Digital Transformation & AI Leader

Turning AI, analytics and automation into practical solutions that drive enterprise adoption and measurable business outcomes across global pharmaceutical, MedTech and regulated operational environments.

Explore the projects View experience

20+ yrs

Technology leadership across pharma, MedTech and shared services

30+

Countries supported through global shared services across Finance, HR, IT & Supply Chain

$10M+

Operational savings delivered through enterprise automation over three years

1,000+

Projects mapped into one prioritised network roadmap

Awards & recognition

2019

Automation Anywhere Industry Innovators Award

Enterprise automation recognition.

2×

BD Innovation Award

Recognised for enterprise automation and process improvement.

Top 20 ×2

Most Admired Shared Services Organisations

Contributed to SSON-recognised organisations: BD (2018) and Sanofi (2022).

1 of 5

Global Enterprise Case Studies

Featured in SSON's 2017 Intelligent Automation Market Report alongside ANZ, Dell EMC, EY and Walgreens.

Speaking

2018 · Keynote

SSON RPA Conference

Digital Command Centre operating models for enterprise automation.

2020 · Speaker

Forefront Conference

IT automation strategy for shared services leaders.

2022 · Speaker

SSON Shared Services & Outsourcing Week Asia

Technology for service and operational excellence.

Where I've worked across the enterprise

From front office to back office to factory floor.

A portfolio of enterprise transformation initiatives and independent AI projects, showing the business challenges, solutions and outcomes across different functions.

Technology & Transformation

Strategy & roadmapEnterprise · Operating model

Transformation Loop & AI Citizen Model

Improvement ideas need a clear route from business problem to delivery and value.

Developed Transformation Loop to connect business outcomes, demand, delivery and benefits tracking, alongside an AI Citizen Model supporting business-led solutions with Digital training and governance.

Connecting strategy, use-case prioritisation, business-led delivery and value tracking.

Details

A closed loop: KPI and pain-point signals are routed to the right solution path, the people closest to the process build the fix with Digital's guardrails and training, and the value delivered is traced back to the original problem.

Engineering practiceMethod

AI-native software development life cycle

Moving from promising ideas to working applications requires repeatable delivery controls.

An approach to using AI-assisted development through design, build, test and review, with people retaining oversight and quality gates.

AI-assisted delivery approach with human oversight.

Details

Takes a problem from idea through design, build, test and release, with AI agents doing the heavy lifting and people holding the controls and review gates at every phase.

Automation & operating modelEnterprise · Founded

Global RPA Centre of Excellence

Automation needs a repeatable way to prioritise, deliver and operate at enterprise scale.

Built the business case and founded a global RPA Centre of Excellence, growing the delivery and DevOps organisation to 60+ people across strategic vendors.

$10M+ operational savings over three years from enterprise automation and process improvement.

Details

Grew from one graduate hire to a 60+ person delivery and DevOps organisation spanning strategic vendors, with governance and an operating model.

Operations & automationEnterprise · Live operations

Digital Command Centre

A growing automation estate needs coordinated monitoring, support and controls.

Ran a Digital Command Centre covering monitoring, incident and problem management, runbooks and release control.

250+ bots · 100+ servers · 97% operational SLA compliance

IT support & automationEnterprise · Live

Enterprise AI chatbot

Repetitive IT requests create manual work for service teams.

Led an enterprise IT support chatbot from discovery through implementation, connecting ServiceNow and RPA workflows so routine requests could be resolved through one entry point.

Live IT support solution integrating ServiceNow and RPA.

Details

Live in IT support for a global MedTech company. The chat front end hands routine requests to ServiceNow and RPA so they are resolved, not just logged.

People & Capability

GenAI & change managementEnterprise · Delivered

Generative AI adoption programme

Providing AI tools is only the start; employees need practical support to use them.

Led adoption of Microsoft 365 Copilot and an internal GenAI platform through use-case discovery, AI literacy, workshops, roadshows, coaching, a knowledge hub and governance.

400+ employees reached through the programme · 95% Melbourne-site participation in the AI roadshow

HR & careersIndependent build

Personity AI

People can struggle to connect their strengths with potential career paths.

Developed an AI-enabled career exploration concept connecting personality insights with possible career directions and next steps.

Independent project exploring career guidance for individuals, coaches and HR teams.

People & GenAIEnterprise · Delivered

Coaching Plan AI

Coaching takes time to tailor and is difficult to scale consistently.

Developed an AI-assisted coaching approach that uses an individual's profile to structure a personalised coaching plan.

Developed as part of the employee GenAI enablement approach.

Details

Structures each plan around the GROW coaching model, starting from the individual's personal style profile.

Finance & Procurement

Finance & RPAEnterprise · Live

Sales-order automation

Manual sales-order entry creates avoidable effort and limits traceability.

Automated elements of order processing through RPA, reducing manual keying and improving process traceability.

Contributed to $100K annual Order-to-Cash savings.

Procurement & financeEnterprise · Developed tool

SpendCube

Fragmented procurement information makes it harder to see spending patterns and savings opportunities.

Developed an AI-enabled spend analytics tool to give Procurement and Finance clearer visibility by supplier, category and site, with support for tracking opportunities through to realisation.

Approximately $3–4M in identified savings opportunities.

Shared services & Power BIEnterprise · Delivered

Dashboard Factory

Fragmented spreadsheet reporting limits consistent visibility across functions.

Built a global governed self-service analytics capability and Power BI roadmap spanning Finance, HR, IT and Supply Chain shared services.

Power BI adoption increased from 0% to 80% across Sanofi Global Shared Services.

Investment planningEnterprise · Designed tool

Value Bridge

Large project portfolios make investment prioritisation and value traceability difficult.

Designed an AI-enabled tool to map and prioritise initiatives in a single network investment roadmap, with value traced project by project.

1,000+ projects mapped into one prioritised manufacturing network roadmap.

Details

Scores proposed initiatives on business value and effort and flags duplicates before they reach the roadmap.

Manufacturing & Operations

Safety & computer visionEnterprise · Prototype

Smart glasses hazard detection

Shop-floor safety teams need practical ways to explore new approaches to hazard identification.

Developed a computer vision safety prototype using smart glasses to explore hazard detection in a manufacturing environment.

Shop-floor applied AI prototype in a regulated manufacturing setting.

Details

Uses computer vision on smart glasses and cameras to flag potential hazards as inspectors move through the plant.

Frontline operationsEnterprise · Applied AI use case

Voice-driven AI avatar for operators

Operators need quick access to approved procedures and relevant operational knowledge.

Developed a voice-driven AI avatar connecting operators to approved SOPs, knowledge bases and operational data.

Hands-free access to operational knowledge explored through an applied AI use case.

Customer & Service

Customer service & voice AIIndependent build

AI front desk assistant

Missed after-hours enquiries can become missed service opportunities.

Built an assistant concept for handling customer enquiries and appointment workflows across voice and messaging channels.

Independent customer-service AI build.

Retail & receptionIndependent build

Talking avatar kiosk

Visitors may need information when staff are busy or unavailable.

Built a digital receptionist concept for kiosks and reception areas that can answer common questions.

Independent front-of-house AI exploration.

Companion AIIndependent build

AI companion that sees, hears and remembers

Many conversational assistants do not maintain useful context across sessions.

Experimented with a multimodal assistant combining conversational interaction and contextual memory.

Independent exploration of multimodal AI and memory-driven interaction.

Health & wellnessIndependent build

Wellness monitoring from brainwave data

Turning specialised wellness data into understandable reports can require significant manual interpretation.

Explored an AI-assisted reporting workflow that converts brain-wellness session data into plain-language summaries.

Independent wellness-reporting concept.

Personal built in my own time

Lifestyle & personal AIIndependent build

Personal AI assistant

Personal tasks, information and follow-ups are often scattered across tools.

Built an experimental assistant to bring personal information and routine workflows into one place, including exploration of automated agents.

Independent AI experimentation across personal knowledge and workflow automation.

Details

Includes two experimental agents: a rules-based crypto investing bot and a second-hand car trading scout.

Experience

Leadership roles.

Click a role for the detail.

What colleagues say

In their words.

“A creative and passionate leader … Wilkins built a rock-solid team which successfully deployed the first bots.”

Steve GordonDirector, California Department of Motor VehiclesManaged Wilkins directly

“Starting up a new technology is never easy but Wilkins does it with poise and grace … He gets the job done.”

Paul BartleyLeading global business transformationsSenior to Wilkins

“Wilkins is a visionary leader … He thinks 2 to 3 steps ahead and stays agile with results driven mindset.”

Li Ying TayFranchise Head, Vaccines, SEA & IndiaWorked with Wilkins

“One of the pioneers leading digital operations and processes automation through robots across the organization in global services.”

Adrian GaeteAI + Transformation, Global Business ServicesWorked with Wilkins

From LinkedIn recommendations. Read all on LinkedIn

Approach

From pain point to value realised, end to end.

The same loop runs under everything on this page. It starts with a KPI that's off or a problem someone on the floor keeps hitting, and it isn't finished until the value shows up in the operating numbers and someone owns it day to day.

Pain points & KPIs

Start where it hurts: the KPI that's off, the hand-off that keeps failing, the hours lost to rework. Go to the floor and the finance meeting, not the slide deck.

Gemba · KPI reviews · stakeholder discovery

Prioritise & fund

Score every opportunity on value and effort, kill the duplicates, and connect each investment decision to the value it must return.

Value Bridge · Transformation Loop

Fix the process, then automate

Simplify first with Lean Six Sigma. Then RPA for the repetitive work, AI for the judgement calls, and the people closest to the process building with Digital's guardrails.

Lean Six Sigma · RPA · AI · AI Citizen Model

Run & operate

Hand nothing over that can't be run. One command centre for every bot and agent: monitoring, runbooks, incident, problem and release control, with governance built in.

Digital Command Centre · Responsible AI

Realise & embed value

Trace the benefit back to the original KPI, track it until it's banked, and build the capability so adoption holds six months after go-live, not just at launch.

Benefits realisation · adoption metrics · capability building

About

Business-facing leadership, grounded in delivery.

I lead Digital across Australia and China for a global pharmaceutical manufacturer and advance AI adoption across its 12-site manufacturing network. Before that I led analytics and automation for a global pharmaceutical company's shared services across Finance, HR, IT and Supply Chain in 30+ countries, and founded a global MedTech company's RPA Centre of Excellence, growing it to 60+ people and delivering $10M+ in savings over three years.

I started as a software engineer and still build. I enjoy connecting business needs with practical technology: shaping strategy and governance, supporting teams through change, and staying close enough to emerging tools to understand both their possibilities and their limits. The independent projects on this page reflect that curiosity; the enterprise work shows how I apply it in organisations.

Currently: Head of Digital (Australia & China) and AI Lead across a 12-site manufacturing network for a global pharmaceutical manufacturer; leading an AI and digital program for a Victorian disability services provider; and in conversations about senior digital and AI leadership roles across Australia.

Bachelor of Software Engineering (Honours), University of Melbourne · Diploma in Global Business Services, The Hackett Institute · Lean Six Sigma Black Belt · Certified SAFe Agilist · Microsoft Power Platform · English, Cantonese, Mandarin · Melbourne, Australian citizen

Contact

Let's discuss a role, a project or a collaboration.

Senior digital transformation and AI leadership roles, problems like the ones on this page, or ideas worth building together. Connect on LinkedIn or send a note below; I reply within one business day.

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