leadership split.
Zsofi Patterson has resigned as managing director and CEO of secure digital family photo sharing platform Tinybeans. Tracy Cho, the New York-based CEO of Qeepsake, a digital journaling platform acquired by Tinybeans in November, will succeed Ms Patterson in the interim.
The Sydney-based social media startup on Monday said Ms Patterson’s departure was by mutual agreement as the company moved towards deeper ties to its American market. Tinybeans touts itself as a secure platform for parents to share photos, notes and videos of children without the public element of traditional social media.
Founder and former SafetyCulture CEO Luke Annear will return to the company in an interim lead role in March following the departure of Kelly Vohs.
Mr Annear said Mr Vohs had found it untenable managing the firm’s predominantly Australian product base from the US, especially as it pivots to absorb the impact of AI.
Digital health accelerator ANDHealth has appointed Anne O’Neill as chief commercial officer and George Kenley as head of commercialisation services, and executive in residence for its Victoria-based ACTIVATE program.
Cryogenics specialist and MIT Fulbright research fellow Arman Siavashi has joined University of Sydney spinout Emergence Quantum.
Do you know more? Contact James Riley via Email.