21 August 2025 – Auckland, NZ. Fast-growing Australasian data, AI, and specialist Adaptiv has announced the appointment of co-founder Nikolai Blackie as CTO to support and drive its strong growth trajectory.
As CTO, Blackie will focus on Adaptiv’s strategy and vision, supporting its practice leads, accelerating R&D and innovation, particularly through emerging technologies like AI. He will also play a key role in developing the business’s future leaders and architects, and expanding its successful graduate programme to its Australian offices.
Founded in 2010, Adaptiv has evolved by design from a boutique integrator to a full-scale enterprise integration partner, servicing some of the region’s largest organisations.
Over the past four years, Adaptiv has more than doubled its headcount, climbing from 29 staff in 2021 to 65 consultants, architects, and engineers today. Current hiring plans anticipate a doubling of the team within the next 18–24 months. This people growth is mirrored by geographic scale. In addition to its Auckland headquarters, Adaptiv now has offices in Christchurch, Brisbane, and most recently Melbourne, and operates across New Zealand and Australia. To help manage the business’s growth, long-serving GM Phil Cullen has stepped into the role of COO.
The broadened footprint enables Adaptiv to deliver complex MuleSoft, Boomi, Solace, Azure, Databricks, and Microsoft Fabric programmes for enterprise customers across financial services, aged care, utilities, education, and government – including several ASX- and NZX-listed brands. Notable Adaptiv customers include Bolton Clarke (Australia’s largest independent not-for-profit aged care provider), St John, Fletcher Building, Toyota Financial Services, and Lotto.
“Winning Boomi APJ Growth Partner of the Year in 2024 signalled we were punching well above boutique weight. With Nikolai now in the CTO role, we’re poised to push even further, combining innovative technology and the same customer-first approach to scale,” said Adaptiv COO Phil Cullen. “Today’s numbers prove it: we’re attracting larger trans-Tasman engagements and have the scale to deliver them end-to-end. To put that in perspective, the number of our active projects for 2025 is 87% higher than that of 2021.”
CTO Blackie is also charged with setting Adaptiv’s technical direction in the AI space.
“Our clients want modern integration delivered faster and more intelligently,” said Blackie. “We’re investing heavily in AI to make that happen – from generative assistants that auto-build Boomi solutions to Agentic AI solutions that can predict integration failures before they impact customers. My focus is turning those innovations into repeatable IP that lifts project speed and quality across the board.”
Looking forward, Adaptiv will continue to deepen its Australian presence, expand its data platform capabilities, and double down on applied AI research, positioning the company as the go-to enterprise data, AI, and integration partner for organisations modernising at pace.
