Data & analytics specialist Altis Consulting expands to Adelaide

Sydney-based data & analytics advisory Altis Consulting has expanded to South Australia, with Luke Best brought in from BHP to help build the new practice as growth and partnerships leader.

Established by Gavin Cooke and Hyun Choi in Sydney in 1998, Adelaide becomes the fifth location for Altis Consulting, with further outlets in Melbourne, Canberra and Auckland hosting an overall headcount of around 200 advisors and technicians.

The consultancy said its move into South Australia was made in response to the ever-growing demand for modern data and AI expertise, but also noted the state’s energy and mining sectors as being of particular interest, evidenced by the appointment of Best.

Best has spent the past year as BHP’s data & digital technical management lead for Australia after first joining the global mining giant in 2024 following three years at Oz Minerals, where he served as head of data engineering, platforms & automation. Prior to that, he worked in the financial services sector, including with Macquarie, Goldman Sachs, and Deutsche Bank in London.

“Having spent years on the customer side, I understand the real-world pressures organisations face when it comes to modernising data and adopting AI,” Best said of his latest appointment. “South Australian organisations want partners who are here with them, who understand the nuances of the local business environment and the unique challenges facing each sector.”

Best added that his attraction to joining Altis Consulting was due to what he described as the genuine partnerships the firm forms with its clients, which include local oil & gas extractor Santos, as well as those operating across a range of sectors such as Qantas, Mirvac, Ticketek, and the University of New South Wales – where Best incidentally graduated with an infotech degree in 2007.

“With strong activity across education, defence, medical research, innovation and a thriving start-up scene, Adelaide is a place where trusted face-to-face relationships matter,” he said. “I already have a strong network across SA’s energy, resources, government and higher education sectors, and I’m really looking forward to helping more organisations reach their data and AI goals.”

Meanwhile, Altis Consulting described its permanent push into Adelaide as making perfect strategic sense and being the firm’s ‘natural next step’, citing its recent 40-percent-plus growth rate across the southern states of SA, Victoria, and Tasmania, while once again referring back to South Australia’s growing economy and investments into housing, commercial development, and major infrastructure.

“South Australia is an incredibly important market because it sits at the crossroads of two significant industries; copper and energy,” said chief commercial officer Katrina Pilcher. “These sectors are undergoing rapid evolution and the organisations that support them need modern, reliable data capabilities to scale safely. Our expansion into SA reflects that opportunity.”