Meet Richard Baronessa
A passion for solving problems and improving systems has driven Richard Baronessa’s career for more than 25 years.
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From Melbourne to Milan and back again, Richard has held leadership roles in companies of significant scale and complexity, helping them build resilient business operations and unlock better ways of working.
Now leading a crucial function of the business as the Head of Technology, Richard and his team support more than 350 people working across 10 offices.
“For us, it’s about ensuring the Spiire team has the right technology and tools in place to work as efficiently as possible – and to enjoy doing their jobs,” he says. “I get real satisfaction when we deploy something that makes things easier for the end user.”
His connection with the Spiire business began in 1999, when he joined what was then Coomes Consulting Group as a desktop support engineer. He spent six years developing his technical and project management skills, before moving to Brennan IT, were he gained valuable insights into managed services providers and fostering strong stakeholder relationships.
When opportunity called to move across the world to manage IT infrastructure for an architectural firm, Richard didn’t hesitate. This bold move saw him spend two years managing IT operations for Architekt Daniel Libeskind’s three European offices in Italy, Switzerland and Ireland, spearheading initiatives to improve production, documentation and IT systems.
Within days of returning to Australia, his former manager at Coomes welcomed him back into the business as service delivery manager. It set him on a trajectory to lead IT services for the global infrastructure division of Coomes’ parent company Downer.
Following the management buy-out of Spiire in 2013, Richard steered the establishment of IT systems from the ground up. As the business continues to grow, his trusted advice has underpinned responses to new challenges such as the rapid shift to remote work instigated by the COVID-19 pandemic, cyber security risks and other emerging disruptors.
Richard’s approach to leading a growing team of IT professionals within the wider Business Services team centres on working together towards a common goal.
“One thing I strive to create is an environment where people come to work and really enjoy what they’re doing,” he says. “I want to ensure everyone has the chance to experiment and play with technology and enable them to come up with innovative solutions, so they can take ownership of their initiatives.”
