Management Team
We'd like you to get to know us, here's the team behind Freelancer.ph!
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Matt Barrie
Chief Executive Officer
BE (Hons I) BSc (Hons I) GDipAppFin MAppFin MSEE (Stanford) GAICD SEP
Matt Barrie is an award winning entrepreneur, technologist and lecturer. He is Chief Executive of Freelancer.ph, the world's largest outsourcing marketplace connecting over professionals from around the globe, and in the top 250 websites globally.
Freelancer.ph primarily connects small businesses and individuals from the western world with freelancers in the developing world, empowering entrepreneurs on both sides of the globe. To date, over projects have been outsourced through Freelancer.ph.
The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences awarded Freelancer.ph the "Internet's highest honour" in the 15th Annual Webby Awards as best Employment Site of the Year, as well as the Webby People's Choice Award for the same category - from a field of 10,000 entrants from 60 countries.
Matt is serial entrepreneur, previously as founder and CEO of Sensory Networks Inc., a vendor of high performance network security processors. Prior to this he founded a telecommunications hardware company. Matt has raised over $40M USD in financing from venture capital, strategic investors and through government grants while running or assisting technology companies.
For the last ten years has been an external lecturer at the Department of Electrical and Information Engineering at the University of Sydney, teaching Network Security, and starting in 2010, Technology Venture Creation. He is the co-author of over 20 US patent applications.
Matt is a prolific speaker and has spoken at or featured in the Summit Series, the New York Times, Bloomberg TV, The Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch, The Atlantic, Switzer, BRW and The Economist. In 2012 he was selected out of a field of 600 presenters to be one of 20 featured speakers at South by South West in Austin, Texas (SXSW), which is one of the world's largest interactive, music, film and technology festivals.
In 2006, he was awarded the State Pearcey Award for contribution to the IT&T industry. In 2010 he was named Alumnus of the Year for the Faculty of Engineering and IT at the University of Sydney. In 2011, Smart Company named him in the 10 most influential Australians in IT. In 2011 he was named inaugural BRW Entrepreneur of the Year, by Australia's most prestigious business publication. He was also named the Ernst & Young Technology Entrepreneur of the Year for 2011. In 2012 he was named in the top 100 most influential engineers by Engineers Australia, and a 2012 Man of Influence by Men's Style Magazine.
Matt is regularly invited to speak at the world's leading entrepreneurship, internet and business conferences/forums. His schedule is very full, but if you have a request for a speaking engagement, please email speaker@freelancer.com.
Freelancer CEO Matt Barrie is one of 100 worldwide Linkedin Influencers, where he writes on topics of entrepreneurship, technology and improving your business. Follow him on Linkedin and read his most recent post "Entrepreneurs! Go Disrupt a Goliath!"
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Darren Williams
Chief Technology Officer
BSc (Hons I) PhD (Computer Science) EPGC (Stanford)
Darren Williams is the CTO of Freelancer.ph. Formerly, he was the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Technology Officer at Sensory Networks. As such, he was the principal architect and primary driver of Sensory Networks' technology. Dr. Williams has an extensive background in security, protocols, networking and software.
Prior to co-founding Sensory Networks, Darren lectured in Computer Science at the University of Sydney in a variety of areas to post-graduates and under-graduates. He had previously co-founded network security consultancy Infilsec and developed software & intellectual property for Dilithium Networks, a next-generation telephony start-up. His expertise within the security area is broad and covers protocol, software, embedded and kernel level security. Dr. Williams has authored numerous articles and papers on security vulnerabilities and networking, and has spoken at a number of international conferences.
Dr. Williams holds a first class honours degree in Computer Science and a Ph.D. in Computer Science specialising in computer networking from the University of Sydney.
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Neil Katz
Chief Financial Officer
BCom (Hons)
Neil Katz is the group CFO. Neil has over 20 years of of experience in finance, accounting and general management roles across a number of industries During the past nine years Neil has held the positions of CFO with Threatmetrix, Hicom International, Aptrix and Sensory Networks - all being innovative and high growth start up companies in the engineering and IT sectors. Neil has extensive experience in corporate restructuring, capital raising activities and played a key role in the sale of Aptrix to IBM.
Neil holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) degree in Financial Management obtained from the University of Cape Town, South Africa, and is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia.
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David Harrison
Vice President of Engineering
BSc EPGC (Stanford, 2012)
David Harrison is the Vice President of Engineering at Freelancer.ph, and has been responsible for leading the engineering team in its design and implementation of the web-scale features that have allowed it to handle the massive growth Freelancer.ph has experienced, and support the millions of users that regularly use the site. He has led the company's adoption of cloud based technologies and scalable architecture solutions, and is a co-author on a number of patent applications.
Previously David has been the Chief Technical Officer at 3rdSense, an Australian based company specialising in casual gaming and online gaming networks, prior to which he was a partner in an IT security consultancy providing auditing and secured infrastructure management services.
David is a regular speaker and has recently spoken at events including the Sydney Vivid Festival, and the Amazon Web Services Cloud Tour, as well as The Australian, Australian Financial Review MIS, and Sky News.
David holds a bachelors degree in Computer Science from the University of Sydney.
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Willix Halim
Vice President of Growth
BE (Mechatronics) (Hons I) / BSc (Comp Sci)
Willix Halim is the Vice President of Growth at Freelancer.ph and is responsible for leading the teams overseeing the company core growth components, data analytics, online marketing strategy and fraud prevention systems.
Prior to Freelancer.ph, Willix worked at Honeywell International where he was recognised with a Gold Bravo Award for his work in growing revenue rapidly. Willix began his career as a Product Manager at Hearne Scientific Software working on commercialization projects with CSIRO's Entomology and Sustainable Ecosystems Departments.
Willix grew up in Indonesia and graduated as valedictorian with first class honours degrees in Mechatronics Engineering and Computer Science from the University of Melbourne.
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Alaister Low
Director of Customer Experience
BCom BArts - Internet Studies
Alaister Low is the Director of Customer Experience at Freelancer.ph. He is a seasoned marketing professional with extensive experience in online relationship marketing, customer service and sales. He is responsible for managing the entire customer experience team at Freelancer.ph, working on processes to improve the overall online customer support process.
Prior to this, Alaister held the position of Online Marketing Manager at Freelancer.com for 2 and a half years, heading the company's online marketing efforts. During his time, the company hit many milestones where he played a crucial role, including growth to 4 million global users from under 500,000 and growing the site to within the top 300 trafficked websites worldwide according to Alexa.
Alaister is a well known thought leader and speaker in the field of Internet marketing, and has presented at conferences for many different industries, as well as published a number of e-books in the field. Earlier in his career Alaister consulted to businesses to help with their customer acquisition strategy and online marketing.
He has also worked in sales positions selling advertising to some of the largest consumer retailers in Australia.
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Nathan Reese
Director of Talent
Nathan is the Director of Talent at Freelancer.com and is responsible for heading up the recruitment and talent function globally. With over 8 years experience in talent management, retention, HR and recruitment, as well as being an avid fan of social recruiting and the technology landscape in general, he has played an integral part in executing the growth and talent attraction for some of Australia's leading technology companies.
Prior to joining Freelancer.com, Nathan was a Director at Code Gurus, Australia’s only Talent Management agency dedicated solely to Software Engineers and Developers.
The focus on Nathan's team is to ensure that Freelancer.com continues to attract and retain talented staff to further develop the culture that has established Freelancer.com as one of the world's leading employers of choice for software engineers and developers at home and abroad.
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Adam Byrnes
International Director
BE (Electrical) (Hons I) / BSc (Adv) (Physics)
Adam Byrnes is the International Director at Freelancer.ph and is responsible for expanding Freelancer across the world. He leads teams in press relations, marketing and translation.
Prior to joining Freelancer.ph, Adam worked as a physics researcher in the field of quantum optics, where he co-authored a number of academic papers in major physics journals. He has also worked in information technology for Macquarie Group, one of Australia's largest investment banks, and Aalborg Industries.
Adam holds a first-class honours degree in Electrical Engineering and Advanced Physics from the University of Sydney.
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Evan Tan
Regional Director - Asia
BA Mass Communications
Evan Tan leads a team of PR and communications professionals spread across Asia, which ensure that Freelancer.ph is the top-of-mind online outsourcing and crowdsourcing marketplace in the region. Evan and his team’s duties involve partnering with local media and stakeholders who are aligned with Freelancer.ph’s aim to provide time- and cost-efficient outsourcing and crowdsourcing opportunities for small businesses in Asia.
A Mass Communications Major in Advertising, Evan graduated from the Lyceum of the Philippines University and has trained under the veteran communication experts at McCann-Erickson, Philippines. He has also worked for the Philippines’ oldest existing English newspaper, The Manila Times. During his stint with multi-awarded marketing communications agency GeiserMaclang, he won clients numerous citations from the Philippine Quill Awards and the Philippine Anvil Awards.
Evan was also part of the team which launched A Liter of Light, a grassroots solar lighting campaign by non-profit organization MyShelter Foundation, which aims to provide economically- and ecologically-sustainable lighting for underprivileged families’ homes. This globally-recognized project is currently being adopted in numerous countries such as Bangladesh, Gambia, and Peru.
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Sebastián Siseles
Regional Director - Latin America
JD - University of Buenos Aires
Sebastián leads a team of PR and communications professionals spread across Latin America, driving the growth of Freelancer.ph in this emerging market. An Argentine entrepreneur, lawyer and marketing profesional, specializing in corporate finance and M&A's, Sebastián possesses great management and interpersonal communication skills, and has taken post-graduate courses at the Buenos Aires Stock Exchange on Marketing and the Southwestern University School of Law on International Business transactions. Sebastián is a regular speaker at different ecommerce and technology events in LATAM, and is frequently invited to speak at the University of Buenos Aires School of Economics and School of Law on areas of his expertise.
Prior to joining Freelancer.ph, Sebastián co-founded Weemba, an Internet financial website that connects commercial and individual borrowers with professional Lenders in a non-traditional “social network”-like format without regard to limitations of time and geography. Sebastián has also served as President, Director, General Counsel, and COO in different Internet and non-technology companies, and is also a former advisor to the Argentine Ministry of Justice and Argentine National Senate regarding general corporations’ law, treasury and public budget.
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Bill Little
Regional Director - Europe
BA English Lit (Hons I)
Bill Little is in charge of operations across Europe. Since coming on board he has grown the UK and launched Freelancer.ph in Germany, Spain and France, and is working on launching in other countries. He leads on marketing and communications, and manages a network of European country managers.
Before joining Freelancer.ph, Bill was a leading UK PR and a successful journalist, working for the BBC, Telegraph, and Financial Times. He has presented BBC radio documentaries, written books and once had to spend a tiring weekend for the Observer travelling around Belgium tasting the strongest Trappist beers in the world! Self sacrifice comes naturally to Bill.
Bill has an ability to link any activity directly with growth and as such has been helping Freelancer.ph to grow in new markets.
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Nikki Parker
Regional Director - ANZ
BA International Studies
Nikki Parker is responsible for marketing and communications across Australia and New Zealand. Nikki and her team's duties involve working with businesses and the media to grow Freelancer.com in the region.
Before joining Freelancer.com, Nikki worked at NBN Co, Australia’s government owned national open access data network project, mandated to provide high speed broadband to 100% of the country through a mixture of fibre, fixed wireless and satellite technologies. During her time at NBN Co Nikki worked with businesses across a diverse range of industries as well as local, state and federal government to capitalise on the rollout of what is one of the world's biggest and state of the art national network infrastructure projects.
Nikki is passionate about getting SMEs online and working with entrepreneurs and startups to grow their business through developing their online offerings and eCommerce capabilities.
Nikki holds a degree in International Studies, majoring in Sociology and Political Economics, from the University of Sydney.
