Barry Thomas

Barry is a strong believer in the power of simplicity and focus in business. His view is that complexity, be it in a business model, process or a product, is a warning sign indicating that something somewhere hasn’t been properly understood. A 20+ year veteran of the IT industry who joined Shirlaws in 2010, Barry’s career has consistently revolved around leveraging process improvement and efficiency to achieve clear strategic goals. He has worked on process, quality and knowledge management issues for businesses including major banks, insurers, medical device manufacturers, software developers and government departments.

Barry’s concise, calm and reasoned approach has often been valuable in facilitating agreement across diverse groups of stakeholders. Online messaging and workflow standards proposed, promoted and in large part developed by Barry are now in almost universal use across the Australian mortgage lending industry. An organisation he co-founded to develop these standards won the 2005 MIS Innovation Award. As a recognised innovator Barry has been asked to present at many conferences and trade shows, both technical (e.g. the 2009 Metadata Conference, the OASIS Open Standards Conference) and business-focussed (e.g. the Mortgage Industry Forum, the Mortgage Processing Summit).

Barry’s formal qualifications include a Bachelor of Jurisprudence, a Graduate Diploma in Document Management and a Master of Business in Information Innovation. A compulsive volunteer Barry has been a founder, office bearer and/or a coach for at least three triathlon clubs, two outrigger canoeing clubs, two swimming clubs and an American Football club and league. A long-time resident of the Northern Beaches of Sydney, he is married with a young daughter. He relaxes by participating in Masters swimming competitions and was nominated for NSW Masters Swimming Coach of the Year in 2009.

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