Our Story
Cetus AI was founded specifically to address the unique AI governance and sovereignty requirements of Australian organisations. We are not adapting a US-centric product for the local market — we built Songlines Control® from the ground up with Australian regulations, data residency requirements, and government compliance frameworks at the core.
Based in Queensland, we built Songlines Control® — a production-ready AI control plane that sits between your enterprise systems and every AI model you run. It enforces policy, optimises cost, routes intelligently, and maintains a cryptographically signed audit trail at the point of execution. All data stays in Australia, by architecture, not just by policy.
We named it after the ancient Australian navigational framework that guided people across vast, complex terrain with precision and purpose. That is exactly what Songlines Control® does for enterprise AI: it gives you a map, a compass, and a record of everywhere you have been.
Our Leadership
The people driving Cetus AI's mission to make enterprise AI governable, observable, and sovereign.
Mark Austin is a highly experienced technology executive with more than 35 years of leadership across startups, scale-ups, and multinational organisations in Australia and international markets. Throughout his career, he has held senior executive roles with a strong focus on driving sustainable growth, strengthening governance, and leading businesses through periods of transformation and expansion.
He brings a balanced leadership approach that combines strategic vision with operational discipline, helping organisations scale with clarity, accountability, and long-term value in mind. His global perspective, combined with deep experience across diverse business environments, has positioned him as a trusted leader committed to building resilient, growth-oriented companies.
Matthew Rushton is an experienced board adviser, CEO and commercial strategist with more than 30 years of leadership across technology, digital transformation, enterprise growth and strategic change. He has held executive and board roles across software, cloud, energy and services businesses, and brings deep expertise in governance, growth strategy, enterprise go to market and value creation.
Matthew supports Cetus AI with board level insight on commercial scale up, market positioning, strategic partnerships and long term enterprise growth.
What We Stand For
Our values are not aspirational statements. They are engineering constraints baked into every product decision we make.
Sovereignty First
Australian data stays in Australia. We design every product with data residency as a hard constraint, not an afterthought. Government and regulated industry clients can deploy with confidence.
Radical Transparency
Every AI interaction is logged, auditable, and explainable. We believe organisations should have complete visibility into what their AI systems are doing and why.
Control at Runtime
Policy enforcement happens at the point of execution — not in documentation, not in training, but in the live flow of every AI interaction. Real control, not compliance theatre.
Human in the Loop
AI should augment human decision-making, not replace it. Our platform is designed to keep humans informed and in control at every critical decision point.
Open by Default
We contribute to the open-source AI governance ecosystem through Cetus AI Labs. We believe the best infrastructure is built in the open, with community scrutiny.
Enterprise-Grade Reliability
Government and enterprise buyers need infrastructure they can depend on. We hold ourselves to the highest standards of reliability, security, and support.
Why Cetus AI Over a Global Vendor?
It’s a question we hear often. Here’s the honest answer.
🇦🇺 Proudly Australian
Cetus AI is headquartered in Springfield, Queensland. We are Australian owned, operated, and focused. Our infrastructure is designed to meet the specific requirements of Australian government, defence, and regulated enterprise — with all data remaining onshore.
Ready to work with us?
Speak with the Cetus AI enterprise team to discuss how we can help your organisation deploy AI with confidence.
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