Business Operator · Product Leader · AI Builder
With experience across finance, general management, and company building, I bring a sharp lens on strategy, economics, and execution. My work blends customer insight, operational rigor, and applied AI to drive durable product outcomes.
20+
Years experience
5
Companies built/sold
50%
Velocity improvement
#1
App in category
Experience
2024 — Present
Leading AI-first product transformation for an Aussie edtech startup in the enterprise space. Rapid prototyping, evals, monitoring, and delivering real customer value through AI — not hype.
2018 — 2024
Built the machine-vision software business through government contracts, led ISO 27001 certification through crisis, managed M&A integration post-acquisition by Spectur. P&L ownership across the full business.
2009 — 2019
11 years building Australia's #1 surf and #1 snow platforms. Delivered #1 app in category, 80% subscriber retention, new programmatic video revenue. Established major partnerships (Foxsports, Surfstitch, Surfline), exited through acquistions.
1998 — 2008
10 years travelling the world as a professional athlete. Built brand partnerships (Rip Curl, Oakley, K2), co-founded Australia's #1 snowboard magazine, chaired Snowboard Australia, founded international snowboard camps. Exited through acquisition of the company.
1993 — 1997
Macquarie Bank's youngest prop trader at the time. Ran the SPI Options book (~$20M cap). Foundation in quantitative analysis, risk management, and high-pressure decision-making.
Work
Real outcomes from real challenges — product transformation, crisis leadership, and AI implementation. For the full story, contact me for a chat.
Vygo
Problem
Sales had already promised AI features to customers, but the company had zero AI expertise, no infrastructure, and a six-month deadline.
Solution
Led the transition to upskill the team, starting with weekly AI learning initiatives and formal training, shifted discovery to live-coded prototypes for 48-hour customer feedback loops, and integrated AI tooling into the SDLC including evals and monitoring for product quality through observability — eliminated 80% of tech support through AI bug triage.
Vygo
Problem
The company was stuck in a reactive, sales-led model — endless meetings debating small details, no shared roadmap, and no line of sight from features to business value.
Solution
Led the transformation to a Product Operating Model starting with a strong vision and product strategy, followed by mapping clear user journeys. Opportunity Solution Trees were used to map customer pain to business objectives and solutions, built a Now/Next/Later outcome-based roadmap, and replaced status meetings with async Loom updates and a centralised Notion hub - ensured there was conviction and clarity at all times for the team to move quickly and confidently.
Vygo
Problem
Product decisions were based on anecdotal sales feedback and opinion. There was no centralised source of customer insight, usage data, or competitive intelligence.
Solution
Built an automated insight engine: AI-transcribed customer calls piped into Notion, Mixpanel instrumented for behavioural analytics, competitor analysis mapped and clear product differentiators uncovered, and implemented product-led customer discovery loops to validate the product strategy.
3Crowns / Spectur
Problem
A data breach exposed that the company was relying on self-certification and AWS's shared responsibility model — no formal security accreditation, no internal security team, and clients demanding answers.
Solution
Took end-to-end ownership: onboarded a cybersecurity firm for gap analysis, launched org-wide security training, engineered new SOPs, ran mock audits, and achieved full ISO 27001 certification with permanent governance.
3Crowns / Spectur
Problem
Post-acquisition, two companies had separate technology stacks, siloed engineering cultures, and no shared roadmap — with the board expecting immediate financial value from the merger.
Solution
Mapped both tech stacks end-to-end, established a weighted scoring framework (value vs. complexity vs. risk) to prioritise integration, ran cross-functional workshops to build bottom-up ownership, and led with a quick-win networking merger to build trust before tackling harder application-layer work.
Services
Available for senior product roles and project-based consulting.
Outcome-based roadmaps, product-led transformation, stakeholder alignment, and prioritization frameworks.
AI feature prototyping, evaluation frameworks, governance, and transitioning teams to AI-first workflows.
Workflow automation with AI agents, n8n, and coding tools. Practical solutions for small to medium businesses.
Story
My career started on a trading floor. At 18, I was Macquarie Bank's youngest proprietary derivatives trader, running a $20M options book. I learned to make high-stakes decisions with incomplete information — a skill that's shaped everything since.
Then I walked away to become a professional snowboarder for a decade — travelling the world, building brand partnerships with Rip Curl and Oakley, co-founding Australia's leading snowboard magazine, and chairing Snowboard Australia.
That led to 11 years at Coastalwatch, where I built Australia's #1 surf app and #1 snow app (80% retention, 1M DAU), launched new revenue streams, and established major partnerships. I then built and sold 3Crowns Technologies a spin-off of the core technologies for B2G market, leading it through government contracts, ISO 27001 certification, and a successful acquisition by Spectur.
Most recently as Head of Product at Vygo, I led an AI-first product transformation — shipping AI features from zero capability, increasing engineering velocity by 50%, and establishing AI governance for university clients. Every chapter taught me something different, and I bring all of it to the table.
2025
Product Faculty
Product Faculty
Maven
Google x Kaggle