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# Brent Deayton — Full Profile

> **Purpose of this document:** A single, structured reference file containing all professional content from Brent Deayton's portfolio website. Designed for LLMs, agents, and AI systems to embed in context and accurately represent Brent's background, capabilities, career history, achievements, and technical work.

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## Identity

- **Name:** Brent Deayton
- **Location:** Australia
- **LinkedIn:** https://www.linkedin.com/in/brentdeayton/
- **Email:** brent.deayton@gmail.com

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## Summary

I build practical systems that solve messy business problems.

My work sits at the intersection of technology, operations, and organisational design. I'm at my best when I can turn complex, cross-functional problems into clear, usable solutions that reduce friction, improve performance, and make work easier.

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## What I'm Looking For

I'm looking for any opportunity to build something and solve meaningful problems at the same time.

My background spans operations, organisational capability, and transformation, but the consistent thread has been building practical systems that make work better. That's where I've had the most impact and where I'm most energised.

I want to go deeper into engineering, product, and systems design while bringing the commercial judgment, leadership experience, and delivery focus I've built over the past decade.

I'm strongest when I can work end to end: understand the problem, shape the solution, and build something useful.

If that sounds like a fit for your team, let's chat.

---

## Career History

> A progression from hands-on operations through capability building to enterprise transformation — each stage built skills that enabled bigger impact.

### Stage 1: Operations

> Built foundational leadership and operational discipline managing a high-volume cinema site with full P&L accountability.

#### General Manager — Village Cinemas Australia

- **Type:** Full-time
- **Period:** Jun 2014 – Jul 2022
- **Overview:** Led a major cinema site with responsibility for 60+ team members, service delivery, compliance, and financial performance.
- **Key Achievements:**
  - Managed a team of 60+ through significant challenges including COVID-19 and a brand new venue concept launch.
  - Developed every front-line manager into promotion-ready roles, creating 100% succession rate for that cohort and a strong internal pipeline for future growth.
  - Balanced workforce planning, compliance, service consistency, and financial targets in a fast-paced, high-volume environment.
- **Skills:** Operations, Leadership, People Development, Commercial Management

---

### Stage 2: Learning & Development

> Shifted from operational leadership to enterprise-wide capability building, designing scalable learning systems and tools.

#### Learning & Development Advisor — Village Cinemas Australia

- **Type:** Full-time
- **Period:** Jul 2022 – Aug 2023
- **Overview:** Designed and delivered capability programs across all operations, and helped establish the foundation for a scalable learning environment across the business.
- **Key Achievements:**
  - Designed and delivered development programs and new, modern onboarding pathways for every role in the business.
  - Evaluated and configured an LMS to support enterprise-wide learning delivery for 5000+ employees.
  - Ensured learning design stayed practical and aligned with business needs.
- **Skills:** Learning Design, Facilitation, Operational Capability, LMS Implementation

#### Learning & Development Business Partner — Village Cinemas Australia

- **Type:** Full-time
- **Period:** Aug 2023 – Jul 2024
- **Overview:** Developed capability frameworks and learning systems across the business, then used technology to reduce administrative overhead.
- **Key Achievements:**
  - Cut employee turnover by 36% through improved onboarding, personalised development pathways, and an overall stronger learning culture.
  - Developed and deployed a custom capability framework, simplifying capability identification, assessments, and development across the business.
  - Deployed automated solutions to reduce learning administration, saving 500+ hours annually and demonstrating how technical solutions directly support people outcomes.
- **Skills:** Capability Development, Change Enablement, Workflow Automation

---

### Stage 3: Organisational Capability

> Merged traditional OD strategy with full-stack digital engineering to redesign workforce structures, remove operational friction, and shift the company from 'survival mode' to strategic growth.

#### Organisational Development Manager — Village Cinemas Australia

- **Type:** Full-time
- **Period:** Jul 2024 – Oct 2025
- **Overview:** Partnered directly with the Managing Director and Executive Team to restructure the business post-pandemic. Diagnosed cross-functional bottlenecks and uniquely combined executive coaching with custom digital automation to eradicate friction and build leaner, high-performing teams.
- **Key Achievements:**
  - Partnered with the Managing Director to redesign executive structures during a volatile post-COVID recovery phase, successfully reducing leadership turnover from over 60% down to just 3%.
  - Mapped total organisational capabilities for a 1,200-person workforce, identifying critical talent gaps and realigning leaner operational teams with new commercial goals.
  - Diagnosed deep cross-functional workflows and bypassed traditional OD methods by personally coding digital tools (React, Workato, AWS) to automate away heavy administrative overhead, freeing teams to focus on customer experience.
  - Led the end-to-end deployment of Dynamics 365 for a CS team processing 100k+ annual cases, engineering CRM automations that generated $43,000+ in equivalent labour savings.
  - Architected and built a custom CSAT backend handling 1,000,000+ annual survey interactions, saving $50,000 in external SaaS vendor fees while unifying revenue and service data.
- **Skills:** Business Transformation, Operations, Technology Delivery, Executive Leadership

---

### Stage 4: Business Transformation (Current Role)

> Operating as the strategic execution engine and core operational leader, bridging Operations, Tech, and Marketing to turn executive strategy into scalable, automated realities.

#### Head of Business Transformation — Village Cinemas Australia

- **Type:** Full-time
- **Period:** Oct 2025 – Present
- **Overview:** Act as a core leader within business operations, functioning as the connective tissue across cross-functional departments. Accountable for governing future commercial investments, executing complex Go-To-Market strategies, and deploying AI/tech solutions that remove friction from the customer and employee experience.
- **Key Achievements:**
  - Act as the connective tissue across all operational teams (Ops, Tech, Sales & Marketing, and Talent), running day-to-day operations and maintaining leadership rhythms to prevent silo drift and translate high-level strategy into executable work.
  - Influenced multi-year capital investment decisions and led the operational design of new commercial models, including self-service checkouts, order collection systems, and supermarket-style marketplace concepts.
  - Oversaw the operational execution of highly complex strategic initiatives, including the launch of a new IMAX cinema, as well as redefining the premium events strategy successfully unlocking and scaling a previously untapped, high-margin experiential revenue stream.
  - Led the enterprise-wide rollout of AI-enabled operational capabilities and advanced CRM functionalities, replacing legacy bottlenecks with automated, low-touch solutions for teams.
  - Overhauled executive Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery frameworks, independently engineering a custom Model-Driven application to track live incidents and ensure enterprise resilience during crises.
- **Skills:** Business Transformation, AI/Automation, Go-To-Market Strategy, Cross-functional Leadership

---

## Skills & Capabilities

> This section shows both how Brent works and what he uses. Some categories are tool-heavy, others are capability-led, but they all form part of the same operating style: practical, systems-minded, and built to reduce friction.
>
> _Note: These are the areas Brent is proficient in and works across most often, not an exhaustive list of every tool or domain he has touched._

### Frontend

Building clear, functional interfaces for web applications and internal tools.

**Capabilities:**

- **Interface design and implementation:** Turn requirements into working interfaces with clear layout, sensible interactions, and solid usability.
- **Design systems and reusable components:** Build reusable components and patterns that keep products consistent and easier to maintain.
- **Product refinement:** Improve states and workflows with user feedback so products are easier and faster to use.

**Tools:** Next.js, React, Redux, TypeScript, Tailwind CSS

### Backend

Designing the logic, data flows, and systems behind applications and tools.

**Capabilities:**

- **Workflow and business logic design:** Translate real business processes into systems that are practical, reliable, and easier to run.
- **Internal tooling:** Build internal applications that reduce admin work and improve visibility across teams.
- **API and integration design:** Connect platforms and services so data moves cleanly between systems.

**Tools:** Node.js, Python, Supabase, Dataverse, DynamoDB, AWS CDK

### CRM & Automation

Designing CRM workflows and automations that improve service.

**Capabilities:**

- **CRM solution design:** Design CRM workflows around how service and operational teams actually work.
- **Automation strategy:** Identify and implement automations that remove repetitive work and improve throughput.
- **Case management and service improvement:** Improve routing, triage, and handling across high-volume service processes.
- **Reporting and operational visibility:** Build reporting that gives teams and leaders a clearer view of performance and issues.

**Tools:** Power Apps, OpenAI, Workato, Power Automate, Dynamics 365 (CS), Power Platform

### Learning & Development

Designing practical learning programs that help people perform better.

**Capabilities:**

- **Onboarding design:** Design onboarding experiences that help people become effective sooner.
- **Learning program design:** Build structured learning programs for teams and leaders.
- **Learning operations:** Improve the systems and processes behind learning delivery so programs are easier to run at scale.
- **Leader enablement:** Equip leaders with tools and frameworks to support performance, coaching, and development.

**Tools:** Docebo LMS, Articulate

### Capability Building

Identify and build capability so organisations are more effective.

**Capabilities:**

- **Capability frameworks:** Define capability expectations, progression, and role requirements across teams.
- **Role and team design:** Align team structures and role design to the work, priorities, and capability required.
- **Change enablement:** Support adoption of new structures, systems, and ways of working so change lands properly.

### Strategy & Operations

Turning strategic priorities into executable work.

**Capabilities:**

- **Operational planning:** Set up planning and delivery rhythms that improve coordination across teams.
- **Organisational effectiveness:** Work on structure, decision-making, and capability alignment so teams can operate more effectively.
- **Business transformation:** Lead initiatives where process, technology, and people all need to change together.
- **Executive advisory:** Support leaders with practical thinking on priorities, sequencing, structure, and trade-offs.

---

## Key Achievements

> Deeper project stories: what the situation was, what Brent designed or led, how the solution worked, and what changed because of it.

### 1. Capability Identification Framework

**Tags:** Capability Building, Organisational Development, L&D Strategy, Org Design

A write-up of how Brent designed a practical, four-stage methodology for identifying, benchmarking, and improving the capabilities that matter most to the organisation.

**Why it mattered:**
The organisation needed a bridge between high-level strategic planning and ground-level performance. Existing frameworks were either too academic to be actionable or so focused on individual 'skills' that they ignored wider systemic issues. A shared structure was needed, built for people, not just strategists, to diagnose what the business actually needed to succeed and where to focus investment.

**What the work involved:**

- **Architected** a repeatable four-stage process (Hypothesise, Validate, Benchmark, Assess) to diagnose capability gaps based on evidence rather than assumptions.
- **Designed** a 6-component diagnostic lens that separates Assets (Tools, Process, Resources) from Human Capital (Skills, Knowledge, Behaviour) to pinpoint the exact root causes of underperformance.
- **Developed** a custom 5-level maturity model and a 2x2 prioritisation matrix to help leaders focus investment where future strategic importance was highest.

**Outcome:**
The framework successfully shifted the conversation from reactive, individual training requests to holistic organisational capability building. By giving leaders and managers an accessible, shared language, it turned an abstract L&D concept into a highly operational tool.

- Clarified the crucial distinction between individual skills and organisational capabilities across the business.
- Prevented misaligned L&D spend by helping teams identify when performance gaps were actually caused by broken processes or lacking tools, rather than a need for more training.
- Created a scalable, self-serve diagnostic methodology that individual contributors, managers, and senior leaders could all use independently.

-link: https://capability.brentdeayton.com

---

### 2. Customer Service Platform

**Tags:** CRM, Automation, Service Design, Systems Integration
**Tools used:** Dynamics 365 (CS), OpenAI, Power Apps, Power Automate, Dataverse, Workato

End-to-end migration of a customer service team off a legacy system onto a modern, automated platform designed for operational speed and scalable growth.

**Why it mattered:**
The customer service team was working on an outdated legacy platform that required manual workarounds, siloed data from the rest of the business, and offered zero visibility into operational performance. They needed a system that reduced friction while giving leadership the data required to understand operations.

**What the work involved:**

- **Migrated** the team off their legacy platform onto a modern architecture, entirely reframing the CRM around real service workflows rather than generic defaults.
- **Built** targeted automations that eliminated manual triage and data entry, saving significant agent time immediately upon launch.
- **Architected** the app with a deliberate balance of out-of-the-box features and strategic customisation to ensure the platform could be easily extended without incurring heavy ongoing maintenance debt.
- **Integrated** the customer service environment directly with other core business systems, giving agents a complete picture of the customer.
- **Implemented LLM-powered case intelligence** to automatically draft contextually appropriate response templates, apply semantic tagging and data attributes for richer reporting, and intelligently triage cases before agent assignment.

**Outcome:**
The new platform fundamentally shifted how the service team operated, transitioning them from a reactive, manual workforce into a highly connected and measurable operation.

- Significantly decreased both initial time to respond and overall time spent resolving individual cases.
- Saved hundreds of hours of manual effort through workflow and routing automations.
- Unlocked rich, real-time customer service metrics and performance dashboards previously unavailable to the business.
- Reduced agent context-switching by automating case categorisation and pre-populating response drafts.
- Improved first-contact resolution rates through intelligent suggestive actions to agents.
- Created a strategic roadmap of feature enhancements and integrations to ensure the platform evolves alongside changing business needs.

---

### 3. Enterprise CSAT Survey Platform

**Tags:** Full-Stack Development, Data Architecture, Automation, Customer Insights
**Tools used:** Next.js, Workato, Dataverse, Power Platform, TypeScript

A solo-built customer feedback platform designed to capture immediate post-visit CSAT signals, connect them to operational and customer data, and give the business a scalable survey capability without relying on an expensive external SaaS product.

**Why it mattered:**
The business needed to move beyond delayed, limited NPS-style measurement and introduce a simpler, more actionable feedback loop. The goal was for customers to respond while their experience was still fresh, connect that feedback to existing contact and service data, and give managers live visibility into issues they could correct in the moment.

**What the work involved:**

- Led the initiative end to end, shaping the vision, operating model, technical solution, and business adoption approach rather than only delivering the platform itself.
- Evaluated external providers, identifying that SaaS options would still require a significant orchestration layer, offered limited flexibility, and came at disproportionate cost.
- Built the customer-facing platform using Next.js for a branded front end native to the existing customer experience.
- Used Workato as the orchestration and API layer to manage survey triggers, data movement, and system connectivity.
- Designed the backend in Dataverse and Power Platform so business users could configure surveys, review responses, analyse trends, and see feedback in context of the wider customer record.
- Embedded the new process into business operations, enabling faster feedback loops, clearer ownership of insights, and quicker intervention when issues emerged in venue.

**Outcome:**
A fast, stable, and highly scalable survey platform that gave the business a new operational feedback capability while avoiding the cost and rigidity of an external vendor solution.

- Delivered from concept to live launch in approximately 2.5 weeks.
- Avoided an estimated $50,000+ in SaaS platform costs.
- Built to support more than 1,000,000 survey interactions annually.
- Created a stable platform requiring extremely light maintenance, but easily extendable with additional features.
- Gained strong business adoption and expanded beyond CSAT into a broader survey capability for operations and marketing.

---

### 4. LMS Implementation & Org-Wide Onboarding Redesign

**Tags:** L&D Transformation, Change Management, Employee Experience, Automation
**Tools used:** OpenAI, Workato, Python, Docebo LMS

An enterprise-wide learning and onboarding transformation that introduced a dedicated LMS, redesigned onboarding by role, and automated compliance and admin processes across a workforce of more than 5,000 employees.

**Why it mattered:**
Learning and onboarding were fragmented, manually managed, and highly dependent on local spreadsheets and inconsistent processes. The business lacked enterprise visibility over training completion and compliance risk, and there was a clear opportunity to make learning a more structured and engaging part of the employee experience from day one.

**What the work involved:**

- Led the assessment, selection, and implementation of a third-party LMS platform for enterprise-wide use.
- Designed onboarding experiences tailored to different roles so training felt more relevant, useful, and scalable.
- Managed rollout to a user base of more than 5,000 employees across multiple business areas.
- Built automatic permission mapping based on role structures to reduce user setup overhead and improve governance.
- Introduced automated certification validation and process support using workflow tooling and AI-assisted logic.
- Integrated the learning environment with external systems including rostering and employee master data sources.

**Outcome:**
The platform became a core operational system for learning, compliance, onboarding, and facilitator-led training, replacing fragmented local practices with a unified and scalable employee experience.

- Supported a significant reduction in employee turnover during the L&D period.
- Created a learning ecosystem used by every new employee entering the business.
- Saved hundreds of hours of administration across learning teams and frontline managers.
- Improved compliance visibility and reduced operational risk tied to training and certification tracking.
- Established a sustainable platform now managed by dedicated business owners and administrators.

---

### 5. Executive Coaching & Strategic Team Redesign

**Tags:** Org Design, Executive Consultation, Change Leadership, Culture Transformation

A strategic organisation redesign and leadership coaching effort that helped stabilise the business after major disruption, rebuild capability, and shift the organisation from survival mode toward a more sustainable growth trajectory.

**Why it mattered:**
Post-pandemic, the business had experienced severe disruption, high leadership turnover, and a major loss of internal knowledge and operating stability. Teams needed to be rebuilt, leadership confidence restored, and structures redesigned so the organisation could move from reactive recovery into strategic growth.

**What the work involved:**

- Worked directly with the Managing Director and executive leadership team to redesign teams, structures, and ways of working.
- Partnered with newly appointed leaders to shape functions, clarify responsibilities, and build more effective operating models.
- Overhauled training approaches, people processes, and organisational rhythms to support a more stable and high-performing environment.
- Provided one-to-one coaching to leaders navigating complex change, team design, and organisational challenges.
- Diagnosed cross-functional friction points and helped create more practical, commercially aligned structures and workflows.

**Outcome:**
This work helped rebuild organisational confidence, strengthen leadership stability, and create a more coherent platform for business performance and future growth.

- Reduced leadership turnover from more than 60% to approximately 3%.
- Helped stabilise the business during a critical recovery period.
- Rebuilt leadership confidence and internal operating discipline.
- Supported a shift from short-term survival thinking to a more growth-oriented business mindset.
- Created leaner, more effective team structures aligned to commercial priorities.

---

### 6. Disaster Recovery & Business Continuity System

**Tags:** Risk Management, Business Continuity, Executive Governance, App Development
**Tools used:** Power Apps, Power Automate, Dataverse

A full redesign of the business continuity and disaster recovery operating model, supported by a custom incident management app and integrated communications workflows for executive leadership.

**Why it mattered:**
The existing continuity plan was outdated, overly complex, and not embedded in day-to-day leadership practice. During incidents, communication was fragmented, responsibilities were unclear, and decision-making was slow when it mattered most.

**What the work involved:**

- Redesigned the business continuity and disaster recovery framework so it could be practically used during live incidents rather than sitting as a static document.
- Mapped disruption scenarios across the business and built clearer response structures, playbooks, crisis communications, and accountabilities.
- Built a custom model-driven app to manage incident reporting, response coordination, review, and executive visibility in one place.
- Integrated the solution with Microsoft Teams so updates could flow quickly to leadership outside the core app environment.
- Connected the operating model to third-party priority notification tools for urgent SMS and phone-based escalation.
- Used the framework in real operational scenarios to support rapid planning and coordinated response under pressure.

**Outcome:**
A simpler, more reliable, and more actionable incident response system that improved preparedness and reduced stress during disruption events.

- Improved incident response speed through clearer workflows and communication channels.
- Created stronger accountability and readiness across executive leadership.
- Reduced confusion and operational stress during live disruptions.
- Increased overall business preparedness with usable playbooks and clearer response ownership.
- Enabled rapid turnaround of complex response plans, including a fuel disruption response aligned to government frameworks in less than 24 hours.

---

### 7. Events & Experience Commercialisation

**Tags:** Commercial Strategy, Go-To-Market, Experience Design, Revenue Growth

A commercialisation strategy focused on building new event and experience revenue streams, turning cinema into a broader platform for activations, premium events, and scalable partner-led products.

**Why it mattered:**
Traditional cinema models were under pressure, creating a need to expand into new event formats, local activations, and premium experiences that could attract audiences in different ways. The business needed a repeatable way to test ideas, build operational capability, and turn successful concepts into durable revenue streams.

**What the work involved:**

- Oversaw the development of new event and experience concepts designed to broaden the commercial role of cinema beyond standard film sessions.
- Led a team to build product lifecycle thinking into event development, from concept design and operational testing through to refinement and scaling.
- Explored local activations, large-format event moments, and partner-supported experiences to identify commercially viable models.
- Helped establish the operational capability required to deliver more complex experiences reliably, while keeping them commercially grounded.

**Outcome:**
The work created a stronger pathway for experience-led growth, helping the business develop new products, validate new event streams, and build a more diversified commercial model.

- Expanded the business into new event and activation formats beyond traditional cinema operations.
- Created repeatable pathways for testing, validating, and scaling new commercial concepts.
- Built supporting asset and partner models that could continue contributing to future revenue opportunities.
- Helped establish a more stable and growing event-based revenue stream.
- Reduced the gap between creative ambition and operational execution by designing more practical delivery models.

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## Technical Demos & Personal Projects

> Hands-on projects built to explore new technologies, solidify core concepts, and experiment with different approaches to solving problems. These showcase how Brent learns, iterates, and applies technical skills in practice.

### Visual JavaScript

**Tools:** Vite, React, JavaScript, React Flow
**Live demo:** https://visual-js-2.vercel.app/

A browser-based tool for building executable JavaScript visually by connecting logic blocks together. Generates runnable code on the fly and executes it directly in the browser.

**What was learned:**
Built to explore visual programming interfaces, state management, data flow modelling, and real-time code generation. The project tested how to make complex logic readable through UI alone while keeping the codebase structured and maintainable.

**Features:**

- Build executable scripts by connecting nodes for variables, operations, comparisons, and logic.
- See how different execution paths work with visual `if` branching.
- Inspect the generated JavaScript and run it immediately.
- Load prebuilt examples to understand the system before building your own.

### This Portfolio Site

**Tools:** Next.js, React, TypeScript, Tailwind CSS, shadcn/ui

A portfolio and resume site built to practice modern React and Next.js patterns. Built with Next.js 16, React 19, TypeScript, Tailwind CSS, and shadcn/ui.

**Focus areas:**

- Content separated from presentation — all data is typed TypeScript objects.
- Consistent component patterns across pages to keep complexity manageable.
- A shared tool registry to keep technology logos and labels consistent.
- Navigation derived from a single source, so new sections wire themselves up automatically.

**What was learned:**
Practiced building scalable component architecture, managing content-driven sites, and using TypeScript to catch errors at build time rather than runtime.

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## Education & Certifications

| Qualification                              | Institution                        | Completed                       |
| ------------------------------------------ | ---------------------------------- | ------------------------------- |
| Master of Business Administration (MBA)    | Victoria University                | Dec 2023                        |
| Certificate IV in Training and Assessment  | Australian Institute of Management | Jan 2024                        |
| Microsoft PL-400: Power Platform Developer | Microsoft                          | May 2026 |

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## Technology & Tools Summary

A consolidated reference of the tools and platforms Brent works with regularly:

| Category         | Tools                                                                                    |
| ---------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Frontend         | Next.js, React, Redux, TypeScript, Tailwind CSS, Vite, React Flow, shadcn/ui, JavaScript |
| Backend          | Node.js, Python, Supabase, Dataverse, DynamoDB, AWS CDK                                  |
| CRM & Automation | Power Apps, Power Automate, Power Platform, Dynamics 365 (CS), Workato, OpenAI           |
| Learning         | Docebo LMS, Articulate                                                                   |

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## Key Metrics (Quick Reference)

| Metric                                 | Value                                 |
| -------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------- |
| Leadership turnover reduction          | From 60%+ down to 3%                  |
| Employee turnover reduction            | 36% decrease                          |
| CSAT platform scale                    | 1,000,000+ annual survey interactions |
| SaaS cost avoidance (CSAT)             | $50,000+                              |
| CRM labour savings                     | $43,000 annually equivalent           |
| Admin hours saved (L&D automation)     | 500+ annually                         |
| Workforce managed (capability mapping) | 1,200 people                          |
| LMS rollout scale                      | 5,000+ employees                      |
| CSAT build time                        | ~2.5 weeks concept to launch          |
| CS cases processed annually            | 100,000+                              |

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_This document was generated from the content of Brent Deayton's portfolio website. Last updated: April 2026._