Andy Penn to chair Sharon AI ahead of planned ASX float

Sharon AI has appointed former Telstra chief Andy Penn as non-executive chairman as the Nasdaq-listed neocloud company prepares a secondary ASX listing, adding a well-known Australian telecommunications executive to its board as it works towards local investor support.

The appointment announced by Sharon AI on 21 May comes as the company pushes deeper into the Australian market and lines up an ASX float. Sharon AI is already listed on Nasdaq, but a second listing asks a different question: whether the company can present itself to super funds and institutions as more than a fast-growing AI infrastructure bet. The Australian Financial Review reported last month that Sharon AI had raised $US350 million (about $487 million) ahead of the planned listing.

That makes Penn’s arrival a governance step as much as a branding one. Sharon AI can talk about compute capacity, neocloud services and demand for GPUs, but an ASX float also turns on board credibility and familiarity with Australian corporate settings. A former Telstra chief gives the company a chair many local investors already recognise.

In a statement announcing the appointment, Penn said he was joining the board at an important point in the company’s growth.

“I am excited to join the board at such a pivotal and exciting time.”
— Andy Penn, Sharon AI

Sharon AI co-founder and chief executive James Manning used the same statement to frame the move as part of the company’s next phase rather than a standalone reshuffle. He said Sharon AI was “delighted” to add Penn as chairman as it entered its next stage of growth. The emphasis was on scale and execution, not on Penn’s biography alone. For a company preparing to broaden its investor base, that framing matters.

The financing story also helps explain the timing. In first-quarter results released this month, Sharon AI reminded investors that it had raised $US125 million in its February 2026 Nasdaq IPO and was expanding its operations. The AFR later reported that the company had raised a further $US350 million (about $487 million) ahead of the planned ASX listing. Together, those steps suggest the board change is part of the company’s listing runway, not an isolated appointment.

Secondary listings are not won on growth claims alone. They are judged on whether a company looks ready for public-market scrutiny, with a board that can answer questions on governance, disclosure and risk. Penn’s appointment speaks to that part of the investment case.

Austrade said this month that Sharon AI and Cisco planned to launch an AI factory in Australia, tying the group’s pitch to local compute infrastructure as well as offshore capital markets. It also shows the company wants an operating footprint here, not just a local register.

Penn is best known for his years at Telstra, and that background gives Sharon AI a chair who can speak to Australian governance expectations at a moment when telecoms networks, data-centre build-outs and AI demand are increasingly overlapping. Ahead of an ASX float, the company is signalling that local credibility may matter as much as access to chips and capital.