Wes Sonnenreich has over 15 years of leadership experience in a diverse range of industries including resources and mining, energy, pharmaceuticals and information technology. He is currently Chief Science and Technology Officer for Sirius Minerals, a junior potash mining company listed on the London stock exchange (SXX.L). He looks for technologies that can help develop potash and salt resources in the most sustainable manner possible. This includes innovations in agricultural science, material science, renewable energy, carbon capture and sequestration, mine and processing automation, geoscience, data analytics, transportation and logistics.
Wes is also a Principal and co-founder of Intersective Learning, which develops and delivers unique experiential learning solutions that build meaningful connections between students and employer's of choice. Intersective’s programs complement the core curriculum of educational institutions and corporate training programs. It’s clients include Deloitte and the University of Sydney.
In the past five years Wes has led significant projects for Rio Tinto, Woodside, Horizon Power and Wesfarmers. He has also served as Director of Deloitte Australia’s innovation and commercialization program, reporting directly to the CEO and executive team. Wes is a graduate of M.I.T. and Harvard Business School’s executive MBA program and is also a widely published author and speaker.
Innovation & Commercialisation: Enterprise-wide Program Strategy & Implementation, Funding Models and Portfolio Management, Mentoring and Concept Acceleration
Information Management: Knowledge Management, Data/Systems/Network Architecture
Information Risk Management: Assessment, Risk Metrics, Governance &
Compliance
Professional Services,
Energy and Natural Resources (inc. Utilities), Pharmaceuticals &
Healthcare, IT
Deloitte, Wesfarmers,
Woodside, Rio Tinto Iron Ore, Argyle Diamonds, Horizon Power, South East Water,
Pfizer, Novartis, Aventis, Monsanto, GlaxoSmithKline, Wyeth, Travelers
Insurance (Citigroup), U.S. National Opera (Washington D.C.), Disney/Infoseek
Corporation
Deloitte
Director of Innovation, 2007-2010
Ran Deloitte’s innovation program, a national program responsible for accelerating Deloitte’s competitive position in the market by exploring and commercialising fresh ideas that create value. Responsible for the program’s strategy (through 2015), investment fund and operational budget. Directly reports to the national executive investment and growth team (CEO, COO, CFO, and MP Asia Pacific Consulting).
During tenure in the role, the program grew substantially through several successful initiatives:
- Extensive use of social media to build deep connections with innovators throughout the business
- Aggressive management of the commercialisation investment fund and idea pipeline
- New partnership models, e.g. using universities and external solution providers as enablers and accelerators.
This leadership position regularly required:
- Managing a national core team of 6-10 people and an extended part-time team of 30+.
- Communicating with the firm through national events, emails, regional workshops and online activities
- Working with funded project teams to ensure successful commercialisation outcomes
- Developing and presenting thought leadership to external forums and key firm clients
The program maintained a 350% ROI and also catalysed sustained
innovative growth outside of the program. Deloitte regularly won major awards
and accolades due to its innovative services and offerings. E.g. CFO Awards
Accountancy Firm of the Year, BRW’s “best companies to work for 2009 (#11)”, Australia’s
Leading Organisation for the Advancement of Women (>500 employees).
SageSecure, LLC
Founding Partner, 2003-2007
Created and commercialized SecureMark, an information risk management
service for executives. Clients included Rio Tinto Iron Ore, Argyle Diamonds,
Travelers Insurance and several legal and accounting firms in New York. The
business was privately funded and drew operating capital from consulting
initiatives.
Pharmatrak
Co-Founder, Chief Technology Officer, 1998-2001
Created and commercialized Pharmatrak, an
Internet metrics tool for Pharmaceutical companies. Led a 25 person team of
developers, project managers, and production staff. Directly sold the pharmatrak
product and deliverables to senior executives of clients including Pfizer,
Novartis, Monsanto, Hoechst/Aventis, GlaxoSmithKline, Wyeth and numerous
others. Took the company through a capital raise; the company was externally
valued at over $100m by PaineWebber.
The Academy of Applied Science
Project Director, Distance education initiative, 1995-1998
Designed and launched the Global School District, a
distance education initiative designed to connect students across the world via
the Internet. The underlying technology was patented and a deployment model was
developed. The project was not intended to be commercial as the Academy of
Applied Science is funded by grants.
Wesfarmers Insurance Division
Project Director (Deloitte Consulting), Innovation Program
Engaged to help Wesfarmers Insurance Division (WID) build its capability for innovation in its existing businesses (three general insurance companies and two insurance brokerage businesses).
Worked with Chief Executives and the executive teams at the Divisional
level as well as within each corporate unit (Lumley AU & NZ, OAMPS AU &
UK, WFI, Crombie Lockwood). Designed and implemented a sophisticated idea
capture, assessment and development platform that encourages collaboration and
exchange of knowledge and know-how between business units which have
historically operated autonomously (and in some cases have directly competed). The
platform leverages a sophisticated enterprise content management system and has
complex workflow.
Woodside
Project Director (Deloitte Consulting), Innovation Program
Developed a program to increase Woodside’s innovation capabilities. Worked with the Chief Science and Technology Officer and other senior executives to assess the effectiveness of Woodside’s current innovation process and augment it with best practice tools and techniques from Deloitte’s award winning innovation management framework.
Other key activities included: coordinating with the Continuous
Improvement initiative team to ensure program alignment and reinforcement of
key messages, developing an idea capture, management and communication platform
by extending and integrating an enterprise content management system to fit the
specific needs of Woodside’s Innovation Program and IT environment, providing
advisory support to the Innovation and Improvement steering committees, helping
to develop a communications and change management strategy surrounding the new
innovation capabilities.
Horizon Power
Project Director (Deloitte Consulting), Executive Strategic Planning Workshops
Engaged with Horizon’s CEO to create a series of strategic visioning
sessions for the executive team. Sessions were structured to bring the
executive team out of their operational ‘crisis’ mode of thinking and into a
place where long-term goals can be explored in-depth. Innovation was examined
as a strategic enabler and how innovation works in comparable companies was a
key theme. Case studies and future scenario modelling techniques were also
used.
Rio Tinto Iron Ore
Project Director (SageSecure Consulting), End-to-end information risk assessment for the Managing Director and CFO
Assessment involved gathering quantitative and qualitative data from senior executives, department heads, and technology staff (including system architectures from all critical system).
Integrated and analysed data from critical IT processes across RTIO's major Western Australian mine sites, ports and rails systems, the Expansion Projects division and the Shared Business Services division (providing IT support for most of the Australian divisions of Rio Tinto).
Closely examined a number of specific processes and systems for gaps in
information flow and data security vulnerabilities (including accounting,
payroll, ERP and mine control systems).
Argyle Diamonds
Project Director (SageSecure Consulting), Investigation into suspected information risks and vulnerabilities for the CEO and head of security
Evaluated and addressed concerns of organized crime and terrorism risks,
which involved examining information flow and business processes at the mine
site, the processing facility, and all IT service providers.
Waterfront Media
Project Director (SageSecure Consulting), IT strategy review and risk assessment, reporting to CEO, CFO, CIO
Conducted a comprehensive information risk assessment focusing on
management practice, IT infrastructure, development practices and the off-site
call center. Prepared detailed reports identifying risk factors, particularly
in relation to employee practices, which provided recommendations for
eliminating risks and improving processes.
Travelers Insurance
Project Director (SageSecure
Consulting), Expert testimony services
Performed independent expert investigation services and expert-witness
testimony for a $10m claim/lawsuit. Examined documents and testimony to
determine the value of damaged equipment at the time of the claim.
Novartis, AG
Project Director (Pharmatrak Consulting), Data mining application design & development
Led the design, development and production of Netwatcher, a data mining application that scanned the Internet for new content on topics of interest. Particular concerns included detecting activism organized over the Internet, competing products, illegal use of trademarks or other intellectual property.
Led the design & development of a prototype system architecture for
the delivery of real-time health news and information to the professional
medical community (HealthCast).
Monsanto
Project Director (Pharmatrak Consulting), Enterprise portal design & development
Led the design and development of a
web-portal project that gave medical associations the ability to provide their
constituents sophisticated medical practice websites with useful patient
information and communication/scheduling tools.
Medicine In the Public Interest & Tufts School of Nutrition
Project Director (Pharmatrak Consulting), Healthcare information portal
Led
the design and development of MIPILinks, a web portal containing useful public
health information vetted by leading doctors. Also designed and developed
DrugCompare, an online tool for comparing prescription drug by indications,
side-effects, off-label usage, pharmacology, and other attributes.
UTS Executive MBA – Innovation Track (2009)
University of Technology, Sydney Business School
Gave a half-day workshop/lecture on the practicalities of implementing innovation in business.
Innovation - What and Why (2009)
High Resolves program conclusion event
Half-day lecture/Q&A session on innovation to student participants in the High Resolves development program.
Think like a CIO (2008)
Curtin Business
School
80-hour intensive course taught to IT-focused MBA students on how to think about IT like a business executive.
The
Rosetta Stone – A framework for comparing security regulations
and standards (2006)
Computer
Security Institute Presented
at the 2006 annual CSI conference in Orlando, Florida. The
Rosetta Stone – A framework for comparing security regulations
and standards (2006) Computer
Security Institute Presented
at the 2006 annual CSI conference in Orlando, Florida. “Return
on Security Investment (ROSI) – a practical quantitative model”
(2006) Journal
of Research and Practice in Information Technology, Vol 38 Presented
at the 2005 Workshop on Security in Information Systems. “Network
Security Illustrated” (McGraw-Hill, 2003) co-author
with Jason Albanese, sold 10,000+ copies to date Provides
decision-makers with essential knowledge about security concepts and
technologies. Now being used as a course textbook at Curtin School of
Business. “Building
Linux and OpenBSD Firewalls” (Wiley, 1999) co-author
with Tom Yates, sold 40,000+ copies to date A
step-by-step guide for building and operating a firewall using open
source technology. “The
Web Developer's Guide to Search Engines” (Wiley) co-author
with Tim Macinta sold 10,000+ copies Helps
webmasters choose, install, and configure search engines for their
web sites. US
Patent 5,974,446 (Issued: Oct. 1999) An
Internet based distance-learning system.
Harvard Business School Cambridge, MA
Executive Education, Program For Global Leadership 2001
A globally focused 10-week intensive executive education program (three in Tokyo, three at HBS, 4 week collaborative research project), similar in structure to the Advanced Management Program (AMP).
Produced an extensive and detailed guide for foreign investment in Indonesia.
Created a generic interactive template document to help assess foreign investment conditions in any country or economic region.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge, MA
Bachelor of Science, Computer Science and Music, 1996 (4.5/5.0 Cumulative GPA)
Organizing team, MIT $50K Business Plan Competition, 1996 – worked to increase total prize fund from $10,000 to $50,000 though alumni donation campaign to create the largest prize fund in a student-run entrepreneurial competition in the world.
Undergraduate Researcher, MIT Media Laboratory, 1993-1996 – created an interface to the Salient Stills software package for creating storyboard images from video clips. Also worked on the Artificial Life Interactive Video Environment (ALIVE) project.
Co-founder/composer/trombonist,
MIT Jazz Collective – a jazz quintet/sextet dedicated to
performing original compositions and arrangements.
Pro-Bono
AIMIA Foundation, High Resolves, Camp Quality, David Wirrapunda Foundation, Leave No Trace
Sports
I study and perform Capoeira, a Brasilian martial art, and have previously studied Judo. I enjoy golf, skiing/snowboarding, swimming, hiking, yoga.
Music
I have played piano and trombone for most of my life. I also compose and arrange. Some highlights include:
Performing jazz in New York clubs with members of Basie's and Ellington's bands.
Having my 50 piece brass ensemble arrangement of Gustav Holtz's “Mars, the Bringer of War” performed to an audience of nearly a thousand in France.
Playing in a headlining rock band to a full house at the House of Blues in Boston.
Working under Composer Johnny Reinhard to help him realize Charles Ives' unfinished “Universe Symphony”, which was premiered at Lincoln Center in New York City.
Other Hobbies
Reading (philosophy, science/technology journals, historical fiction, science fiction), tinkering with anything mechanical or electronic, adventure traveling, learning the basics of a few foreign languages (Japanese, French, Brasilian Portugese).