Mark is the founder & Managing Director of Information Professionals Pty Ltd and has more than 20 years’ management and consulting experience in both the public and private sectors. From his early experience, Mark realised there was a need for specialist advice and support of key decision makers and those responsible for a successful delivery of large scale projects.  Mark became well known amongst his colleagues and industry partners as someone who could provide the expertise required.  His passion and business drive provided a platform for Information Professionals, today known for providing objective and forward thinking management assistance. 

In the last ten years Mark has managed, reviewed or advised on a variety of large-scale and mission-critical programs and projects within Australia and the United States.  Mark’s qualifications in Applied Science, Business Administration, as well as most recently, Executive Education in Negotiation and Competitive Decision Making from Harvard University, provide him with a solid platform to mentor and provide guidance to the Information Professionals’ team.

Mark maintains a current knowledge of both information technology and management.  His strength is in leading and advising on the sound business implementation of information and communications technology.  Mark is a recognised industry expert and has been asked to speak at industry and company events including for Wellesley Information Services, IBM, Diversiti and the Queensland University of Technology

Ms Jennifer Holley started her 25 year career in Sydney working with some of the first commercial Data Base Applications, and her specialization in Network Data Base design and optimization, a path she followed through stints at Amalgamated Television Services (Channel 7), Queensland Electricity Commission, and Fujitsu Australia.  Her 7 years with Fujitsu broadened her technical skill base as well as introducing her to the commercial aspects of the IT environment.  It was during this time that Jennifer applied these skills in assignments spanning Australia, Asia, USA, UK and Europe.

After living overseas for two years Jennifer returned to Brisbane spending 9 years with CITEC, establishing their SAP Service Bureau, establishing a payroll outsourcing business servicing, 160,000 Federal Government employees and superannuants, and securing significant contracts with other clients.  After a two year career break to focus on her family, and enjoy life at a less hectic pace, Jennifer joined Information Professionals as Director New Business in September 2007, where she leads the identification and establishment of our new clients.

Ms Diana Baxter is a management consultant experienced in business analysis, change management and organisational development.  She has strong project management skills developed over 10 years working individually and in project teams in the industry sectors of Government and Mining & Resources.  She is highly skilled in the application of change management, organisational development and business process review principles and methodology in both small and large organisations and has an excellent working knowledge of project management techniques.

Diana has excellent professional management abilities and understands the various business drivers, interests and stakeholders at play in any situation.  One of her key strengths is the ability to develop long term client relationships by providing consistency in approach and sharing of knowledge and experience.

Ms Cathy Brennan has more than 20 years’ experience in the IT industry. Cathy specialises in providing analytical, methodology, quality assurance and testing expertise across complex, multi- or integrated-system implementations. 

Cathy has worked across the full lifecycle of system implementations on a number of successful, large-scale projects.  Cathy’s strength lies in her discipline and diligence in establishing appropriate project controls and processes, and in her ability to assess compliance to these.  She has a strong eye for detail, and well-rounded analytical skills.   

Cathy adds significant value to large programs and projects by contributing planning, methodology use, analysis and design, quality assurance and control, management reporting, procedures and support tools, and testing.

Mr David Ekert is an experienced Program Manager, CIO, business manager and a CPA (Certified Practicing Accountant).  David has a broad range of Finance, HR, IT and Program Management capabilities, having provided well considered opinions and trusted advice to others over a period of many years.  David is currently performing the role of Queensland Government’s Corptech Solution Design Authority Program Director, a critical role in delivering this mammoth program and managing the involved suppliers and stakeholders. 

David has 40 years’ of combined HR, finance and IT program/project management experience, and retains a hunger for seeing organisations and people making the progression they seek.  With a strong financial background, David has particular skills in financial system implementations and managing budgets and resources. He also has well-developed presentation, communication and negotiation skills.  David has a proven ability to successfully manage both complex projects and line management responsibilities. He is particularly skilled in identifying and implementing business improvement initiatives and managing change. David maintains his CPA and AIM memberships and keeps his knowledge current on emerging issues.

Mr Michael Ritter has 20 years’ experience in business and technical analysis, business, project and quality management. Michael is an experienced technology Project Management and Quality Management practitioner and has worked in technical, project management and various quality management and project support roles within both large and small organisations.  His experience spans a range of project, business and IT line management roles.  Michael has key skills in stakeholder management and extensive knowledge of diverse IT applications.  

Quality Assurance including ISO and CMM standards is a particular area of familiarity to Michael.  Michael has a well-rounded view on the conduct of technology projects and so is able to introduce sound project and quality management disciplines in a pragmatic way, ensuring their effective implementation.  Michael has implemented and maintained ISO 9001 into an organisation, taken organizational areas through step increases in CMM Maturity levels and has worked with a variety of methodologies and approaches.

Dr Helmut Klaus holds the position of Director of Research with Information Professionals.  He holds a Masters of Information Technology (Research) and is a Doctor of Philosophy and until recently was a Senior Researcher in the QUT Faculty of Information Technology.  Helmut’s specific research interests are in ERP, Knowledge Management and the Business-IT relationship, but more broadly in the management of IT for successful business outcomes. 

His specific knowledge of the enterprise systems utilised within the Federal and State Governments are vast as is his understanding and research into the State Government’s utilisation of SAP.  With his early roles in Librarianship and more recently as a Research professional, Helmut has lead the establishment of Information Professionals’ iBASE (knowledge database).  Helmut has a number of published papers which are available on request.