Our story

Founded in 2001 and headquartered in Adelaide, our team extends across projects in Australia and New Zealand. But our beginnings were far more modest.

Shoal began as Aerospace Concepts Pty Ltd. Based in Canberra, we provided concept development consulting to clients in the aerospace, information technology and telecommunications sectors. By 2004, the company had grown to employ two people full time, with a floating team of around half a dozen contractors and casual staff. By 2009, we had three full time employees and, by 2014, we had grown further to 15, with a head office in Adelaide.

It was time to plan for and facilitate growth purposefully. A corporate structure was introduced with People & Culture, Finance, IT, Business Development and Marketing support functions created. We introduced initiatives to enable our team to proactively drive their careers with us and invest in their development.

In 2015, to better reflect our expansion into new markets and services, Aerospace Concepts Pty Ltd underwent a rebrand, and became known as ‘Shoal’. Our new name – Shoal – was inspired by the multiple meaning of the word itself:

  • A large number of people, animals or things that move together in the same direction semi-independently, in a constant state of coordinated adaptation.
  • A complex, evolving and potentially risky area in a body of water where multiple systems meet, requiring skilled navigation and a deep understanding of the environment.
Shoal corporate history

We are a company of complex systems designers and engineers, focused on the early definition and architectural design of large, complex systems and organisational capabilities. Our new name reflected who we were and what we delivered.

In 2019, Shoal morphed again. We had grown to over 43 and modified our company structure again to improve governance, our focus on leadership and business development.

Today, we are a team of almost 100 and consider our partners an extension of our business. Systems thinking continues to drive our approach and the value we deliver to our clients, inspired by our purposeto apply systems thinking to bring about positive change.