Harvard Business School

Stanford University

Monash University

RMIT University

Deputy Director at Monash eResearch Centre, Monash University

Digital innovation can be innate to a sustainable, equitable and inclusive world. For example, our growing awareness of climate change and data protection can either promote or hinder the democratisation of AI. I founded Innate Innovation to help organisations deal with increasing costs, reduced financial appetite, value chain disruption, workforce retention, cybersecurity, data protection, decarbonisation, and sovereignty challenges. That is - to overcome the looming digital complexity wall.

Innate Innovation

Founder, principal advisor & CEO

I founded the Australian Scaleable Drones Cloud (ASDC) and chaired the national project’s Steering Committee. 

I identified the need for many researchers to scale their innovations from drone-acquired data. The ASDC established a robust and talented team across five innovative organisations: The Australian Plant Phenomics Facility (APPF), Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN), AuScope, the Monash Drone Discovery Platform, and CSIRO. The ASDC entrusted me to establish a scrum software development methodology across the partnership and drive their technology governance and cultural journey towards agility and data analytics/data science.

Australian Scalable Drones Cloud

Founder | Chair

In 2018 I founded and chaired the Research Data Cultures Conversation, a partnership between research-intensive universities (Monash University, University of Melbourne, University of NSW, University of Queensland, and University of Sydney). 

To unlock latent value in the institution’s research data, I identified the need for systemic change in client behaviour and the systemic change of university support to solve what is a life-cycle and hence an organisation-wide problem. The culture change necessitates considerations across cross-functional teams (each “institutional pillar” and each “research discipline”). The RDCC partnership seeks to kick-start the systemic response to this culture change challenge by amassing the sector-wide evidence necessary to influence technology governance.

Research Data Cultures Conversation

My primary responsibility was to drive a vision of eResearch, including consolidating research technology needs, influencing organisational strategies & technology governance, and managing the operations of three functions. Specifically, Monash sought to re-culture and re-skill the Centre from traditional HPC technology enablement to a customer-first and business-led model. Through my tenure, Monash became globally accoladed for pioneering eResearch: the operationalisation of digitalising a researcher workforce.

My direct teams span engineering & capability uplift of the fabric for digital infrastructure (cloud, edge and storage), quality software development & DevOps, and the institutional research data life-cycle / data governance strategies. 
eResearch-wide, my responsibilities include:
- Executing an ~$20m/yr budget
- Maintaining a client satisfaction rating of 90%
- Establishing risk management of initiatives that span explore/innovation and exploit/operate phases
- Uplifting technology & data governance and cybersecurity in a complex stakeholder environment
- Mentoring spin-off functions in high-performance computing (HPC), visualisation, AI, machine learning and sensitive data
- Advising national and international agencies, and 
- Participating in technology & data governance bodies for other organisations

I founded and participated in countless national and global forums. I coached and mentored the next generation of leaders within my function and externally. My experiences have uplifted the capabilities of over 20,000 Australian researchers into cloud computing, made 7petabtyes of data accessible beyond the organisation, and verified that 700 cloud clients are and remain safe to today’s cybersecurity expectations. Through contract research, I lead innovations in diverse industries such as energy, health and technology (e.g. drones and DPUs).

Deputy Director - Monash eResearch Centre

I established a vision and delivered operational know-how for the eResearch business unit. The Centre’s purpose was to foster client-led (research-led) digital innovation. I developed the business development (strategic initiative) strategy, leveraging other contributions of mine, including an infrastructure roadmap and data strategy. The Centre grew from $2m/yr to $20m/year over ten years, attracting internal and external investment from peers and senior stakeholders. My initiatives targetted the newly formed National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS) Platforms for Collaboration opportunity. I won two substantive bids - the Nectar Research Cloud at Monash and the joint University of Melbourne / Monash University node of the RDSI Research Data Storage Infrastructure (RDSI). I influenced the broader Research Technology Platforms to adopt ISO9k and identified and wrote a successful business case for ISO27k certification of a facility. It rendered Monash the only certified Australian university (still to this date) and subsequently delivered to 30 of the globe’s ~100 quality clinical registries. I pioneered data assimilation approaches to geothermal energy exploration, leading the energy theme within Auscope. 

My core responsibilities included:
- Developing and coordinating technology strategies and roadmaps
- Attracting state and national funding (over $50m as lead, over $120m as a partner)
- Driving innovation in the global technology & research infrastructure sector

Strategic Initiatives Manager

Delivering modelling and data assimilation techniques whilst working at VPAC resulted in my appointment as an honorary member of the School of Mathematics. 

I established the Underworld project’s software architecture and appointed its software engineers. I founded StGermain, an open-source framework to apply aspect-oriented approaches to HPC applications, including Underworld and SNAC.

Honorary - School of Mathematics

I was charged with and successfully turned around a commercially failing business unit. 

I was responsible for driving partnerships with and delivering ambitious health informatics & health data projects in their establishment phase. VPAC’s expertise was technical advice and capability. Fifteen years on, the results of VPAC’s work still thrive today. Later my role predominantly involved negotiating contracts and establishing strategic relationships with Universities, hospitals and multi-national organisations. I also delegated technical functions to my staff, learning to nurture and coach service delivery teams.

VPAC

Head of Health and Computational Software

I transformed VPAC’s Computational Software Development (CSD) capability from an organisational cost centre into a commercially viable profit centre. 

I developed a business model and cost structure suited to sustained consultancy projects in academia (distinct from industry). VPAC CSD grew from 5 to 16 staff, and its revenue grew from $300k to $1.5 million annually. I also maintained my technical prowess through my secondments with the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and our partnership with Auscope, which resulted in my honorary appointment at Monash.

Head of Computational Software Development

I was responsible for the software development, architecture and high-performance computing (HPC) aspects of the SNAC software. 

SNAC embodied an approach to modelling basin evolution from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). This role was consultancy work performed remotely.

Caltech

Software Engineer

With the launch of Computational Infrastructure for Geodynamics (CIG), my role at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) was advising geoscientists on high-performance computing (HPC), open-source adoption and software development. 

I was responsible for fostering relationships with renowned geoscientists, where we explored how and where advanced computing could contribute to their field. I also co-founded the SNAC software, leading the software architecture and high-performance computing (HPC) aspects.

Visitor in Geophysics

I was the 3rd employee of the startup - Victorian Partnership for Advanced Computing (VPAC) and promptly owned the software development function.

I led and coded the development of highly optimised software applications for HPC infrastructure. I became a known expert in parallel computing. However, I differentiated from most by pioneering within the HPC sector methods now foundational to cloud software (e.g. agile, software families, DevOps, open source).

Steve Quenette