Name: Chris Denney
Position on Board: Director
Location: Canberra, ACT

What are some interesting facts about you?

• Middle child
• Grew up in Country NSW (Orange)
• Uni in Sydney
• Work in CBR

All the above have given me perspective on working with people from all walks of life, saying what you mean (and meaning what you say) and the role of sport in reflecting life (bringing people together, developing common goals, playing a team, celebrating the wins & commiserating on the losses..).

Who do you work for and what do you do in that role?
SuperChoice Services; Head of Government & Industry Engagement. 

How did you get involved with DSPANZ?
In the early 2000s when still employed by the ATO I was involved with the Software Working Group which was the precursor to ABSIA being formed. And then with introduction of SuperStream I had a lot to do with the original Directors of ABSIA . When I left the ATO in 2016 to join SuperChoice, it was a pleasant surprise that they were already ABSIA members and engaged in the various forums. That engagement has continued over the years and prior to becoming a Director I was involved behind the scenes in supporting various activities that could leverage my background. So when I was asked if I was interested in becoming a Director, I thought it was a great opportunity to support the broader engagement of business software providers with government.

What keeps you busy outside of your work life and DSPANZ?
Family & sport! Not always in that order..

What would you love to see happen with technology in the next 50 years?
As much as I would like to talk about business software making the end2end operations of businesses seamless and AI removing the boring repetitive tasks.. What I'd really love to see technology deliver is affordable healthcare put in the hands of the people wherever they are located. Access to mobile body scanners that identify health issues, the use of more robotics...

Which is best - the book or the movie?
Books - what's better than your own imagination to give life to a story.

What has been the most rewarding part of your career so far?
I look back on the implementation of SuperStream as being a highlight. On a macro-scale it changed how every employer, payroll & super fund used technology (data standards, ebms xBRL anyone??) to support processing of employee information. This broader technical sub-set then led to the opportunity to deliver STP. On a personal level I led external engagement around the policy and legislative development and implemented solutions to support SuperStream processing. Most rewarding though is that the hard decisions that were taken 10 years ago put Australia on a path to enable the digitisation of business and opportunities for both government and software providers to deliver new services.

If you had your own talk show, who would you invite as your first guest?
Jerry Seinfeld - starting with a laugh about life will set the tone for what comes next...

And finally, what’s the weirdest food you’ve ever eaten?
Fried bugs.