Marc Bailey steps down as Intersect CEO

Former Macquarie University CIO and current Intersect Australia CEO, Marc Bailey, is leaving his post at the research accelerator in 2020. 

Bailey was also a CIO50 judge for CIO Australia the past three years. 

Intersect chair emeritus professor, Mark Wainwright, expressed his thanks and support for Bailey’s decision to leave the position. 

“Marc has, as in everything he tackles, given his total commitment to the company, made a tremendous impact on Intersect and on the Australian e-research agenda, and he leaves with the goodwill and full support of the board,” Wainwright said. 

Bailey, who’s also the former CTO of Objective Corp, first joined Intersect in 2014. 

Since then, the company has refined its mission to ‘research faster;’ expanded its membership and operations into four states; created dozens of high tech products, applications and services; trained over 10,000 researchers; served over 200 million hours of supercomputing; created over 15PB in research storage and implemented a successful user-pays business model for research cloud computing.

“My respect and heartfelt thanks are extended to our teams of scientists and engineers that get up each day to make a difference for research,” Bailey said. 

“Our staff includes some of the finest people I’ve had the privilege to serve with. I could not be more grateful for their care, commitment and adaptability - or their willingness to go the extra mile, every time, frequently against adversity or convention.” 

Western Sydney University chief information and digital officer, and CAUDIT NSW chair, Kerry Holling, said Intersect is a unique and vital piece of the Australian research landscape. 

“Members like Western depend on it for essential e-research services through non-traditional delivery vectors,” Holling said. 

“Marc understands the value of mutually beneficial negotiations, has seized every opportunity to increase yield, and set a very high bar for customer service. Our commitment to Intersect will endure, though we will miss his innovative approach.”

Professor Wainwright said during Bailey’s tenure Intersect private sector engagement has flourished with partnerships and projects with Platform9, AWS, Google, Microsoft, Macquarie Cloud Services, Hitachi Data Systems, HPE and Dell Computer. Governmental and NGO relationships have expanded or strengthened with sixteen Government entities, AARNet, NCI, the AAF, ARDC and CAUDIT. 

“Our strong and growing University member base may rest assured that commitment to and momentum of broadening and deepening of these relationships will continue even as we bid a fond farewell to Marc.” 

Asked what’s next for Bailey, he said he has a deck to paint, a family vacation to take, and then “watch this space” in 2020.

“In 2014, we set out on what I imagined would be a three year mission for scientists and researchers. Before I blinked almost six had flown by. Our company is in an excellent financial and strategic position, so the time is right for me to pass the baton with confidence.”

Bailey will formally conclude his role by Christmas though will be retained in an offline advisory capacity to the chair. The board is appointing an interim CEO and will begin an executive search for a replacement in 2020. 

Intersect (intersect.org.au) is a pivotal accelerator of Australian research and scientific productivity. 

It has provided robust, innovative and collaborative technology and services to speed up world class research at its member organisations since formation in 2008. 

Professional scientists and engineers deliver high performance computing, storage and analysis platforms, software engineering, training programs and consulting to thousands of researchers and consumers every year. 

Members and customers include universities, government departments and innovative corporations across Australia, served on-campus and from offices in Sydney and Melbourne.