Application infrastructure vendor Progress Software has promoted Mitchell Chapman to Australia and New Zealand regional director. Chapman, who was formerly general manager, sales, will be responsible for leading the Australia and New Zealand teams and is located in the Sydney office. He joined Progress Software in May 2005.

Michael Keen has joined ICT services company Oakton as sales manager for NSW. Keen has worked in the IT industry for over 30 years, including roles in financial services, manufacturing, public sector and healthcare.  He joins Oakton from Fujitsu where he specialised in public sector business development, initially with DMR Consulting and, subsequent to the merger, with Fujitsu.

Mobile internet company Alacrity Technologies has appointed Michael O’Sullivan, former director of KAZ Group, as a director and consultant, specialising in commercial and legal development. O’Sullivan was the former commercial director of KAZ from 1991 until May 2005. He held key roles in KAZ’s float on the Australian Stock Exchange in 2000 and its acquisition by Telstra for $333 million in 2004. Prior to KAZ, O’Sullivan consulted to the NSW Treasury Department and previous to that was the commercial manager for ICT services company AWA.

Document management provider Fuji Xerox Global Services has appointed Mil Kotagama as product manager, based in Sydney. Kotagama has a 10 year career in sales and marketing, having previously worked for Brightpoint Australia, Emprise IT Sydney, Pacificnet.Com and British-American Tobacco.

Data networking specialist Blue Reef has appointed Guy Lupo, as vp, products. Mr Lupo brings to Blue Reef 13 years’ experience in the security products industry, including his most recent role with BMC Software, were he worked in the identity compliance management area. His previous career includes product management and R&D roles with Check Point, Microsoft, CISCO, Aladdin, and startups such as Port Authority Technology. He is also national director, Australia & New Zealand for the global International Security Software Association (ISSA), an umbrella group for security professionals to meet, exchange information and review industry developments.

Database vendor Sybase has announced two senior appointments for the company's Australia and New Zealand operations. Wayne Kedzlie has joined Sybase as New Zealand branch manager. Kedzlie joins Sybase after more than ten years in the data warehouse industry. Most recently, he was the founder and managing director of the New Zealand-based company, Olapworks. Jon Brown has joined Sybase as a senior systems consultant based in the Sybase Melbourne office.  Previously with iWay (Information Builders) and Sonic Software as systems engineer, Brown has worked in the UK and Australia with systems ranging from large mainframes to mass-produced embedded devices.The two appointments bring to 13 the number of new-hires to the Sybase ANZ sales team this year.

Global consulting firm Accenture has appointed Doug Snedden as country managing director for Australia, effective January 1, 2006.  Mr Snedden is currently the acting country managing director. He has also been appointed the lead for Accenture’s Outsourcing Group in Australia. Mr Snedden joined Accenture in 1980 and was promoted to partner in 1991. As country managing director for Australia, Mr Snedden assumes the role previously held by Jane Hemstritch.  Ms Hemstritch will continue as managing director Asia Pacific.

Technology research group. Forrester Research, has appointed Sam Higgins to the position of senior analyst, Australia and New Zealand in a bid to strengthen its research capacity and influence in the Asia Pacific market. Higgins will focus on a wide range of research topics from enterprise architecture, and large-scale distributed systems architecture, to application design and implementation, and service orientation. He will also investigate IT management issues in the areas of strategic planning, service management, project management, and portfolio management. Higgins has more than 12 years of experience developing client-server, mainframe-centric systems, and distributed N-tier applications using traditional, component and model-based approaches, tools, and environments. Prior to joining Forrester, he was the manager for innovation and planning with Queensland Transport's information services branch.

Web portal and search provider, Yahoo! Australia & NZ, has announced the appointment of Richard Springhall to the position of business manager, Web Search and Distribution. Prior to joining Yahoo! Australia & NZ, Richard was executive manager at DNAml, a software development house, where he focused on business development and marketing and communications for the company.

IT services company Fujitsu Australia has appointed three new directors to its consulting practice Fujitsu Consulting.  Duncan MacCallum, Michael O’Byrne and Philippe Rosiere have joined the company in Victoria and Western Australia. MacCallum joins Fujitsu’s Melbourne office and most recently was a partner at Deloitte, where he gained 11 years experience working with large local and global clients. Also based in Melbourne, O’Byrne joins Fujitsu from Accenture where he worked for more than ten years within its Strategy and Process Excellence Practice, prior to which he worked as an independent management consultant. Rosiere joins the Perth office of Fujitsu with more than 20 years of international management and program management experience, both as a senior executive and management consultant within the private and public sectors.

Asset management software provider, Mainpac, has appointed James Kirk, as chief executive officer, based in Sydney. Kirk joined Mainpac 14 months ago from IT services company Praxa Limited with more than 20 years experience in the computer, communications/networking, consulting and manufacturing/logistics industries. He has general management, sales/management, international and solutions marketing, as well as business development experience. Kirk also spent 14 years with NCR in industry marketing and sales positions in Australia and the USA, as well as stints with networking company Novell Asia Pacific and Andersen Consulting/Accenture.

Communications technologies provider, Premiere Global Services, has promoted Craig McCloskey to the newly created position of managing director, South Asia, based in Sydney. McCloskey will be responsible for the overall running of the business in Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and Taiwan.  McCloskey joined Premiere Global Services in 1998 and prior to being promoted to the new position he was managing director, Australia and New Zealand.  He has also held the roles of finance director, Asia Pacific and financial controller, Australia and New Zealand.

Listed ICT recruiter Candle Australia has appointed Tony Hall national manager for the company’s Candle ICT New Zealand operation. Hall formerly held the position of managing director at recruitment industry research and consulting firm Navigator Consulting.

Brisbane based, HR management software company, Aurion Corporation has appointed two senior professionals. Paul MacRae, who founded email filtering company MessageLabs in Australia, has joined as national sales manager. He joins Aurion together with commercial manager Frank Gilmartin, who was previously at Carter Holt Harvey in senior roles within the packaging business division for the past seven years.

An Australian HR software solutions company says that a chronic labour shortage will absorb any short-term impact of the new IR legislation.