Australian tech careers, told plainly.
NTP Podcast follows technology leaders, founders, and specialists through the decisions that shaped their careers. Its conversations move from Newcastle tech community history to cybersecurity, AI, cloud, digital transformation, migration law, and the realities of building teams.
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NTP Podcast is a long-running profile series about the people doing technology work in Australia, with a strong thread running through Newcastle and regional tech communities. It is built around conversation, not keynote performance. Guests are asked to trace how their careers actually unfolded, including the odd starts, sideways moves, difficult programs, and leadership lessons that rarely fit inside a resume. The Tech Exec Series gives the show a sharper leadership lens. Oliver Shanahan talks through technical foundations, cybersecurity, infrastructure, hiring, and the discipline of staying hands-on. Matt Vitale brings a founder and operator’s view of equity crowdfunding, cost pressure, new revenue lines, and the practical Australian context for AI. Victoria Aspden describes digital transformation at Ampcontrol with attention to ownership, scale, frameworks, vulnerability, and the work of changing mindsets. Andrew Cresp connects CIO work to simplification, cloud momentum, customer speed, and the difference regional relationships can make. Margareta Bogatir Studdert adds an international perspective, moving from Sweden to Newcastle while reflecting on strengths-based leadership, diversity, service management, and technology’s role in finance and workplace change. Josh Weeks offers a more winding career story, from early jobs and teaching plans to Alpha Echo. Sam Bricknell brings TechVisa into the technology ecosystem through recruitment, migration law, specialization, and the practical problem of bringing talent into the market. The live episode for episode 100 widens the lens to Newcastle itself, revisiting projects, people, and themes that shaped the local scene. The show’s rhythm is plainspoken and local, with enough room for guests to explain context before the conversation turns toward decisions and consequences. It does not treat technology as a parade of tools. It treats technology as work done by people inside businesses, communities, constraints, and career uncertainty. That makes the episodes useful for emerging leaders as well as established operators. The strongest material comes from moments of candor: near-death business pressure, public listing paperwork, corporate scale, regional authenticity, and the confidence to hire around one’s weaknesses. NTP Podcast suits listeners who want practical Australian tech stories from the people close to the work.
Made for: NTP Podcast is for Australian technology professionals, founders, recruiters, operators, and emerging leaders who want grounded career stories from people building and leading real teams. It especially suits listeners interested in Newcastle, regional tech ecosystems, and practical leadership lessons.
What sets it apart: The show stands apart by tying executive technology conversations to specific career paths and local market context. Rather than treating AI, cloud, cybersecurity, or transformation as buzzwords, it asks how those pressures show up inside teams, businesses, and communities.
Welcome to the NTP Podcast. Each episode highlights the incredible work of talented tech professionals in Australia. We chat with people who are at the top of their game to learn all about their craft—why they’re passionate about their work and what resources help power their success. By delving into their experiences, we gain insights into the constantly evolving tech scene, explore how it has changed, and see where it may be headed.
A core banking program claimed one CIO's fringe; you get the story without the hair loss.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A cybersecurity and infrastructure leader argues for keeping hands-on curiosity alive as technical careers become more senior.
Oliver Shanahan's path into technology starts well outside the standard founder script: a childhood on the land without electricity, then a move to Hilland and a Commodore 64 that opened the door to computers.
Matt Vitale connects AI's promise with the harder work of leading through stalled growth and organizational change.
Matt Vitale's move into New Dialogue gives this NTP conversation a practical route into AI, starting with the operating pressure that shapes executive judgment.
A grounded look at how technology leadership changes when ownership moves closer to the work.
Victoria Aspden's career story plays as a practical look at digital leadership after a move from the scale of CBA to the closer ownership of AmpControl.
A CIO connects cloud migration with the harder work of making a financial-services business move faster.
Newy Teched People starts its Tech Exec Series with Andrew Cresp, CIO at NGM Group, following his path through Insurance Australia Group, NAB and Bendigo Adelaide Bank into his current role. The strongest material comes when Cresp grounds modernization in operational detail.
A practical episode on moving from finance into IT, leading across difference, and following an AI health initiative in Sweden.
The strongest thread here is a career shaped by practical turns: finance leading into SAP implementation, finance quality systems, BPO sourcing, and eventually IT leadership.
Conversations on the technology choices New Zealand makes for itself.
Enterprise IT leaders, one candid conversation at a time.
Oliver Shanahan, Group Head of Cybersecurity and Infrastructure at BetMakers Technology Group, traces his path from growing up without electricity to programming on a Commodore 64 with BASIC.
Matt Vitale, now Executive Director at New Dialogue, explains how he went from lawyer to co-founding Virtual, Australia’s largest equity crowdfunding platform, where he helped businesses raise over $250 million across more than 300 successful offers.
Victoria Aspden, Executive General Manager, Digital and Transformation at Ampcontrol, traces a career that moved from a 1999 tech degree and KPMG to more than 14 years at CBA, then Great Southern Bank and Newcastle.
Andrew Cresp, CIO at NGM Group, traces a career through Insurance Australia Group, NAB, and Bendigo Adelaide Bank, including a five-year core-banking program at NAB worth about $250 million to $350 million a year.
Margareta Bogatyr-Studdert describes moving from finance into IT at the Swedish post, where she spent 19 years across 11 roles and later worked through a merger with the Danish post.
Adam Ingles argues software founders should raise toward profitability rather than simply securing another 18–24 months of runway.
Roger Crellin describes fractional work as a one-to-three-day-a-week option for technology specialists serving startups and scaleups.
Michael Graham, a Cutcher & Neale partner with 26 years at the firm, describes moving from laboring and TAFE accounting into business systems.
Josh Jeffress of Design Anthology describes moving from a 1993 CNC fitting and machining trade and abattoir work to an industrial design degree at Newcastle University.
Adam Boyle, who became Pegasus CEO after about ten years at SGS and a 2007 move to Singleton, describes how a labour-hire and training business built mine-site safety induction software.
Brett Thomas, Director and COO of The Melt, traces his path from a broken leg that ended a soccer career to surveying, undersea fiber-optic cable work in about 40 countries, and Q Master, a mining supply-chain software company where he was the fifth employee.
An interview with a tech director discussing his unconventional career path and the evolving tech scene in Australia.
A live episode celebrating 100 episodes, discussing the evolution of the Newcastle technology scene with local tech legends.
Sam Bricknell from TechVisa discusses his transition from recruitment to migration law and building a specialized visa business for tech professionals.
An interview with Martin Carr, founder of Applied Virtual Simulations, discussing his company's work in military simulators and the Newcastle tech community.
An interview with a software development manager about his career journey and insights into the Newcastle tech scene.
Interview with Ben May about scaling a WordPress development agency from Australia to a global audience.
An interview with a cybersecurity consultant about his company and the local tech scene.