Kellie Barnes | The CEO Magazine

The future doesn’t offer many certainties, but more advanced technology is one of the few. Stewarding in the newest round of future-focused tech solutions is dop™, which has worked toward filling technological voids and connecting people since it was established in 1990.

Its opening invitation of, ‘Seriously, what’s your problem?’ has resulted in solutions for many crises of communication over the decades. So it’s no wonder CEO Kellie Barnes is the winner of the IT and Telecommunications category as well as CEO of the Year at The CEO Magazine’s 2026 Executive of the Year Awards – Australia.

“It’s all the little pieces of fabric we’ve knitted together to create this company that I’m most proud of,” Barnes says. “The heart and soul of dop has shifted fundamentally, and with it, the capacity of our people to learn within it. In today’s world, the ability to learn, relearn and learn again is a superpower.”

Always learning

Learning is non-negotiable in a sector that changes by the hour, if not the minute. Barnes says everyone in the dop family has an integral part to play in the company’s success.

“The sustainability of the business doesn’t rely on one cog, it relies on many,” she says. “To be able to turn on four different revenue streams while holding together a complex network, and get the people to believe in it, is a serious achievement.”

Serious enough to see dop thrive almost 40 years after its inception in the most cutthroat of industries. But Barnes says vulnerability is an essential ingredient.

“Our workforce is passionate and it’s vulnerable. Yesterday, you had institutional knowledge you could rely on. Today, you wake up every morning and the world has spun again,” she says.

“So you have to create a culture where people feel vulnerable enough to say, ‘Wow, I didn’t know that. Let me learn,’ and having done so is something I’m very proud of. That can only happen when it comes from the top, where the boss admits they don’t have all the answers.”

Values driven

The name ‘dop’ comes from the doppler effect, the idea that to hear someone clearly you need to move at their pace, and Barnes says the company’s three values spell it out.

“We have three values: Doing Our Part, Dreaming Off Path and Driving On Pace,” she says. “Everyone turns up and takes care of their part of the puzzle, and we strive to solve the hard problems.

“But some customers move fast, some move slow, some go backwards, others forwards, some all over the place. We have to match the pace of where we work.”

As CEO, Barnes has done this in a uniquely dop way.

“Our motto is ‘unite the unique’, and I take that to heart when hiring,” she says. “Why have all the same people around? Why would I hire someone that replicates me? I look for diversity, and more particularly, neurodiversity, because that can create an interesting dynamic, and that’s when the magic happens.”

Barnes says she makes an effort to push herself out of her personal comfort zone in an industry that seemingly has none.

“I think you can see that throughout my career, where I’ve come out of C-level in Australia into a privately-owned Australian business where I felt I could make a difference and touch the fabric of the country. That’s what drives me, societal change and retaining humanity in this industry.”

Facing the future

That may sound like a weighty challenge, but Barnes says an even bigger one is learning not to hold onto the past and to embrace what’s coming.

“There’s a fear of loss of relevance, but you’ve got to be brave and meet the market where it’s at so you can pull your system through. If you don’t move, that’s when you’re no longer relevant,” she says.

Being named CEO of the Year at the Executive of the Year Awards has been a thrilling development for Barnes, who plans to use the opportunity to amplify her work.

“I’m extremely excited, and to be recognized for my work gave me goosebumps,” she says. “It also gives me the opportunity to continue to voice an agenda from a technological advancement perspective around humanity to a community able to do that. I’m looking forward to continuing that conversation.”

Barnes insists that humanity will always have a crucial role in whatever comes next.

“No AI should act alone, and we as an industry need to ensure that,” she says. “How we move from jobs to judgment is going to be the biggest fundamental shift that occurs in the next few years, hence why I have open-sourced the Human Seat Institute and founded Cygnys to help organizations tackle this.

“It’s going to be a fun ride after that.”