Introducing Paul Dao, ICT Manager

Staff Story

Our new ICT Manager Paul Dao is no stranger to Santa Sabina. He has been a College parent since 2014 and now in 2023, just as his daughter graduates, Paul is making the transition from College parent to College staff member. A seasoned education IT manager and Santa Sabina parent since his daughter was in Year 3, Paul knows the exact experience our parents and students have with our IT systems. He also knows the IT systems of other schools, having spent the last 10 years immersed in the industry.

As ICT Manager Paul is overseeing the IT needs of students, staff and families with his team of help desk, AV and database staff.

Paul’s love of information technology began at school when he studied the then brand new HSC elective of Computer Science.

‘I was the lucky one’, he says, having been in the first cohort to study computing as an official school subject in NSW.

He loved the course and went on to study computer science at university, gaining a Bachelor of Applied Science from the University of Technology Sydney. The course covered programming, documentation, simulation and computing languages. His career in computing followed, beginning with programming educational and other software in small software houses.

However, ‘the software industry in Australia went into a dive’ with the launch of Apple’s App Store – the software ecosystem which democratised apps and meant (American) educational software was now available at minimal cost. Expensive local content and programming could not compete.

Paul moved on to become a school IT Manager and this is where he found his niche.

‘I love working in a school because each day is different. There is such a broad range of IT tasks you do in a day – it’s never boring!’

Paul’s broad experience and interest in helping teachers and students allow him to keep abreast of all aspects of computing rather than specialising in a narrow area. At Santa Sabina he is looking forward to continuing to improve the resources of our classrooms such as our Smartboards and forthcoming Lumination Labs. Better systems for automated content sharing are also in his sights.

Above all working at Santa Sabina is his ‘dream job’.

‘I always wanted to work here. As a parent looking in from the outside, the school looked like a good place to work, professional and fast-paced.’

Beyond the IT Department and Santa Sabina, Paul spends his time with his family and also enjoys gardening. He also keeps up to date with technological developments, especially in cyber-security.

Victoria Harper
Publications and Marketing Officer