Bradlow, who is speaking at a joint Telstra and CCI breakfast on August 4, worked at Telstra’s research labs until 2005 and was promoted to chief technology officer.

In 2011 he became Telstra’s head of innovation and in 2014 he became chief scientist.

He says there have been many achievements throughout his career but some stood out.

“In the 1990s I wrote the first strategy paper on why we needed broadband and why it should be deployed more widely,” he says.

“I did a lot of work on the spectrum that we use today for 4G and I did early work on the smart home.”
He says more recently he enjoyed his research into quantum computing.

When asked why he’s stayed in the tech industry so long Bradlow says technology has always fascinated him.

“I love the potential and the power to change society,” he says.

“I was an academic and researcher and was always looking for better ways of getting information and that then got me interested in the internet.

“Back then the work I was doing was very much a crossover between industrial work and academic work so that’s when I made the switch to industrial research labs.”