THE GOLD COAST, Australia
IT Leaders’ Operations Manager, Lorelle Tonna, has won the ‘Emerging Leader of the Year’ category at the techpartner.news Impact Awards ceremony.
- The Impact Awards recognise individual and corporate achievements in the Australian IT and technology sector.
- Lorelle Tonna has led IT Leaders’ operations for almost 2 years.
- The award demonstrates Mrs Tonna’s ongoing leadership potential, initiative, and organisational impact.
The ceremony was held on August 13 at the ivy Ballroom, Sydney, as part of the techpartner.news Winter Ball. Individual employees could be nominated for one of 8 ‘Leader of the Year’ categories.
‘I’m extremely honoured that the techpartner.news editorial panel recognised the contributions I’ve made to IT Leaders,’ said Mrs Tonna. ‘When I joined the company 2 years ago, I did so because I saw its appetite for change, and that same forward-facing attitude has been critical to its recent growth.’
The ‘Emerging Leader of the Year’ award focuses on recognising leadership potential, initiative, and early impact. Mrs Tonna joined IT Leaders as a PMO manager in September 2024, transitioning to Operations Manager in October 2025.
‘Shortly after Lorelle’s tenure [with IT Leaders] began, multiple senior personnel left the company, placing strain on both our revenue and technical capabilities,’ said Jason Deacon, IT Leaders’ owner and director. ‘She quickly implemented a raft of new processes to stabilise our service desk and projects teams, including realigning multiple out-of-scope projects.’
In the 2024–2025 financial year, Mrs Tonna’s operational changes led to SMB1001 Silver certification and the successful onboarding of multiple new personnel.
‘To improve client retention, [Lorelle] also spearheaded a transition from ‘ticking and flicking’ to becoming our clients’ strategic IT partner, a positioning we’ve subsequently adopted in our go-to-market strategy,’ said Mr Deacon.
IT Leaders currently holds a 90-day average customer satisfaction score of 100%. It has also delivered 114 cloud, internet and PBX projects for SMB clients over the past 2 years.
‘Customer experience is the cornerstone of an MSP’s offerings,’ said Mrs Tonna. ‘Security and productivity metrics do matter, but, if the customer isn’t satisfied with their level of service, those performance aspects are ultimately irrelevant.
‘We’ve worked extremely hard to implement processes that systematise quality across both our service desk and projects team. That has made excellent service delivery much, much easier – and, at the same time, has freed up our technicians to deliver the kind of creative technology solutions that our customers want.’
Since Mrs Tonna’s Impact Awards nomination, IT Leaders has achieved SMB1001 Gold, a cyber security certification that indicates holistic, coordinated risk management. The company is now preparing to be independently assessed for the next SMB1001 certification level, Platinum.
About IT Leaders
IT Leaders is a Gold Coast-based managed services provider with deep expertise in cyber security and business productivity. The company specialises in supporting SMBs across the professional services, manufacturing, and transport sectors.
About techpartner.news
techpartner.news is a leading independent source of news, insights and analysis for technology partner businesses in Australia. The publication provides daily news produced by local journalists with deep knowledge of the Australian technology industry. For more information, visit: https://www.techpartner.news/page/about
Contact
For more information about this press release, contact Jason Deacon on 1300 596 560 or by emailing marketing@itleaders.com.au.
