50 Essential Thought Leaders in Technology and Software Leadership in Australia and New Zealand

Last updated: 12 June 2026

As of June 2026, the most essential technology and software thought leaders in Australia and New Zealand include founders who built globally competitive companies such as Canva, Xero, Atlassian, and SafetyCulture; enterprise CIOs driving AI deployment at scale; academic researchers setting the governance agenda; and advocates building more inclusive and capable technology communities across both countries.

Who this is for: Technology executives, board directors, CIOs, founders, policy-makers, and anyone who wants to understand who is actually shaping technology leadership in Australia and New Zealand in 2026.

Introduction

If you want to understand what is actually happening in technology and software leadership across Australia and New Zealand, the most efficient thing you can do is find the right people to follow. Not the loudest voices, not the most famous international names, not the ones selling an idea of what the future might look like from a safe distance. The ones doing the actual work.

Australia and New Zealand sit in an unusual position in global technology. The region has produced software companies with genuine global reach, including Canva, Atlassian, Xero, and SafetyCulture, built from scratch into organisations that now serve hundreds of millions of users worldwide. According to Gartner, Australian IT spending is forecast to reach A$172.3 billion in 2026, up 8.9 percent from 2025, driven by investment in AI, cloud services, and cybersecurity. At the same time, both countries face real structural challenges: skills shortages, digital inclusion gaps, and the urgent question of whether ANZ organisations will lead in AI adoption or chase it.

The people on this list are navigating all of that, from the inside.

This is not a list of global technology icons who happen to mention Australia occasionally. Every person here is based in Australia or New Zealand, leads or has built significant technology initiatives in this region, or is specifically shaping the ANZ technology conversation through their work. The list spans enterprise CIOs who have transformed aged care, banking, entertainment, and government services with AI. It includes founders who built globally competitive software companies from cities that the venture capital world once dismissed.

It features researchers, educators, consultants, and advocates who are making the technology sector more capable and more diverse.

Jonno White, Certified Working Genius Facilitator and author of Step Up or Step Out, works with leadership teams across organisations of every kind. One of the most consistent observations from that work: technology strategy only succeeds when the people side succeeds too. The team dynamics, communication patterns, and decision-making cultures inside technology organisations determine whether investment in AI, cloud, and digital transformation actually delivers.

If your technology team would benefit from Working Genius facilitation, executive offsite facilitation, or leadership coaching, email jonno@consultclarity.org to discuss your team's needs.

The voices on this list are shaping a sector that matters far more than most Australians and New Zealanders realise. Here is who deserves your attention.

Why Does Technology Leadership Matter in ANZ?

Technology and software is now one of the most significant contributors to both economies. According to the Tech Council of Australia, tech employment has grown to encompass more than one in sixteen working Australians, with the sector contributing over $167 billion to the Australian economy. New Zealand's technology sector contributes around NZ$24 billion to GDP, representing approximately eight percent of the national economy, according to figures published at the 2026 NZ Hi-Tech Awards, with software and technology exports generating over NZ$11.4 billion annually.

The pace of change inside the sector is equally significant. Artificial intelligence has moved from experimentation to deployment across Australian enterprise at a speed that has outpaced most governance frameworks. CIOs across the CIO50 cohort have reported that embedding AI across enterprise operations, rather than running discrete pilots, is now the defining leadership challenge.

New Zealand faces its own version of that challenge, compounded by a smaller domestic technology talent pool and a government policy environment that the sector has described as under-resourced relative to the opportunity. The NZ Hi-Tech Trust, chaired by Marian Johnson with Frances Valintine serving as a trustee, is one of the organisations making the case for more strategic investment.

The leaders on this list are not commenting on these dynamics from a distance. They are inside them. Following their work, reading what they publish, and understanding how they think is one of the most practical things any technology professional, board member, executive, or policy-maker in Australia or New Zealand can do right now.

If your leadership team needs help building the communication and decision-making frameworks that allow technology strategy to take root, Jonno White, Certified Working Genius Facilitator, works with organisations across sectors globally. Reach out at jonno@consultclarity.org.

How This List Was Compiled

Every person on this list was selected on three criteria. First, a documented contribution to technology and software leadership in Australia or New Zealand, through building a significant organisation, driving enterprise transformation, publishing substantive work, or shaping the public conversation on technology in this region. Second, an active engagement with that conversation in 2025 or 2026. Third, a deliberate effort to include voices from across both countries, from multiple disciplines, and from sectors often underrepresented in standard lists of this kind.

The list moves past the handful of names that appear on every international technology list to surface the people doing consequential work specifically in the ANZ context.

Category A: Software Founders and Technology Entrepreneurs

This category features the people who built software companies from Australia and New Zealand into globally competitive organisations. They proved that world-class software could be built from cities far from traditional technology hubs, and their companies now shape how millions of people around the world work, create, and collaborate.

1. Melanie Perkins

Melanie Perkins is the co-founder and CEO of Canva, the Australian design software company that has grown under her leadership to reach over 265 million monthly active users across 190 countries, with annual recurring revenue of approximately US$4 billion at the end of 2025, according to TechCrunch. That trajectory, from a university-based design teaching tool launched in Perth to one of the world's most widely used software platforms, reflects both the scale of the founding vision and the discipline with which Perkins has led Canva's expansion into AI-augmented design.

Her contribution to the technology and software leadership conversation extends beyond Canva's commercial performance. Through the Canva Foundation's work on education and poverty reduction, and through her public advocacy for how technology companies can embed social purpose into their founding structure, Perkins has modelled what it looks like to build a globally competitive software company while treating mission and profitability as complementary rather than competing goals.

2. Cliff Obrecht

Cliff Obrecht is the co-founder and COO of Canva, and one of the three founding architects of what has become one of the world's most valuable private software companies. His contribution to Canva's growth is often less visible than Perkins', but the operational infrastructure that allows Canva to serve over 265 million users while maintaining its distinctive culture reflects the work of a co-founder who has built the systems, partnerships, and team structures that make scale possible.

Obrecht is also a driving force behind Canva's philanthropic commitments. He and Perkins have pledged the vast majority of their equity through the Canva Foundation, a commitment that places Canva in a small global category of technology companies that have embedded social purpose into their founding structure.

3. Luke Anear

Luke Anear is the co-founder and interim CEO of SafetyCulture, the Sydney-based workplace operations platform he founded in 2004 after working as a private investigator and witnessing the human cost of workplace incidents. SafetyCulture has built a database of more than 3.5 billion worksite images, according to 2026 reporting from Capital Brief, and Anear returned as interim CEO in February 2026 when the previous CEO stepped down after concluding that leading a major AI-focused platform rebuild from New York was not workable.

His return to the CEO role reflects the scale of the technology challenge SafetyCulture is now tackling: using that worksite image database to help companies understand what exceptional safety practice looks like at the operational level, and what problematic patterns look like before they result in injury. For leaders thinking about how AI transforms industries built on physical work and frontline operations, Anear's public thinking on this challenge is among the most practically grounded in Australian technology.

4. Sir Rod Drury KNZM

Sir Rod Drury is the founder of Xero, the New Zealand-born cloud accounting software company that he grew from a Wellington startup in 2006 into one of the dominant platforms for small business accounting globally, now serving millions of subscribers across New Zealand, Australia, the United Kingdom, and North America. Drury stepped down as CEO in 2018 and in January 2026 was appointed Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to business, technology, and philanthropy.

His contribution to New Zealand technology reaches beyond Xero. Drury's advocacy for better internet infrastructure, his public commentary on what New Zealand needs to do to compete globally in the software sector, and his work in venture philanthropy focused on sustainable infrastructure projects reflect a founder who sees technology leadership as inseparable from national economic stewardship.

5. Steve Vamos

Steve Vamos led Xero as CEO from 2018 to 2023, growing the company from 1.4 million to more than 3.5 million subscribers and from $484 million to $1.5 billion in annualised recurring revenue during that period. Before Xero, he held CEO and senior executive roles at Microsoft Australia, Apple Australia, and ninemsn across a career of more than 40 years in information technology. He now works as a speaker, advisor, and author.

His 2024 book Through Shifts and Shocks: Lessons from the Front Line of Technology and Change draws on his decades at the frontline of major technology transitions to offer a practical framework for leading organisations through disruption. For technology leaders navigating the AI transition, the cloud era, and the rapid shifts in how enterprise software is bought, built, and deployed, Vamos brings a rare combination of perspectives: executive practitioner at the highest level, thoughtful author, and advisor applying those lessons across sectors.

6. Anna Mowbray

Anna Mowbray is the co-founder of ZURU, the New Zealand-based toy and consumer goods company that has grown into one of the world's most innovative product companies, using technology-driven manufacturing and digital marketing to compete globally from its Aotearoa base. She is also the co-founder of ZEIL, a data-driven job marketplace platform that applies technology to the challenge of connecting skilled workers with employers in a more targeted and evidence-based way.

Her contribution to New Zealand technology leadership is distinctive precisely because it comes from outside the software-only definition of technology. ZURU's use of robotics, automation, and digital product development in manufacturing represents a model of technology adoption that has significant implications for how New Zealand can build competitive advantage in physical industries.

7. Dr Kate Cornick

Dr Kate Cornick is the CEO of the Tech Council of Australia, the peak industry body for Australia's technology sector, a role she commenced in May 2026 after a decade as CEO of LaunchVic, Victoria's lead startup agency. During her tenure at LaunchVic, the Victorian startup ecosystem grew from approximately 1,000 startups to around 4,400, supported by programmes that upskilled more than 13,000 entrepreneurs and helped launch 16 venture capital funds and 10 angel networks, according to figures published at the time of her appointment.

As CEO of the Tech Council, whose members include Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, and Canva, Cornick now leads the national advocacy effort to grow Australia's technology sector and shape the policy environment in which it operates. Her decade of experience running programmes that directly touched startups, founders, and investors gives her a distinctly practical perspective on what the sector needs from government.

8. Katherine McConnell

Katherine McConnell is the CEO of Brighte, the Australian fintech company that provides financing solutions for sustainable home improvements, helping households access solar, battery storage, and energy-efficient products through technology-enabled payment plans. She also serves as a board director of the Tech Council of Australia, appointed in February 2026. Her work sits at the intersection of financial technology, climate technology, and the consumer transition to clean energy.

McConnell's specific contribution to the technology and software leadership conversation is her demonstration that fintech can serve households who have historically been excluded from traditional financial products, and that doing so profitably requires building sophisticated software infrastructure alongside strong relationships with the trades and retailers who install the products Brighte finances.

Category B: Enterprise CIO and Digital Transformation Leaders

The CIOs and digital leaders in this category are the practitioners who translate technology strategy into operational reality inside large and complex organisations. They are among the most credible voices on what actually happens inside organisations when technology meets people, process, and culture.

9. Arul Arogyanathan

Arul Arogyanathan is the Group Chief Information Officer of Village Roadshow, the Melbourne-based entertainment company that operates theme parks, cinema exhibition, and film distribution across Australia and internationally. He was named Australia's CIO of the Year at the CIO50 Awards in September 2025, recognised for his work in AI enablement and stakeholder engagement. His tenure at Village Roadshow has seen the introduction of a DevSecOps model that shortened deployment cycles from three weeks to on-demand releases.

His emphasis on building technology as an ecosystem rather than a collection of systems, a philosophy he has articulated publicly and which underpins how Village Roadshow has approached its cloud and automation investment, is a perspective that resonates across organisations of every size navigating similar transformation challenges.

10. Andrew Dome

Andrew Dome is the Chief Digital Information Officer at Uniting, the New South Wales aged care and community services provider. He was ranked third on the CIO50 Australia 2025 list, recognised for deploying Buddy, a GenAI assistant for care workers that has saved Uniting millions of dollars in time and significantly eased the administrative burden on frontline staff. The deployment reflects Dome's focus on using AI not for executive-level decision support but for the people who deliver care every day.

His contribution to technology leadership thinking extends beyond Uniting. As a senior technology leader in aged care, Dome is navigating a set of challenges that most enterprise technology discussions ignore: deploying AI in regulated, sensitive environments where errors affect vulnerable people, where digital literacy varies enormously across the workforce, and where the business case requires simultaneous improvement in care quality and cost management.

11. Miranda Ratajski

Miranda Ratajski is the CIO for Group Business Units at Westpac, Australia's oldest bank, where her technology leadership scope includes major enterprise-wide digital transformation initiatives across more than a third of Westpac's total workforce. She was ranked in the top five of the CIO50 Australia 2025 list, recognised in part for delivering an enterprise-wide digital procurement platform that saved the organisation more than $2 million per month. She also leads Westpac's Technology DEI team.

Her approach to internal mobility, which has seen nearly three-quarters of roles in her business unit filled through internal promotion, reflects a belief that developing talent from within is both more sustainable and more culturally effective than persistent external hiring. For technology leaders trying to build stable, high-performing teams in an environment of persistent skills competition, her model is worth studying.

12. Stevie-Ann Dovico

Stevie-Ann Dovico is the Chief Information Officer at Beyond Bank, one of Australia's largest member-owned banks, where she leads technology strategy, digital transformation, and cybersecurity. She was ranked in the top 10 of the CIO50 Australia 2025 list, recognised for her work building a technology function that serves both the bank's operational needs and its community banking mission.

The context that makes Dovico's work relevant beyond the banking sector is her demonstration that technology leadership inside a purpose-driven organisation requires a different kind of stakeholder management than technology leadership inside a shareholder-owned business. The alignment between member interests, community commitments, and technology investment priorities requires constant communication and a clear articulation of how technology serves mission.

13. Dr Tom Gao

Dr Tom Gao is the Chief Technology and Digital Services Officer at the City of Sydney, where he leads enterprise platforms, cybersecurity, digital services, infrastructure, and innovation across one of Australia's largest local governments. He was ranked ninth in the CIO50 Australia 2025 list, having jumped from his 19th position in 2024, and has articulated a philosophy of digital transformation that centres on fast experimentation and early delivery of working solutions over extended planning cycles.

His contribution to technology leadership thinking is particularly relevant for leaders in government and public sector organisations. Gao has been explicit in his public commentary that digital transformation succeeds when organisations shift from planning to delivery, building small working solutions that prove value early and then scaling what works.

14. Noel Toal

Noel Toal is the Chief Information Officer at DPV Health, a community health organisation in Melbourne's north, where he leads technology leadership across an organisation that delivers health and disability services. He was ranked tenth in the CIO50 Australia 2025 list, recognised for driving digital transformation inside a community health organisation with the scale and complexity of a mid-sized health enterprise but without the resources of a major hospital network.

The specific relevance of Toal's work to the broader technology leadership conversation is his demonstration that meaningful AI and digital transformation is achievable in community health settings. His work on integrating digital tools into care coordination and clinical support offers a practical model for CIOs in the health and disability sector navigating the same transformation pressures with constrained budgets.

15. Brett Wilson

Brett Wilson is the Chief Information Officer at the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, where he leads technology strategy and digital operations across one of Australia's most significant professional medical organisations. He was recognised in the CIO50 Australia Awards for six consecutive years while serving at the Australian Red Cross before moving to the RACP. His deep experience spans not-for-profit, healthcare, and professional association settings.

His sustained recognition across the CIO50 programme reflects a consistent capacity to deliver genuine technology outcomes in organisations where resources are constrained and the stakeholder environment is complex.

16. Kurt Brissett

Kurt Brissett is the Chief Digital and Information Officer at Built, one of Australia's major construction and infrastructure companies, a role he took on after nine years leading the technology team at Transport for NSW, where he was named CIO of the Year at the CIO50 Awards in 2024. His move from one of Australia's largest government technology environments into a major private construction company reflects the growing demand for technology leaders with enterprise-scale transformation experience.

His public commentary on team culture, technology governance, and the relationship between technology strategy and business outcomes is among the most practically informed available from a practitioner who has operated at the scale of a state government transport network serving millions of daily users.

Top-Ranked CIOs and Their Breakthrough Technology Initiatives

CIO	Organisation	Transformative Initiative
Arul Arogyanathan	Village Roadshow	DevSecOps model: three weeks to on-demand deployment
Sinan Erbay	RMIT University (former)	Enterprise-wide AI adoption beyond pilots
Andrew Dome	Uniting	Buddy GenAI assistant: millions saved in care worker time
Miranda Ratajski	Westpac	Digital procurement platform: $2M+ monthly savings
Chris Johnson	Southern Cross Austereo	Digital audio and streaming platform at enterprise scale
Dr Tom Gao	City of Sydney	Fast experimentation over extended planning cycles

Category C: New Zealand Technology Leaders

New Zealand's technology sector is smaller than Australia's in absolute terms, but its per-capita contribution to global technology is significant. The NZ Hi-Tech sector contributes NZ$24 billion to the national economy, represents approximately eight percent of GDP, and employs more than 119,000 people. New Zealand's tight-knit technology community produces voices whose thinking on digital transformation, digital equity, and technology governance is genuinely original.

17. Alexandra Smart

Alexandra Smart is the Chief Technology Officer at Southern Cross Travel Insurance, where she led a comprehensive transformation of the company's core insurance platform over several years, rebuilding systems that now serve half a million customers across New Zealand and Australia. She was named New Zealand CIO of the Year at the 2025 NZ CIO Awards, with judges describing her as an inspiring leader whose vision and execution had not only delivered measurable growth but positioned the company for an ambitious new five-year strategy.

Her specific contribution to technology leadership thinking is her framing of technology transformation as a business project rather than a technology project. Smart has been explicit that transformation only succeeds when the full business, including the people who will use the systems and the leaders who sponsor the work, is involved from the start.

18. Frances Valintine CNZM

Frances Valintine is one of New Zealand's most recognised technology education and innovation leaders, with a career that spans three decades and multiple organisations she has founded, including Media Design School, The Mind Lab, Tech Futures Lab, and AcademyEX, a postgraduate institute in Auckland. She is a trustee of the NZ Hi-Tech Trust, and in January 2026 became Chair of Auckland Theatre Company's board.

Her specific contribution to the technology conversation is her sustained focus on education as the foundation of technology leadership capacity. Through The Mind Lab and Tech Futures Lab, she developed and scaled postgraduate programmes designed to equip existing educators and professionals with the skills to work effectively in an AI-enabled world.

19. Paul Spain

Paul Spain is a New Zealand futurist, keynote speaker, and the host and founder of the NZ Tech Podcast, which describes itself as New Zealand's number one source of technology news and opinions. The podcast draws on interviews with founders, CEOs, technologists, and journalists across the New Zealand and global technology community and has maintained consistent output for more than a decade.

His specific value to the technology leadership conversation is his role as a connector and synthesiser of the New Zealand technology ecosystem. Over hundreds of podcast episodes, Spain has created a documented record of how New Zealand technology has developed across a period of significant change, and his commentary on cybersecurity, AI, digital skills, and connectivity infrastructure brings a futurist's breadth of perspective to issues that are often covered only within narrow specialist communities.

20. Victoria MacLennan

Victoria MacLennan is a New Zealand technology leader whose career spans software development, digital equity advocacy, and policy engagement across government and industry. She served as CEO of IT Professionals New Zealand before stepping down in 2025, and works in government relations at NZRise, the community of New Zealand-owned digital and technology companies. She chairs Digital Future Aotearoa and has chaired the Digital Equity Coalition Aotearoa.

Her contribution to the technology leadership conversation is her sustained focus on digital equity as a technology leadership responsibility rather than a social welfare issue. MacLennan has argued consistently and publicly that the digital divide in New Zealand is an economic constraint that affects every organisation's ability to operate effectively.

21. Hamish Archer

Hamish Archer is the Chief Digital Officer at WEL Networks, the Hamilton-based electricity network business, where he leads digital transformation across an energy infrastructure organisation. He was a finalist for the NZ CIO of the Year at the 2025 NZ CIO Awards. His work at WEL Networks places him at the intersection of energy infrastructure and digital technology leadership, with practical experience in delivering digital transformation inside a regulated, safety-critical infrastructure business.

22. Stasha Rmandic

Stasha Rmandic is a data and digital leader at Whakarongorau Aotearoa, the national telehealth service that delivers virtual health services across New Zealand around the clock. She was named Emerging ICT Leader of the Year at the 2025 NZ CIO Awards, with judges describing her as a dynamic, values-driven leader whose work in building purpose-driven data strategy for a 24/7 virtual care environment represents both technical and human-centred leadership simultaneously.

Her contribution to the technology leadership conversation is her demonstration that data leadership in health environments requires a combination of technical depth and deep respect for the human stakes involved. Her approach to building data systems in that context offers a model that technology leaders in healthcare and social services across ANZ will find directly applicable.

23. Paul Littlefair

Paul Littlefair is the Chief Digital and Technology Officer at Kiwibank, New Zealand's largest New Zealand-owned bank, where he leads the bank's technology strategy and digital transformation. He served as a judge for the 2025 NZ CIO Awards. Kiwibank's position as New Zealand's government-owned challenger bank, and its increasing focus on open banking and digital service delivery, makes Littlefair's technology leadership directly consequential for hundreds of thousands of New Zealand customers.

His specific contribution to the technology conversation is his work building competitive technology capability inside an organisation that operates with a community banking mission. Kiwibank's engagement with open banking regulations that took effect in New Zealand in December 2025 reflects a technology leadership approach that must balance innovation pace with the regulatory and community obligations of a government-owned financial institution.

Category D: AI, Data and Emerging Technology Leaders

The leaders in this category are shaping how Australia and New Zealand think about and deploy artificial intelligence. Some are researchers setting the intellectual agenda on responsible AI, data ethics, and the social implications of machine intelligence. Others are practitioners building AI systems inside enterprise environments and translating theory into operational reality.

24. Dr Catriona Wallace

Dr Catriona Wallace is the Executive Chair of Boab AI, Artesian Capital's AI accelerator, and the founder of Ethical AI Advisory, which is now part of the Gradient Institute. She was previously the founder and CEO of Flamingo AI, which became only the second woman-led company ever to list on the Australian Stock Exchange. She was recognised by the Australian Financial Review as the most influential woman in business and entrepreneurship, serves on the boards of the Garvan Institute and Reset Australia, and co-chairs Richard Branson's B Team's AI Coalition.

Her specific contribution to the technology and software leadership conversation is her sustained focus on the intersection of AI governance, ethics, and commercial deployment. At a moment when Australian organisations are moving from experimenting with AI to deploying it at scale, Wallace's work on what responsible AI adoption requires at the board and executive level is among the most practically relevant available from an Australian practitioner.

25. Aruna Pattam

Aruna Pattam is the Head of AI Platforms at Zurich Financial Services in Sydney, where she leads the design and delivery of enterprise-grade AI systems that power decision intelligence across life and general insurance. She has been recognised as a LinkedIn Top Voice in both AI (2023) and Technology (2022), named one of the 100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics, and is a member of Australia's National AI Think Tank, contributing to CSIRO's National AI Centre Responsible AI Think Tank.

Her contribution to the technology leadership conversation is her consistent effort to make AI governance and responsible deployment accessible to practitioners who are building and deploying systems. Through her AI Weekly newsletter and regular LinkedIn content, she has built one of the most engaged Australian communities around practical AI leadership.

26. Sinan Erbay

Sinan Erbay served for a decade as Chief Information Officer at RMIT University, where he led one of the most ambitious AI adoption programmes in Australian higher education. He was ranked second on the CIO50 Australia 2025 list, recognised specifically for moving beyond AI pilots to an embedded, enterprise-wide AI approach that delivered measurable results for students, academics, and university staff. His decade-long tenure at RMIT represents one of the longest sustained technology leadership commitments in Australian higher education.

His contribution to technology leadership thinking is his demonstration of what it takes to embed AI across a complex, multi-stakeholder organisation rather than running AI as a series of disconnected experiments. Universities are particularly challenging environments for enterprise AI, with diverse user communities, regulated data environments, and academic cultures that are sceptical of technology for its own sake.

27. Dr Miah Hammond-Errey

Dr Miah Hammond-Errey is the founding CEO of Strat Futures Pty Limited, host of the Technology and Security podcast, and an Adjunct Associate Professor at Deakin University. Her book Big Data, Emerging Technologies and Intelligence: National Security Disrupted, published by Routledge in 2024, is based on her doctoral research into the impact of big data on intelligence production and national security. She spent 18 years in federal government roles before founding Strat Futures, and was awarded an Operations Medal for intelligence leadership.

Her specific contribution to the technology leadership conversation is her work at the intersection of emerging technology, intelligence, and national security, a domain becoming increasingly relevant for technology leaders in any industry relying on data and digital infrastructure. Her Technology and Security podcast brings together global experts with a distinctly Australian perspective.

28. Inbal Rodnay

Inbal Rodnay is an AI adoption consultant and educator who has spoken to more than 30,000 professionals across Australia and New Zealand since 2017, specialising in the practical application of AI within professional services. Her book AI Magic: 6 Steps to AI Mastery in Your Firm became an Amazon number one bestseller in 2025. She co-designed the CA ANZ Certificate in AI Fluency with Deloitte's Centre for the Edge, and serves as an expert adviser to Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand on AI competency development.

Her contribution to the technology leadership conversation is her focus on the gap between AI capability and AI adoption inside professional services firms. Rodnay's approach, which begins with practical use cases rather than technology strategy, is tested against the reality of what organisations actually need.

29. Rianne van Veldhuizen

Rianne van Veldhuizen served as Managing Director and Vice President of Amazon Web Services for Australia and New Zealand, during which AWS launched the Melbourne and New Zealand regions, invested $20 billion in Australia and $7.5 billion in New Zealand, and trained over 500,000 Australians and New Zealanders in cloud and AI skills. She moved into a new global role at AWS in May 2026, having overseen one of the most significant periods of cloud infrastructure investment in ANZ history.

Her contribution to technology leadership thinking during her ANZ tenure was her consistent focus on the gap between AI experimentation and real commercial impact, a theme she returned to repeatedly in her role leading AWS's engagement with enterprise and public sector customers across the region.

30. Cameron Adams

Cameron Adams is the co-founder and Chief Product Officer of Canva, one of the three founding architects of the platform alongside Melanie Perkins and Cliff Obrecht. Adams brought the technical product expertise and early design vision that allowed Canva to become what it is, and has continued to lead product development as the company has expanded from its original browser-based design tool into a comprehensive visual communication suite incorporating AI, data, and presentation capabilities.

His specific contribution to the technology leadership conversation is his voice on what it takes to build products at scale. At a moment when product leadership is increasingly recognised as the discipline that determines whether technology investment translates into user value, Adams' perspective on how Canva approaches product development, user research, and AI integration carries significant weight.

31. Chris Johnson

Chris Johnson is the Executive Head of Technology for LiSTNR Product and Technology at Southern Cross Austereo, one of Australia's largest commercial broadcasting groups, where he leads technology across a major digital audio and entertainment business. He was ranked fifth on the CIO50 Australia 2025 list, recognised for his work building digital capability inside an entertainment company navigating the significant disruption of digital audio, podcasting, and on-demand media to traditional broadcasting.

His contribution to technology leadership thinking is his demonstration of what it means to lead technology inside a media company during a structural transformation of the industry. Southern Cross Austereo's LiSTNR platform competes with global streaming services for Australian listeners, and building the technology infrastructure that makes that competition viable requires a combination of product thinking, data capability, and operational efficiency.

AI Governance Frameworks: Academic Versus Enterprise Approaches

Leader	Framework Focus	Primary Application
Dr Catriona Wallace	Ethical AI governance at board level	Commercial deployment responsibility
Aruna Pattam	Responsible AI for practitioners	Enterprise insurance decision intelligence
Professor Toby Walsh	AI ethics and autonomous systems	UN policy and international governance
Professor Edward Santow	AI and human rights intersection	Legal frameworks for public and private sectors
Inbal Rodnay	AI fluency in professional services	Workflow integration for accounting and legal firms

Category E: Major Technology Company Leaders and Sector Champions

This category features leaders who are shaping technology strategy and culture from inside the major organisations that deploy, sell, or regulate technology at scale in Australia and New Zealand. These are the executives who determine how technology arrives in enterprise environments and how the sector advocates for itself with government and the public.

32. Vicki Brady

Vicki Brady is the CEO and Managing Director of Telstra, Australia's largest telecommunications company, a role she has held since September 2022. Under her leadership, Telstra launched Connected Future 30, the company's strategy to be the leading connectivity provider in Australia, and in January 2025 partnered with Accenture in a $700 million initiative to accelerate AI deployment across Telstra's networks and customer services. She has been a board member of the Business Council of Australia since June 2025.

Her specific contribution to the technology leadership conversation is her consistent public argument that Australia's competitive advantage in AI lies in deploying and implementing the technology effectively, rather than in developing foundational models from scratch. That position reflects a CEO who is willing to take clear positions on consequential questions about how Australia should invest in its digital future.

33. Brett Reedman

Brett Reedman is the Chief Information Officer at Catholic Healthcare, one of Australia's major aged care and healthcare providers, where he leads technology strategy across a complex, multi-site organisation delivering residential aged care, community services, and home care across New South Wales and Queensland. He was ranked sixth in the CIO50 Australia 2025 list.

Catholic Healthcare's population of residents and clients includes many of Australia's most vulnerable people, and deploying technology that improves their care requires both technical sophistication and deep respect for the human dimensions of that work. Reedman's track record at CIO50 reflects consistent delivery in that context.

34. John Vohradsky

John Vohradsky is the Executive General Manager of Infrastructure and Technology at IRT Group, one of Australia's largest member-owned retirement living and aged care organisations, where he leads technology across an organisation serving thousands of residents across New South Wales, Queensland, and the ACT. He was ranked seventh in the CIO50 Australia 2025 list, recognised for his work building technology infrastructure that supports high-quality aged care and retirement living at scale.

His contribution to technology leadership thinking is his work on the specific challenge of building technology capability inside a community-owned organisation that operates across a dispersed network of residential facilities, home care services, and retirement villages.

35. Jason Tuendemann

Jason Tuendemann is the Group Chief Technology Officer at Transport for NSW, the New South Wales government agency responsible for one of the most complex integrated transport networks in the Asia Pacific. He moved into the role from Amazon Web Services, where he had worked for three years, and previously held technology leadership positions at ViacomCBS and Network 10. His background in cloud services, media technology, and enterprise architecture brings a distinctive set of perspectives to modernising transport technology infrastructure at state scale.

His contribution to technology leadership thinking is the perspective he brings from moving between hyperscaler cloud environments and the accountability structures, procurement constraints, and political dynamics of a major government technology organisation.

36. Dr Sophia Duan

Dr Sophia Duan is an Associate Professor and Associate Dean of Research and Industry Engagement at La Trobe Business School, where her research focuses on ethical AI adoption, digital transformation, and human-AI collaboration. She was named among Australia's Top 25 Analytics Leaders in 2022 and was a finalist for AI Academic/Researcher of the Year at the 2025 Australian AI Awards.

Her contribution to technology leadership thinking is her sustained focus on the governance and ethical dimensions of AI adoption from an academic perspective that is deliberately connected to practice. Through her role as Associate Dean of Industry Engagement, she bridges the university and the organisations actually deploying AI.

Category F: Researchers, Educators and Policy Advocates

The leaders in this category are building the intellectual infrastructure that ANZ technology leadership needs. Researchers setting the governance agenda for AI, educators preparing the next generation of technology practitioners, and policy advocates ensuring that the sector's voice is heard in government.

37. Professor Toby Walsh

Professor Toby Walsh is the Scientia Professor of Artificial Intelligence at the University of New South Wales, one of Australia's most prominent AI researchers and one of the most active public voices in Australia on the ethics, governance, and societal implications of artificial intelligence. His work on autonomous weapons systems has contributed to international policy discussions at the United Nations, and his capacity to explain what is at stake in AI governance in terms that decision-makers can act on is genuinely valuable.

In an environment where AI governance is moving rapidly from academic debate to regulatory reality in Australia, Walsh's public commentary on the Australian government's approach to AI regulation and on international efforts to govern autonomous weapons offers a perspective that is simultaneously technically expert and publicly engaged.

38. Professor Fang Chen

Professor Fang Chen is the Executive Director of UTS Data Science Institute at the University of Technology Sydney, where she leads one of Australia's largest university data science research centres. Her research focuses on human-centric AI, explainable AI, and the application of machine intelligence in complex real-world environments including health, transport, and public safety.

Her specific contribution to technology leadership thinking is her sustained focus on AI that is designed to augment human capability rather than replace human judgement, particularly in high-stakes decision environments. As Australian organisations deploy AI in healthcare, transport, and public administration, the question of how to build systems that remain explainable, auditable, and controllable is one of the most consequential in the country's technology policy landscape.

39. Professor Edward Santow

Professor Edward Santow is the co-director of the Human Technology Institute at the University of Technology Sydney and a former Australian Human Rights Commissioner, a role he held for five years during which he produced landmark reports on artificial intelligence and human rights in Australia. His work at the Human Technology Institute focuses on how legal, governance, and ethical frameworks can keep pace with the deployment of AI across public and private sectors.

His contribution to technology leadership thinking is his unique combination of legal expertise, human rights grounding, and deep technical literacy about AI systems. At a moment when Australian organisations are deploying AI in contexts that affect people's rights, livelihoods, and wellbeing, Santow's framework for what responsible deployment looks like is one of the most practically developed available from an Australian practitioner.

40. Professor Lyria Bennett Moses

Professor Lyria Bennett Moses is a Professor at the University of New South Wales and Director of the Allens Hub for Technology, Law and Innovation at UNSW Law and Justice. Her research focuses on how law and governance frameworks adapt to technological change, covering AI, automated decision-making, data protection, and the legal dimensions of digital transformation.

Her specific contribution to technology leadership thinking is her work on what it means for organisations to be legally compliant and genuinely responsible in their AI deployment, a distinction that matters enormously as Australian regulation of AI matures. For technology leaders making decisions about AI governance, data privacy, and compliance, Bennett Moses's work offers one of the most practically grounded academic frameworks available from an Australian legal scholar.

41. Brendan Dowling

Brendan Dowling is Australia's Ambassador for Cyber Affairs and Critical Technology, the senior Australian government official responsible for representing Australia's interests in international technology policy forums, including negotiations on cybersecurity norms, technology standards, and the governance of critical infrastructure in the digital domain. He was a keynote speaker at SXSW Sydney 2025, addressing the intersections of global tech policy and digital security.

His contribution to technology leadership thinking is his representation of the Australian government's perspective on the geopolitics of technology. For technology leaders whose organisations interact with national security, data sovereignty, or critical infrastructure policy, his public commentary is directly relevant.

42. David Thodey

David Thodey is the Chair of Xero, former CEO of Telstra, and former Chair of CSIRO, with one of the most distinguished careers in Australian technology leadership over the past two decades. As Telstra CEO from 2009 to 2015, he oversaw a fundamental transformation of one of Australia's most complex legacy businesses. As Chair of CSIRO from 2015 to 2021, he helped position Australia's national science agency as a more active commercial partner for industry. He is now the Chancellor of the University of Sydney.

His contribution to technology leadership thinking extends across three decades of engagement with the most significant technology questions facing Australian institutions. His public commentary on the role of boards in technology governance, the relationship between science investment and national economic competitiveness, and the responsibilities of large technology companies in Australian society is informed by a career breadth that few technology leaders in any country can match.

Category G: Rising Voices and Sector Builders

The final category features leaders who are building the infrastructure, communities, and capabilities that the ANZ technology sector needs for the decade ahead. Some are enterprise technology leaders from newer platforms. Others are building the institutional foundations of the sector.

43. Kim Krogh Andersen

Kim Krogh Andersen is the Group Executive for Product and Technology at Telstra, where he leads the organisation's transition to an AI-first, software-centric operation. He joined Telstra in January 2020 and has progressively expanded his portfolio to include software engineering, IT, data and AI, and, from 2026, Telstra's wireless and fixed networks, cybersecurity, and cloud infrastructure. His leadership of Telstra's API-first approach and composable architecture represents one of the most significant technology transformation programmes in Australian enterprise.

44. James Bergin

James Bergin is a senior technology and product leader at Xero, the New Zealand-born cloud accounting platform, where he is a regular contributor to public discourse on Xero's technology strategy, AI capabilities, and partnership developments. He has spoken publicly about Xero's multi-year partnership with Anthropic, aimed at delivering real-time financial intelligence, as well as Xero's ongoing impact on productivity and innovation across New Zealand and Australia.

His contribution to the technology leadership conversation is his role as a public voice from inside one of New Zealand's most significant technology companies at a moment when Xero is making major commitments to AI as a core component of its product offering.

45. Elena Ghule

Elena Ghule is the Chief AI Officer at Quantium, one of Australia's leading data analytics and AI companies, where she leads the development of enterprise AI systems across Quantium's analytics platform. She was featured in B&T's 2026 Women Leading Tech Awards for her combination of deep technical expertise in AI with strategic thinking. She also organised and spoke at AI.Con 2025, helping ensure stronger female representation in AI leadership conversations.

Her specific contribution to technology leadership thinking is her demonstration that AI leadership requires both deep technical expertise and the ability to communicate that expertise across an organisation in ways that change how people make decisions.

46. Marian Johnson

Marian Johnson is the Chair of the NZ Hi-Tech Trust, the organisation that runs the New Zealand Hi-Tech Awards, now in their 31st year. The 2026 NZ Hi-Tech Awards highlighted a sector contributing NZ$24 billion to the national economy, employing more than 119,000 people, and generating over NZ$11.4 billion in exports annually. Johnson's chairmanship of the Trust is central to maintaining the community infrastructure that connects and celebrates that sector.

Her contribution to technology leadership in New Zealand is her sustained work building and maintaining the community infrastructure that connects New Zealand's technology sector. The NZ Hi-Tech Trust, through its awards programme, its community events, and its advocacy, creates the connective tissue that allows New Zealand technology companies to learn from each other and present a collective voice to government.

47. Sean O'Donoghue

Sean O'Donoghue is the Chief Information Officer at BestStart Educare, one of New Zealand's largest early childhood education providers, where he leads technology strategy across a nationwide network of early childhood centres. He was a finalist for the NZ CIO of the Year at the 2025 NZ CIO Awards, reflecting recognition of his technology leadership in an early childhood education context that is often overlooked in technology leadership discussions.

His contribution to technology leadership thinking is his demonstration that technology leadership is not confined to corporate or government enterprise environments. Early childhood education is one of the most significant sectors in New Zealand in terms of its impact on children's development and families' wellbeing, and the deployment of technology to improve operational efficiency, staff support, and educational quality in that context requires genuinely distinct leadership skills.

48. Stephen Kurzeja

Stephen Kurzeja is the Chief Technology and Information Officer at 2degrees, the New Zealand telecommunications company, where he leads technology strategy across a competitive telco operating in a market where digital services, mobile connectivity, and enterprise technology solutions are fundamental to the business. He was a finalist for the NZ CIO of the Year at the 2025 NZ CIO Awards.

His contribution to technology leadership thinking is his work building competitive technology capability inside a telecommunications company that competes directly with larger, more resource-rich incumbents for New Zealand customers. The technology decisions Kurzeja makes at 2degrees have direct implications for how New Zealand businesses and consumers experience digital services.

49. Rob Hough

Rob Hough leads the Digital, National Facilities and Collections division at CSIRO, Australia's national science agency, where his responsibilities span digital infrastructure, research computing, and the management of Australia's major scientific data collections and national facilities. As the senior technology leader at CSIRO, he oversees the digital backbone of an organisation that is at the centre of Australia's research and innovation ecosystem.

His contribution to the technology and software leadership conversation is his role as the technology leader inside an organisation whose research shapes Australian technology policy, innovation investment, and national capability. CSIRO's digital infrastructure decisions affect how Australian researchers access computing power and how national scientific data is managed and shared.

50. Lena Brammer

Lena Brammer is the General Manager for APAC at Innovid, the connected TV advertising platform, where she led the APAC business to 31 percent revenue growth in 2025, according to B&T's 2026 Women Leading Tech Awards coverage. Under her leadership, Innovid's APAC team grew by 25 percent, and the company secured a partnership with the Indian Premier League tracking an average of 900 million daily impressions per match day.

Her contribution to technology leadership thinking is her demonstration of what it takes to build and grow a technology business in the Asia Pacific region. She is also an active advocate for women in technology, having organised and spoken at AI.Con 2025 to ensure stronger female representation in AI leadership conversations.

Notable Voices We Almost Included

Several voices considered carefully for this list ultimately fell outside the final 50 by editorial choice, not because their contribution to technology leadership is in question.

Mike Cannon-Brookes, the co-founder and CEO of Atlassian, contributed alongside Scott Farquhar to building one of Australia's defining technology companies from a University of New South Wales dormitory into a global collaboration software organisation that surpassed $6 billion in annual run-rate revenue in early 2026. His and Farquhar's contribution to the ANZ technology story is definitional. We made a deliberate editorial decision to focus this list on voices whose LinkedIn and public engagement is primarily oriented toward the ANZ technology conversation, and Cannon-Brookes's platform has increasingly become a global enterprise software and AI voice.

Others considered and respected include Sunita Gloster, technology sector advocate, and several senior leaders in public sector digital roles whose work is consequential but whose public platforms are constrained by the nature of their employment.

Common Mistakes to Avoid in Technology Leadership

One of the most persistent mistakes in technology leadership is treating technology strategy as separate from people strategy. The evidence from years of enterprise technology deployment is consistent: the failure mode in digital transformation is almost never the technology itself. It is the change management, the team capability, the communication across the organisation, and the alignment between technology investment and actual business priorities. The CIOs on this list consistently articulate versions of that insight.

A second common mistake is prioritising AI capability over AI governance. The pressure to deploy AI quickly is real. The competitive environment makes delay feel costly. But the organisations that will derive the most durable value from AI over the next decade are those that invest in governance, accountability, and explainability alongside capability. Leaders like Dr Catriona Wallace, Professor Edward Santow, and Aruna Pattam have each articulated, from different disciplinary backgrounds, why the governance investment is not optional.

A third mistake is underinvesting in digital equity. Technology leadership that delivers sophisticated digital services to already-digitally-capable users while leaving behind people with lower digital literacy, regional Australians and New Zealanders, people with disability, older adults, and communities with limited connectivity is delivering partial value at best. Victoria MacLennan and Vicki Brady have each made public arguments for why digital inclusion is a leadership responsibility rather than a social welfare afterthought.

A fourth mistake is conflating technology sector employment with technology leadership. Many organisations have significant technology teams but have not yet built genuine technology leadership capability: the capacity to make technology decisions at the board and executive level that are informed, strategic, and aligned to business and mission. The work of leaders like David Thodey and Steve Vamos reflects what it looks like to build that capacity at the organisational level over time.

A fifth mistake is treating the ANZ technology sector as a smaller version of Silicon Valley rather than as a distinctive ecosystem with its own strengths. The leaders on this list have, in different ways, built their careers and their organisations from the specific conditions of the Australian and New Zealand markets. Importing frameworks designed for a different ecosystem without adaptation is one of the most common strategic errors technology leaders in this region make.

Technology Leadership Failure Modes and Prevention Strategies

Common Mistake	Why It Fails	Prevention Strategy
Separating technology from people strategy	Change management gaps cause most transformation failures	Integrate team capability building with tech deployment
Prioritising AI capability over governance	Competitive pressure creates regulatory and ethical risk	Invest in explainability and accountability frameworks early
Underinvesting in digital equity	Leaves vulnerable populations behind and limits total value	Treat inclusion as a leadership responsibility, not welfare
Importing Silicon Valley frameworks unchanged	ANZ context requires different strategic approaches	Adapt frameworks to regional ecosystem strengths
Conflating employment with leadership capability	Board-level technology decisions remain uninformed	Develop technology leadership at executive and board level

Implementation Guide: Taking Action on What You Read

The most practical first step any technology leader or executive can take after reading this list is to follow three to five of the people on it on LinkedIn and read what they post for the next 30 days without immediately applying it, without forwarding it to a team, and without turning it into a meeting agenda. The goal is to build a genuine picture of how these leaders think, what questions they ask, and what they notice, before deciding how to use their perspectives.

The second step is to identify which categories of technology leader are most underrepresented in your own organisation's leadership conversations. Are you hearing from enterprise CIOs who understand what it takes to deploy AI in complex, regulated environments? Are you hearing from researchers who can distinguish genuine AI capability from AI hype? Are you hearing from policy advocates who understand what regulation is coming and what it will require?

The third step, particularly for board directors and executives who are not themselves technology practitioners, is to use the specific claims in this list as prompts for better questions in your own technology governance conversations. The Buddy GenAI deployment at Uniting, the DevSecOps transformation at Village Roadshow, and the AI adoption frameworks published by Aruna Pattam are not just case studies. They are invitations to ask better questions of your own technology leadership.

The fourth step is to pay attention to the New Zealand technology community if you are an Australian technology leader, and vice versa. The NZ Hi-Tech sector contributing NZ$24 billion to the national economy, the Xero story, and the distinctive approaches to digital equity in Aotearoa offer perspectives and models that are directly applicable across the Tasman but are often invisible to Australian technology leaders who focus primarily on the domestic market.

ANZ Technology Sector Economic Snapshot

Metric	Australia	New Zealand
IT Spending Forecast 2026	A$172.3 billion (8.9% growth, Gartner)	Sector contributes NZ$24 billion to GDP
Tech sector employment	More than 1 in 16 working Australians	119,000+ employed in tech sector
Annual tech exports	Sector contributes $167+ billion to economy	NZ$11.4 billion annually
Notable global companies	Canva, Atlassian, SafetyCulture	Xero, ZURU

If your leadership team would benefit from a structured process to surface insights and translate them into team and organisational decisions, Jonno White, Certified Working Genius Facilitator and author of Step Up or Step Out, helps leadership teams build the communication, decision-making, and collaboration frameworks that allow technology investment to actually deliver. Email jonno@consultclarity.org. International travel is often far more affordable than clients expect, and Jonno works face to face and virtually.

For more on building leadership teams that make better decisions, see the Working Genius implementation guide at consultclarity.org, and the post on 

how to get your leadership team aligned.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who are the most influential technology and software leaders in Australia and New Zealand?

The people on this list represent a cross-section of technology and software leadership across Australia and New Zealand in 2026. They include software company founders who built globally competitive businesses from ANZ, enterprise CIOs deploying AI across complex organisations, academic researchers shaping the governance of AI, and advocates building a more inclusive and capable technology sector. No single list can be comprehensive, but the 50 people here represent genuine, documented contribution to technology and software leadership in this region.

How was this list compiled?

Every person on this list was selected on three criteria: a documented contribution to technology and software leadership in Australia or New Zealand, an active engagement with the technology conversation in 2025 or 2026, and a demonstrated commitment to meaningful contribution rather than simply holding a senior title. The list deliberately moves past the handful of names that appear on every technology list to surface the full range of people doing consequential work in the ANZ context.

What makes a great technology leader in Australia and New Zealand?

The people on this list share several characteristics. They are deeply credible in their domain, whether that domain is software product development, enterprise technology transformation, AI governance, or policy advocacy. They communicate their thinking publicly. They demonstrate an awareness of the broader implications of the technology decisions they make. And they are operating with genuine accountability, not just commentary.

Who are the top CIOs in Australia and New Zealand?

The CIO50 Australia 2025 Awards, run by Foundry's CIO publication, recognised Arul Arogyanathan of Village Roadshow as Australia's top CIO. The NZ CIO Awards 2025 recognised Alexandra Smart of Southern Cross Travel Insurance as New Zealand's CIO of the Year. Both feature on this list, alongside other top-ranked CIOs from both programmes, including Andrew Dome, Miranda Ratajski, Stevie-Ann Dovico, Dr Tom Gao, and Noel Toal in the Australian top 10.

Can I hire someone to facilitate leadership development workshops for my technology team?

Jonno White, Certified Working Genius Facilitator and author of Step Up or Step Out, works with leadership teams in technology organisations around the world. His Working Genius facilitation, DISC workshops, and executive offsite facilitation help technology leadership teams build the communication, collaboration, and decision-making frameworks that allow technology strategy to deliver. Email jonno@consultclarity.org.

What are the biggest technology leadership trends in Australia and New Zealand in 2026?

The most significant trends include: the transition from AI pilot programmes to enterprise-scale AI deployment; the emergence of AI governance and responsible AI frameworks as board-level concerns; the growing recognition that digital equity is a technology leadership responsibility; the increasing importance of cybersecurity as a strategic function; and the continued professionalisation of the CIO role as a strategic business leader rather than a technology service provider.

How do ANZ technology leaders balance global best practices with regional context?

The most effective ANZ technology leaders recognise that frameworks developed for Silicon Valley, London, or Singapore need significant adaptation to work in the Australian and New Zealand context. They draw on global best practices for technical architecture, AI governance, and digital transformation methodology, but adapt implementation to account for smaller talent pools, greater geographic distance from major technology hubs, regulatory environments that differ from larger markets, and the specific competitive dynamics of industries that operate differently in ANZ. Leaders like Steve Vamos and David Thodey have articulated this balance explicitly: learn globally, implement locally, and resist the temptation to copy frameworks without understanding the context they were designed for.

Final Thoughts

Technology and software leadership in Australia and New Zealand is more sophisticated, more diverse, and more globally consequential than it gets credit for. The companies these leaders have built, the transformations they have delivered, and the ideas they have contributed to the global technology conversation represent a body of work that deserves more recognition inside the region than it currently receives.

The most important single insight from compiling this list is that the people who are actually shaping technology and software leadership in ANZ are not the same people who show up on most international technology lists. They are operating in contexts, regional economies, regulated sectors, community organisations, and government environments, that require a level of practical judgement and stakeholder complexity that pure technology product leadership does not prepare you for. They are delivering real outcomes in environments where failure has real consequences for real people.

Following the voices on this list is not a passive activity. The best technology leaders share ideas that prompt you to ask better questions, see patterns you might have missed, and make connections between fields that are often kept separate. That is the value of thought leadership that is genuinely rooted in practice rather than performed for an audience.

For those thinking about the human dimension of technology leadership, including how to build teams that communicate effectively, make decisions under uncertainty, and sustain high performance through rapid change, Jonno White, Certified Working Genius Facilitator and author of Step Up or Step Out, works with organisations globally on exactly those challenges. Email jonno@consultclarity.org. Whether virtual or face to face, the conversation is always worth starting.

Step Up or Step Out is available on Amazon at amazon.com.au.

About the Author

Jonno White is a leadership consultant, keynote speaker and Certified Working Genius Facilitator, and the author of Step Up or Step Out. Through Consult Clarity he works with corporates, nonprofits and schools around the world. His experience facilitating leadership teams inside technology organisations, schools, and sector associations informs how he thinks about the intersection of team dynamics and technology strategy.

Learn more at consultclarity.org/about or connect on LinkedIn.

Sources

Gartner, IT Spending Forecast Australia 2025-2026, September 2025.

NZ Hi-Tech Trust, 2026 NZ Hi-Tech Awards Winners Announcement, May 2026.

Tech Council of Australia, tech sector employment and GDP contribution figures, cited 2025 and 2026.

TechCrunch, Canva annual recurring revenue and monthly active users, February 2026.

Atlassian Corporation Q2 FY2026 Earnings Release, Business Wire, February 2026.

CIO50 Australia 2025 Awards, Foundry CIO, September 2025.

NZ CIO Awards 2025, IDC and Brightstar, August 2025.

Capital Brief, SafetyCulture founder returns as interim CEO, February 2026.

RNZ News, Sir Rod Drury knighted in 2026 New Year Honours, December 2025.

Next Read

If this list has given you a broader view of who is shaping technology and software leadership in Australia and New Zealand, you may also want to read the 35 best cybersecurity thought leaders in ANZ, which covers the people shaping how organisations across both countries think about and defend against digital security threats.

For a broader look at AI leadership, see the cloud computing thought leaders in ANZ post.