Our Team

Adam Townsend

Adam was among the early members of Aconex, one of Australia's tech success stories, helping to grow Aconex from a few people and some bean bags in Melbourne to operating in 35+ jurisdictions around the world, an IPO. Adam moved to the United Nations, and then worked in large commodity trading companies around the world. It was there that he first worked with machine learning, became the CEO of a European energy group, and then the CEO of the UK's largest business gas and power retailer. He has designed and implemented large and small digital and AI transformations, with an emphasis on evolving people. He lives on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland.

Jacob Townsend

Jacob's career has focused on using technology to accelerate the development and testing of new services. He has been a Founder and Director of multiple businesses working across Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Europe. Jacob has led AI research and integration teams, internally focused on supporting sales and financial management, and externally focused on personal services in low-resource environments. His clients have included multiple governments, large private project management firms, and non-profits. For example, he led the European Union's General Assessment of the feasibility of using AI for migration and crisis forecasting. Jacob lives in Brisbane, Australia.

Zdena has helped dozens of organisations develop change management strategies and people plans, with an emphasis on adapting to new systems and new platforms. She focuses on pragmatic, iterative learning. Client feedback suggests her strengths are in medium-term engagements that go from introduction to integration. Zdena's clients range from niche and small to large and sprawling. Common themes are using data for HR improvement, implementing new systems of service monitoring, and helping leaders develop new methods of making strategy. She lives in Brussels, Belgium.

Zdena Middernacht

Simon Dennison

Simon brings deep machine learning knowledge and skills. After a stellar maths and physics degree from Durham University, he has worked in machine learning projects for large energy companies, Deloitte and insurance companies in the UK for more than 15 years. He brings deep Python, data architecture, project management, statistics knowledge and skills.

Maria Jargon

Maria enhances the performance of systems and people to drive efficiency and measurable impact. She focuses on learning that leads to scalable changes, including the design, procurement, and pricing of IT solutions. For example, Maria has developed machine learning systems to help social media teams optimize marketing strategies and built performance measurement frameworks for organizations developing and refining AI models for low-resource languages. She has delivered for high-profile clients such as national security agencies in complex environments ranging from Kabul to Bangladesh. Maria lives in Cologne, Germany.

Yulia Migunova

Yulia has been a founder and worked in marketing and communications for large and small private and government organisations. She completed her law degree from the University of Moscow at the age of 20 and went on to do a masters in communications and marketing. Her recent career has focused on digital marketing for a fast-growing investment fund. At the age of 19, Yulia founded and grew a clothing and accessories company in France, growing the brand in Europe and the Arab world. She raced motorbikes and was a professional rally driver, coming third in the world in her category in 2018. Yulia is based in Northern Italy.