International
Author & Speaker

The first half of Ian’s 20 year Army career was regimentally oriented in field Artillery and Weapon Locating Artillery. It was during this time that he converted a 1 ton truck of technical equipment into a computer program on a hand held calculator, realigned a microphone based Sound Ranging Troop into a Weapon Locating Radar Troop – winning the best troop award in the first year. During a multinational activity, Ian won a US military commendation. Towards the middle of his career, he trained Army recruits, soldiers and Officer Cadets from the three services and took the top three cadets to three military academies overseas. He was also selected to do a postgraduate degree. The rewards for his degree were postings in Army and Defence headquarters where he was responsible for Army’s $30m software budget, instigated and implemented Army’s first Information Management Manual incorporating IT policy and planning documents, introduced Defence’s group decision making capability, had the first Army CIO assigned and restructured Defence’s decentralised 600 strong IT into one new Program. Ian was also chosen to head a multinational activity involving 320 personnel stationed in 20 countries.

Ian retired from the Army to establish his own group decision making consultancy, Know1, which was named because group decisions require the knowledge of key people. It was later noted the awkwardness of answering the phone “Know1 here”! The company doubled every 6 months for 30 months before he moved interstate with family. He still works for Know1! His career then focused on advising business owners and CEOs as well as being involved on Boards. During this time, he also helped many start-ups, entrepreneurs and young people starting out. Eventually, Ian was enticed to take on the role of Interim CEO for several organisations which also led onto more permanent CEO duties. Interestingly, many of these roles involved large turnaround efforts and IT overhauls. Whilst shy about them, he is immensely proud of the achievements he made against the odds.

 

 

Writing has been a constant in Ian‘s life; from assignments, to briefings, proposals, manuals and books. Most books have evolved from simply structuring thoughts and ideas. Several have been in-house publications and Ian has guided a client through the book writing and publishing process which was achieved remarkably from concept to physical product in only four weeks! However, Ian’s real passion is decision-making and the manuscript for his book “WIKID Power“, which details the decision processes needed for superiority that Defence wanted to classify beyond TOP SECRET, was the first of his books to go to #1 on Amazon’s Bestseller list.

Ian enjoys other forms of writing and has made the decision (!) to write shorter books, for a time poor world. In his series of WIKID Fables, Ian focuses on only one tip for making better decisions – which is represented as the typical fable-ending “moral of the story”. Many tell Ian that they don’t have time to read a full book, but always have time to read a whole WIKID Fable over a cuppa! The printed format fits in your pocket for even more convenience!

His multiple #1 bestsellers on Amazon have further encouraged Ian to continue spreading his decision-making ideas around the world. 

All formats of Ian’s books – audio, ebook, kindle, print – can be found and purchased at https://amazon.com/author/IanCoombe

Ian’s career is now a portfolio career – ideally suited to his passions – comprising three aspects:

• Decision-making
  • authoring
  • keynote speaking
  • facilitation & workshopping
  • coaching and mentoring
• Helping new businesses and leaders
• Chair and Director roles

Ian is also the President of the Business School Alumni and Vice President of the Philanthropy and Nonprofit Alumni at a major university and enjoys giving back and helping others.

Qualifications

Whilst Ian has forged his career with passion, he has also pursued qualifications to enhance his knowledge and value. He has the following formal qualifications:

• undergraduate in Science (statistics and computing);
• postgraduate in Management, Economics, Information, Business and Philanthropy; and
• professional in Capital Raising, Governance, Boards, Management and Leadership.

Personal

Ian has been physically active and fit throughout his life but finds it more challenging these days – especially with no children to chase after any more (and no grandchildren yet – no pressure kids). He learnt a few magic tricks for his kids when they were small and considers it important to perpetuate the tradition of Dad jokes since life without fun would not be the same. Indeed, he considers a sense of humour and magic important indicators of a lateral thinker since the punch lines and reveals always come from the least expected perspective.

A more complete breakdown of Ian’s career and achievements can be found on his LinkedIn profile.