Gemma Acton
Born and raised on a council estate in Northern England, an ad in a local paper—followed by university as a mature-age student—set Paul Queeney on a path far from home. His adventurous career has taken him to Moscow, Prague, Hong Kong and Jamaica, but he’s come to call Australia home. First with some big retail corporates, and now, with kids, bringing tech solutions to education. So, is he a game changer? Let’s find out.
Gemma Acton: Paul, you’ve seen so much of the world, and technology and your job have really been your ticket to get there. How many countries have you worked in at this point?
Paul: Oh my goodness, a lot! The main ones: I lived in Ireland for seven years. I worked in Hong Kong for a stint, was in Moscow for a while, worked in most Western European countries, and also spent some time in the Czech Republic. And of course, I ended up in Australia.
Gemma: And technology has been the common thread throughout?
Paul: Absolutely. I couldn’t have done any of it without tech being that thread in my life.
Gemma: What sparked your initial interest?
Paul: Back in my northern town in England, we got the chance to do Computer Studies at O-level—it was a brand new subject at the time, in the late ’70s and early ’80s. I took it, learned to code at 18, and it just grew from there.
Gemma: So taking that O-level course really put you on your path?
Paul: Yeah, absolutely. That was the first big step.
Gemma: And then a traineeship came along that really focused you?
Paul: It did. I was in a course, and a bunch of people came in from different companies to interview students. I just happened to get picked for what was probably the best role on offer—so lucky. The guy who chose me just took a chance on a 17-year-old kid. I’ll always be grateful for that.
Gemma: And you later went on to study as a mature student?
Paul: Yes. When I was living in Dublin, I had the opportunity to do an undergraduate degree at Trinity College. That was an amazing experience. I studied part-time, outside of work, with support from my employer.
Gemma: You’ve lived in some fascinating places. One that stands out is Russia in the early 1990s—a time of huge geopolitical change. What do you remember?
Paul: It was crazy. There was a lot going on. We were living near the airport but working in the city, so we were bussed in every day. When everything kicked off in August or September, there were tanks on the streets, protests, shelling at the White House. It was wild—and honestly, a bit scary.
Gemma: The work you were doing there was also quite interesting—you worked on one of the first Western supermarkets in Russia?
Paul: We did. I was with an Irish company that ran duty-free shops across Russia, Finland and elsewhere. They formed a joint venture company in Russia—because that’s how things worked there—and we got involved in launching those supermarkets. It really was the Wild West.
Gemma: Let’s talk more about your international experiences—Jamaica, Scandinavia, Hong Kong and Singapore. You’ve covered a lot of ground.
Paul: Yes, I spent just under 12 months in Hong Kong while working for PricewaterhouseCoopers. We had a retail practice for Asia-Pacific clients, so I moved up there and worked with clients in Hong Kong, Singapore and even southern China. It was a fascinating time.
Gemma: Were you there on your own?
Paul: Yes, mostly. But a fun side note—being there led to something very special: I proposed to my now-wife from the top of Victoria Peak!
Gemma: That’s wonderful! Let’s jump to how you ended up in Australia. You mentioned PwC earlier?
Paul: Yes. After seven years in Ireland, a colleague who had travelled to Australia got in touch and said he’d met a recruiter looking for retail people. That led to a role with what was then Coopers and Lybrand. I packed up and moved to Melbourne—sight unseen! I’d never even been there before. But I got off the plane and started working, and shortly after, it became PwC.
Gemma: And that wasn’t the only time a random opportunity came along.
Paul: That’s true! Up to that point, my career had been focused on tech, retail, consulting. But in 2010, a friend called me out of the blue—he had to go overseas and asked me to run a project for him.
It turned out to be in education, which I knew nothing about! But he said, “It’s about the tech—you’ll be fine.” So I took the freelance contract. It was with the Association of Independent Schools of NSW, the peak body for independent schools here. After a while, they asked me to stay on. So I did—and ended up staying for eight or nine years.
It was an amazing experience. I visited schools of every kind—different faiths, cultures, setups, education styles, and sizes—from tiny schools with 50 students to big ones with 3,500. It was a privilege to work with them and figure out how tech could support their goals.
Gemma: More recently, you’ve been working with Logicalis in the education space. What have you achieved together?
Paul: I’m now the Head of ICT at Trinity Grammar, since 2018. Like many schools, we used to have all our computing infrastructure—servers, storage, everything—on-site. Those systems usually get replaced every four to five years.
We reached that point and had to decide: do we buy more boxes and stick them in a cupboard again, or do we leap into a cloud-based model? We considered moving everything into Microsoft Azure.
Back in 2021, we did a smaller project with Logicalis around our budgeting system. It was niche but critical—and they were brilliant. Great consultant, great account management, it all ran really smoothly.
So in 2022, when we were considering the cloud migration, we brought Logicalis in again. They helped us work through all the options: do we go with more physical infrastructure, a public cloud, a hybrid model, a managed service? They laid out all the costs, risks, and benefits.
We decided to go ahead with the cloud move. 2023 was spent preparing—it’s not easy! But by 2024, we had migrated everything from the cupboard to the cloud.
Gemma: Can you give a tangible example of how this change impacts people’s day-to-day experience?
Paul: Sure. During the pandemic, we had to invent a lot of things on the fly, especially around remote learning. How do you engage students online? How do you know they’re doing the work, or even attending?
We leaned into Microsoft’s toolset and used Teams for remote learning—it turned out to be absolutely the right choice for us.
Off the back of that, we started using those same tools in our Field Studies Program. Our Year 9 students go to the South Coast of NSW for a term—away from home. We don’t allow personal phones or devices, so we provide them with our own tech. Using Teams, they can call home at scheduled times and access learning resources. It’s a curated digital experience—built using the cloud.
Gemma: Amazing. So your journey started in Sheffield and has moved steadily south. Tasmania next?
Paul: Almost! My son was accepted into the University of Tasmania’s Marine Science Antarctic Program, but he chose Newcastle instead—so no Tassie for now!
Gemma: Full circle. Paul, thank you so much for joining us on Game Changers.
Paul: Absolute pleasure. Thank you.
