About Us

Vernon Kay – Chief Executive Officer

Vernon Kay joined DataTorque as Chief Executive Officer in April 2024 and brings 30 years of experience in software product development and services. While he cut his teeth as a software developer in the 1990s, his expertise spans large government implementations, international business, leading complex enterprises, business transformation, and intricate sales and commercial negotiations. 

As DataTorque’s CEO, Vernon aims to drive growth and enhance the product both functionally and technically. His vision includes putting our clients at the center of everything we do and expanding DataTorque’s footprint into new and larger countries with more complex requirements. 
 

Outside of work, Vernon enjoys keeping active by swimming and running, as well as sailing and competing in equestrian show jumping with his wife. He’s also the proud father of five and grandfather of two.

Lincoln Falconer – Executive Director

Lincoln focuses on DataTorque's strategic direction and implementing our growth ambitions with our team, while also overseeing our finance function. 

With a background in banking and finance, Lincoln specialised in raising debt and equity in difficult markets, as well as having a strong track record in investing and growing private businesses.

Helping to grow our team and have them understand that they can not only compete but excel anywhere in the world, and seeing them constantly prove us right, has been the most fun part of DataTorque's journey so far.

A parochial "Kiwi", Lincoln is convinced that our culture provides a unique shared understanding of our customers' needs and ambitions which goes well beyond supplying tax administration software and services.

Lincoln travelled extensively before Covid-19 and was more often than not trying to combine this with his obsession for skiing around the globe. Right now he is staying closer to home and is enjoying spending more time with his family in New Zealand.

Bill Chatwin – Sales Director and Acting Vice President, Asia / Pacific

Bill is the driving force behind our go-to-market strategy.  He is proud of DataTorque's growth since embarking on a single-minded strategy of helping revenue authorities transform their business in the early 1990s.

Leading companies has been a passion for Bill ever since acquiring a shareholding in his first software business at 27.  

His approach is straight-forward - work openly and honestly as a team and share a common sense of purpose.  Always challenge each other, and remember to remain flexible and have a sense of humour.  That's how you ensure everyone enjoys the journey and you arrive together, achieving the best result.

A keen traveller, he enjoys exporting New Zealand’s unique character and trusted work ethic to the world. He's passionate about building long-term relationships in the countries where we operate and in making a positive difference to people’s lives there.  Many of his friends today are the same people he has worked with along the way. 

Bill plays the guitar and loves to fish and snowboard. He is well on his way to reaching his goal of visiting every country on earth.

Raymond Marshall – Vice President, Americas

Raymond steers DataTorque’s strategic vision for the Americas while building our capacity to engage, listen to, and support our clients to achieve their digital transformation goals in this region. 

He has worked in technology for over 20 years.  Starting out as a software developer Raymond transitioned into project management and then the leadership of large organisational change programmes. He has intimate knowledge of technical and organisational development and is an expert at ensuring elements critical to a project's success are in the right place at the right time.

He’s extremely proud of DataTorque’s ability to deliver and our record of helping our clients achieve their tax reform goals. He’s also hugely proud of the ‘can do’ attitude of his team and colleagues.

Raymond is passionate about maintaining a high performing work environment, built upon a collaborative and family-friendly culture. 

He loves family, sport and fitness, and is kept busy coaching his daughter's sports teams in his spare time.

Shona Williams – Vice President, Europe

Shona helps our clients transform their processes to take advantage of technology.

She is driven by the opportunity to serve and is rewarded by being able to help bring about positive change for the countries we work with, their tax staff and the team at DataTorque.

Shona has a Master's in Business Administration. She brings over 25 years of policy and operational experience in tax reform as a client and a senior manager in New Zealand Inland Revenue, Customs, and Education.

Her specialist change management skills were developed over ten years in tax, customs and transport reform programmes in Samoa, The Solomon Islands and The Bahamas.  She can bridge the gaps between tax policy, operations and technology, and is a skilled facilitator who makes people feel comfortable. 

Outside of work, she can be found with her family in Mt Aspiring National Park, one of the most beautiful parts of New Zealand, enjoying boating, fishing, walking and relaxing together.

Mark Morgan – Vice President, Engineering

Mark oversees our development team and the processes we use to deliver products to our clients around the world.  

Before specialising in software, Mark studied engineering, and has now worked at DataTorque for nearly 20 years.  With his wide understanding of revenue management and in-depth product knowledge he’s helped to create and implement multiple iterations of revenue solutions for our clients. He’s proud of the difference these solutions continue to make in communities around the world.

Mark is a driving force in product development. He believes in combining the best-of-breed process and technology and adapting them to perform seamlessly to meet the needs of our clients' economies. Leveraging real-world experience is what ensures solutions are consistently right-sized and fit-for-purpose.

When Mark isn’t travelling or working, he loves to play sport, and football in particular.  He plays twice a week all year round, and also coaches both his daughters’ teams at his local club.

Nick Steevens – Chief Financial Officer and Vice President, Finance and Shared Services

Nick is DataTorque’s Chief Financial Officer. In this role, he adds financial capacity and capability across the organisation. Nick is qualified as a chartered accountant and began his career as an auditor. Before starting at DataTorque in early 2021, Nick held various financial and operational focused roles.

DataTorque ticks all the boxes for Nick. He finds the tech industry in Wellington exciting and is thrilled to be part of a company that is growing and going places. In this environment where change is both welcomed and necessary, he envisages an exhilarating journey ahead.

Change is something Nick thrives on. His new role at DataTorque is one of several changes in his life. Recently, he and his wife moved to a four-hectare lifestyle block after many years of city living, and they welcomed their first child.

Wayne Empson – Principal Technical Consultant, Europe

Wayne is responsible for current and future product development for our flagship products. 

He's a firm believer in leveraging technology to improve business while keeping it simple, usable and, most importantly, useful. 

Wayne has been involved in every DataTorque product for over 20 years and has designed the architecture for each generation of our flagship products. Over this time, he's watched clients grow in self-confidence as the products have evolved. Revenue authorities have let go of old manual processes and now eagerly embraced new features that improve operations and increase revenue.

He is particularly strong at interpreting client needs and transforming them into highly useable solutions. His success comes down to maintaining open and transparent communication.

Wayne enjoys family, sports and fine wine. He is particularly keen on Basketball and coaches college teams for both Rugby and Basketball.

Brent Noble – Head of Platform

25-year track record in the financial sector, Brent is a highly accomplished professional renowned for consistently delivering successful projects and products across various scales. His expertise lies in driving innovation, transformation, and positive change, evident in his history of defining, architecting, and executing scalable, high-quality solutions.

Brent is a dedicated advocate of automation, best practices, and agile methodologies, ensuring optimal quality and flexibility within DataTorque's products. As the Head of Platform, he plays a pivotal role in shaping the strategic direction of our platform. His primary focus is on ensuring our products maintain a high standard of quality, deliver maximum value to our customers, and ultimately have a meaningful impact on our clients.

Brent's passion lies in simple solutions to address complex problems.

Outside of work, he is a family man with four kids, and he enjoys a healthy work-life balance.

Sharron Thurston – Principal Advisor and Consulting Practice Manager

Sharron is our tax administrative reform and business process champion. 

She works alongside clients to help them manage the changes in business processes that come with a comprehensive IT programme of work.  This ensures products are fit-for-purpose and reflect best international practice for revenue organisations.

Sharron has worked in tax authorities across the world, managing all major operational areas found in a tax office.  She brings strong experience in tax reform and has a solid background in development principles and practice.  

She is passionate about partnering with tax authorities and working together to nurture local capacity at both a strategic and operational level. 

Sharron has lived in five different countries across the Pacific and Africa and loves to go off the beaten track.  In New Zealand, you'll find her with her family – kayaking, cycling or entertaining.

Janet Macaskill – Head of People and Culture

Janet's speciality is working alongside our leadership team to assist them to be more effective. 

She thinks about how to make sure that as DataTorque grows, and we work with more clients in even further flung parts of the globe, we retain the elements of our culture and behaviour that have made us successful while evolving and adapting ourselves to deliver to changing client needs. This translates into coaching, providing advice, running and coordinating development programmes and being a sounding board for leaders and staff members.

Janet brings deep experience of more than 20 years in consulting in leadership development, including supporting leaders and organisations through the journey of change, career development planning, and team and individual assessment and development. 

Janet’s background of line management within a large corporation in the IT sector going through significant cultural and structural change led to an interest in developing people and helping organisations through change and growth. 

Outside of work Janet and her family are keen supporters of the Wellington Film Society and enjoy Wellington’s vibrant cultural life.

Jonathan Clifford – Business Development Manager

Jonathan works alongside clients to understand their goals and aspirations, sharing his practical tax experience and enabling them to make well informed decisions.

At the heart of what he does is to build trusted relationships with people so he can help them to continue to evolve and succeed.  He draws on 16 years of leadership, management and change experience at New Zealand Inland Revenue.  There he led teams focused on relationships with strategic stakeholders, business transformation, understanding customer views, and liaison with the accounting software industry. 

Being on site with clients is something Jonathan loves.  He shares stories about the nuts and bolts of tax systems helping people to understand the impact of different choices and to benefit from the collective experience of others.  Sharing knowledge, coaching and mentoring so others can improve, is part and parcel of his approach. 

Jonathan’s practical bent translates to home as well.  A Do-It-Yourself Kiwi he can also be found happily out the back working in his shed, or walking his beloved Border Collie.

Nicola Woodman – Head of Architecture, Americas

Nicola provides technical oversight to many of DataTorque’s major projects, helping our clients to get the best out of our systems. She also actively assists our support team, who deliver day-to-day guidance and solutions to clients all over the world.

Over the past six years, she has also been focused on delivering large-scale programmes, leading the technical development for our Revenue Management System (RMS) clients in Swaziland and Haiti. She has also been closely involved with our clients in The Bahamas and Barbados.

Nicola enjoys visiting different places and getting to know the people who use the applications she is designing and managing, so she can see things from their perspective. 

With a passion for accuracy and figuring out the best ways to do things, she holds herself to a high standard. As a result Nicola makes a significant contribution to the ongoing improvement of our development practices.

Starting out her career developing for Geographic Information System mapping, Nicola moved on to banking, working on applications for their internet banking website as well as for their customer call centre.

Nicola completed her first half marathon in 2017 and, when she’s not training for her next event, she can be found at her monthly book club meetings or enjoying growing flowers and vegetables in her garden.

Eleanor Barnes – Sales Operations Manager

Eleanor is the central link between our Executive Leadership Group and our Sales and Marketing team. She joined DataTorque as our Bid Response Manager, which provided her with in-depth knowledge of our RMS product, the operations behind our extensive service offerings, and how we help our clients transform their tax administrations.  

In her role as Sales Operations Manager, she leverages these insights to inform our business strategy and build strong relationships with our clients to ensure we continue to provide them with tailored solutions.  

While sales and client relations are Eleanor's professional passions, outside of work enjoys travelling to new places and getting creative with jewellery crafting.