From paint brushes to PhD

I didn't grow up planning to work in education or technology. My working life began with a paintbrush in hand in Hobart, Tasmania. I completed a pre-vocational course at TAFE and a four year apprenticeship at Cascade Brewery, learning how to turn up, do the work and navigate tough environments. Those years taught me resilience – but they also made it clear that I wanted more from my working life.

Travel opened my world. I lived abroad, studied German and saw first-hand how education can unlock new paths. Returning to Tasmania, I studied Administration, Information Systems and German at the University of Tasmania. Graduating with First Class Honours wasn't just a line on a CV – it was proof that, despite earlier doubts and family tensions, I could succeed academically and build a new trajectory for myself.

My next chapter took me to Brisbane. I joined Telstra and spent six years there, moving from operational roles into more strategic work while studying for an MBA at the University of Queensland. The MBA opened doors into management at UQ, where I became a Business Manager. It was there that I began publishing research into how people learn, solve problems and think in complex organisations.

Around this time my two daughters, Viola and Solara, were born. Fatherhood reframed everything. Success stopped being just about titles or promotions and became about creating work that would one day mean something to them – work that left time and emotional space for family, not just endless hustle.

Driven by curiosity, I later completed a PhD in Professional Education at City, University of London, by publication. My research focused on critical thinking and problem solving in student-centred e-learning. Over the years I published widely, taught thousands of organisational staff, and eventually moved into the role of Chief Learning Officer at Communardo. I found myself at the intersection of learning, technology and organisational change.

Yet alongside all of this, I was listening to the struggles of teachers and learning professionals – especially those in schools. I heard about late-night marking, Sunday spent writing reports, and the emotional toll of constant communication with very little support. AI tools were starting to appear, but most felt generic and unsafe for education: they ignored context, invented information and often created more work to check than they saved.

That gap planted a seed. What if AI tools could be designed specifically for teachers – grounded in pedagogy, respectful of professional judgement and built to reduce workload rather than increase it? What if they could help teachers reclaim a few hours each week without sacrificing the quality of their teaching or their relationships with students and families?

In 2025, that question became Zaza Technologies. Zaza Draft, our first product, focuses on one of the most emotionally demanding parts of a teacher's job: written communication with parents and carers. From there, the wider Zaza suite is growing into lesson planning, grading support and other tools that quietly sit in the background while teachers do what only they can do – teach, care and build trust.

For me, Zaza is more than a company. It is a way of bringing together decades of experience in learning and development, my research into critical thinking and problem solving, the realities I have heard from teachers, and my desire to leave something meaningful to my daughters. It is my way of proving that EdTech can be built with empathy, rigour and a deep respect for the profession it serves.