Lean Enterprise Australia

Nigel Dalton

Chairman of the Board

Nigel is a passionate lean and agile technology leader with over 30 years of IT-related experience across government, multi-nationals, and start-ups.

After working in the USA, in 2007 he joined travel publisher Lonely Planet as General Manager of Information Technology, becoming Deputy Director of Digital (web and mobile businesses) in 2010. After years of being an agile thought leader, it was at Lonely Planet that he learned of the origins of agile in the world of Toyota and Lean. It was a revelation to him, filling all the gaps in management systems that agile was being injudiciously stretched to fill.

He has been involved in several ventures, including co-founding a consultancy, Luna Tractor, to help organisations apply systems thinking, lean and agile software development techniques to all aspects of business. Previously, Nigel held roles with AXA Australia, online human resource start-up ePredix in the USA (now owned by SHL) as well as Silicon Systems and Mitsubishi Electric in New Zealand.

At REA Group Nigel held the role of CIO from 2012, and headed up the REALABS research and development team from 2018. That team were responsible for ensuring REA was ahead of the curve with future technology and social trends, both in the real estate space and beyond.

He now works at ThoughtWorks, a global technosocial consultancy, where he is writing a book (SuperProductive) which tells the story of modern Lean through the lens of productive, healthy workplaces. His passion is seeing the many threads of Lean from healthcare, to manufacturing, mining and supply chain management brought together to focus on improving digital organisations that have pushed agile methods to their limits.