Media

Short bio (~50 words)

Brenton Johnson is the founder and Managing Director of Uptake Digital, a Melbourne-based managed IT services provider. A national speaker on AI, cyber security, culture, and leadership, he is known for making complexity sound simple - and for a company culture built on golden age hip-hop and country values.

Medium bio (~120 words)

Brenton Johnson is an Australian technology entrepreneur and founder of Uptake Digital, one of the country's earliest cloud-first managed service providers (MSPs) - the companies that act as the outsourced IT department for organisations that don't run their own. Starting out building websites in regional Victoria, he pivoted to cloud services and completed more than 50 Microsoft 365 migrations before Microsoft's CSP program existed, joining its first intake. Today Uptake Digital serves not-for-profit and professional services organisations from Melbourne, with a nationally profiled culture blending hip-hop authenticity and country community values. Brenton speaks regularly on AI, cyber security, culture, and leadership - including at the AISA Australian Cyber Conference - and is a familiar voice on industry podcasts. He was the youngest Rotarian in his district at 21 and remains an active mentor to new entrepreneurs.

Long bio (~250 words)

Brenton Johnson is the founder and Managing Director of Uptake Digital and one of the most distinctive voices in the Australian IT channel.

Born in Ballarat and raised in regional Victoria, Brenton started his career building websites for country businesses. He kept hearing the same complaint - the website was fine, but the IT behind it was broken - so he founded Uptake Digital in Bendigo and backed the cloud before the market did. His fledgling business completed more than 50 Microsoft 365 migrations before the Cloud Solution Provider program existed, earning a place in Microsoft's first CSP intake.

Under his leadership, Uptake Digital grew into a mature, fiercely selective managed service provider (MSP) - the outsourced IT department for its clients - serving not-for-profit and professional services organisations with cloud, cyber security, and technology strategy. Its culture - a blend of golden age hip-hop authenticity and old-fashioned country values - has been profiled nationally, and reflects Brenton's operating philosophy: if you get culture right, everything else becomes easier.

Brenton speaks nationally on AI, cyber security, culture, and leadership. He has presented at the AISA Australian Cyber Conference (2019, 2023, and 2026), co-hosted the Need to Know podcast, and is a regular guest on industry podcasts including MSP Mastery. A community man since being his district's youngest Rotarian at 21, he served as Vice President of Bendigo's Synergize Hub, mentored small businesses through government digital programs, and continues to coach new entrepreneurs through their first year in business.

He lives in Melbourne, but insists you can't take Bendigo out of the boy.

The unofficial bio

Brenton Johnson is the Managing Director of Uptake Digital, a modern MSP with a cloud-first mindset and a founder who dreams of one day becoming rich, jobless, and vaguely inspirational. Brenton's approach to life and business is refreshingly simple: learn something, teach it to someone else, and then never do it again. It's worked surprisingly well so far - much to the confusion of everyone around him, who still don't quite understand how he gets everything done.

While Brenton is razor-sharp and technically fluent in today's tools, don't ask him to join a PC to a domain - he's tried, and it ended with him calling for help. His genius doesn't lie in cables or command lines, but in his uncanny ability to gather, filter, and assemble the best thinking of others, packaging it into clear, persuasive direction that actually sticks. Whether it's in the boardroom or on stage, Brenton has a knack for making complexity sound simple and strategy feel obvious.

Charismatic without trying too hard, Brenton brings an entertaining, slightly chaotic energy to any conversation - always insightful, occasionally provocative, and never boring. He's the guy who can take half a dozen good ideas, distil them into one compelling position, and get a room full of people nodding like it was their idea all along. Just don't ask him to fix a printer. Ever.