Consensus Group

2011 Consensus IT Professional Awards - Winners Announced

The 2011 Consensus IT Professional Awards were presented at Dimension Data in Sydney on 21st October. They are sponsored by Dimension Data and supported and endorsed by the Australian Computer Society. They are run alongside the Consensus IT Writers Awards.

There were two receipients of Awards - Keith Sherringham and Richard Favero. Brendan Trewartha was Highly Commended. Page down for photo and citation of each.

Keith Sherringham receives his IT Professional Award from (l) Phil Argy, Past President ACS and (r) Ben Field, NSW Professional Services Manager, Dimension Data.

Keith has more than 15 years experience in business consulting in corporations and government at executive and senior leadership levels on business strategy and planning; business application of ICT; program management and turnaround; and business resilience and change management.

He is a noted author and speaker on the business application of ICT and is known for his thought leadership and pragmatic strategy in areas including: real time decision making, standardising the roles of knowledge workers, Green ICT, and resilient business operations.

Keith is a former Board Director of the Australian Computer Society responsible for strategy and planning and has guest lectured at various Universities in Australia on the impacts of changes in ICT to business. As a Company Director and mentor to CEOs and Boards within Not for Profits, Keith brings his practical pragmatic business experience to address organisational performance and Board - Executive relationships in Not for Profits.

He has co-authored a couple of Cutter executive reports and is always freely giving of his time and knowledge and always works for the overall benefit of the computing profession. Keith is truly deserving of this award and the judging panel wholeheartedly support him and wish him the very best.

Richard Favero proudly receives his IT Professional Award.

Richard Favero is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of the leading mobile enterprise messaging and wireless application infrastructure provider SOPRANO Design Pty Ltd. He has been instrumental in driving Soprano's business and technology through this rapid market and technology change elevating the company from a small consulting business based in North Sydney to a software product multinational corporation empowering mobile network operators around the world including AT&T, Telstra, StarHub, Hutchison3 and many more.

With over 20 years experience in the telecommunications industry covering wireline switching, intelligent networks, mobile networks and mobile value added services, Richard is recognised as an industry thought leader for the adoption of mobile messaging to automate business and communication processes within enterprise and government customers.

As a result of Richard's expertise, experience and management of his staff he has played a key role in Soprano Design Pty Ltd winning various awards including two Consensus Software Awards, 2010 National Telstra Business Award, AMP innovation award, 2010 National iAward Merit Business Award and the 2010 ACCOM Award.

Richard provides high-level strategic consulting services for technology adoption, strategy and corporate impacts of technology to blue chip Australian companies and commercialisation services to early stage technology companies. The judges were unanimous in their recommendation for Richard's Consensus IT Professional Award.

Brendan Trewartha is Highly Commended by Phil Argy (l) and Ben Field (r)

Brendan Trewartha is currently General Manager, HR & Payroll Services, for Talent2 in Sydney. With over 20 years experience working in Australia and Europe for technology companies in industries ranging from telecommunications, consumer electronics, IT, retail and human resource outsourcing, Brendan exhibits a unique prowess in leading and managing IT related products and services.

At Talent2, he is responsible for Payroll and Human Resource Information Systems (HRIS), and oversees provision of solutions by Talent2's enterprise and government clients across the Asia Pacific region. Prior to Talent2 his experience was developed in a diverse range of roles from software development and marketing through to business management.

Brendan was previously Managing Director for Toshiba TEC in Australia, a role he held for four years. His qualifications include a Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical) with Honours, Sydney University, 1991, and a Master of Business (Marketing) at UTS, Sydney.

Because of his enthusiasm, his desire to give his time, money and energy for worthwhile causes both within IT and outside of the IT domain, Brendan is an asset to the IT profession. The judges Highly Commend Brendan's contribution to the profession.

Nomination and Judging process

IT Professionals Nomination

The IT Professional Awards nomination and judging process is built upon the successful and proven Consensus Model™ which has been used over for over ten years for other Consensus Awards Programs. To make a Nomination, click on the above link. The entry must be a maximum of 1000 words including a photograph suitable for publication on the Awards website.

The Criteria for the Consensus IT Professional Awards is anyone that is deemed to have achieved a significant career or result in the following areas. They must be an Australian or Permanent Resident, but their work does not have to be Australian-based. The nominations can be made by anyone based in Australia or overseas. All nominees are verified.

- Achieved a long professional career and is recognised as a major contributor to the IT industry
- Delivered a major or significant project; infrastructure, software, communications, integration etc
- Specialised in a specific technology area and considered to be an expert in the field
- Acted as a leader/mentor/driver/evangelist in the IT industry
- Started an IT-related company and/or grown that company to be a major achiever in the IT industry
- Devoted their time and energy to the establishment or growth of non-for-profit or charitable causes related to the IT industry

Round 1 judging will be via the Awards website. From a consensus of votes received a short-list is arrived at. The final number will be determined by the quality of nominations and the number that can be judged in Round 2. Finalists will be invited to meet the judging panel (by video conference if necessary).

The judges may confer as many awards as they feel appropriate. A suitable worded citation is written by the judging panel to be read out at the Awards Presentations and used in any press or publicity.

The Awards Presentation is in Sydney with all finalists and invited guests from a wide area of influence. Awards evenings are always a terrific opportunity for networking. Consensus makes all official photography available at no charge to all finalists, guests and our Sponsors and Program Partner.

The 2012 Timetable is as follows:

2010 Winners

Chafic Abdallah

Leading Microsoft business solutions and thought leader in systems management.

Mark Bedwani

Responsible for Connected Classrooms Program, NSW Department of Education and Training (DET) - implementing a Tandberg Video Conference (4000 endpoints) in every school which is the largest VC network in the world.

Kim-Kwang Raymond Choo

Senior Research Analyst, Australian Institute of Criminology (Canberra).

Prof. Brian Henderson-Sellers

Professor of Information Systems and Director of the Centre for Object Technology Applications and Research (COTAR) at the University of Technology, Sydney.

Paul Matthews

Lifetime IBM Mainframe Specialist and founder of several successful IT services companies.

Paul Matthews, one of 5 Winners of 2010 IT Professional Awards receives his Award from (left) Anthony Wong President Australian Computer Society and (middle) Pete Murray NSW Manager Dimension Data

2010 Highly Commended

Alexandre Bacchin

Experienced IT professional focused on architecting, planning, developing and supporting Microsoft solutions, mainly in SharePoint and ASP.NET.

Richard Deck

stratITy Consultant to Jeanswest on three year IT strategy which identified tangible opportunities to improve margin ultimately saving Jeanswest in excess of $2.5M million per annum.

Willy Lee

Expert engineer with major customers in retail, finance banking and insurance, NSW Government, professional services and telecommunication verticals.

If you would like to subscribe to find out more about the Consensus IT Professional Award, please send us an email or call us on (02) 9719 9344.