Executive Team

Mike Briers

Chief Executive Officer

Michael is one of Australia's most respected e-research thought leaders and public-private sector entrepreneurs. Since 2001, Michael has transformed SIRCA from a quasi-academic institution reliant on public grants to a self-funded professional e-research service provider to over 200 universities, regulators and commercial clients world-wide. Over this period, Michael has led a range of public interest initiatives including most recently the successful establishment of Intersect Australia Ltd, which is now the peak e-research organization for NSW servicing scientific domains as diverse as the creative arts, humanities, health and climate change. His ambition is for SIRCA to become the leading catalyst for high impact research and innovation in the global financial community and, more broadly, demonstrate the social and economic value of appropriately structured private-public sector partnerships in research and education.
During his academic career prior to joining SIRCA, Michael's primary research and teaching interest was in organisational change management and was published in top international journals and several books. Michael has won several prestigious teaching awards including the 1998 Australian Award for University Teaching in the Business and Economics category for his work relating to the integration of experiential learning, knowledge management practices and contemporary process based change management strategies.
Michael has also consulted widely to the corporate and government sector on a wide range of assignments including data management, cost and process benchmarking and organisational change. This has included expert witness work in the field of activity based management/costing.

Chris Mendes

Chief Technical Officer

Chris Mendes has over 15 years experience managing commercial technology development. Chris has worked across many sectors including banking and finance, control systems and consumer product development. Most recently, Chris was General Manager of a Research and Development division at CiSRA, Canon's R&D centre in Australia. He graduated with a BSc majoring in Computer Science and a BE in Electrical Engineering (Hons) from the University of Sydney in the late 80s and has since worked in commercial R&D roles.

Paul Martin

Chief Finance Officer

Paul is Chief Financial Officer of SIRCA, and is currently Company Secretary of Intersect Australia Limited. Paul is also an adjunct Associate Professor of finance at the University of Sydney. Paul has over twenty years experience in the international financial markets, including almost 10 years at Hong Kong Bank Australia where he held the position of Deputy Treasurer, and consulting assignments at Advance Bank and the Australian Financial Markets Association (AFMA), the latter where he co-authored AFMA's submission to the Wallis Committee. Paul also currently lectures at the University of New South Wales in the Master of Commerce programme, in Business Risk Management, and at the University of Sydney in Banking.

Diccon Close

Director of Business Development

Diccon is responsible for the promotion of Sirca's capabilities, and the coordination of services provided to members and customers. Diccon's background includes a number of sales, marketing and leadership roles at Reuters Group, now part of Thomson Reuters Corporation.

Ian Friedman

Principal Data Consultant

Ian has been the Principal Data Consultant of SIRCA since 2003. He oversees all software development within the organisation and in particular is responsible for the software development for Reuters DataScope Tick History (RDTH). Ian has a BSc (Hons) in Computer Science from the University of Cape Town and over 25 years experience in the financial services industry, 18 of which were with Reuters Limited or subsidiaries of Reuters Limited. Ian was a founding member of Equity Systems Limited - a subsidiary of Reuters Limited providing all graphics, Technical Analysis and Historical database services to Reuters desktop and RMDS platforms. Prior to joining SIRCA, Ian was Reuters Global Product Manager for Historical Data Services from 1996 to 2002. Ian is also the Principal of Imagineered Consulting Pty Ltd.

Donna Dunwoody

Human Resources Manager

Donna is the HR Manager for both Sirca and Intersect Australia Limited. She is responsible for managing the HR function across both these companies including recruitment, performance management, training & development as well as developing the HR strategy, policies and procedures.

Donna has over 10 years experience in HR Management, working primarily in professional service industries including legal, investment and property. In addition to her qualifications in HR Management, Donna also has education in Training and Teacher Education.