Brisbane · Australia

Brad Ferris

Director · Investor · AI Strategy & Governance

Auditor turned operator turned director. Board-level AI and cyber governance for Australian companies at a regulatory moment that demands operator depth and technical literacy, not just oversight.

Currently considering board appointments.Get in touch Read The Director's Lens

The Director's Lens · Signature series

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Edition 01AI Regulation11 October 2026

The Policy Is Not the System

Andrew Charlton has ruled out both voluntary codes and prescriptive rules for frontier AI and named systems-based regulation as the model, with companies held accountable for whether their risk process works. Most boards will read that as a problem for the labs. It is a preview of the test their own AI governance will face, and the document in the board pack is the wrong evidence.

One boardroom question
If a regulator asked us tomorrow to show that our AI risk process works, not that it exists, what would we hand over, and has that process ever stopped, changed or delayed a single AI deployment?

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About

The short version.

Twelve years at EY across Brisbane and Sydney — Big Four audit, then transactions: financial and operational due diligence. In 2018 I co-founded REDD Digital, where I served as CEO and Managing Director, building a managed IT and managed security services business delivering to Queensland government agencies and departments. We sold to a US private equity acquirer in 2025.

Today I run Orange AI —an AI consultancy focused on strategy, operating model redesign, automation, and development—and serve as principal of a multi-entity family investment office. I completed the AICD Company Directors Course in 2026 (GAICD) and remain a registered Chartered Accountant through Chartered Accountants Australia & New Zealand.

I'm currently seeking independent board positions where operator-depth technology experience and active capital-allocation are load-bearing — NFP, medium private, major private, and ASX boards alike.

The credential chain

2005 — 2017

EY · Audit & Transactions

Big Four audit and financial and operational due diligence. Brisbane and Sydney.

2018 — 2025

REDD Digital

Co-Founder, CEO and Managing Director. Built, ran, and exited a managed IT and managed security services business. Sold to a US PE acquirer.

Current

Orange AI

Active AI consultancy. Strategy, automation, and development.

Current

Family Investment Office

Principal of a multi-entity family investment office. Active capital allocation.

2026

GAICD

AICD Company Directors Course. Formal director credential.

Current

Chartered Accountant

Registered member of Chartered Accountants Australia & New Zealand. Current professional-body credential.

Signature series

The Director's Lens.

A director's perspective on AI, technology, cyber security, capital, and the boardroom. Each edition takes a real-world governance moment and reads it through a director's lens.

Researched and drafted by Brad's agentic AI team. Edited and published by Brad Ferris.

28 September 2026AI Regulation6 min read

The Inference Is the Collection

The exposure draft of Australia's second-tranche privacy reform would bring AI-generated and derived data inside the definition of collection. For most boards, that turns the question of what their models infer about customers into a question of what the organisation has collected, and on whose decision.

20 September 2026Risk Oversight5 min read

You Cannot Report What You Cannot See

Australia's signals intelligence chief has said publicly that the country has no formal early-warning system for AI incidents. The harder question for a board is not what the Commonwealth will eventually require, but whether your own organisation could detect an AI incident today.

6 September 2026AI Regulation6 min read

The Submission Your Board Never Saw

Submissions to the Reserve Bank's payments review have split the Australian industry over whether AI agents that transact for a customer should be regulated now, with CBA, Westpac and ANZ on one side and NAB, Visa, American Express and Apple on the other. The split is a map of where the loss lands when an agent gets it wrong, and your own company's position on that map was lodged without the board ever reading it.

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Contact

Get in touch.

For board opportunities, advisory engagements, or AI strategy conversations. Email is the fastest path; my AI agents help me triage, but every reply is mine.

brad@ferriscorp.com.au

Brad Ferris

Consultancy

Orange AI