Board of Directors

Members of the DecoNetwork Board of Directors bring years of business experience, professional expertise and passion to the leadership team. With extensive experience in technology, software design and innovation, the DecoNetwork board provide the guidance and support needed to accelerate DecoNetwork's growth and continue to maintain its industry leading position.

Board members

Neil Pentland - Chairman

Neil Pentland is the co-founder, originally CEO and now Commercial Manager of the DecoNetwork. He has worked within the IT industry for more than 30 years with roles ranging from technical/consulting to management.

Neil is past president of Gold Coast IT (GCIT). Neil is a member of the Australian Computer Society (ACS), Member of Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA), founding member and past treasurer of Software Queensland (SQ) and sits on Griffith University Information Technology Advisory board and has served on ICT advisory boards to the Queensland Government and Bond University.

Martin Kristiaman - CEO

Formerly CEO of Wilcom International, Martin has 31 years of industry experience and business relationships globally. At Wilcom he had wide ranging roles from software developer, Software Development Manager, Product Manager, International Business Development Manager, COO, to CEO for the last 8 years. As CEO of Wilcom he led the company to grow to a customer base of over 250,000 in 100 countries, and he formed a unique strategic partnership with Corel as well as international OEM and alliance partners.

Always enjoying the "journey" rather than the "destination", he decided to leave the mature world of Wilcom embroidery CAD business in order to focus on leading the start-up group of DecoNetwork team.

With a background in Bachelor of Industrial Engineering and an MBA in Strategic Management and International Business, Martin is an all-rounder with strength in turning technology innovations into international business success. He is a team builder, an acute listener who enjoys crafting business deals across international cultures.

In 2010 he was recognized by ASI Stitches as the #2 most influential/powerful person in the US apparel decorations industry. Passionate about mass personalization, he believes this is the pivotal decade for personalization and DecoNetwork will be the catalyst/platform for this paradigm shift.

Dr. David Merson

During the 1970’s much of the Australian mining industry’s computing was provided by US based mainframe computer utilities, with limited mining applications software. In 1979, combining new hardware technology, a new business model for computing service delivery, superior software applications, and just $50,000 of capital, David Merson founded Mincom (a contraction of the term “mining computing”) in Brisbane, and was to remain its CEO until 2000. During his tenure, Mincom grew to be Australia’s largest software developer and exporter, with revenue of $200 million, 1300 staff, 20 offices around the world, and global leadership in a number of software categories. Mincom today is much more than mining with most of its software dealing with asset management and maintenance, resulting in its software being suitable for most asset-intensive industries such as utilities, transport and defence. Mining, however, remains its largest business.

Since retiring from Mincom, David has become a director of a number of Australian software companies, research institutes and charitable institutions. His achievements have been recognised with an Honorary Doctorate in Engineering from the University of Queensland, a Centenary Medal from the Australian Government, the Export Hero award from the Australian Institute of Export, the inaugural Australian Information Technology Association’s Gold award, and the inaugural CSIRO iAward for individual achievement in the IT industry (2005).

David Merson is a graduate in Electrical Engineering and in Economics from the University of Queensland.