Sydney's CTO Labs bolsters leadership team with new partner Wayne Te Paa

Sydney-based IT services and mergers and acquisition advisory firm CTO Labs has appointed Wayne Te Paa to lead its technology services arm.

Hired from global consulting firm ThoughtWorks, Te Paa will join as a partner alongside founders Josh Hinton and Mike Mengell to form the company’s leadership team.

Te Paa will focus on market expansion and services in tech strategy, product development, tech modernisation, software development and engineering and digital platforms and cloud.

“I’m always energised by new challenges, and joining CTO Labs is next-level. Aside from rapid growth, CTO Labs has carved out a distinct area of the market. For one, the team has a knack of slicing and dicing tech in a way that can be quickly understood and acted on,” Te Paa said.

“It’s also the work that CTO Labs does in M&A technical assessments which gives unbridled advantage when tackling tech problems at the forefront of industry change. I’m really excited about where this is taking us.”

CTO Labs offers both mergers and acquisition technology advisory services and IT services, with offerings ranging from due diligence and integration planning in one arm for the former and technology strategy, product development, cloud, digital platforms and software development and engineering for the tech side.

Te Paa will remain based in Melbourne like his previous stint at ThoughtWorks, where he was portfolio director from 2020 to 2022 and client principal from 2017 to 2020. He also led the ANZ business of insurance software company Sapiens from 2014 to 2016 as country director, and held various sales roles at Innovation Group from 2002 to 2014.

CTO Labs co-founder Josh Hinton said, “Since establishing CTO Labs we have quickly cemented our niche as a commercially savvy tech team that helps investors and private equity firms manage their tech-based portfolio through advice & execution that is both robust and clear. In the last year, we have further expanded the services we provide to other businesses, helping them benefit from the deep insights that our M&A tech experience brings to the table.

“CTO Labs has bold ambitions for the year ahead and expanding our leadership team is a significant investment in backing them.”

Co-founder and chief technology officer Mike Mengell said, “Wayne is a recognised leader in the tech industry and brings to the team razor sharp insight around strategic, positive tech-led change.

“We have been industry colleagues for years and are good friends: which is exactly the type of culture we are creating: connected, collaborative and fun.”