Why Kinetic IT’s new critical infrastructure and state government MD swapped global scale for sovereign control

Governments focusing on sovereignty and assurance in an era of global uncertainty

“Sovereignty isn’t a slogan; it shows up in incident response, audits and executive confidence,” said Jeremy O’Donohue, who has joined Kinetic IT as managing director, state government and critical infrastructure.

He previously led Capgemini’s public sector business across Australia and New Zealand.

“When something goes wrong, people want to know who’s accountable and where control sits,” he said.

Kinetic IT is one of Australia’s largest privately owned technology service providers, and sovereignty is one of the calling cards getting it in the door with departments and agencies across all levels of Australian government.

Most recently it inked a deal, for an undisclosed amount, with the Australian Defence Force to provide call centre and switchboard services to ADF facilities across the nation.

O’Donohue said governments are increasingly focused on sovereignty and assurance, particularly considering global uncertainty.

“In critical services, that translates into a clear preference for control and accountability,” he added.

His shift from Capgemini was motivated by a desire to be closer to the work and the outcomes, he said, adding he wanted to work somewhere where his experience makes a meaningful difference.

“My job is to strengthen our commercial edge, lift client confidence and grow the business without losing delivery discipline,” he said.

For state governments and critical infrastructure providers, the biggest challenges they face are less about vision than execution, O’Donohue observed. Budgets are tight, but expectations remain high and services still must run.

“Agencies are under pressure to modernise without breaking things, while in critical infrastructure there’s zero tolerance for failure,” O’Donohue explained.

“Reliability, confidence and predictability are the issues keeping their executives awake.”

As a sovereign services provider, O’Donohue said Kinetic IT brings certainty to environments where failure is not an option. The organisation helps government and critical infrastructure modernise in a controlled way, while balancing progress with risk, accountability and service continuity.

“The value we bring is giving leaders confidence today’s services are secure and reliable while delivering change at the right pace.”