IBM Consulting appoints David Ellis as ANZ managing partner

Former Bain & Company partner and telecommunications expert David Ellis has been appointed as IBM Consulting’s new managing partner for Australia and New Zealand.

David Ellis brings in two and a half decades worth of international consulting and telecommunications industry experience to IBM Consulting.

Previously operating as IBM Global Business Services, the unit reformed as IBM Consulting in 2021 combining its business transformation and technology consulting operations, with a global team of approximately 140,000 professionals.

An engineering graduate of the University of Cambridge, Ellis kicked off his career as a London-based consultant with leading German-origin management firm Roland Berger in 1998, altogether spending four years at the consultancy two stints. From there, he crossed to the telecommunications industry, ultimately landing a job with Telecom New Zealand and later serving as general manager of technology & transformation out of Auckland till 2010.

Since then, Ellis has been stationed in Sydney, rising over the space of six years from A/NZ CMT strategy managing director at Accenture to the head up the technology consulting giant’s global B2B Telco practice and communications industry division for APAC. In 2017 he joined global strategy consultancy Bain & Company as an enterprise technology partner, holding a number of senior international leadership roles over the past seven years.

“Over my career I’ve been an IBM client, partner, and worked with countless alumni all over the world. I’m now very proud to become an IBMer myself,” Ellis said. “I firmly believe that IBM has the strongest heritage in the technology industry, and I can think of no business better placed to help enterprise and governments seize the full business potential of AI, hybrid cloud and other innovative technologies securely, reliably and at enterprise-wide scale.”

Ellis takes over from Perth-based vice president and managing partner Ian Abraham, who has led IBM Consulting’s Australia and New Zealand business since late 2022. Among the dozens of well-wishers and former colleagues offering their congratulations on LinkedIn were Bain & Company Asia Pacific regional leader Satish Shankar and Australia managing partner Peter Stumbles, who thanked Ellis for his “tremendous impact over the years”.

The latest senior appointment continues an ongoing period of transition at the firm since relaunching the advisory line and spinning out its infrastructure division as Kyndryl. Alongside Ellis, IBM Consulting has brought in US senior leader Juhi McClelland as its new head of APAC, while Nicholas Flood took over as the company’s overall Australia leader earlier in 2022. Enterprise strategy leader Richie Paul has also now been appointed as head of generative AI.