Paul Gladigau, Chief Technology Officer for Equifax Australia and New Zealand, is a technologist with decades of experience who has found himself at the helm of one of the region's most significant digital transformations.
Paul joined Equifax in 2023, bringing with him a career spanning nearly every technology role imaginable.
His journey in technology began in his teenage years when he bought his first computer as components and had to solder it together himself. “These days my dishwasher is probably more intelligent than my first computer,” he quips.
After completing a broad computing science bachelor's degree that covered everything from programming to the social implications of automation, Paul’s career evolved alongside the technology industry itself.
With experience ranging from programming to Olympic Games technology management to 16 years in investment banking systems, he arrived at Equifax seeking a new challenge in data and AI.
“I was at Commonwealth Bank and thinking about my next role,” Paul explains. “I saw data and AI a few years ago as the emerging next frontier.”
His search for a new opportunity centred around three critical pillars: an organisation with market share demonstrating customer understanding; commitment to ongoing investment in data, technology and AI; and the ability to demonstrate great product ideas.
“That was Equifax,” he says. “If I look at my data space, I have about seven-and-a-half petabytes of data – the physical equivalent of about 760 million four-door filing cabinets.”
The scale is staggering, but what truly sets Equifax apart is its approach to innovation.
The company maintains 200 products in the Australia and New Zealand market, continuously developing new offerings through a dedicated vitality index.
While commonly known for credit assessments, Equifax’s range extends far beyond, providing services from fraud prevention to employment screening and medical practitioner credentialing for hospitals.
The company’s roots in Australia date back to 1967, when it began as the Credit Reference Association. “We've had other names of Baycorp, Mercury, Veda and then ultimately Equifax bought the organisation and we became Equifax Australia and New Zealand,” Paul explains.
“Equifax itself has got a long history in AI,” he continues. “We have 100 patents awarded in AI alone and 130 patents pending.”
This robust foundation in AI innovation, coupled with a global approach to sharing ideas, provides a powerful platform for transformation.
Paul points to Equifax's commitment to invest US$1.5bn in technology transformation as evidence of its serious approach.
Tackling complex technology challenges
When Paul arrived at Equifax, he faced significant challenges. The company’s technology environment reflected its history of mergers and acquisitions, creating a complex web of systems and platforms.
“I got brought in initially for my transformation capability,” he says.
“They needed a CTO who could take their existing technology base, make sure it was aligned to customer needs, and get it onto our cloud technologies and our group architectural standard.”
Beyond technical challenges, there were pressing customer concerns. The company was facing some revenue risks due to customer dissatisfaction, with the organisation struggling to identify the root causes.
Paul's approach began with stabilising systems while simultaneously moving to cloud platforms. The results speak volumes about his team’s effectiveness.
“All of those customers have resigned. It’s no longer at risk,” he explains. “I put programmes in place, identified to the executive what needed to be done. They backed me, they invested in me, they supported me.”
The transformation has been swift and effective. In just two years, Paul has replaced 40% of the headcount in technology while growing productivity by 2.5 times. Now, 40% of Equifax's revenue comes from cloud platforms.
“I’ve now got line of sight on the next 40% within the next two years, and then it’s just the last mile after that,” he says. “I've grown the NPS in technology by about 30 points across the two years. I'm currently running it just under 82 points.”
Putting customers at the centre of technology
A critical aspect of Paul’s approach has been ensuring technology teams understand the business impact of their work. This represents a fundamental shift from viewing technology as supporting business to recognising it as a core driver of value.
“One of the big things that I did over the last two years is turning the conversation around,” Paul explains. “All of my teams know their customer metrics on how the customers use us and why they use us.”
This customer-centric approach extends beyond metrics to tangible business outcomes. “We believe that we have prevented about AU$1.5bn (US$1bn) of fraud last year with one of our fraud products. The fraud team knows that, and the fraud technical team knows that.”
To support this mindset shift, Paul restructured the technology organisation to align with product segments and markets, enabling teams to specialise in specific domains rather than just technologies.
“I broke the organisation up to be aligned to the product segments in the markets they serve,” he says. “That alignment was a key part of our success.”
This reorganisation extended beyond technology to include security and decision intelligence teams, creating integrated groups that could collaborate effectively across functions.
Leveraging cloud for transformation and growth
Cloud technology serves as the foundation for Equifax’s ongoing transformation.
The company’s approach extends beyond simple cost savings to fundamentally rethinking how technology enables business.
“The adoption of cloud is incredibly important to our ability to actually scale on demand,” Paul notes. “We've developed a FinOps practice that goes with that. Everybody thinks FinOps practices are about cost, they’re actually about understanding.”
In fact, Equifax ANZ’s approach to cloud management has earned recognition.
“Google told me that they believe that the Australian FinOps practice is about top five in the world,” Paul shares. “In Australia and New Zealand last year, I won three Australian Business Awards for that practice.”
The cloud strategy at Equifax is nuanced, using Google Cloud Platform as its primary strategic partner with AWS as a secondary option.
This two-pronged cloud approach allows the company to co-locate services where data components are common while isolating unique regional products.
“My target cloud environment is Google Cloud Provision,” explains Paul. “I actually locate services where the data components are common.”
Paul emphasises that cloud migration isn't a one-size-fits-all proposition. “Cloud migration to us can occur in multiple different flavours.
“You can lift and shift, you can containerise, you can modernise, you can cloud native, but they’re not all the same thing and they all need to be addressed in different ways.”
This tailored approach ensures that each of Equifax’s 200 products receives the appropriate cloud treatment.
“The biggest challenge initially was what flavour supports which product and for which market? Customer and product are the key to the conversation, not technology,” he explains.
This customer-centric approach to cloud migration has helped avoid costly missteps that plague many transformation efforts.
A key consideration in this approach is security, particularly given the sensitive nature of Equifax’s data holdings.
“As Equifax has the largest amount of data outside of the New Zealand and Australian governments in this part of the world on individuals and corporations, it makes us a target.”
Security considerations heavily influenced Paul’s choice of cloud providers.
“I'm very passionate about Google because out of the box I get security on, whereas in AWS, I have to remember to turn security on,” he reveals.
“We started encryption at rest and encryption at movement with Google. You have to go out of your way to turn security off.”
This focus on built-in security is crucial for an organisation that faces constant threats.
“We are the subject of attacks on an hourly and daily basis,” Paul notes. “Our security standards and capability need to be as top-notch as we possibly can.”
Leveraging cloud for transformation and growth
Cloud technology serves as the foundation for Equifax’s ongoing transformation.
The company’s approach extends beyond simple cost savings to fundamentally rethinking how technology enables business.
“The adoption of cloud is incredibly important to our ability to actually scale on demand,” Paul notes. “We've developed a FinOps practice that goes with that. Everybody thinks FinOps practices are about cost, they’re actually about understanding.”
In fact, Equifax ANZ’s approach to cloud management has earned recognition.
“Google told me that they believe that the Australian FinOps practice is about top five in the world,” Paul shares. “In Australia and New Zealand last year, I won three Australian Business Awards for that practice.”
The cloud strategy at Equifax is nuanced, using Google Cloud Platform as its primary strategic partner with AWS as a secondary option.
This two-pronged cloud approach allows the company to co-locate services where data components are common while isolating unique regional products.
“My target cloud environment is Google Cloud Provision,” explains Paul. “I actually locate services where the data components are common.”
Paul emphasises that cloud migration isn't a one-size-fits-all proposition. “Cloud migration to us can occur in multiple different flavours.
“You can lift and shift, you can containerise, you can modernise, you can cloud native, but they’re not all the same thing and they all need to be addressed in different ways.”
This tailored approach ensures that each of Equifax’s 200 products receives the appropriate cloud treatment.
“The biggest challenge initially was what flavour supports which product and for which market? Customer and product are the key to the conversation, not technology,” he explains.
This customer-centric approach to cloud migration has helped avoid costly missteps that plague many transformation efforts.
A key consideration in this approach is security, particularly given the sensitive nature of Equifax’s data holdings.
“As Equifax has the largest amount of data outside of the New Zealand and Australian governments in this part of the world on individuals and corporations, it makes us a target.”
Security considerations heavily influenced Paul’s choice of cloud providers.
“I'm very passionate about Google because out of the box I get security on, whereas in AWS, I have to remember to turn security on,” he reveals.
“We started encryption at rest and encryption at movement with Google. You have to go out of your way to turn security off.”
This focus on built-in security is crucial for an organisation that faces constant threats.
“We are the subject of attacks on an hourly and daily basis,” Paul notes. “Our security standards and capability need to be as top-notch as we possibly can.”
Strategic partnerships driving transformation
Critical to Equifax’s transformation journey has been its strategic partnerships, particularly with technology service providers EPAM and UST.
These relationships have gone far beyond typical vendor arrangements to become integral parts of the company’s success.
When facing urgent stabilisation challenges upon joining Equifax, Paul reached out for help. “I actually pressed the figurative big red button to the group CTO and said, ‘I need some help and I need some help now.’”
EPAM, a global organisation with 60,000 employees, proved particularly valuable in addressing legacy technology issues.
With expertise in older technologies that needed maintenance, they provided immediate support while gradually expanding into strategic transformation work.
“They do digital transformations, they do cloud migrations, they do product development,” Paul says of EPAM. “They’ve been a core part of my business over the last two years.”
The partnership with UST took a different but equally valuable direction, focusing initially on workforce transformation. Together, they undertook an ambitious project to revamp Equifax’s technology team.
“I wanted to turn over 200 people, hire them as full-time employees, take back an outsourcing agreement that wasn't working for 146 services, and I wanted to do it in five months. And we did,” Paul reveals.
The integration of these partners into Equifax’s operations has been seamless.
“I cannot tell an EPAM staff member from an Equifax staff member,” says Paul. “I can't tell a UST employee from anyone from EPAM or Equifax.”
This level of integration creates a collaborative environment where partners contribute ideas and innovations beyond their contracted responsibilities.
“Working with those two organisations is amazing. They don't treat me like a customer, they treat the entire thing like an ideation.”
The concrete benefits of these partnerships have manifested in various ways.
Paul recalls how EPAM helped tackle issues with Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) pipelines: “As a result of all those mergers and acquisitions, my CI/CD pipelines were confused.
“I got a couple of their people out from their cloud practice and we deleted 800 pipelines. We didn't need them.”
Similarly, UST contributed through its innovation centre: “For one of our products in development, they saw that we were spinning on the requirements and couldn't finalise where we're going.
“They said, ‘How about we throw our innovation centre at it for six weeks?’ It focused our mindset, we saw something tangible we could touch. That product will be in the market by about May of this year as a result.”
Embracing AI with a pragmatic approach
With AI dominating technology discussions, Equifax takes a thoughtful, measured approach to implementation. Rather than getting caught in hype cycles, Paul focuses on practical applications with clear objectives.
“I break the conversation down into three things because it impacts humans,” he explains. “Are you assisting a human? Are you augmenting a human? Or are you transforming an activity?”
This framework helps Equifax determine appropriate risk levels and implementation strategies.
For instance, all developers at Equifax have access to Microsoft Copilot to boost productivity, an approach Paul classifies as “assist”.
“When I first rolled it out, the engineers said to me, ‘Does that mean we're going to downsize because you can now do more?’ I said, 'No, now I can get more of a backlog done’”
This productivity boost has been significant, with Paul noting: “My technology team shouldn't be 650 people, it should be about 1,200 or 1,300 people based upon the workload we actually get done. I put 1,700 changes into production a year plus.”
The company has also embraced a crowdsourced approach to exploring more advanced AI applications. “I had 70 people volunteer to work on agentic AI,” Paul says. “They said, ‘we want to do it, we want to work on it, we want to manage it.’”
This structured yet grassroots approach to AI innovation balances enthusiasm with prudence.
“Agentic AI in its first instance will be an augment only,” Paul emphasises.
“A human has to be in the loop. At some point in time in our future, we may well get mature enough that we want to call it a transform and the human is removed. But on day one, we're only at the augment stage.”
This grassroots enthusiasm reflects a culture where technological innovation is embraced and understood throughout the organisation.
As Paul notes: “The workforce is really engaged because they read about agentic AI in the paper and their mates talk about, ‘I wonder if it's ever going to come to my organisation,’ they sit there saying, 'What do you mean? We're already doing it.’”
Looking ahead to continued transformation
With significant progress already made, Paul has a clear vision for Equifax's continued technology evolution. The next 12-18 months will see further acceleration of cloud adoption and AI implementation.
“I’m going to take the organisation from about 40% of our revenue delivered by cloud services to 80%,” he projects.
“We’ll have a higher level of granularity on how we actually manage it because our FinOps practice is world-leading, and we will be using AI in everything we do.”
This ambitious roadmap builds on the foundation of transformation already established. With cloud strategy mapped out, teams aligned to customer needs, and strategic partnerships in place, Equifax is positioned for continued innovation.
The human element remains central to this vision, with a focus on developing and retaining talent across the organisation's six-city strategy. “I have a 5% staff attrition level, which is below market in every one of the cities I'm in,” Paul notes.
This emphasis on people reflects Paul’s broader philosophy about technology leadership.
“We know how to do career development, we know how to do promotions in place and promotions in new roles, we know how to do expressions of interest for new market activities so that people can continue to try out new things,” he explains.
As technology continues to evolve at an accelerating pace, having the right team and partnerships in place becomes increasingly critical.
“I am finding that the world is accelerating. Every time I think I've got a plan in place for how to actually adopt new ideas, I have to keep accelerating,” Paul observes.
“100% of my product range currently in the market has a component of AI in it now,” Paul concludes, “and that will continue through the future.”
To read the full article in the magazine, click HERE.
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Paul Gladigau
Chief Technology Officer