About SYPAQ

With a career spanning across the defence and technology sectors, Amanda brings a wealth of expertise and a deep understanding of innovation and enterprise-level solutions to address some of Defence’s toughest challenges, seeing Amanda recognised as the inaugural Defence Connect Executive of the Year in 2019, and leading SYPAQ to be recognised as the Australian Financial Review’s Most Innovative Company for 2023.

As the Chief Executive Officer of SYPAQ, a leading engineering and systems integration company demonstrating the innovation potential of local defence industry, Amanda has consistently demonstrated her capability to lead and influence complex organisational improvements across technology, plans, and people. Her collaborative approach has consistently delivered effective results, from the boardroom to the battlespace.

Amanda is proud to describe SYPAQ’s contribution to the autonomous systems industry as the renaissance of the Australian Aerospace industry. “Fishermans Bend was the original home of Australian Aerospace, so establishing our advanced manufacturing facility and Defence Autonomy Centre of Excellence here in Port Melbourne pays homage to this important part of Australia’s innovation and industrial heritage”.

Beyond her professional achievements, Amanda remains actively engaged in various professional organisations, and continues to be active in the engineering disciple, as a Fellow and Engineering Executive of Engineers Australia. She is also a valuable member of the RMIT Aerospace Engineering Advisory Board, the Defence Council Victoria, industry co-chair of the Defence Maritime Environmental Working Group (MEWG), and co-chair on the Army’s Land Environment Working Group (LEWG).

Amanda has recently been appointed as Non-Executive Director for PWR Group Holdings and CEA Technologies – two innovative Australian advanced technology businesses.

David is the Managing Director at SYPAQ and sits on the company’s Risk, Finance and Audit Committee and Nominations and Remuneration Committee, and Chairs Bellinger Systems, a SYPAQ company.

David joined SYPAQ in 2000 as Operations Manager before being promoted to Chief Executive Officer, presiding over the company’s significant growth.

In David’s current role as Managing Director, he is responsible for providing strategic guidance and direction to the board to ensure that the company fulfils its purpose, maintains its values-based culture and achieves its vision, mission and long-term goals.

Prior to joining SYPAQ, David was the Operations Coordinator at the RACV Member Line Contact Centre, a 200 seat inbound and outbound call centre responsible for sales and service of all RACV products. Previous roles at RACV included Branch and Regional Management responsibilities.

David is also a Council Member for the Victorian division of the Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA) and a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD).

Away from the office, David is married and has two teenage daughters, and is a coach within the junior girls AFL program at the Ashburton Junior Football Club.

George served 22 years in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) as a systems engineer specialising in airborne electronic systems. On leaving the RAAF, George worked for Telstra as a System Design and Integration Engineer before founding SYPAQ in 1992.

He has personally delivered successful client outcomes in diverse and complex projects including Mission-critical Defence Systems, Communications Systems. Information Systems, Business Process Re-engineering, Organisational Restructure and Change Management.

George holds a Bachelor of Engineering from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) and is a Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

In addition to being Chairman of SYPAQ, he also Chairs the Risk Finance and Audit Committee and the Nominations and Remuneration Committee.  He remains personally committed to ensuring the successful delivery of cost-effective and sustainable solutions to complex Defence capability requirements.

Caroline joined SYPAQ late in 2022 as the Head of People Capability and Culture. Caroline comes with 27 years’ experience in the Department of Defence across both Maritime and Land Systems.

Prior to joining SYPAQ, Caroline held a number of executive roles in Capability Acquisition and Sustainment Group within Land Systems Division (LSD). As a member of the Executive team in LSD Caroline was part of the Strategic Workforce Planning team for the Division, invested in the development of a planning, attraction and selection process aligned to organisational values, resulting in significant changes within LSD workforce structures and requirements.  She has several CASG awards, including a Land Manoeuvre Systems Branch Head award in recognition of her work as the Director of Surveillance and Simulation Systems Program Office.

As the Director of Commercial and General Service Vehicles Systems Program Office, Caroline led and managed an integrated team of approximately 80 members, including ADF, APS and contractors.  She provided strategic direction through the development of business plans, strategies and priorities.  She was responsible for monitoring overall work-flow and performance in the delivery and sustainment of the General and Logistic Vehicle Fleets for the Australian Army.

Away from her professional life, Caroline is married to a Naval Officer, and kept busy with their many children and grandchildren.

Michael has a successful record in leading large multi-discipline teams within technically challenging environments.

He has over 15 years of experience across program, project and engineering leadership positions. This has included leading programs such as the Nulka Active Missile Decoy, the Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile (ESSM) production and next-gen development programs.

Whilst at BAE Systems, Michael was responsible for developing crucial future technologies supporting Australian Defence Force capability requirements, which included a role as Head of Technology Development for the Australian business. This has given him a strong understanding of how to implement a technology-based strategy that underpins every investment.

Michael is experienced at fostering innovation and technology maturation, most notably having been responsible for effective collaborations between DST Group, Academia and Australian Industry.

Michael’s academic achievements have been recognised by the industry. He has earned Chartered Professional Engineer status. Michael has also received multiple awards, including Business Leader Awards during his career.

Richard holds a tertiary qualification in Management Science (BSc) and in 2019 completed the Senior Executive MBA at Melbourne Business School. In 2023, Richard Graduated from the Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD).

With his early career focusing upon the Automotive industry, in the UK and Australia, Richard further developed his governance and assurance expertise working for an Australian based management consultancy.  Richard joined SYPAQ Systems in 2019.

Richard works predominantly from SYPAQ’s Canberra and Brisbane locations as General Manager – Consulting. His responsibilities span management of SYPAQ’s consulting services, managed services and systems integration projects.  Richard’s team specialises in enterprise digital transformation, agile delivery and Atlassian services, cyber security, emerging technology integration into legacy environments, software application development and test automation as well as Defence Capability Life Cycle professional services.

As General Manager of SYPAQ Consulting, Richard is the governance and assurance lead for SYPAQ Joint Operations. Richard then engages with specialist businesses to ensure the Commonwealth of Australia receive the timely delivery of capability and value for money outcomes in full compliance with panel head agreements including – DSS, ICTPA, DIST, ISREW and DMP. As portfolio manager, Richard is accountable for all SYPAQ professional services, creating synergies through relationships built on transparency and trust.

Richard is a deputy co-chair of the Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA) Queensland Council which focuses on being an active voice and connector for the ICT industry and government. Richard’s responsibilities on the council include participating in ICT procurement legislation and the future of jobs and the skills required for tomorrow.

Richard is an ambassador of the Commando Welfare Trust which involves being an advocate to support Australia’s most at risk soldiers. Providing emergency and long-term financial support to Special Forces soldiers, veterans and family members where the system cannot.

Ross Osborne is the General Manager of SYPAQ’s Sensors and Surveillance Group. Ross is currently leading SYPAQ’s research and development activities focused on future technologies in the C4ISR domain, including UAS and sensor systems for Army and Navy, ISR solutions for Air Force and a range of manned and unmanned commercial airborne sensing projects.

Ross is an RMIT Aerospace Engineering Graduate who spent the early years of his career at BAE Systems, working as a design engineer on a range of Autonomous systems programs before spending time on the AP-3C Orion program. Ross then joined SYPAQ in 2010.

Ross is a hands-on engineer, a qualified UAS Pilot and a passionate advocate for the Australian Defence and Aerospace industry.

Tim is a strategic, commercially minded Chief Financial Officer (CFO) with more than 25 years’ experience working with large, privately-owned, diversified and complex businesses.

He is a Chartered Accountant, Tax Agent, and holds a Senior Executive MBA from the Melbourne Business School.

Prior to joining SYPAQ as CFO, Tim held senior leadership roles managing professional services business units of Big Four (Deloitte, KPMG) and 2nd-tier (Grant Thornton) chartered accounting firms, as well as acting as CFO of several large privately-owned businesses in the contracting, projects, manufacturing and energy and resources supply chain industries.

Luke is an experienced flight operations manager, having worked globally with fixed wing and rotary wing operations spanning Special Mission, Resource Sector, Utilities, Exploration and Oil & Gas domains.

As an early adopter of Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems and their employment in Australia, Luke has worked with police, fire, resource sector and humanitarian operations in the Pacific and Australia on a range of operations and diverse tasks.

Luke’s qualifications include RPAS instructor, manned fixed wing pilot and Aviation Safety & Quality Lead auditor and he has participated on CASA Advisory Panels for the Part 101 Manual of Standards. He was also a member of the CASA Unmanned Aerial Systems Steering Committee.