Scyne Advisory appoints John Ball as first permanent chief executive
Public sector consultancy Scyne Advisory has appointed former Google managing director John Ball as its first permanent chief executive, with the firm’s leadership team now fully in place.
John Ball joins after spending the past decade overseeing customer solutions for Google in the A/NZ, before which he spent close to two decades in senior roles with fellow tech giant Microsoft in Australia, Asia and the US.
Ball replaces inaugural chief Richard Gwilym from November, the latter who was appointed to lead the breakaway firm on an interim basis during its establishment, and will now head up Scyne Advisory’s newly-formed advisory leadership team.
“I am very excited at the skills and experience that John brings to the role,” stated John Mullen, who was appointed inaugural chair last year. “As Scyne Advisory moves into the growth phase and begins the journey of implementing its five-year strategy, John’s depth of knowledge of the technology industry as well as his skills as a leader are a potent mix for the business we have established.”
A computer science and business masters graduate from the University of Technology Sydney, Ball kicked off his career as a software engineer for various IT companies before joining Microsoft in 1997. He then spent the next seventeen years in a range of sales lead roles out of Singapore, Shanghai, and Microsoft’s headquarters in Washington State, latterly as global Samsung lead.
In 2014 he crossed to Google, leading a team of more than 200 staff across Australia and New Zealand as regional general manager for customer solutions. Now, Ball will be responsible for overseeing almost 1,000 professionals, along with around 90 managing directors and a consulting business which is pushing toward $240 million in revenues in its first full year of operation.
More to the point, he will be doing so under a watchful public eye, following the PwC tax breach scandal which led to Scyne Advisory’s formation and ongoing suspicion about the firm among certain government ranks. To this end, Mullen revealed that the recruitment of an independent CEO was a key commitment the firm had made to the Department of Finance in a bid to regain its trust.
The governance measures Scyne Advisory has put in place, and its freedom from conflict as a strictly public sector consultancy, in turn caught the attention of Ball; “I was incredibly attracted to Scyne’s purpose-led vision and the opportunity it presents to do advisory differently for public purpose in Australia,” he said. “I am genuinely excited to join Scyne Advisory and lead the team into its exciting future.”
More than twelve months on, Ball’s appointment completes Scyne’s leadership line-up at various levels, with its six-strong advisory leadership team led by Gwilym announced in recent days. The consulting firm had earlier unveiled its executive leadership team, while former Jetstar chief information officer Claudine Ogilvie claimed the final advisory board seat in March.
