Steve Tzortzidis and Shane Baldacchino join tech consultancy V2 Digital

Closing in on its first anniversary, V2 Digital has bolstered its leadership through the appointment of Steve Tzortzidis and Shane Baldacchino.

Sydney-headquartered consultancy V2 Digital has bolstered its senior leadership ranks with the appointment of Steve Tzortzidis and Shane Baldacchino as respective directors of the firm’s data & AI and cloud divisions.

Freeing up chief technology officer Peter Stanski in the newly-created roles, the pair bring over thirty years of combined engineering and architecture experience at leading companies including Microsoft, AWS and Servian.

“As V2 Digital rapidly scales, we’re focusing on attracting and retaining those at the top of their game,” stated CEO Craig Howe, who established the firm last year after previously serving as Asia Pacific managing director of Cognizant acquisition Contino. “Our mission is to accelerate advantage through data and AI, software, cloud and CX and I’m confident both Shane and Steve will be instrumental in ensuring we achieve this for clients.”

Shane Baldacchino joins the nascent digital consultancy from Microsoft, where he has served as A/NZ chief architect for the past three years out of Melbourne, including alongside Stanski as chief technologist. Baldacchino also spent time together with Stanski at Amazon Web Services during his five years at the cloud giant, where he was an AWS Edge specialist, with an earlier online infrastructure lead role at SEEK among his other senior experience.

Commenting on his decision to join V2 Digital, Baldacchino wrote on LinkedIn; “For months, I’ve been keeping a close eye on the market. I’ve had countless conversations with various companies, assessing not only roles but also company culture, and with that I made a decision. Why V2 Digital? It’s pretty simple, the depth, the relationships and the people. Plus, in many ways, it’s great to get the band back together with others I have worked with in the past.”

Steve Tzortzidis meanwhile crosses to V2 Digital as Data & AI director in Melbourne from another Cognizant subsidiary Servian, which the US-headquartered tech consultancy picked up in 2021 for around $250 million. Prior to his five years at Servian, including latterly as a director, Tzortzidis spent the best part of a decade at The Good Guys, rising from a support role in the retailer’s internal help-desk to the level of senior data architect.

Upon its launch last year, V2 Digital said that it had already assembled a team of 35 data, software engineering and cloud professionals with outlets established in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, with the firm managing to achieve AWS Advanced Partner status in only three months.

Since then, V2 Digital has also lured former Contino co-founder and CEO Matt Farmer as an investor and advisor, who cited his desire to work with former colleague Howe once again.

Howe has also pitched V2 Digital’s focus on its people from the get-go: “Over the years, I have advised and been a part of many successful global consultancies that are market-leading because of their people-first approach. It’s blatantly obvious, as we are a consultancy, but our people are our business. At V2 Digital, we have a clear vision: invest in our people, empower them, remove blockers like hierarchy, treat them with respect and empathy, and live our core values.”