Tech titan, champion sailor charts a new course for AI

CHRISTIAN Beck doesn’t look or act quite as you’d expect of a tech guru commanding a global empire comprising at least 16 companies with around A$1 billion in annual revenues.

The shaggy-haired, grey-bearded bloke who stepped out of the lift at his Sydney office wore a faded polo shirt, khaki shorts, black socks and boots.

“Hi, I’m Christian,” he said, and having shaken hands, hustled away to make us coffee. No PA or receptionist in sight.

Beck looked a touch dusty, having ridden his bicycle across Sydney Harbour Bridge on what was to be a 38-degree day. “It’s what I am,” he said, almost apologetically.

He’s also the 1992 founder and CEO of LEAP Legal Software and sister company InfoTrack which followed in 2000.

Other companies or subsidiaries include Sympli, Groundsure, triSearch, LawConnect, LawY, and Corto, all under the umbrella of ATI Global.

Basically, they are business tools designed to save users time and add value to their work.

Beck’s extraordinary drive saw him named Ernst & Young’s 2017 Entrepreneur of the Year and a regular Financial Review Rich Lister with net worth last year estimated at $785 million.

“He shows no signs of stopping,” remarked the chair of the EY judging panel.

Now 56, his start came as an offsider to his dad, a suburban solicitor whose business was 90 per cent conveyancing.

“My father had a practice in Parramatta and that’s how I got into this,” Beck told AC.

“He set up his own system to do conveyancing, and he had a person employed to look after that.

“When she left, he firstly rang my brother and offered him the job. He said no and dad rang me.”

Although he hadn’t been to university, Beck was a self-taught programmer who’d been using his father’s workplace computers at night.

Stepping in as the office junior, doing settlements on Fridays, he found the system had “had good functionality but bad technology.

“It did some things very well but was very unreliable and expensive to operate.

“I rewrote the system to make it more robust and reliable, and then I was able to sell it to lawyers and conveyancers.”

So began LEAP, practice management software that took 15 years to refine but is now used by more than 67,000 legal professionals in Australia, the UK, US, Canada, New Zealand and Ireland.

Beck’s other mainstay InfoTrack is a leader in due diligence searching, e-conveyancing, and litigation workflow.

You might have read about or seen him in the financial news – but also in sport, as owner of Rolex Sydney Hobart champion LawConnect.

Beck sailed as a youth and always wanted to compete in the Sydney-Hobart.

Now he had the money to indulge his dream, and when 2016 winner Perpetual Loyal became available, he snapped it up.

The price was $1.6 million, relatively cheap for a world class supermaxi but, says Beck, “Ï didn’t realise how expensive the maintenance was!”

Renamed InfoTrack and now LawConnect, it finished second in 2019, won in 2023 and ’24 and backs up again this Boxing Day,

His wife and 18-year-old son – one of his six children – will be aboard. Beck, while nominally the skipper, says he’s also just a passenger.

“People perceive me to be a big sailor, but I’m actually not,” he laughs. “All I really do is get on board on Boxing Day and get off two days later.”

If the weather turns nasty, he and his guests will go below.

“If you stay on deck the crew has to worry about you, which makes it more dangerous for them.”

On the first night last year, LawConnect executed four gybes – turning the boat while reaching downwind – in a 35 to 40 knot gale.

That’s sailing at the outer limits. The enormous forces involved with a supermaxi mean even a flick from a rope’s end can be deadly as a gunshot.

Beck sensibly refers to his crack team of 16 headed by sailing master Tony Mutter and tactician Chris Nicholson.

“The kind of guys that do like the Round the World Race, and regard the Sydney-Hobart as an overnighter… they’re the kind of people you want.”

It’s a philosophy he also applies to business management: engage the best people and let them get on with the job.

“If you have good leadership, the best thing you can do is do nothing,” he says. 

“In the case of Tony Mutter there is minimal oversight from me. I trust him extensively, he’s been great.”

Beck counts himself fortunate to have great people running great companies. Which leaves him free to dream big, or bigger.

One area that excites him is Artificial Intelligence, poised to dramatically boost productivity for conveyancers.

He says AI is here to stay and while “not perfect” will only get better. The imperative for practitioners is not to resist AI, but to harness it.

“You’ve got to make the best of it,” he says. “A lot of people look at AI and go, oh, it’s doing stuff I used to do, therefore I’m going to be out of work.

“But the power of AI is to do lots of things at very low cost, allowing your service to be a lot better.”

For example, it could consider risks that a client might not otherwise order because of the expense.

“It could enhance the conveyancer’s ability to look at contaminated land, flood risk, strata issues, building defects, boundary issues, surrounding developments and planning changes. Research and investigation into all that is a lot more affordable with AI.”

Beck says AI could go beyond official records, for example trawling for adverse mentions in local media or Facebook groups.

It’s a bit like having a robot quiz the neighbours about rezoning rumours, or the bikie clubhouse in the next street.

Beck also sees AI transforming family law, by making it cheaper and more accessible.

He says that while Australia’s family court system is fair, “There is a lot of injustice created by the fact that it’s an expensive process.”

Away from the office, Beck enjoys twilight sailing with family, friends, staff and clients.

It might seem odd for a tech guru, but one reason he likes the sport is it distracts people – especially children – from their devices.

“I’m not opposed to computer games,” he says. “But not to excess. Sailing is a good way to get people out and doing things that are different.”

If LawConnect crosses the line first in Hobart this year, look out for Christian Beck.

He’ll likely be the one chucked overboard – in celebration.