Aaron Thomas  |  Brisbane, Australia  |  Available Nationally

Interim COO and
Chief Transformation Officer

Operational turnaround, stabilisation and program recovery

I step into executive roles when a business needs stabilising, a program has gone off track, or an operating model has outgrown the way it was built. Twenty years across Defence, government, infrastructure and the community sector, in roles where the brief was to fix what was broken and leave the capability behind.

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Capability statement  ·  Leadership philosophy  ·  aaron@systemicadvisory.com.au  ·  +61 400 448 393

20+Years experience
$4BPortfolio influenced
5,500People reached
GAICDCompany Directors
FIMLManagers & Leaders
Aaron Thomas · Principal, Systemic Advisory Connect on LinkedIn
Who I Work With

You will probably recognise one or more of these.

I work with government agencies, not-for-profits, PE-backed organisations and infrastructure programs, most often at the point where the next stage is bigger than the current design.

A CEO needs an interim GM or COO who can step in with authority and restore function without a long handover

A transformation program has lost momentum, stakeholder confidence, or delivery discipline

Investment in technology, AI or a major program is not producing enterprise value, with gains at team level failing to reach the bottom line

New capability has been introduced, but work design, decision rights and accountability were never changed around it

The organisation is growing faster than its structure, governance and people systems were built to handle

Performance has plateaued despite sustained investment in strategy, people and systems

Sector Experience
Defence
Federal & State Government
Not-for-Profit & Community Sector
Infrastructure & Major Programs
About

Rapid enterprise diagnosis under genuine ambiguity.

I am Aaron Thomas, principal of Systemic Advisory. My career has been built in high-change environments, in roles where the brief was to fix what was broken, stabilise what was failing, and build the systems that make performance hold afterwards.

Twenty years of Defence service, from enlisted through to commissioned officer, produced a specific capability. I can read an organisation quickly from the delivery layer as well as the executive layer, and understand what a decision costs the person who has to make it work. That pattern recognition has since been applied across a $4B Commonwealth infrastructure portfolio, a 150-entity stakeholder community, and national capability programs reaching 5,500 people.

I work through co-design. The people who carry the work help build what replaces it, so the capability stays in the organisation once the engagement ends.

Capability Statement Leadership Philosophy
Education & Credentials
Master of Business UNSW
Master of Project Management UNSW
Graduate, Australian Institute of Company Directors GAICD
Fellow, Institute of Managers and Leaders FIML
MSP Practitioner Managing Successful Programmes · Axelos
Change Management Practitioner APMG International
Track Record

A career built in complex environments.

Twenty years of people leadership and systems thinking, applied across Defence, government, infrastructure and the community sector.

$4B
Infrastructure portfolio influenced under sponsor-delegated authority, as sole organisational representative at senior government steering committees
5,500
People impacted by a single enterprise transformation program, spanning training and change management across a national asset renewal initiative
150+
Independent legal entities navigated as a single stakeholder community across one of Australia's most structurally complex NFP governance environments
Government Infrastructure
$4B Portfolio: Systems Approach & Governance Restoration

Engaged to support a Defence client on an infrastructure program uplift. The engagement framed the system and analysed it in detail to determine the problem and solution state with a supporting roadmap. Engaged in an interim executive capacity acting as senior partner to 10 Defence leaders and the senior executive to achieve national outcomes. Acquired client decision-making authorities, attending steering groups as the sole client representative.

Not-for-Profit
150-Entity Stakeholder Community: Operating Model Navigation

Navigated a complex NFP stakeholder community of 150 independent legal entities operating under one brand. Briefed the COO on a weekly basis and held direct engagements with the CIO and technology leaders. Delivered projects on time and at or under budget. Developed a $5M strategic program for board consideration.

National Asset Management
Enterprise Transformation, 5,500 People

Held sponsor-delegated authority to lead a national training and change strategy for a vehicle fleet rollout. Designed the approach, ran initial pilots to prove the concept, and led a rollout that cascaded capability through the enterprise to 5,500 people across geographically dispersed locations.

Services

How I engage

Most engagements start with a conversation about what is actually happening, not with a proposal.

01

Interim Executive Leadership

Stepping into COO, GM or Director roles with full delegated authority during a transition, a restructure, or a leadership gap. Two decades of leading teams of teams in high-stakes environments, with the presence to hold executive accountability from day one and no lengthy run-up.

Outcomes
Clear executive decision-making from week one
Delivery cadence restored
Embedded capability at exit, not dependency
02

Stabilisation, Turnaround & Program Recovery

For organisations in structural instability and for programs that have stalled, gone at risk, or lost executive confidence. The first task is to read the system rather than impose a solution, then find the systemic causes underneath the surface delays, rebuild governance, and restore assurance without losing the people who have to deliver.

Outcomes
Momentum and delivery discipline restored
Accountability clear at every level
Board and executive assurance rebuilt
03

Operating Model Design & Capability Integration

Growth, restructure, technology change and strategic uplift share a failure pattern: the operating model was built for the stage before this one, and the delivery program runs as a separate system from business as usual. This engagement diagnoses the current state across the eight capability domains and redesigns the model for what the organisation is becoming.

Outcomes
Investment linked to enterprise return, not team-level efficiency
Decision governance and accountability embedded
A model built for the next stage

I also advise boards and audit or risk committees on transformation governance and accountability structures, particularly where AI integration or major operating model change carries governance implications not yet well understood at board level.

Diagnostic

Where an engagement usually starts

Most engagements begin with the Enterprise System Health Check. It is a fixed-fee, two-day on-site screening that shows where the organisation is actually constrained, across eight connected capability domains: technology, governance, structure, people, process, information flow, data, and purpose.

Day one is one-to-one sessions with each functional executive. Day two triangulates what was said against documents, systems and the people doing the work. You receive an enterprise traffic-light view and an executive summary of systemic findings.

The Health Check tells you where to look. The Enterprise System Diagnostic, which follows where it is warranted, establishes what is true, what is constraining performance, and what has to change first.

$9,500 ex GST, fixed.

Travel and expenses at cost. Commission the full Enterprise System Diagnostic within 90 days and the Health Check fee credits against it.

See how the diagnostic works
Published

Insights

Positioning Paper · July 2026

The Living Organisation

A reading of Australia's 2026 executive priorities, and the systems engineering principles that make it steerable. Why the current executive agenda demands a system view.

Read →
AI Integration

Why AI workflow optimisation creates the problem it was meant to solve

Organisations pursuing AI integration one workflow at a time are accumulating a hidden constraint. The symptoms appear later, and by then they are significantly more expensive to address than the original problem.

Read →
State of Industry · June 2026

AI integration in Australia: what the data actually shows

Where Australian organisations actually stand with AI in 2026. What the data shows about adoption, value realisation, and the operating model gap that most reports do not name.

Read →
Organisational Resilience

Skills fade in the age of AI: a resilience question for boards

As professionals do progressively less foundational work and move into AI oversight, the capability to validate AI outputs, and to operate without it, may be quietly eroding.

Read →

If any of this is close to what you are dealing with, I am happy to have a conversation about it.

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Get in touch

Request a Discussion

A focused conversation about what you are navigating and whether there is a fit. No obligation, and no proposal unless you ask for one.

Email Aaron Call +61 400 448 393 Connect on LinkedIn

aaron@systemicadvisory.com.au  ·  +61 400 448 393  ·  Brisbane, Australia  ·  Available Nationally