Timeline

Born in Ballarat and raised in regional Victoria. Learnt IT through a VET program at school and started getting paid to solve IT problems in his early 20s.

Youngest Rotarian in the district; later recognised as Volunteer of the Year.

Founded Johnson IT, providing turnkey IT solutions to regional businesses.

Moved to Bendigo and rebranded as Uptake Digital, focused on getting small businesses into the cloud.

Completed 50+ Microsoft 365 migrations before the Microsoft CSP program existed; invited into the first CSP intake. Earned Microsoft Silver Competency in 2015.

Vice President of Synergize Hub, Bendigo's co-working community (later President). Profiled by Kerry Anderson in Small Business in the Cloud and interviewed on The Pointy End.

Featured in the Bendigo Advertiser as a cyber security expert - "Small businesses prime target for cyber crime" - and ran workshops at the Bendigo Small Business Festival.

Speaker at the AISA Australian Cyber Conference. Began co-hosting the Need to Know podcast with Robert Crane (CIAOPS).

Hired the first Uptake Digital employee as pandemic demand grew, and began building out a full managed services practice.

Mentor in the government-backed Digital Solutions program - featured in the Bendigo Times.

Quoted by ABC News as a cyber security expert on the PH Property Bendigo data breach. Speaker at AISA CyberCon Melbourne: Unite and Conquer - Fixing the adversarial relationship between your IT and cybersecurity service providers, with Corch (Shogun Cybersecurity).

Relocated to Melbourne. Profiled by Moxie Insights: "What would Biggie do?" When golden age hip-hop and country values collide.

Featured by ABC News on the risks families face hiring au pairs through social media. Published a 10-year retrospective on LinkedIn. Guest on the MSP Mastery: Ctrl-Alt-Deliver podcast - Why People and Relationships are the Real Future of MSP. Returning to AISA CyberCon Melbourne in October: Securing your domain and DNS, with Patrick Kissane (Burger IT).