Edward (Ted) Pretty (born 1957, Darwin, NT, Australia), is an Australian businessman and lawyer. [1] [2] [3]
He is the current chairman of Sustainable Metal Cloud (SMC) and Firmus, two companies leading the transformation in AI infrastructure and sustainable GPU solutions.
Pretty obtained a Bachelor's Degree in Arts (Economics) and First Class Honors Degree in Law. [1]
Pretty was a Partner at the Media and Telecommunications Law Firm, Gilbert & Tobin. From there, he moved to Optus, serving as an adviser and director of Optus Communications and Optus Vision. [1]
In October 1997 Pretty was appointed managing director of Australia's public and largest telecommunications company Telstra. [4] [5]
During his time at Telstra, Pretty served in a number of roles, including head of Telstra's Convergent Business Group, and the head of Telstra Retail. [6] In 2003 he became group managing director of the Telstra Technology, Innovation and Products Group. [7] [8]
During his tenure at Telstra, Pretty oversaw the entry and early steps of the company in its internet and online business, [9] [10] before resigning from Telstra in 2005. [11]
In 2006, Pretty became a consultant at the Macquarie Group and continued on with the company, becoming executive director of Macquarie Capital. He was instrumental in Macquarie's bid to build the National Broadband Network. [12]
Pretty joined Gulf Finance House as CEO of Investment Capital. In December 2009, was appointed group chief executive officer. [13] [14]
On 3 September 2012, Pretty was confirmed as the group managing director of Hills Limited. [15] [16] In association with a major restructure of the company [17] [18] Pretty oversaw its transformation. [19] [20]
With a number of South Australian universities, the SA Government and Premier Jay Weatherill, Pretty established two centres in Adelaide to foster innovation and support start-up companies. [21]
On 27 May 2015, Pretty resigned from his position as group managing director and chief executive officer. [22]
On 23 December 2016, Pretty was confirmed as managing director and CEO of Covata Limited. [23] Later on, Covata was renamed to Cipherpoint Limited and altered its governance structure. Pretty then moved to part-time executive chair. [24] [25]
Pretty was a director of ASX listed NextDC Limited [26] [27] [1] and was advisory chairman, Australia and New Zealand, of Indian IT company Tech Mahindra Group. [28] [29] [1]
He was chairman and on the Board of ASX listed RP Data Limited for 8 years. [30] [1] He was chairman of Fujitsu Australia and NZ. [31]
Pretty is a co-investor, shareholder and director of Bevan Slattery's undersea cable company, SubPartners. [32]
Pretty is on The Ministerial Advisory Council on Communications [33] for the Honorable Malcolm Turnbull MP, then Minister for Communications. [34]
He advised on the "E-commerce expert group" [35] set up by the then Minister for Financial Services and Regulation, the Honorable Joe Hockey [36] and served as one of the "Members of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Cultural Councils" [37]
In February 2022, Pretty was appointed Chairman of Firmus, the world's first scaled immersion-cooling platform. [38] In May 2023, he was appointed chairman of Sustainable Metal Cloud (SMC), the world's most energy efficient GPU cloud. [39]
As chairman, Pretty oversees two cutting-edge companies that provide AI infrastructure and super-compute solutions using liquid immersion and advanced technologies. [40]