Leading recruitment, advisory and technology consulting firm Davidson is expanding its Technology Consulting division with two high-profile hires. Christopher Stone is taking on the role of Practice Director Technology while Joe Gardiner joins as a Delivery Partner in the fast-growing division.
The new appointments reflect a sharp focus on helping companies use technology more effectively to streamline and grow their operations. Part of this is an increasing focus on providing teams, rather than individuals, and workforce augmentation solutions.
“We’re excited to welcome both Christopher and Joe to the Davidson team,” Davidson Group CEO Trent McMahon said. “They both have a strong background not only in technology, but in working with companies undergoing rapid change. And that means not only understanding the technology but understanding the people who will use it.
“At Davidson, we start by gaining a deep understanding of the problems, then work with clients to shape a solution that fits and support them in implementing it,” McMahon added.
Christopher Stone joins Davidson’s Sydney office from ELMO Software and has also previously worked at Excite Safety as chief operating officer, steering the company through the COVID crisis with technological transformation that spurred strong growth.
At Excite, a WHS training provider and tech innovator, Stone oversaw the roll-out of a proprietary SaaS solution that saw recurring annual revenue jump by 250 per cent. He also overhauled payment and booking systems and streamlined a fragmented marketing strategy.
“I think what I enjoy most is the ability to not only help business owners and department heads to improve their quality of work but seeing that trickling down to those that are on the coalface,” he said.
Joe Gardiner comes to Davidson with an extensive background in both hands-on technology development and strategic implementation in the rapidly evolving finance industry. Most recently he worked as a project director for technology transformation at Bank of Queensland and has served at ANZ to facilitate strategic choices in their technology architecture. Gardiner will be working with larger clients to shape solutions that cover broader areas of work, rather than just point in time solutions.
“What we’re increasingly looking to do at Davidson is bring more team-based package solutions for key areas of client demand, such as Google Cloud Platform, Salesforce and ERP solutions,” Gardiner said. “And we will be building on that by introducing a major partner for workforce augmentation. There’s so much technology work to do and such a shortage of skilled people available to do it.”
Gardiner has a particular interest in the fintech space and founded online home loan site YouBroker.com.au, which picked up an Australian Web Award for website design earlier this year.
