SharePoint Forum 2008

Andrew Coates is a Developer Evangelist for Microsoft in Australia. Andrew's wide range of experience includes telecommunications, SMB inventory, dispatch and accounting systems, using both web and rich client front ends. He has developed and delivered class room training and has mentored a number of developers in Visual FoxPro and SQL Server technologies.

Brad Purdy is a Microsoft Enterprise Project Management Solution Specialist, and has been working in this field for over 7 years. Prior to Microsoft he worked for EQuest Consulting, a thought leader in Project Management as the National Business Development Manager. Brad helps clients to understand their business issues and to achieve best practice Project Portfolio Management through aligning people, process and technology. Brad is passionate about the organisational benefits a strong Project Portfolio Management solution can bring.

Rainier Bryce is Business Intelligence Technology Specialist at Microsoft. He has over 10 years experience in Business Intelligence, across a number of platforms, in the role of system management, consulting and technical pre sales. Rainier has focussed on needs driven solutions with a high focus on the user’s experience to gain real world value from Business Intelligence.

A veteran in the IT marketplace with a career spanning 25 years in both the UK and Australia Miles is an IW Solution Specialist at Microsoft Australia. With roles from Marketing, Product Management to Sales and Account Management Miles is well versed in customer needs.  At Microsoft Miles has pioneered use of a Business Productivity framework to help customers make the connection between the value of their productivity and collaborative investments to business strategy.

Jon Barrett is a Solution Specialist for Microsoft focusing on Business Productivity. He works primarily with Public Sector organizations such as state and local governments, education and health. A key challenge in these environments is striking the right balance between productivity and compliance. He was the technical lead for Microsoft’s response to the NSW GSAS IAMS tender.

Kirsty Cook is a Productivity Solution Advisor with over 10 years of experience working in the Information Worker space both in the UK and Australia. Kirsty has worked with a number of clients on how they can improve business productivity through empowering their employees. Kirsty has a particular interest in how this can be achieved within an organisation’s Learning & Development, Internal Communications and Human Resources business units.

As a Technology Specialist for Global and Financial Services customers at Microsoft Australia, David coordinates technical efforts in marketing, consulting, evangelism, and deployment activities. In addition to helping customers address challenges today, David is responsible for working with customers, partners, and industry experts to ensure the next generation of Microsoft technology solutions are relevant.

Johann Kruse is a National Technology Specialist for Microsoft Australia, based in Sydney.  Johann's areas of speciality include Unified Communications, VoIP, Exchange Server and Office Communications Server. Johann works with enterprise and government customers assisting with the development and design of messaging and Unified Communications platforms and strategies.

Sandra Lee-Joe is a Unified Communications Solution Specialist for Microsoft Australia.  Her role is to help customers deliver an integrated communications platform, with the view to connect employees with each other, partners and their customers who need to collaborate.  With UC, real-time services such as instant messaging, Internet Protocol (IP) telephony and teleconferencing are greatly enhanced and completely integrated for a seamless communication and collaboration experience.

Gavin Watson is the Business Intelligence Solution Specialist at Microsoft.  He has over 18 years of experience in IT across the technical pre-sales, systems implementation and application development areas and most recently in the Customer Relationship Management software space.

Gayan Peiris is a SharePoint Technology Specialist at Microsoft Australia. He has written many articles, reviews, columns for various online publications and a contributing author for a SharePoint book. Gayan is a frequent speaker at Microsoft conferences on SharePoint technology. Gayan was presented with MVP award for his contribution towards Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server technology.

Ian Hoyle is an Account Technology Specialist  at Microsoft Australia. Before recently joining Microsoft, Ian was a Principal Technology Architect for BHP Billiton. He has broad experience in enterprise technology issues and has worked on strategies and implementations in diverse areas such as networks, messaging, unified communications, desktops, collaboration, video conferencing etc. He holds a PhD in geophysics and has worked in the IT industry for some 20 years.

Peter Williams is a Specialist Sales Manager with Microsoft Australia. He is responsible for growing the sales of Microsoft Business Productivity solutions in the Australian Enterprise Market. He has experience in the Finance and Telecommunications markets. His team delivers innovative software based solutions that help to break down barriers, change the way people work, allow people to connect with customers and empower organisations to reach their full potential.

William Cornwill is a SharePoint Technical Specialist with 13+ year’s industry experience. William has worked for several Microsoft Gold Partner during which he has implemented solutions around Business Intelligence, Web Content Management, Custom Development and SharePoint for large customers such as Australia Post and Defence.   William is also a major contributor to the SharePoint community.

Ian Palangio is a Solution Specialist for Microsoft focusing on Business Productivity – including all the Microsoft Office Client applications and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server. Automating business processes and creating collaborative environments for information workers is the goal of the solutions Ian works on throughout Australia.  Ian likes to pursue winter sports and is currently a member of the Australian National Curling team.

Domenic Chiera is a Solution Specialist for Microsoft in Perth focusing on the Microsoft Business Productivity tools. Domenic has spent the last 10 years working with customers on business productivity improvement and business process automation solutions. Domenic has a real passion for increasing business productivity and delivering strong business benefits through software solutions.

Steven has more than 20 years experience in the sale and delivery of IT, Operational and Business Process projects, and is currently responsible for the Fast Enterprise Search business in Australia and New Zealand. Over the past 10 years Steven has been leading sales teams consulting to large enterprises across Asia Pacific on the effective use of technology for internal productivity improvements and to enhance customer satisfaction.

After only nine months at Microsoft, Jim has succeeded in taking on the challenge to grow the Microsoft Online Services market in Australia and New Zealand. The Microsoft Online Services offering includes Microsoft’s Exchange Hosted Services [EHS] and Office Live Meeting Services, and the recently announced Business Productivity Online Suite [BPOS]. BPOS includes SharePoint Online, Exchange Online, OCS Online and Office Live meeting. Throughout his 20 year IT career Jim was been successfully involved in delivering innovative solutions and services.

A specialist in business and IT strategy over some 20+ years spanning the UK, Ireland, Denmark, Portugal, France the United States and Australia, Mick leads Microsoft Consulting Services’ strategy and architecture practice at Microsoft Australia. With roles covering green-field development of a UK Education Authority, Group information manager at a major Franco-Irish bank, Managing consultant at a boutique ‘City of London’ management consultancy