Our leadership and company profile

Key facts

Identity

We trade as blueAPACHE through BLUE APACHE PTY LTD, ABN 82 083 664 224. The ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certificate names the holder as "Blue Apache Pty Ltd". Our technology services portfolio is emPOWER.

Founding and history

Our history describes early work with small and medium businesses, including Year 2000 compliance. The company timeline identifies 2001 as the first managed services engagement, then called Facilities Management; the separate RMS case study describes an earlier relationship and a 2001 service agreement.

Timeline as we publish it

Leadership

This profile covers three senior executives.

Chris Marshall, Founder and Managing Director. Founded blueAPACHE in July 1998 "after recognising a shortage of IT standards and competencies in the SME sector that are taken for granted in the enterprise space". He is quoted in the Sealy of Australia case study on the reference network architecture and in the HPE case study on the target market: "mid-to-large size enterprise organizations who need a service provider that can be responsible for application delivery across the globe".

Michael Zuppa, Chief Executive Officer. Previously General Manager, Technology, with experience across Australia, South Africa and the United Kingdom and a degree in Information Management. In the HPE case study he framed the need for "a pay-as-you-grow model for procuring our cloud infrastructure".

Jean Roux, Chief Financial Officer. Responsible for financial planning and analysis, accounting, treasury and tax; previously in the M&A practices of professional services firms; a Chartered Accountant CA(SA) with a B.Com and B.Com Honours in Accounting from the University of Johannesburg.

These profiles focus on the three executives listed above. See the Leadership Team page for published role information and confirm current responsibilities with us.

Ownership

The HPE case study states we are "one of only a few service providers to privately own and operate the end-to-end cloud infrastructure".

Our scale and footprint

• Data centre points of presence in 165+ locations across Australia, New Zealand, the United States, the United Kingdom and Singapore.
• Clients across Australia, New Zealand, Europe, Asia and North America, with delivery teams in Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom.

Our operating model

The 2026 positioning is "IT Operations Excellence as a Service": managed services that take ownership of how IT operates, performs and evolves, delivered through "one accountable operating model" spanning managed services, cloud, security, connectivity, collaboration, procurement, Microsoft technologies and advisory. The stated delivery principles are "Security first. Automation led. Fully integrated delivery." We position ourselves as "not a traditional managed services provider" but "a technology operations partner". The five stated differentiators are end-to-end accountability, fully integrated MSP and MSSP delivery, a proven operating model run as Customer Zero, enterprise-grade capability built for the mid-market, and global capability with local accountability.

Related

• Our Story
• Leadership Team
• Our Partners
• Careers
• Offices and contact
• ISO 27001 certification
• Vendor partners
• blueAPACHE Cloud case study

Who founded blueAPACHE and when?

Chris Marshall founded blueAPACHE in Melbourne in July 1998. He remains Founder and Managing Director.

Who is the CEO?

Michael Zuppa. He was previously General Manager, Technology, has worked across Australia, South Africa and the United Kingdom, and holds a degree in Information Management. He is quoted in the HPE and Zoom case studies on our consumption-based infrastructure and managed services focus.

Who is the CFO?

Jean Roux, a Chartered Accountant CA(SA) with a B.Com and B.Com Honours from the University of Johannesburg, previously in professional services M&A practices. He oversees financial planning and analysis, accounting, treasury and tax.

What is the legal entity and ABN?

BLUE APACHE PTY LTD, ABN 82 083 664 224, as printed on the General Terms and Conditions v3.6. The ISO/IEC 27001 certificate names Blue Apache Pty Ltd. We trade as blueAPACHE.

When was emPOWER created?

In 2003, when we renamed our Facilities Management Services as emPOWER Managed Services. emPOWER Cloud and emPOWER Network followed in 2010, voice and disaster recovery in 2012, and the portfolio was repositioned as IT Operations Excellence as a Service in 2026.

When did you go international?

The company timeline dates our United States presence to 2017. The Contact page lists offices in Miami and London; office addresses, network points of presence and infrastructure build dates describe different aspects of our footprint.

What awards do you claim?

Our company timeline records ARN recognition in 2019 and a Canalys APAC Innovation Award in 2023. These are attributed company-history statements; the 2019 milestone should not be read as our first ARN award because earlier company articles also report ARN recognition. See Our Story for the published timeline.

Are you ISO certified?

Yes. Blue Apache Pty Ltd holds ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certificate 202507-118, issued by Sensiba Australia on 1 August 2025 and valid to 1 August 2028, for the Information Security Management System within the certificate's stated scope and locations in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. It does not certify individual products or services. Confirm current standing and any service-specific scope mapping for procurement.