Daniel Abbas and Michael Joffe industry leaders at Publicis Sapient
The Australian arm of digital consultancy Publicis Sapient has made two top level appointments. Daniel Abbas has been named leader of the firm’s Public Sector and Higher Education industry practices, while Michael Joffe has been installed as sector lead for the Energy & Utilities wing.
Daniel Abbas brings nearly two decades of experience in technology services and management consulting. He joined Publicis Sapient from Curio, a boutique fast-growing consulting firm dedicated to the education sector, where he was a board member. Prior to his four years at Curio, Abbas spent five years with Nous Group, one of Australia’s largest home-grown management consulting firms, latterly in the role of co-head of its digital transformation arm.
Before that, Abbas worked ten years in technology consulting, serving among others Indian-origin giant Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), IT services firm Novell and a legal predecessor of Atos Consulting.
Commenting on the new joiner, a delighted Sarah Adam-Gedge, managing director of Publicis Sapient in Australia, said: “Daniel is a highly experienced consultant, bringing a breadth of knowledge gained from a career that has seen him apply his skills in innovation and the development of new business models for some of Australia’s leading companies and institutions. His range of hands-on technical expertise is further complemented by his specialisation in social research, digital strategy, and his passion for building agile technical solutions.”
Meanwhile, Michael Joffe has joined Publicis Sapient in the firm’s Melbourne office. He is a technology a leader with broad entrepreneurial expertise across distributed energy, energy management, and the development of smart devices for smart homes. The past five years he worked at Zen Ecosystems, a company he co-founded specialised in energy management and digitisation of the energy landscape.
Prior to that, Joffe was co-founder of Walnut Art, a app provider that uses augmented reality so that art buyers can realistically visualise artwork on their walls before purchasing, and served as general manager of smart energy management company Ingeni. Earlier in his career, the University of Melbourne graduate – he also gained an MBA at Melbourne Business School – worked as a mechanical engineer at product development consultancy Invetech, among other roles.
He is described by Adam-Gedge as an expert with “a strong track record in energy, smart home and Internet of Things” and a leader that can apply “market-driven solutions and design thinking principles” to the benefit of Publicis Sapient’s clients.
According to Australia’s country managing director, the public sector, higher education and energy industries are all “at the tipping point of disruption”, and are increasingly turning to digital to successfully navigate change and develop future-proof business models. Publicis Sapient, which is the digital transformation consultancy of French advertising group Publicis Group, helps organsiations unlock digital value through a combination of traditional management consulting service coupled with technology, data science and digital marketing expertise.
