About the Founder –
RUNPAY®

Founder, Owner & Principal Advisor, RUNPAY®

Debbie Hagenbach (Cowan) founded RUNPAY® in October 2025, an innovative Australian platform transforming the payroll procurement landscape by delivering independent, high-level comparisons across a Marketplace of payroll systems via a straightforward once-off payment model, complemented with by-the-hour executive-level payroll and workforce management advisory —finally enabling Business Owners and C-suite Leaders to bypass lengthy sales cycles, streamline vendor evaluation and secure strategic, cost-effective workforce technology decisions within their own Budgets and/or Business Delegation.

With 20+ years of experience in the Australian Payroll and Workforce Management sector, she has always worked very closely with Executive-level Leaders and Human Resources, Payroll and Finance teams, held heart and the key Executive Leadership Role within her own family-built businesses, Payroll Experts Australia® and AgileXperts® (driving ongoing multiple company-wide process and system optimisation and upgrades).  She Co-Founded Payroll Standard® and played the very last and most critical key pivotal leadership role in the Queensland Health Payroll System Implementation Project Recovery.  She has successfully managed multiple Payroll Teams and resolved mission-critical issues after systems go-live and lead her teams to restore Statewide compliance, operational integrity and workforce stability.

A very proud mother of three, Debbie took a purposeful career pause to focus on family before returning with renewed energy to launch RUNPAY®.  Her core grounding in HR/payroll operations plus Executive Leadership Management expertise (upward and downward) is complemented by a Bachelor of Health Science (Health Services Management) from the Queensland University of Technology (QUT), where she was acknowledged for Academic Excellence by the Australian College of Health Service Executives (ACHSE now known as ACHSM) in receiving the Award for the Highest Achievement in Health Services Management and Health Policy and Planning.  Relevant coursework encompassed Leadership and Human Resources (HR) Strategy, Financial Governance, ethical decision-making, organisational administration and health Informatics and Technology (IT) Implementation.

She always delivers authoritative, honest and real-world insight to every engagement, empowering C-suite leaders and their teams to make informed Payroll and Workforce technology decisions that enhance operational efficiency, mitigate business risk and drive Long-Term Organisational Success.

Let’s Work Together

Get in touch now so we can start working together real soon.