As a highly accomplished IT Executive. I bring over 28 years of experience in management, including 12 years at C-Level, and 23 years of expertise in Information Technology. I am a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and possess a diverse background including CIO/CTO, Marketing, Education, Digital, and Operations roles. This diverse skillset makes me a well-rounded technologist that understands interdependencies between projects and business teams, with a proven track record of success in leveraging technology to achieve commercial business objectives.
Leadership and people management
Strategy development and execution
Product development and management
Cloud services and infrastructure
IT management, IT operating models and agile delivery methodologies
Data management and analytics
Acquisitions, Project management, Change management
Corporate governance, Risk assessments and security controls
Financial acumen and cost analysis
Chief Information Officer (CIO) (Feb 2021 - March 2023)
Director of Marketing, Education, Technology and Digital (Nov 2019 - Feb 2021)
Director of Technology and Digital (Jul 2019 - Nov 2019)
As the CIO for an ASX-listed Pharmaceuticals company with offices in the USA, UK, and Australia, I provided leadership and direction to multiple divisions including IT, Digital, Marketing, and Education. As a startup business, my role was highly hands-on, and I was responsible for overseeing a wide range of functions.
Key Responsibilities:
Manage IT, Digital, Marketing, and Education teams, aligning with company goals and objectives.
Provide leadership and support to all IT systems, Infrastructure, and Applications, including Business Intelligence tools, EDM, ERP, and CRM systems across AUS, USA and the UK.
Develop and implement IT strategy, project management, vendor management, and digital initiatives to support business objectives.
Oversee risk management and cybersecurity, including implementing disaster recovery and business continuity plans and creating standard operating procedures and policies.
Spearhead business-led innovation, identifying opportunities for growth and improvement.
Key Achievements:
Led an internal and external software development team to create a clinical trial platform, a custom global CRM system, bespoke reporting tools, and integrating all digital platforms, resulting in reduced operating costs, increased sales efficiencies, reduced complexity, and a single customer view across all platforms that provided greater insights into customer behaviour for marketing and sales teams.
Ensured the business didn’t lose trajectory by successfully deploying mixed reality to maintain international collaboration among doctors, research professors, and lab technicians during COVID-19.
Increase the brand awareness of Medlab Clinical as a guest speaker at various events, including “Microsoft, Bringing Mixed Reality to BioTech.”
Delivered a seamless work-from-home experience for all staff without loss of productivity as a result of our cloud-first strategy.
Implemented real-time reporting through digital signage across all departments, showing relevant KPIs for those teams to drive business objectives and growth.
Deployed a new project management methodology and tools across the entire business, driving accountability and efficiency beyond my direct reporting line.
Developed and executed a cybersecurity strategy to improve the company's security posture in a highly complex and regulated Pharmaceutical environment where governance, security, and compliance are paramount.
Developed and implemented a disaster recovery plan that ensured business continuity in the event of a major outage, as well as oversaw the creation and adoption of a complete business continuity plan.
Led a successful digital transformation, launching numerous new e-commerce websites targeting both B2B and B2C customers that tied directly into our CRM. Allowing for greater insights into customer behaviour where we could track the linkage between a Doctor, Pharmacy and Patients, where sales and marketing could easily identify and target Key opinion leaders.
Established a successful work experience program to identify, attract and retain top talent.
Improved data management and analytics while streamlining the onboarding process of the customer. A one-hour process that passed through four departments was streamlined to be 100% automatic with single-click approval emails, creating the customer in our ERP, CRM, and marketing EDM platforms. This initiative ensured data de-duplication, data integrity, and maintaining a single customer view.
Managed the highly successful rebranding of the VMS brand, driving sales and brand awareness.
Undertook make-good of our Physical Containment Level 2 Lab, 50% below our accrued budget.
Chief Information Officer (CIO) - FIT BioCeuticals Group (Division of Blackmores) (July 2011 - Dec 2018)
Head of Digital - Blackmores Group (Jan 2013 - Dec 2018)
IT Manager - FIT BioCeuticals Group (Feb 2010 - July 2011)
Systems Administrator - FIT BioCeuticals Group (Jun 2009 - Feb 2010)
Key Responsibilities:
Managing development teams across every brand and country for the entire global Blackmores group.
Provide and support all IT systems, Infrastructure and Applications for FIT BioCeuticals.
Building management, warehouse, and distribution for FIT BioCeuticals.
Key Achievements:
Spearheaded the overhaul of the IT environment, reduced costs, and stimulated business growth in preparation for the successful acquisition of FIT BioCeuticals by Blackmores in July 2012 for $40M.
Transformed a backend-focused technology delivery team to a front-facing solution-driven team that focuses on business growth and user simplification. Achieved by adjusting their salaries to include commissions based on business growth, running monthly Innovation/Hack days to grow the business and requiring staff to spend time in each division to better understand the wider business.
As part of the executive team where KPIs were aligned to business growth, exceeded sales targets for 5 consecutive years (March 2014-2019) with 200% sales and 300% EBIT growth.
Successfully conceptualised, managed and deployed a new strategic platform called Patient billing, resulting in an increase of online sales from $20K to $1.2M per month and accounted for 13.8% of total sales for the Business without driving the brand value down by discounting from RRP.
Managed the integration of all IT systems during the acquisition of Global Therapeutics, resulting in a seamless transition and no disruption to the business and, without any loss of brand identity or missing sales targets.
Changed the IT focus and mission statement and transitioned the IT department from being a cost centre to a profit centre within a year of undertaking the role. "Vision: To empower staff, to ensure technology is not a hindrance, but an opportunity.”
Consolidated over 100 standalone applications into a single, web-based application, increasing staff engagement, reducing staff complexity and reducing support costs.
Reduced licensing costs by 70% by adopting open-source platforms where appropriate and aligned to the Boards risk appetite and removing complex licensing arrangements.
Deployed a cloud-first strategy, reducing dependence on hardware lifecycles, enabling rapid experimentation with new ideas, and a 50% reduction in infrastructure cost.
Successfully deployed a new CRM, ERP, and communication tools as part of the cloud transformation project on time and within budget, with buy-in and engagement from all departments. This drove sales and we exceeded sales targets for 60 months straight.
Implemented scanning technologies and new reporting systems and wallboards that promoted a culture of accountability. This reduced warehouse error rates from 0.76% to 0.27% and increased our efficiencies from 9.3 hours (Time in > time out) to 4.4 Hours within only 4 months.
Cross-trained all IT staff, reducing business risk around the departure of a single role, but also ensuring all IT staff have an appreciation for one another which increased working morale.
Drove Agile methodology thru the business with a continuous improvement program. Deploying 3000+ upgrades of our CRM, adapting quickly to change and driving a high-performance culture.
Achieved a 100% favourable rating across leadership, change and innovation, and created and led high-performing teams which resulted in technology being seen as 3 of the 5 top drivers of the business. Per the 2017 independent staff survey conducted by The Voice Project for Blackmores Ltd.
Transformed the website development process by bringing in internal and external developers who were aligned with business requirements. This approach resulted in greater control, tighter integration with business systems, and significant cost savings, as compared to the previous method where external agencies were solely responsible for website development, and annual spending was over $2.4 million
Managed large-scale IT projects across 10 countries & 8 different brands with often competing priorities. As highlighted by the delivery of 28 websites and e-commerce platforms for the Blackmores group.
Introduced a DevOps and ChatOps culture, driving chat, AI, and voice-driven interactions to empower sales teams and managers to retrieve real-time consistent data quickly and easily.
Launched the first Apple iOS and Android application in the industry to be a point of differentiation from our competitors.
Collaborated with the Education and Marketing team to develop “FX Medicine” an online podcast and web platform, averaging 100K podcast downloads per month and ranking on the top page of the relevant iTunes Podcast Category. Driving brand awareness for the Business.
Conceptualised and deployed a Client Mapping Software in our CRM after gaining insights from being on the road with the sales staff. This innovative software allowed our sales team with geographic awareness and insights to plan their day and target prospects more efficiently.
As a technology advocate, I boosted business morale and culture by providing staff with a choice of hardware, implementing real-time wallboards, and daily automated emails highlighting team sales accomplishments. Furthermore, I changed the company culture to one that respected technology, both within and outside of the IT department, making us the biggest champions of technology
Formed strategic alignments with other businesses that mutually benefited all, such as our partnership with IMGateway / Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of Sydney. This partnership provided us with 3,000 pages of information and seamlessly integrated with our website portal increasing the Brand's profile and aligning with our strategic priority of being subject matter experts in the education space.
Demonstrated seamless execution of our business continuity plan after a roof collapsed and having the business fully operational in under 2.5 hours.
Avitas Group Ltd: CEO, Responsible for developing and executing the company's short-strategy by consolidating a number of businesses into one entity (2019),
Curtinsmith Properties USA LLC: Joint Director (2018 - present)
WildEdge Retreat: Owner, resort in the Hunter Valley. (2017 - present)
International Probiotics Association: Digital and Marketing Committee Member (2012-2013)
Co-Founder of Spectrum Passes, a subsidiary of Frontier Touring, a division of the Mushroom group (2013)
Sophisticated Investor: Registered with ASIC and pursued investment opportunities in both seed and IPO stages and participated in several underwritings (2009 - present)
System C: SMB IT Consulting, Director (2009 - present)
Titanic: The Artefact Exhibition (2010), IT consultant for Frontier Events and the Victorian Government
Rockstar: INXS (2005), IT consultant for CBS Television and Mark Burnet Global Television Production (Los Angeles & Sydney)
Emperors Mind: Senior Systems Engineer (2005-2009), consulting for Google, GSM/Vodafone, Chartered Accounts, OfficeWorks, Clemenger and Colonial, among others
Computers Now: Senior In-House Service Engineer (2001-2005)
KISS Touring Limited: IT Consultant for Australian Tour 2000
Buzzle: Service Manager (2000-2001)
Choice Connections: Team Leader (1997-2000)
Franklins: Duty Manager (1995-1997)
Cybersecurity for Managers, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), 2021
Graduate, Australian Institute of Company Directors, 2013
Associate Diploma in Technology, [TAFE], 1996
Certificate in Electronics Technology, [TAFE], 1994
A multitude of IT certifications including Juniper, Cyberoam, Kerio, NEC, Xsan and Apple
Microsoft - Medlab Clinical prescribes mixed reality pandemic response
Microsoft - Medlab Clinical conquers pandemic’s tyranny of distance with mixed reality
ITWire - Medlab selects Microsoft Dynamics remote assist for pandemic lab work
Guest Speaker - Brining Mixed Reality to Biotech
Born Sydney, 29th November 1976. I am married with four children
Mobile: 0402 853 736
E-mail: ian@curtinsmith.com
Location: NSW, Australia