Meet the team behind Freelancer!

Matt Barrie is an award winning technology entrepreneur. He is Chief Executive of Freelancer.com, the world's largest freelancing marketplace connecting over 20 million professionals from around the globe, which has been awarded by the International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences ten Webby Awards, the "Internet's highest honour".

Freelancer.com primarily connects small businesses and individuals from the western world with freelancers in the developing world, empowering entrepreneurs on both sides of the globe. Freelancer Limited listed on the Australian Securities Exchange in 2013 with a market capitalisation of over $1 billion.

Matt is also Chief Executive of Escrow.com, a world leader in secure online payments with over US$2.7 billion in transactions secured.

Matt was Adjunct Associate Professor at the Department of Electrical and Information Engineering at the University of Sydney where he taught Cryptography for fifteen years and, later, Technology Venture Creation. He is the co-author of over 20 US patent applications.

Matt is a prolific speaker globally and has headlined at SXSW, The Summit Series, Tony Robbins, The Next Web, the New York Times, Bloomberg TV, Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch, BRW and the Economist.

Previously he founded and was CEO of Sensory Networks Inc., a vendor of high performance network security processors which sold to Intel Corporation in 2013.

In 2006, he was awarded the State Pearcey Award for contribution to the IT&T industry. In 2010 he was named Alumnus of the Year for the Faculty of Engineering and IT at the University of Sydney. In 2011 he was named inaugural BRW Entrepreneur of the Year, by Australia's most prestigious business publication as well as the Ernst & Young Technology Entrepreneur of the Year. In 2016 he was awarded Libertarian of the Year by the Australian Libertarian Society.

For enquiries relating to speaking engagements, please email speaker@freelancer.com

Darren transitioned from Executive Director and Chief Technology Officer of Freelancer to Non-Executive Director in late 2015. In his time as an executive he was responsible day-to-day for strategic leadership of the company's operating and technical direction.

Darren has experience in computer security, protocols, networking and software. Prior to joining Freelancer, Darren was a co-founder of Sensory Networks, a venture-backed network security hardware company, where he held the roles of Chief Technology Officer and subsequently Chief Executive Officer. Darren previously lectured in Computer Science at the University of Sydney in a variety of areas to postgraduates and undergraduates.

Darren has authored numerous articles, patents and papers relating to security technology, software and networking, and has spoken at a number of international conferences. Darren holds a first class honours degree in Computer Science and a Ph.D. in Computer Science specialising in computer networking from the University of Sydney.

Simon is a founding investor of Freelancer. Simon has more than 17 years experience in high growth technology businesses in both Australia and the United States. His technical expertise includes proficiency in multiple software development languages, computer security and vulnerability analysis, and he is co-author and inventor of a number of technology patents.

Focusing on consumer-centric software and Internet enabled technology he founded, and was CEO of WinGuides, which later became PC Tools. With Simon as CEO PC Tools grew to over $100 million dollars in revenue, more than 250 employees and offices in 7 countries. PC Tools was acquired by Symantec Corporation (NASDAQ:SYMC) in October 2008 in one of Australia's largest ever technology acquisitions at the time. Following the acquisition Simon became a Vice President at Symantec, before leaving in 2009 and founding Startive Ventures, a specialised technology venture fund. Today, Startive actively maintains investments in a number of successful global start-ups and Simon acts as a Director and advisor to companies around the world.

Patrick is Chairman and CEO of Catcha Group. Since founding Catcha Group in 1999, Patrick has built an extensive track record of founding, building, acquiring, listing and growing both private and public Southeast Asian digital businesses. Today, he is widely recognized as one of the leading entrepreneurs in the region, having founded and taken 6 digital businesses from their early stages to initial public offering in Australia and Southeast Asia, including the iProperty Group - which was acquired by REA Group in 2016 in one of the largest ever acquisitions of a Southeast Asian internet company at the time; iCar Asia, an operator of leading automobile marketplaces which merged with Carsome to create Malaysia's first unicorn; and Frontier Digital Ventures, an owner and operator of leading online marketplaces in frontier markets.

In Feb 2021 Catcha raised US$300m for a NYSE listed SPAC looking for opportunities in emerging markets. In Aug 2023 the SPAC announced a merger agreement with Crown LNG.

Patrick is passionate about leveraging Catcha's entrepreneurial and capital markets expertise to help great tech entrepreneurs scale and take their companies to the public markets.

He has been independently and widely recognised by a number of international awards, including: Global Leader of Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum; New Asian Leader by the World Economic Forum; Young Entrepreneur of the Year by the Australian Chamber of Commerce, Singapore; Asia's Best Young Entrepreneur by Bloomberg Business; and the University of Sydney's 2021 Alumni Award for International Achievement.

Neil Katz is the Chief Financial Officer at Freelancer and is responsible for the finance and administration functions of the Company. Since joining Freelancer in May 2009, Neil has been an integral part of the management team and has been involved in establishing the financial disciplines and internal controls of the Group.

Neil has over 20 years experience in finance, accounting and general management. Neil has held CFO roles at a number of technology companies, including IPscape, Threatmetrix, Sensory Networks and Aptrix. Neil has experience and been involved in numerous private equity and venture capital raisings, obtaining multiple government grants, corporate restructuring and trade sale activities. In particular, Neil was involved in the sale of Aptrix to IBM. In these previous roles, Neil has provided financial guidance to assist in the growth and international expansion of these businesses. Neil has also provided consulting services to a number of smaller technology start-up companies in areas of commercialisation strategies and capital raising.

Prior to his roles within the technology sector, Neil held senior finance positions in distribution and retail sectors, including at Checkpoint Systems.

Neil holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) degree in Financial Management obtained from the University of Cape Town, South Africa, and is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia.

Laurent Goudet is the Chief Technology Officer at Freelancer and is responsible for the technical direction of the company, ensuring alignment with its business goals. Prior to transitioning from Software Architect to Chief Technology Officer in early 2021, Laurent has been leading multiple technical initiatives, transforming the Web & native clients into mobile-friendly, fast, and reliable web applications, lifting the user experience and reducing the engineering costs.

Prior to joining Freelancer in December 2013, Laurent worked as a Linux embedded systems software engineer, gaining the low-level knowledge needed to deeply understand the high-level software abstractions that compose a modern web application stack.

Laurent holds a first-class honours degree in Mathematics and Computer Science from Université de Marne-la-Vallée, France, a Master's degree in Embedded Systems Engineering from ESIEE Paris, France, and studied abroad at Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, California.

Joining Freelancer in 2023, Andrew leads product strategy and development for our enterprise division. He has over two decades experience as a technology and product leader, most recently as co-founder, CTO and Head of Product at B2B marketplace vendor Bench. Prior to this Andrew was Technical Director of digital studio Future Büro, winning multiple international honours including Cannes Lions, Webby and D&AD awards. Andrew holds a Bachelor of Applied Science (with Distinction) from Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.

Shaun McMeeken is the Global Sales Director at Freelancer.com, where he supports Fortune 500 and similar organisations implement new talent models to optimise their workforce for the future. He was a member of the founding ANZ Executive Board at Groupon where he led the sales team as Vice President Sales and revenue grew from zero to $250M.

Prior to that he worked as National Sales Manager with The Australian at News Corp. He led the sales team responsible for addressing national talent skill shortages and generating $70M of revenue from a portfolio of enterprise accounts across technology, higher education, media & marketing, commercial property, finance, law, aviation, professional services, mining & engineering, oil & gas, health & medical, Federal & State Governments, and international markets.

He has also held sales, marketing and management positions with the Travel Corporation, Melbourne Airport and Thomas Cook in the United States. He holds a Bachelor of Business in Travel & Tourism Management from Victoria University and studied a Bachelor of Business in Banking & Finance at Monash University. At Victoria University he was awarded an academic scholarship to attend Virginia Tech in the USA, where he studied international trade.

Ayen Torcuator is the Global Head of Customer Experience at Freelancer.com, where she is responsible for ensuring that customers receive 24/7 world class service and solutions.

Ayen is a dynamic and visionary leader who implements customer-centric innovations and strategies to enhance user satisfaction and foster customer loyalty and trust. She firmly supports the vision of Changing Lives and takes charge in building happy and high-performing support and operational teams.

Ayen holds a bachelor's degree in Political Science from the University of the Philippines, Diliman and has been part of the company for more than a decade.

Sebastián Siseles is responsible for creating, communicating, maintaining, and aligning the company's international expansion strategy for long-term, profitable growth, leading the team of regional directors and country managers worldwide. Sebastián is also directly involved and responsible for international launches, establishing and consolidating Freelancer's presence and growth in both developed and emerging markets, with special focus in managing company's operations across Latin America and Southern Europe. An Argentine entrepreneur with an MBA from the University of Pittsburgh, Sebastián has a background in law specialising in corporate finance and M&A and has taken post-graduate courses at the Buenos Aires Stock Exchange and the Southwestern University School of Law on International Business Transactions.

Prior to joining Freelancer, Sebastián cofounded multiple Internet and communications companies and has also served as President, Director, General Counsel, and COO in different Internet and non-technology companies, while being part of a prestigious corporate law firm in Argentina.

Adam Byrnes is responsible for expanding Freelancer across the world, particularly into markets that are dominated by non-english native speakers, such as Asia and Latin-America. He leads teams in public relations, content, marketing and translation, and has been responsible for launching Freelancer's websites internationally, including 40 dedicated regional sites and 31 languages.

Prior to joining Freelancer, Adam worked as a physics researcher at the University of Sydney in the field of photonics. During this time, he co-authored a number of academic papers in major physics journals and presented his work at the CLEO conference in California. Adam has also worked in information technology for Macquarie Group and Aalborg Industries.

Adam holds a first-class honours degree in Electrical Engineering and Advanced Physics from the University of Sydney, and studied abroad at the University of California, Santa Barbara.