— Our People —
Our people are the bridge between industry experience and digital transformation.
We are AEC digital strategists,
connecting data and systems,
enabling industry Digital Twins,
unlocking insight & intelligence,
to deliver whole-of-life value.
— Our Executive Team —
Utopia Digital’s executive team overseas operations, vision, and technology.
Ryan Townsend
CO-FOUNDER
Chief Executive Officer
Ryan Townsend is Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer. With nearly two decades of experience delivering major infrastructure projects, Ryan brings deep domain knowledge of construction workflows, project controls, and digital engineering.
Ryan leads customer success, strategy, and delivery for CDE Sync™, supporting global contractors and consultancies as they transition away from manual file handling toward fully automated synchronisation workflows. He works closely with project teams to embed CDE Sync™ into existing digital frameworks for productivity improvements.
His focus is on helping organisations overcome fragmentation across Bentley ProjectWise, Autodesk Construction Cloud, BIM 360, Aconex, InEight, 12d Synergy, SharePoint, Asite, and Procore. With an emphasis on compliance, traceability, and operational reliability, Ryan ensures CDE Sync™ supports the scale, governance, and data assurance for major programmes.
Aaron Traylen
CO-FOUNDER
Chief Operating Officer
Aaron Traylen is Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer at Utopia Digital, where he guides organisations through the adoption and implementation of CDE Sync™ across enterprise-scale programmes. With extensive experience in digital engineering, large project delivery, and CDE strategy, Aaron ensures customers achieve measurable productivity gains through unifying data.
Aaron leads engagements with contractors, consultants, asset owners, technology vendors (including Bentley, Autodesk), and other CDE providers, to ensure the platform aligns with industry standards and emerging digital engineering practices.
Aaron specialises in helping organisations transition from siloed systems to federated, interoperable environments that support better decision-making and streamlined project delivery. His focus is on driving industry adoption, building partnerships, and ensuring CDE Sync™ continuously evolves to meet enterprise needs.
Paul Kovac
CO-FOUNDER
Chief Technology Officer
As Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer, Paul Kovac leads the design, security, and operation of the cloud architecture that powers CDE Sync™. With deep expertise in enterprise systems and large-scale infrastructure management, Paul ensures the platform remains robust, secure, and optimised for high-volume processing.
Paul oversees the backbone of CDE Sync™ — an Azure-based system that performs millions of synchronisations each month between Bentley ProjectWise, Autodesk Forma, Aconex, InEight, 12d Synergy, SharePoint, Asite, and Procore. His focus is on delivering reliability and performance for critical workflows.
He is responsible for implementing security frameworks, system hardening, and failover strategies that maintain operational continuity for global customers. Paul’s work ensures CDE Sync™ delivers not only automation and speed, but the integrity, compliance, and auditability required by major infrastructure programmes.
— Our Board Advisors —
Utopia Digital’s Advisory Board supports strategy, investment, and growth.
Nick Malone
BOARD ADVISOR
Strategic Growth Advisor
Nick is a seasoned technology executive who has spent his career helping software businesses grow, scale, and navigate change. With experience across CIO, COO, and CRO roles, he brings a balanced perspective across technology, operations, and commercial leadership.
He has worked with a range of leading organisations - including PTC, SAP, Samruk, Sitecore, and XTM - across public, private, and private equity-backed environments, supporting teams through key stages of growth and transformation.
Known for his practical and collaborative approach, Nick works closely with leadership teams to simplify complex challenges, strengthen go-to-market execution, and build the foundations for sustainable, scalable growth.
As Board Advisor to Utopia Digital, he is focused on helping the business formulate its commercial strategy, build momentum in the market, and scale with clarity and confidence.
Brent Watts
BOARD ADVISOR
Investment Growth Advisor
Brent is a venture capital investor and entrepreneur with 30 years of experience across technology, startups, and investment in Australia, the United States, and Europe. He specialises in early-stage venture capital, working alongside founding teams as an investor, mentor, and company director in high-growth, globally focused startups.
He is the Founder and Managing Partner of 77 Partners, supporting high-potential Australian founders through early funding, deep mentorship, and global connections. Previously, he was Investor-in-Residence at Bee Partners in San Francisco, and a founding team member and Head of Investment and Ventures at bluebox, the QUT commercialisation company, where he established the QUT Founders Fund and launched a range of accelerator initiatives.
As Board Advisor to Utopia Digital, he is focused on helping the business attract strategic capital, build commercial momentum, and scale with clarity and confidence.
— Our Delivery Team —
Utopia Digital’s digital delivery team supports development, implementation, and uplift.
Darien Liu
DELIVERY TEAM
Solution Architect
As Solution Architect at Utopia Digital, Darien Liu designs and delivers CDE solutions for enterprise clients across transportation, energy, civil infrastructure, and construction. He works directly with project teams and technical leads to scope integrations, map data environments, and configure CDE Sync™ across platforms including Autodesk Construction Cloud, Bentley ProjectWise, Oracle Aconex, SharePoint, and Procore.
Darien owns the solution from discovery through to deployment — producing integration specifications, configuring synchronisation workflows, and onboarding clients onto the platform. His background spans Microsoft Azure, REST API integration, and authentication frameworks like OAuth 2.0, SAML, and OpenID Connect. His focus is on building new integrations with requirements capture, clean architecture, and delivery outcomes that hold up under compliance and auditability requirements.
Alex Shuttleworth
DELIVERY TEAM
Director of Digital Strategy
As Director of Digital Strategy at Utopia Digital, Alex leads the development and execution of digital transformation strategies that connect data, systems, and stakeholders across the infrastructure lifecycle. Working within existing enterprise governance, he partners with clients to define strategic direction and establish frameworks that enable scalable adoption across their organisations and supply chains, ensuring digitalisation initiatives deliver enterprise-wide value.
With more than 30 years’ experience across public and private infrastructure and facilities, Alex brings deep expertise in infrastructure digitalisation, digital engineering, and asset management. He specialises in overcoming fragmented business environments and implementing interoperable, standards-aligned solutions, particularly in line with ISO 19650, supporting more integrated, efficient, and insight-driven project delivery and asset management.
Adam Griffiths
DELIVERY TEAM
Director of Digital Integration
Director of Digital Integration at Utopia Digital, Adam leads the implementation of digital transformation projects and programs, ensuring the agreed strategy and roadmap is delivered in an integrated and risk managed way. He supports our clients with the development of scalable data-centric standards, contracts, training, processes and technology, to enable a step change in how organisations plan, design, and build projects.
With nearly 20 years’ experience in infrastructure delivery, Adam brings management and in-depth technical knowledge and expertise across a broad range of business functions, including Digital Engineering, Project Management, Project Controls, Commercial Management, Engineering Assurance, and Asset Handover. He specialises in being able to “improve the plane while its flying” for clients, uplifting all these functions in an integrated way without impacting operations.
— Our Research Team —
Utopia Digital’s Research Team supports AI research, grants, and capability.
Professor
Julie Jupp
RESEARCH TEAM
Director of Reseach
Julie Jupp is Director of Research at Utopia Digital, where she leads the connection between applied research, industry capability building, and digital transformation across infrastructure and construction.
As an Associate Professor of Digital Engineering at the University of Technology Sydney, Julie brings expertise in digital engineering strategy, common data environments, structured information management, and whole-of-life asset data. Her work focuses on helping organisations move beyond software adoption toward the governance, skills, workflows, and evidence-based practices needed to deliver measurable project and asset outcomes.
At Utopia Digital, Julie supports the research and capability agenda underpinning CDE Sync™, helping translate enterprise-scale project data challenges into structured research, education, and industry adoption pathways. She works across academia, government, asset owners, contractors, and technology partners to strengthen digital maturity, improve data assurance, and build the organisational capability required for interoperable and traceable digital delivery.
University of
Technology Sydney
RESEARCH TEAM
PhD AI Research team
University of Technology Sydney is Utopia Digital's lead academic research partner, supporting the applied research program underpinning CDE Sync and the development of SyncSight, an AI analytics platform for predictive governance across Common Data Environments in infrastructure delivery.
Co-founders Ryan Townsend and Aaron Traylen are Academic Industry Fellows and AI researchers at UTS, completing PhDs focused on semantic AI for next-generation digital twin ecosystems and enterprise architecture for CDE integration, with their work directly informing the intelligence layer being built into Utopia Digital's platform.
The partnership brings together UTS's expertise in digital engineering, semantic AI, and data interoperability with Utopia Digital's operational knowledge of real-world CDE deployment at enterprise scale, drawing on live infrastructure programme data in collaboration with buildingSMART Australasia and Autodesk. Associate Professor Julie Jupp leads the academic program as Chief Investigator, with UTS positioned as the lead organisation on the AEA Ignite-funded SyncSight research grant.
— Our Story —
The Utopia Digital journey.
At Utopia Digital, we are more than digital consultants — we are a diverse group of former architects, engineers, and constructors transformed into digital innovators. Our team's firsthand experience in design and engineering informs our approach to your challenges. We have lived the late nights and the hardships to see mega projects come to life, equipping us with the knowledge to address your needs effectively.
Our history in the trenches of industry work has ingrained a deep understanding of the intricacies involved in digital transformation. This foundation allows us to propose solutions and tailor our approach, ensuring it resonates with your specific challenges and objectives. We are not just problem solvers but your partners in this digital landscape.
“More than digital consultants — we are former architects, engineers, and constructors transformed into digital innovators”
The creation of Utopia Digital was driven by our commitment to enhancing project delivery through digital processes. Our fusion of deep industry knowledge and digital skills forms the cornerstone of our success. This synergy is our formula for success, offering a partnership where deep understanding meets digital delivery and cutting-edge software development & innovation.
We are dedicated to continuously refining our methods and technologies, positioning Utopia Digital at the forefront of digital construction. With us, you're not just adopting advanced solutions, you're investing in a digital culture shift. Join us in shaping a future where digital excellence is not just a goal but a tangible reality for the architecture, engineering, and construction industry today.