Mark Monfort

Who you work with

Mark Monfort

Chief AI & Innovation Officer, Madison MarcusManaging Director, Foundry Labs

An AI implementation leader who has sat on both sides of the table: building and running AI systems as an operator, and owning AI as an officer inside a regulated professional-services firm.

Mark leads AI, data and emerging technology for Madison Marcus, including the creation and deployment of the firm’s digital infrastructure, and runs Foundry Labs as the studio that turns that thinking into deployed systems. The combination is deliberate: the mandate inside a law firm forces every design decision through privilege, confidentiality, governance and professional-liability constraints before it ships.

Before that, more than a decade in investment research and institutional data. He led the analytics behind INSIGHT, an independent equity research product that Canaccord Genuity acquired, and spent the following two years in London merging it into Quest®, the bank’s bottom-up multi-factor equity model. Then governed market data at the ASX, and the data and technology function at a national accounting and wealth group, followed by five years founding and operating AI, data and digital-asset ventures.

The through-line is the same problem in different clothing: taking a technology that is genuinely powerful and making it survive contact with a real, regulated, accountable operating environment.

What Foundry Labs can do because of this

Every capability below is backed by named, checkable work, not a service description.

01

AI and technology leadership inside professional firms

Not advice from outside the business. Accountable ownership from inside it. Mark has held the technology and data mandate inside both a law firm and a national accounting and wealth group: setting policy, carrying the risk, and answering for what ships. Professional firms are where confidentiality, privilege and client obligation bite hardest, and where most AI programmes quietly stall.

Evidence

  • Chief AI & Innovation Officer, Madison Marcus: leads the firm’s approach to AI, data and emerging technology, and the creation and deployment of its firm-wide digital infrastructure
  • Head of Data Analytics & Technology, Prosperity Advisers Group: led the data and technology function at a national chartered accounting and wealth group, serving both internal teams and client engagements across privately owned and family businesses
  • Chief Experience Officer, SIKE.ai: private generative AI platform built for the regulated enterprise
02

Production AI implementation

Systems that run, not pilots that demo. Multi-step agentic workflows, document intelligence and internal copilots, built with the state management, validation, permissions and human review layers that production actually requires.

Evidence

  • Co-Founder & AI Implementation Lead, NotCentralised: AI, data and emerging technology delivery across finance and digital assets
  • Managing Director, Foundry Labs: AI systems studio for high-trust environments
  • Director & Co-Founder, Layer-C: fintech rails digitising traditional financial functions
03

Investment and macroeconomic research

The analytical workflows of professional investors, understood from the inside and, more than that, built from the inside. Mark led the technology behind an independent equity research product that Canaccord Genuity acquired, then spent two years inside the bank merging it into their quantitative equity platform, growing the division’s revenue by more than two-thirds while doing it. Knowing how research output actually gets produced and used is what stops an AI system generating confident nonsense.

Evidence

  • Associate Director, Business Intelligence, QMG Insight: led technology and data analytics for INSIGHT, an independent equity research product reading global markets through the three drivers of earnings growth: price, cost and volume. Acquired by Canaccord Genuity
  • Vice President of Data Solutions, Canaccord Genuity, London: took INSIGHT into the bank and merged its top-down macroeconomic signal into Quest®, Canaccord’s bottom-up multi-factor valuation and stock-ranking model. Revenue for the Quest and data division grew by more than two-thirds across the two years
  • Founder, ETFtracker: holdings analysis and monthly statistics across the Australian ETF market, now a go-to reference for Australian ETF analytics
04

Governed data at institutional scale

Data platforms an entire market depends on. This is where the discipline behind the AI work comes from: lineage, provenance and correctness were the job long before models were.

Evidence

  • Business Development Manager, Data Analytics, ASX: market data and analytics across the Australian financial market, and the work that led to ETFtracker
  • Senior Management Consultant, ABM Systems (Decision Inc.): mentoring consultants and guiding analytics programmes across Australia
05

Building and running data products

Not just delivery for clients. Products owned end to end, with real users, running costs and a maintenance burden. It is a different and more honest discipline than project work.

Evidence

  • Founder, ETFtracker. An owned product with real users and running costs: data platform, research, forum and podcast, grown into a go-to reference for Australian ETF analytics
  • Founder & CEO, New Era Analytics
  • Senior Adviser, OpenInsight
06

Standards, ecosystem and convening

Credibility that travels. Mark founded one of the national bodies where Australian blockchain and AI practitioners gather and has led another, which is why the studio can convene the right people around a problem quickly.

Evidence

  • President & Co-Founder, Australian Blockchain and AI Network: founded as the Australian DeFi Association and scaled into a national community hub
  • Board Advisor and former President, Data Science and AI Association of Australia: national events across 1,000+ participants; hackathon delivered with the Department of Defence
  • Advisor, Hackmakers
07

Communication, hosting and adoption

Most AI programmes fail on adoption rather than architecture. People will not use what they cannot follow, and will not trust what nobody explained to them. Mark works that side of the problem as deliberately as the technical one: hosting, speaking and writing about complex technology for audiences who have to act on it, not just admire it. Technical depth and the ability to stand in front of a room are not often found together, and the second is what gets the first adopted.

Evidence

  • Podcast host for Redbelly Network, and for FEX Global’s move into digital assets: interviewing operators and translating technical infrastructure for a market audience
  • Marketing and community engagement for Redbelly Network
  • Data and Research Specialist, Third Hemisphere: technology and finance PR, tier-1 media across fintech, deep tech, energy, funds and capital markets
  • Sought-after host and speaker across Australian AI, data and digital-asset events
  • Author, the Foundry Labs Building Legal AI essay series

Selected engagements

Global investment banking

Canaccord Genuity

Problem
Independent top-down macroeconomic research and bottom-up multi-factor stock selection sat in two separate products, sold to overlapping institutional clients.
Built
INSIGHT, acquired by the bank, merged into Quest®, putting macroeconomic signal and multi-factor valuation on one platform for global strategists, research analysts and asset managers.
Outcome
Revenue for the Quest and data division grew by more than two-thirds across the two years of the integration.

Legal

Madison Marcus

Problem
Matters, billing, payments, marketing and client collaboration ran across disconnected systems, leaving the firm carrying the coordination cost in fee-earner time.
Built
Led the creation and deployment of digital infrastructure across the firm: matter management, billing and payments, marketing, and collaboration both internally and with clients. It is the operating base the firm’s AI work now sits on.
Outcome
In production across the firm.

Central banking and digital assets

Reserve Bank of Australia & DFCRC

Problem
Whether tokenised assets and central bank digital money can settle safely under live, regulated conditions.
Built
Use cases delivered through NotCentralised, where Mark was co-founder and AI implementation lead. Selected for both of Australia’s central bank digital money pilots: the 2023 Australian CBDC Pilot and Project Acacia in 2025.
Outcome
Selected twice from a national field, alongside ANZ, CBA, Westpac, Northern Trust and Fireblocks. Project Acacia ran live settlement under regulatory relief granted by ASIC.

On ausbiz TV

31 segments since 2021 on ETFs, markets, digital assets and regulation.

See all 31 appearancesMark's profile on ausbiz ↗

Track record

CurrentFounder & operatorInstitutional data & analyticsEcosystem & industry

  1. Managing Director

    Foundry Labs

    Jan 2026 to present · Sydney

    Innovation and execution lab turning AI, data and emerging technology into deployed systems.

  2. Chief AI & Innovation Officer

    Madison Marcus

    Oct 2025 to present · Sydney

    Leads the firm’s approach to AI, data and emerging technology, and the creation and deployment of its firm-wide digital infrastructure.

  3. Chief Experience Officer

    SIKE.ai

    Jun 2023 to Dec 2025 · Sydney

    Private generative AI platform for the regulated enterprise.

  4. Co-Founder / AI Implementation Lead

    NotCentralised

    Jul 2022 to Jan 2026 · Sydney

    AI, data and emerging technology delivery across finance and digital assets. Continues as a Foundry Labs partner.

  5. Director, Co-Founder

    Layer-C

    Dec 2022 to Aug 2025 · Sydney

    Fintech building new rails to digitise traditional financial functions.

  6. Founder & CEO

    New Era Analytics

    Feb 2021 to Apr 2024 · Sydney

    Turning raw organisational data into decision-grade insight.

  7. President & Co-Founder

    Australian Blockchain and AI Network

    Nov 2021 to present · Sydney

    Founded as the Australian DeFi Association and scaled into a national community hub spanning blockchain and AI.

  8. Data and Research Specialist

    Third Hemisphere

    May 2021 to Dec 2025 · Sydney

    Research behind tier-1 media coverage for Australian technology, finance and investment.

  9. Senior Adviser

    OpenInsight

    Apr 2021 to Oct 2023 · Sydney

    Data and technology collective working across industry domains.

  10. Founder

    ETFtracker

    2020 to present · Sydney

    Data platform for the Australian ETF market: statistics, holdings analysis, research, forum and podcast. Grown into a go-to reference for Australian ETF analytics.

  11. Board Advisor, former President

    Data Science and AI Association of Australia

    Sep 2020 to Dec 2025 · Sydney

    National events across 1,000+ participants; hackathon delivered with the Department of Defence.

  12. Head of Data Analytics & Technology

    Prosperity Advisers Group

    Jan 2020 to Sep 2020 · Sydney

    Led the data and technology function at a national chartered accounting and wealth group: internal teams and client engagements across privately owned and family businesses.

  13. Business Development Manager, Data Analytics

    ASX

    Feb 2019 to Dec 2019 · Sydney

    Market data and analytics for the Australian financial market, including the DataSphere platform. The work here led to ETFtracker.

  14. Senior Management Consultant

    ABM Systems (Decision Inc.)

    Aug 2018 to Feb 2019 · Sydney

    Mentoring consultants and guiding analytics programmes across Australia.

  15. Vice President of Data Solutions

    Canaccord Genuity

    Jan 2017 to Apr 2018 · London

    Took INSIGHT into the bank after the acquisition and merged it into Quest®, Canaccord’s bottom-up multi-factor equity valuation and stock-ranking model: top-down macroeconomic signal joined to bottom-up stock selection, on one platform for global strategists, research analysts and asset managers. Revenue for the Quest and data division grew by more than two-thirds across the two years.

  16. Associate Director, Business Intelligence

    QMG Insight

    Oct 2014 to Sep 2016 · Melbourne

    Head of technology and analytics for INSIGHT, QuantMetriks Global’s independent equity research product, surfacing opportunities across global markets from trusted economic datasets, read through the three drivers of corporate earnings growth: price, cost and volume. Acquired by Canaccord Genuity.

Work with Mark

Fractional and embedded AI leadership, implementation engagements, and assurance reviews for organisations that have to stand behind what they deploy.