David Burns
General Introduction
David Burns is Chief Operating Officer of Sharon AI, bringing more than 35 years of experience leading and transforming technology, telecommunications and services businesses across Australia, the United States, Europe and Asia. Throughout his career, he has built and scaled businesses, led complex operational transformations and delivered sustained financial and customer outcomes across rapidly evolving technology markets.
As COO, David leads Sharon AI‘s operational strategy and execution, drawing on decades of experience across technology services, managed services, infrastructure, customer delivery and large-scale transformation. His combination of commercial discipline, operational leadership and customer focus helps ensure Sharon AI can execute at pace and scale as a global AI infrastructure platform.
Background
David spent more than a decade at Telstra in senior executive leadership roles, culminating as Group Executive, Telstra Enterprise, with responsibility for the company’s Australian B2B business and international portfolio. During his tenure, he returned the Enterprise business to top and bottom-line growth, expanded major government and enterprise relationships, grew Telstra’s technology services capabilities through acquisition, and oversaw the integration of Digicel Pacific into Telstra’s international operations.
Earlier at Telstra, David founded and led Global Business Services as part of the company’s T22 transformation, bringing together critical operational functions including field services, activation and assurance, supply chain, procurement, property, finance and people services. He also built Telstra’s Network Applications and Services business from approximately $200 million and loss-making into an approximately $3 billion business delivering approximately 15 per cent EBITDA.
Prior to Telstra, David spent more than 20 years with IBM across Australia, the United States, Japan and the United Kingdom. His leadership roles included General Manager of Global Technology Services for IBM UK & Ireland, leading an approximately US$4–4.5 billion business, and General Manager of Global Technology Services for Australia and New Zealand, with responsibility for more than 3,000 people.
Known for translating strategy into execution, David has extensive experience leading businesses through complex transformation, acquisition and integration while maintaining a strong focus on financial performance, customers and people. He also brings significant board and governance experience, including chair and non-executive roles across international telecommunications and infrastructure businesses.
Present
Chief Operating Officer – Sharon AI
Leads Sharon AI’s operational strategy and execution, helping translate the company’s growth ambitions into disciplined delivery across its rapidly expanding AI infrastructure platform.
2024 - Present
Principal – David Burns Advisory & Thinkingcubed
Advises enterprise clients and private equity firms on acquisitions, organisational transformation, leadership and strategic customer priorities. David is also an active investor in Humanico, a workforce-intelligence software business.
2020 – 2024
Group Executive, Telstra Enterprise – Telstra
Led Telstra’s Australian B2B business and international portfolio, returning the business to top and bottom-line growth while strengthening major enterprise and government customer relationships. He expanded Telstra’s technology services capabilities through acquisitions including Alliance Automation, Aqura, Epicon and Versent, and oversaw the integration of Digicel Pacific into Telstra’s international business.
2018 – 2020
Group Executive, Global Business Services – Telstra
Founded and led Telstra’s Global Business Services function as part of the T22 transformation, bringing together critical operational and corporate processes across the organisation. Under his leadership, the function removed 37 per cent of its FY18 cost base through FY21 while maintaining employee engagement through significant organisational change.
2017 – 2018
Group Managing Director, Global Services & International – Telstra
Led Telstra’s Global Services and International businesses, including the development and approval of four new undersea cable investments connecting major markets across Asia-Pacific and the United States. He also completed the integration of PacNet and expanded Telstra’s international network capacity and services footprint.
2012 – 2017
Senior Leadership Roles – Telstra
Joined Telstra to establish its Network Applications and Services business, growing it from approximately $200 million and loss-making into an approximately $3 billion business delivering approximately 15 per cent EBITDA. David subsequently served as Acting Group Executive, Enterprise & International Business, alongside other senior leadership responsibilities.
1990 – 2012
Senior Leadership Roles – IBM
Spent more than two decades with IBM across Australia, the United States, Japan and the United Kingdom, progressing through senior leadership roles spanning technology services, outsourcing, systems integration and enterprise customer management. His roles included General Manager of Global Technology Services for IBM UK & Ireland, Managing Director of the IBM Telstra account and General Manager of Global Technology Services for Australia and New Zealand.
Board Experience & Governance
David is a Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and brings extensive board and governance experience. During his final six years at Telstra, he attended Telstra Board and Audit & Risk Committee sessions and regularly engaged with investors and analysts on the performance and outlook of the Enterprise portfolio.
His board experience includes serving as inaugural Chair of Digicel Pacific, Chair and Deputy Chair of Reach, Deputy Chair of TelkomTelstra and a Board Member of TelstraSuper.
Current Role
Other Team Members
- Co-founder & Chief Executive Officer
James is the CEO of Sharon AI.
His career has spanned over 22 years across technology, finance, property development and funds management.
James has built and monetized over 300MW of energy infrastructure across Pennsylvania, Georgia, Texas and Australia.
James has completed a Master of Business (Finance) and a Master’s in Property Development from the University of Technology Sydney, as well as a Bachelor of Accounting from ACU.
He is a Fellow of the Institute of Company Directors (FAICD), and a Fellow of Institute of Public Accountants (IPA).
- Co-founder and Head of Strategic Partnerships
Andrew began his career with Macquarie Bank (ASX:MQG) in 2007 where he served for 8 years in the Corporate and Asset Finance division.
He then embarked on several entrepreneurial endeavors developing aviation leasing technology whilst serving on the board of ISI Australia, a provider of mainframe and cloud platform solutions.
Andrew co-founded Sharon AI and served as Chief Operating Officer, playing a central role in building the company’s operating capability and advancing its AI Factory deployments. He now leads Strategic Partnerships, providing founder-level sponsorship across Sharon AI’s most important customer, data centre and strategic relationships.
- Co-founder & Head of Corporate Development
Nick has over 18 years’ experience across financial markets, technology and energy infrastructure.
Starting his career at multi-billion-dollar asset manager Bell Financial Group (ASX:BFG) where he served for 12 years before building and managing 100 modular data centres across 200MW of energy infrastructure in the USA and Australia while working in a senior leadership role at a NASDAQ-listed digital infrastructure company.
- Chief Financial Officer
Anuj Goel brings more than 20 years of experience across technology investment banking, capital markets and corporate finance. Throughout his career, he has advised companies, founders and investors on growth, capital raisings and strategic transformation, with deep expertise spanning technology, telecommunications, media and digital infrastructure.
Before joining Sharon AI as CFO, Anuj was Head of Technology, APAC at Macquarie Capital, where he advised on many of Australia’s most significant technology and digital infrastructure transactions.
- Chief Technology Officer
Dan Mons brings over two decades of leadership experience in the technology sector across 10 countries.
He has led the technical design, security planning, and training teams for government, AI/ML, media, HPC, research, finance, and software development in Australia, the US, the UK, Asia, and Europe. Dan is committed to driving effective change while maintaining security objectives and ensuring team members deliver business success and meet customer needs.
- Country Manager - USA
Wolf Schubert is the Country Manager – USA of Sharon AI. His career has spanned over 25 years across technology, capital markets and risk management (Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and Merrill Lynch).
Most recently he ran part of the institutional business at BlockFi, a fintech startup. Before that he held senior roles at Vista Equity Partners and Strategic Value Partners, where he was Chief Risk Officer.
- Head of Capital Strategy & Investor Relations
Ross has over 25 years of capital markets experience in both the US and Australia, where he was most recently Head of Technology Equity Research at Wilsons Advisory. Prior to his 5 years at Wilsons, he was at Citigroup for 14 years, where he was Head of Small Caps Research.
Ross is best known for his combined knowledge of both financial markets and digital infrastructure, the result of 19 years of equity research and 13 years of continuous coverage of NextDC, one of SharonAI’s key partners.
- Head of Human Resources
Kathleen Manning brings more than a decade of management and people-leadership experience across hospitality, health, and professional services. With formal qualifications in Business and Psychology, she blends commercial strength with a deep understanding of human behaviour to create engaged, high-performing teams and sustainable organisational culture.
Kathleen has held senior leadership roles including Director at Defender Asset Management and Head of HR for the Defender Tourism Fund, where she oversaw large, multi-site teams, modernised HR systems, strengthened compliance frameworks, and supported rapid business expansion. She has also completed the AICD Company Secretary Course, enhancing her governance and executive-level capability.
Kathleen now leads the HR function at Sharon AI, bringing her strategic mindset, operational excellence, and people-first approach to support the organisation’s growth and culture as it scales.
- Chief Revenue Officer
Linton is a recognized growth leader in the Australian and APAC tech landscape with over 25 years of leadership at global technology icons including IBM, Microsoft, and Rackspace. Most recently serving as CRO at Vault Cloud, he brings specialized expertise in scaling high-security, critical infrastructure. At Sharon AI, Linton spearheads global commercial operations and revenue strategy, ensuring sovereign AI infrastructure scales to meet the mission-critical needs of enterprise and government partners.
- Chief Legal Officer
Melissa Anastasiou is Chief Legal Officer of Sharon AI, bringing nearly 30 years of legal and executive leadership experience across telecommunications, technology and digital infrastructure.
Throughout her career, she has experience advising boards and executive teams on corporate governance, complex commercial transactions, regulatory engagement, mergers and acquisitions, privacy, cyber matters and AI governance.