Nisha Padmanabhan is The University of Sydney’s Chief Risk Officer. Previously, Nisha was the Chief Risk Officer at The Salvation Army, Australia Eastern Territory, and held a senior risk leadership positions at BPAY, Macquarie Group Limited, and Insurance Australia Group. Nisha has also held a number of non-executive director and advisory roles in not-for-profit organisations, including Baptist World Aid Australia, The Salvation Army Australia Eastern Territory and Habitat for Humanity Australia. She has found a place in her career to use leading risk management principles to define and achieve strategies and missions that benefit the world.
Nicholle Sparkes is an accomplished strategist and operational leader, currently holding the position of General Manager for Delivery & Operations at Frasers Property Australia. In this capacity, she provides oversight to critical areas including Construction, ESG, and HSE functions. Nicholle's career spans well over two decades within the property and construction industry, with her joining the Frasers Property team in 2012, after holding senior management roles at Laing O'Rourke and Lendlease.
Over the past decade, Nicholle's role has undergone a significant transformation, with her primary focus on strategic risk management. Her extensive experience and dedication have resulted in a distinguished track record of leading high-performing teams on major property development projects. This has solidified her reputation as a leader who consistently delivers excellence across a wide spectrum of the industry.
Nicholle is a member of the Residential Development Council for the Property Council of Australia, the leading representative for Australia’s residential developers, providing powerful advocacy on behalf of the industry that drives Australia’s economy. A member of the NSW Government Construction Industry Advisory Group, focusing on retaining and encouraging women into the construction industry. And recently completing an appointment with the Decennial Liability Insurance Ministerial Panel for the NSW Government. A panel established to oversee and report on the investigation and development of a policy framework for provision of DLI insurance to enhance consumer protection of owners of multi-unit apartment buildings.
Business leader and elected Councillor on Northern Beaches Council, Audit & Risk Committee member and former Chair of Transport & Traffic Strategic Reference Group.
Most recently COO of UNICEF Australia developing and executing a strategy resulting in double digit growth, a complete digital transformation (during COVID), strengthened governance and risk management. Member of UNICEF global think tanks on governance, finance & operations.
Previously ran boutique strategy & management consulting business; Sydney Airport (Finance & Strategy - Commercial) and began career at LEK Consulting.
Qualified Director (AICD), University Medal (Economics)
Damien is an experienced senior executive, having worked in leading organisations in a variety of industries including financial services, renewable energy, government, legal and education.
He has deep experience both locally and globally, leading large transformational projects, digital innovation, managing complex internal and external stakeholder relations and creating financial sustainability.
Damien is a highly skilled influencer, with networks at the highest level in industry and government, and is able to connect stakeholders and drive strategy development and implementation. He is a values-led leader who gets satisfaction from building high performing teams where people flourish professionally and personally.
He is a skilled relationship builder, passionate about team well-being and creating an environment where people feel they have the opportunities to progress.
In his current role, Damien has responsibility for strategy and business planning, financial management and increasing revenue. He leads a large and varied team to increase alumni engagement and philanthropic support to help students with scholarships and fund discoveries, education and research to benefit communities and have a global impact.
Prior to joining Monash, Damien worked in government relations at NAB and in corporate affairs / government relations at an ASX-listed renewable energy company.
Damien has served as Board Member and Director for a number of commercial and not for profit bodies including Xavier College Foundation, Monash University Indonesia, Advisory Board Member of Monash Institute for Health and Clinical Education, and Monash University Museum of Art (MUMA).
He graduated from Monash University, Australia with a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) and a Bachelor of Arts (BA) (majoring in politics). He completed the Advanced Leadership and Management Programme at the Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford, and the High Potentials Leadership Program at the Harvard Business
Claire is the Chief Executive of Life Without Barriers, one of Australia’s leading charitable organisations with services in every state and territory including remote areas.
Life Without Barriers supports around 25,000 people each year in the areas of; disability support, aged care, mental health and drug and alcohol services, services for refugees and people seeking asylum and support for families in the child protection system.
As Chief Executive, Claire leads a collective of over 8,000 people and 3,000 foster and kinship carers. Claire’s approach is founded in a strong commitment to values led leadership where relationships, respect, responsiveness, imagination and courage are the compass for all her decision making.
Claire is a uniquely skilled strategist, with over 20 years’ experience in the human services and community services sector, with a career that began in essential frontline services. It is this direct experience in the provision of care which honed Claire's extraordinary ability to make high level and critical decisions with a sharp relevance for practical, human centred implementation.
With a strong reputation in the sector and with government, Claire is revered for her ability to collaborate and partner in a truly authentic way, and is a prominent, reliable voice and trusted friend across industries. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Claire was sought out by various Government committees to provide guidance and advice about the impact of COVID on vulnerable people in our community. She continues in these roles today.
Claire has a clear and firm ethos that in our communities, every person, their human rights and choice about how they want to live is central to an inclusive and equitable society.
Claire holds a Bachelors Degree in Arts, Sociology and Social policy, a Graduate Diploma in Psychology, an Executive Master of Business Administration and is an active Board member with the Community Council of Australia.
Kate has more than 20 years in-house and private law practice experience gained working for corporate and top tier law firms in Melbourne and London.
In her current role as Chief Legal Officer for Toll Group, she reports directly to the Managing Director and is a critical member of the Global executive leadership team, contributing to the strategic leadership of Toll.
Kate is responsible for managing all legal and compliance issues which arise in the business including corporate, potential M&A/JV transactions, commercial contracting, compliance, ESG, insurance and risk, and dispute resolution.
She provides leadership to a team of approximately 30 lawyers and 7 compliance professionals located in Australia, Asia and the US. Kate has extensive experience working with various internal and external stakeholders including the board, shareholders and external regulators.
Prior to joining Toll in 2018, Kate spent 17 years at Herbert Smith Freehills based in Australia and London.
In her current role as Head of Sustainable Investment, Australia, Rena is responsible for the development and execution of the global sustainable investment strategy and its application in the context of Australia. Working in close partnership with the Client Solutions and Strategy Team, she advises on investor and market expectations and supporting client engagement on sustainability related matters. Rena leads the Sustainable Investment team in Australia and is a member of IFM's Global Leadership Team.
In her prior role as Global Head of Business Development, Rena was responsible for developing a global fundraising strategy and collaborating with the regional Client Solutions teams on local implementation. Before relocating to Sydney, Australia in September 2021, Rena worked with IFM Investors' New York office, where she joined the firm in April 2012 as Director, Business Development, supporting IFM's fundraising and investor relations in North America prior to her promotion to Global Head of Business Development in July 2019.
Prior to joining IFM in April 2012, Rena was Principal, Investor Relations with Ares Management LLC where she was responsible for developing and executing the firm's investor relations program for their commercial real estate debt group. Prior to Ares, Rena was a Managing Director with Macquarie Group, leading the tax structuring of their real estate fund investments in North America and Europe. Earlier in her career, Rena worked at Ernst & Young conducting audit, tax, accounting and compliance engagements for their entrepreneurial clients.
Rena has a Graduate Diploma in Applied Finance and Investment from the Securities Institute of Australia and a Bachelor of Business from the University of Wollongong, Australia. She was previously a chartered accountant in Australia.
Leandro Perez leads marketing across the Asia-Pacific region for Salesforce setting the vision, developing the go-to-market strategy, and executing it with his teams across the region. As the APAC executive sponsor for the Latinoforce Equality Resource Group at Salesforce, Leandro champions diversity and equality, fostering an inclusive environment within the organization. Previously at Salesforce, he led the global corporate messaging team in San Francisco which is responsible for crafting and disseminating the Salesforce corporate narrative to 75,000 employees, and millions of customers globally each year.
Leandro has worked for leading technology firms such as TIBCO, HP, and Autonomy and holds a Bachelor of Computer Science (Honours), from the University of New South Wales, Executive MBA from the Quantic School of Business & Technology, and is a Marketing Academy Fellow.
Born in Argentina, raised in Sydney, with extensive international experience, including time spent in the United States Leandro's multicultural background has shaped his global perspective and deep appreciation for diversity. Leandro now lives in Sydney with his wife and two children.
Carmen is a senior executive with over 20 years experience gained across leadership roles in Not for Profit, Professional Membership Organisations, Peak Body and University sectors.
In particular, Carmen has deep experience in corporate governance having spent 13 years in various senior roles at the Australian Institute of Company Directors. In 2017, Carmen Co-Founded the Global Governance Initiative, a governance advisory and consulting organisation which is focused on making governance information, education and tools accessible to all.
Carmen is currently the Chief Operating Officer at Autism Spectrum Australia (Aspect), Australia's largest autism specific service provider with one of the biggest autism school programs in the world. Carmen leads a large multi disciplinary team across People and Culture, Quality and Safeguarding, WHS, Capital Projects and the Project Management Office. With sector reform afoot as a result of a comprehensive review of the NDIS and macro funding changes, Carmen is leading a comprehensive transformation initiative to position Aspect for future growth and sustainability.
Carmen is also a member of the Catholic Care Diocese of Broken Bay Advisory Council.
Over 15 years experience in real estate investment and development, capital transactions, major urban renewal projects (ie Parramatta Square), public private partnerships, social infrastructure and government. Admitted as a lawyer in 2011. Co-Founder & CEO of Good Housing and Kirribilli Capital, building smart and healthy disability homes that are enabling extraordinary lives and other social infrastructure that meets the requirements of ESG capital. Passionate about doing well, by doing good.
Honoured to be named in The Australian and Barron’s List of Top 100 Financial Advisers in Australia for 2023.
Will and his team at Morgan Stanley manage the investments of a select group of high and ultra-high net worth families and NFPs. They help clients protect and grow their wealth by providing strategic investment advice across global sharemarkets and other asset classes in line with risk profiles, with the backing of one of the most respected wealth management firms globally.
If he can help you in any way, I’d like to hear from you.
An experienced leader combining more than 30 years’ technical engineering and construction experience and a demonstrated history of achieving sustainable outcomes in the infrastructure industry. Skilled in strategy development and execution, joint venture establishment and governance, project systems and controls, project estimation, risk management and the fundamentals of construction law. Experienced in both the Australian and Asian infrastructure markets, with a passion for developing organisational culture and upholding core values. Characterised by collaboration, teamwork and a practical, results-based approach to ensure improved outcomes for all in the delivery of key infrastructure projects.
Tony joined the EPA in August 2022 with strong experience in highly regulated
industries and a commitment to the environment. His experience across the public and
private sectors, and in regulated industry means Tony brings a useful understanding and
perspective of what is required of licensees, as well as the community impact of industry
actions.
Prior to joining the EPA, Tony was Executive General Manager, Corporate Affairs, Legal
Risk and Governance at the Australian Energy Market Operator. His role included
responsibility for stakeholder engagement, regulatory strategy and policy, working with
all Australian governments to ensure the delivery of safe, reliable and affordable energy,
and to enable the energy transition in the interests of consumers.
Tony holds a master’s degree in Environmental Change and Management from the
University of Oxford and a master’s degree in Environmental Technology from Imperial
College, London. He has also worked as a researcher at the Smith School for Enterprise
and the Environment in Oxford.
Jeremiah has a wealth of experience in data and analytics leadership, delivering complex enterprise-scale data science transformations. He enables CDOs and CTOs to drive meaningful change by leading high-performing teams to discover tangible business value, scale production systems and uncover new commercial opportunities.
Trudi’s extensive knowledge of the housing and homelessness sector, coupled with her deep regiaconal connections and commitment to social justice drives Haven Home Safe’s successful delivery of integrated homeless supports and housing.
As CEO of Haven Home Safe, Trudi is focused on the growth and delivery of our extensive housing portfolio and homelessness services throughout metro Melbourne and Northern and Western Victoria. A vocal advocate for vulnerable people and the positive impact housing with wrap-around supports has on health, wellbeing and economic participation, Trudi also champions the need to establish a pipeline of housing across the entire housing continuum.
Having been elected and served as a Local Government Councillor for City of Greater Bendigo, Trudi understands and acknowledges the importance of collaboration, compromise and consultation when advocating for others and places importance on having a voice and using those platforms to create change for those that don’t.
Trudi is Chair of CHIA Victoria, a Victorian Director of the Australian Housing Institute and was part of the Property Council of Australia’s 500 Women in Property 2022 program, in recognition of her dedication and leadership in the sector. Trudi has recently been appointed to the Geelong Chapter of the UDIA after finishing a two year term on the UDIA Inclusion and Diversity Committee.
Trudi’s other credentials include GAICD, MBA with honors, Harvard Executive Leadership Graduate, Certified Senior Professional with the Australian Housing Industry (SPAHIc) and Justice of the Peace.
Josh is the Global Chief Operating Officer of IDVerse, the new name for OCR Labs.
IDVerse uses generative AI to deliver an internally developed end-to-end SaaS solution for
Digital Identity Verification & Fraud Prevention for businesses in 220+ countries, supporting 142 different languages and typesets, utilising an independently certified Zero Bias Biometric engine.
Josh has over 25 years of experience in Leadership Roles across Sales, Product and Operations in Software, Data and ICT B2B organisations. He is an innovative organisational and people leader with proven commercial and technical acumen, who thrives on building highly engaged performance environments.
When not working Josh enjoys his family & friends, food & wine, fitness & charity work – actively raising money for Cancer Research through participation in the Tour de Cure cycling events across Australia.
Tom is an in-house legal, governance, risk, and compliance expert. He is currently General Counsel at Mawson Infrastructure Group Inc, a NASDAQ-listed, US corporation. Tom has worked in senior in-house legal roles at HUB24 (head of legal), ANZ Bank (Company Secretary), and Macquarie Bank. prior to that, he worked at large Australian law firms, including HWLE and Clayton Utz.
Paul joined oOh!media in 2023 and is an experienced digital leader who has spent more than 20 years transforming businesses to thrive and grow in the digital landscape. In his most recent role as Vice President & Head of APAC for Yahoo, Paul led the ad technology business across Australia and the APAC region, responsible for all revenue and 1200 people.
With a personal passion to ‘move the world forward for good’ he transformed Yahoo’s CSR program and embedded social responsibility into the company’s fabric, all while achieving record commercial growth and employee engagement results.
In 2021 Paul was appointed a board member of Australia’s media/marketing industry social purpose organisation, UnLtd, following several years of active involvement. Additionally, he served as a long-standing IAB board member, where he influenced digital standards and trends that shape the media industry.
Carla Ramchand is a senior executive with experience leading hyper-growth businesses in the technology and telecommunications sectors in Australia and international markets.
As Avanade’s Growth Markets Chief Operating Officer (COO), Carla drives the implementation of the organisation’s global business strategy, oversees business performance and manages the 4,500 Microsoft-skilled consulting workforce across Asia Pacific, Latin America and the Middle East. In addition, Carla is an executive sponsor for inclusion and diversity, particularly in leading initiatives to attract, retain and cultivate senior female talent.
Prior to her current role, Carla was Avanade’s Growth Markets Modern Workplace Executive and Executive General Manager for Cybersecurity at IBM. She also held several senior executive roles within Telstra's Enterprise and Government Business, including Head of Business Development and Head of Networks, Applications and Services Sales.
Carla holds a Bachelor of Social Science & Policy (Applied Research & Political Science) and Graduate Diploma of Commerce (Information Systems & Management) from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) and a Graduate Certificate of Management from the Australian Graduate School of Management (AGSM).
Carla is recognized as an inspiring role model and business leader to her team members, the global community in Avanade and women across the technology industry. She is married with two children and enjoys travel, theatre and following both the Carlton Football Club and New York Rangers.
Formally qualified in Industrial Design and Business Administration, Dominic possesses a unique balance of management skills and design thinking.
In 2000 Dominic joined with two partners founded Diadem, a multi disciplinary brand implementation consultancy, specialising in corporate re-branding and wayfinding.
With over thirty years of industry experience, career highlights include design and management roles in several of Australia’s most prominent design and re-imaging projects. These include the re-branding of Telecom Australia to Telstra, BMW Australia’s dealer point of sale design program, and ANZ Bank’s corporate re-imaging program throughout Australia and the Pacific region.
This invaluable experience, combined with that of his co-directors distils throughout the company, providing first hand experience and inspiration to staff to achieve their best work.
He instils a purpose lead culture at Diadem that is focused on achieving meaningful success for each client. Equal emphasis is given to commercial parameters, as is preserving the creative vision and innovation. This approach will has ensured Diadem's resilience and success over 23 years.
Geyash Geyash (GG) is Vice President & General Manager at Motorola Solutions, a global leader in public safety and enterprise security technology.
Geyash is responsible for talented teams across Product Management, R&D and Delivery Engineering, Program Management, Customer Success, Operations and Go-to-Market with full P&L responsibility of the business.
Together, these teams conceive, build and deliver software that empowers thousands of first responders in Australia and internationally to manage emergency response and deliver critical services to communities all over the world.
Geyash holds a Bachelor of Business, majoring in Accountancy and an Associate Degree in Marketing. He is a CPA and completed his Executive MBA from Melbourne Business School.
Seasoned Leader, Business Development and Marketing professional with over 20 years of experience. I focus on integrating BD and Marketing strategies to generate competitive advantage. What we do has to be innovative and bold.
Experience working within the legal industry both as a lawyer and BD/marketing professional in Europe, Brazil, New York, London and Sydney, fluent in 5 languages.
Gitanjali Bhalla is an accomplished, commercially focussed, and innovative business leader with over 20 years’ experience and achievement across global and Australian professional services firms and corporates. Highly experienced in human capital management, mergers and acquisitions and business services alignment, she has delivered strategic, high-impact and pragmatic solutions in complex and fast paced environments to increase shareholder value in organisations varying in size from 100 to over 50,000 people across up to 70 countries.
Gitanjali began her professional journey in consulting at Andersen and Ernst and Young in the areas of tax and strategic human capital management solutions. Her other corporate roles have included leading human resources and corporate services at UGL Limited and at Cushman & Wakefield leading the Asia Pacific and Greater China businesses through the challenge of operational integration and transformation to deliver cost synergies, whilst continuing to support opportunities for growth through business transformation projects.
Currently at Seven Group Holdings Limited, Gitanjali leads the People & Culture and Safety portfolios across the Seven Group and its companies across a diverse range of industries that include industrial services, media and oil and gas assets.
In 2018 she was appointed as a Director of Coates and WesTrac.
Gitanjali is on the Board of Carriageworks. She is also a dedicated Ambassador for Good Return, a not-for-profit organisation committed to empowering women through microfinance, and an active member of HBET, an organisation that awards scholarships for underprivileged children in India to further their education.
Richard leads and transforms businesses for sustainable growth. Starting with a clear and compelling vision for the business’s strategic situation, he brings together the people, plan, and processes to achieve that vision and focus on working as one to deliver results, learn, have fun, grow, and realise full potential. As a business leader, and in senior executive roles in strategy, operations, growth, and M&A, Richard led, reshaped, and grown large, complex businesses in the WATER, industrials, building materials, waste, management consulting, and downstream oil sectors in Australia, New Zealand and south-east Asia. This diverse experience helps him identify and deliver lasting growth with a blend of strategic insight, commerciality and pragmatism, and by leading whole-heartedly. Richard sees his role as a leader as shaping an environment where people and teams can become their best. By doing this, he had the privilege of seeing talent unleashed by building trust, found courage in using values to guide critical decisions, felt the joy of solving tough challenges together, and experienced the progress and innovation that’s possible when we take responsibility, collaborate and learn from setbacks.
Philip is a lawyer and senior executive at IPH Limited. IPH Limited is an ASX 200 company that has grown from a single IP professional services business which has been listed on the ASX in 2014 to a group valued at approximately $2bn, including by means of more than ten acquisitions in Australia, New Zealand, China, HK PRC and Canada. This included the 2019 acquisition of listed IP group XIP, and most recently the c.$400m acquisition of Smart & Biggar in Canada. IPH is now operating intellectual property professional services firms in nine countries across the Asia-Pacific region and Canada.
As Group General Counsel and Company Secretary, and as a member of the board of each business forming part of the group, Philip has been integrally involved in these transactions and the operation of these businesses, as well overseeing the development and operations of the group's governance, risk and compliance and ESG functions. He has 30 years of experience as a solicitor and governance professional, in private practice and in-house, with experience in a broad range of areas of law including corporate and commercial, competition, ICT, intellectual property, and litigation.
Most importantly, Philip also has a role supporting his son, Patrick Heuzenroeder, a young Australian racing driver as he takes on the British F4 by FIA racing championship series in 2023 and looks to build his career in Europe.
Tim is currently undertaking a rollup of childcare centres in New Zealand partnering with a PE group. Previously, he was the former CEO of Evolve Education Group (ASX: EVO), comprising 132 childcare centres across Australia and New Zealand. my experience and expertise are in the development, growth, and transformation of medium to large businesses within a listed and/or roll-up space. In addition, Tim has worked in Asia Pacific and Middle East real estate, education, and architectural sectors and has a special interest in different business models, including franchise/licensing methodologies.
He is a Fellow of Australian Institute of Company Directors and an Associate of CPA.
In 2017 Andrew co-founded Leap in! with the backing of UnitingCare Queensland and Uniting NSW-ACT. Since then, the business has grown rapidly, with 40,000+ NDIS participants and their families across Australia using Leap in!'s digital platform and plan management services as they navigate the complexity of the NDIS.
In 2021 Leap in! was recognised by Brisbane’s Lord Mayor as an Outstanding Social Enterprise and by the Australian Financial Review (AFR) as the #2 Most Innovative Company in the Government, Education & NFP sectors, #10 AFR Fast Starter list and #17 Deloitte Fast 50 Tech companies.
Andrew was a founding member of the Inclusive Employment Movement, a group of employers committed to increasing workplace accessibility and participation for people with disability, and is a Non-Executive Director of Disability Intermediaries Australia, the NDIS peak body for the plan management and support coordination sectors.
Prior to Leap in! Andrew spent 20 years in executive roles specialising in customer experience, marketing, and digital transformation.
A passionate supporter of the arts, Andrew was previously Chair of Craft Queensland – Artisan and Non-Executive Director of the Australian Design Centre.
Samantha Stevens is the Executive General Manager, Corporate Affairs of Origin Energy with more than 25 years of experience in managing national and international corporate affairs projects, stakeholders, and issues, and in leading global teams across several markets/jurisdictions.
Part of the Executive Leadership Team at Origin Energy, with responsibility for corporate affairs, including external affairs, employee communications, and the Origin Energy Foundation (partnering with NGOs focusing on education and breaking the cycle of disadvantage).
She is a member of Chief Executive Women and married to Matthew, proud Mum of two great kids, and lucky Step-Mum of two more.
Naren is an accomplished digital transformation executive with compelling expertise across customer experience & information technology, strategy, and implementation. He has held leadership roles in high profile companies across private and public sectors globally.
He is passionate about driving change and helping strengthen an organisation's digital mindset, cyber resilience and innovative culture and deliver even better value for customers by making the right investments into the future.
He has a solid track record of delivering customer experience and digital transformation programs across all levels of New South Wales public sector which include delivering on Premiers priorities at Service NSW, Transport for NSW, Dept of Planning, Infrastructure & Environment and Northern Beaches Council.
Naren holds a master’s in computing and a bachelor’s in physical therapy. He has held adjunct fellow and research associate positions and is a regular speaker at conferences on digital transformation, citizen engagement and the management of complex digital projects. He has keen interests in sustainable technologies, digital trust and the application of blockchain and AI, assessing the policy implication and building solutions to ensure governments can access and respond to the opportunities and challenges they raise.
Steven Bonnici is the Chief Information Officer for the Asia Pacific, Middle East, and African regions, a $17B division of the Ford Motor Company, where he has achieved record business results applying technology to transform business performance and customer experience. He has served in many technology-based roles within Australia, the United States, Thailand, and China, spearheading the launch of vehicle connectivity, E-Commerce, and digital services at a global scale.
He is passionate about working with teams to deliver outstanding business outcomes. Steven has over 20 years of experience within the Automotive and Financial Service industries, a bachelor’s degree in Business Information Systems and a Master’s in Business Administration from RMIT.
As a senior executive with over 25 years of business experience in engineering, aviation, and government financial services, Kelly’s passion lies in operations management supported by her ability to think strategically and act tactically.
Kelly has worked in New Zealand, Australia and the UK where she has held leadership positions within a number of global and domestic organisations.
At Ausgrid, Kelly is responsible for leading the Network Delivery Services Group, responsible for HIGH VOLTAGE Transmission services, major capital projects, contract management and delivery, fleet and logistics, procurement, and security operations.
Kelly sponsors the data and era transformation stream and is a champion for inclusion and diversity. Kelly was also responsible for leading Ausgrid’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Cate Hathaway is currently Chief People & Transformation Officer with GrainCorp, responsible for transformational change, people, safety, environment and technology. Cate's early career involved twelve years in the Insurance sector in line management roles. She then decided to move into HR, she has a Bachelor Of Commerce in Property Economics, completed the AGSM MBA and the Harvard Leadership Program. Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD). For more than 20 years, Cate has held senior executive positions across the banking, building resources and insurance industries for global companies and her responsibilities included their NZ, Asian and international operations.
Cate is passionate about providing a competitive edge for the business by contributing to improved and sustainable business performance.
Steven Cail is a senior financial executive with over 20 years of experience working across a broad range of business environments, encompassing banking, resources, retail, and FMCG. Steven is a Certified Practicing Accountant (CPA) who holds a Bachelor of Business Accounting and Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Deakin University.
As an executive leader at General Motors, Carter Holt Harvey, Calendar Cheese Company and Target Australia, Steven has managed P&L accounts of up to $1b. He has specialist expertise in implementing commercial strategies for growth while building opportunities to improve stakeholder engagement and drive business processes.
Steven was appointed Chief Executive Officer of The ORIGINAL JUICE CO LIMITED (ASX: OJC) in July 2021 following his appointment as Chief Financial Officer in March 2021.
Steven is a people-first leader, and creative innovator shaping how a business can positively impact the communities in which it operates and consistently deliver results.
Kate Crous is the Executive General Manager of Everyday Banking for the Commonwealth Bank, Australia’s largest bank and leading provider of integrated financial services.
The Everyday Banking business is part of the Retail Banking Services arm of the Commonwealth Bank which serves over 9 million retail customers with personal transactions, savings, retail foreign exchange, CommBank Rewards and retail payment solutions. In Kate’s role as EGM Everyday Banking she is responsible for strategic direction and day-to-day P&L management of the bank’s transaction accounts, forex, retail payments and deposit products, as well as the portfolio of investments within the Everyday Banking business. Additionally Kate is responsible for the evolving Shopping ecosystem and associated investments, Open Banking and the Consumer Data Right for the Group and Digital Identity.
Prior to Everyday Banking, Kate spent 3 years in Digital, running digital strategy and operations and the digital banking business and 6 years in CBA’s product teams working across deposits, transactions and mortgages products. Kate joined CBA from Westpac in Australia and has previously worked for leading financial institutions: Capital One, GE Money and First National Bank in the United States, UK and South Africa.
Belinda has worked in the Australian and international energy markets as an advisor, executive and director for 2 decades. She is constantly amazed by the rollercoaster that is the Australian renewable industry. Belinda is currently the Country Manager and Managing Director of X-ELIO's Australian operations.
X-ELIO is a global leader in utility-scale renewable and storage projects, with 2.6GW built and 25 plants operating on 5 continents. Belinda heads and supports a brilliant team of professionals who manage 1.3GW of development projects and 200MW of operational assets in Australia.
Appointed in 2016, Alex Joiner is Chief Economist at IFM Investors. He is responsible for the firm’s economic, financial market, and geopolitical risk analysis that is key in IFM’s investment process. In this capacity, he engages with IFM’s domestic and global clients on macro-investment trends and themes. He is a frequent commentator on economic and markets via traditional and social media and regularly speaks at public forums and conferences.
He has over two decades of professional experience in economic and markets and prior to joining IFM was the Chief Economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch (Australian & New Zealand) after being a senior economist at ANZ Bank. He holds a First Class honours degree in Economics and a PhD in Econometrics from Monash University. Alex is also committee member of the Australian Business Economists.
Since joining the NHVR as Chief Executive Officer in May 2014, Sal has focused the NHVR to becoming a customer-centric, risk-based, data-driven modern regulator.
By driving a significant program of reform across Australia’s heavy vehicle industry, he has enabled a more streamlined approach to service delivery, education, compliance and enforcement, and a greater degree of consistency in how heavy vehicles are regulated.
He has led the NHVR far on its journey to becoming a single national heavy vehicle regulator, successfully transitioning, to date, regulatory services from four states and territories improving compliance and safety outcomes.
From a Portal where the heavy vehicle industry can conduct all service transactions, to the automation of identification of the operators and vehicles who pose the greatest safety risk, Sal has championed data-sharing, new technologies and innovative practices to deliver enhanced productivity and safety outcomes for governments and industry.
Over six years of the HVSI grant program, he has overseen the provision of $22.8 million for 89 projects that deliver tangible safety benefits to the industry and the community.
Sal brought to the NHVR extensive knowledge of heavy vehicle policy, strategy, regulation, and business reform, having held senior leadership roles in transport, freight, ports and logistics, strategic land use and transport planning, business process improvement and innovation across state and local government and the private sector. This has proved invaluable in understanding the needs of, and building effective relationships with, the NHVR’s diverse range of stakeholders across the freight and supply chain sector.
Sue Houghton brings more than two decades of experience in the Financial Services sector to her role leading QBE Australia Pacific.
An accomplished senior executive with a career spanning operations, finance and strategy, Sue is known for her sound judgment, deep industry knowledge and passion for purpose-driven leadership. Her successful track record driving positive change, championing customer-centred thinking, and cultivating diverse and high performing teams has earned her a reputation as one of the industry’s most highly regarded leaders.
Before joining QBE, Sue was Managing Director of Insurance for The Westpac Group. She has also held senior leadership and management roles at organisations including Wesfarmers Insurance, Insurance Group Australia and Arthur J Gallagher.
Sue is a member of the Champions of Change Coalition and is a Director and immediate past President of the Insurance Council of Australia.
Jennifer was appointed Chief People & Corporate Services Officer in October 2022, with responsibility for human resources, organisational effectiveness, Global Business Services, risk & assurance and legal.
Jennifer previously held the roles of Chief People Officer and VP Risk & Assurance, as well as a number of senior finance roles in Group Finance and Manufacturing & Supply. Before joining Orica in 2014, Jennifer spent over 13 years with EY working in Melbourne and London
Andrew Sharkey is the CFO of Mission Australia. He is a commercially focused leader with a proven background and extensive experience in leadership, RISK, GOVERNANCE, strategy creation and delivery, finance, commercial management, and transformation.
Shaun Reardon is Executive General Manager of Jemena’s Network Distribution business which services over 350,000 electricity customers in the northwest of Melbourne and delivers gas to more than 1.5 million homes, businesses, and industrial customers in New South Wales. The role includes responsibility for strategy, commercial, regulation, customer services, asset management, and network operations.
Shaun has over 25 years experience in the energy industry, having held management positions in marketing, regulatory, strategy, and commercial. He holds a Master of Marketing, a PhD in Mechanical Engineering, and is a Graduate member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. Shaun is a past President of the Australian Pipeline and Gas Association.
Elliott Rusanow is the Chief Executive Officer of Scentre Group.
Elliott first joined Scentre Group in April 2019 when he was appointed Chief Financial Officer leading the Group’s finance, treasury, investor relations, and capital transaction functions.
Prior to Scentre Group, Elliott was the Chief Financial Officer of Westfield Corporation, based in the United States.
Elliott’s career with Westfield spans more than two decades. He joined Westfield in 1999 and has held a number of senior executive leadership roles based in Sydney, London, and Los Angeles including the roles of Deputy Chief Financial Officer, Head of Corporate Finance, Director of Finance United Kingdom & Europe, and Director of Investor Relations & Equity Markets.
Prior to Westfield, Elliott worked at Bankers Trust Australia Limited.
Elliott is Deputy Chair of the Shopping Centre Council of Australia, a Director of the Property Council of Australia, and is a Member of The Champions of Change Property Group.
Elliott holds Bachelor of Laws and Bachelor of Commerce degrees from the University of New South Wales.
Professor Alec Cameron commenced as Vice-Chancellor and President of RMIT University in January 2022. Prior to joining RMIT, Professor Cameron was Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive at Aston University in the UK since 2016, during which period Aston was awarded University of the Year by the Guardian newspaper in 2020.
Professor Cameron is a Rhodes Scholar (1986) with a Doctor of Philosophy degree from Oxford University in Robotics (1989). He is also a graduate of the University of Sydney with Bachelors’ degrees in Science and Electrical Engineering, with First Class Honours and the University Medal.
His early career involved executive roles at Telstra and Sun Microsystems. Prior university appointments include, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Resources & Infrastructure), University New South Wales (2003-6), inaugural Dean of the UNSW Business School (2006-12), and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education), University of Western Australia (2013-16).
In 2022, Professor Cameron was appointed as a Director of AARNet.
Pauline Blight-Johnston is CEO of Helia, Australia’s largest lenders mortgage insurer. An actuary with more than 35 years of global industry experience in wealth management and insurance, Pauline is passionate about driving customer-focused innovation and building inclusive working cultures.
Across her career, Pauline has held senior leadership and strategic roles in Challenger, AMP and RGA Reinsurance Company. She has also served as Chief Financial Officer and Appointed Actuary of Asteron Life and consulted to the insurance and wealth management industry at KPMG and Tillinghast-Towers Perrin.
An active industry participant, Pauline has also served on the boards of the Institute of Actuaries, the Financial Services Council and the Australian Institute of Insurance and Finance.
Pauline is a Fellow of each of the Institute of Actuaries of Australia, the New Zealand Society of Actuaries, the Actuarial Society of South Africa, Finsia, the Australian and New Zealand Institute of Insurance & Finance and the Australian Institute of Company Directors. She also holds a Master of Economics from Macquarie University.
Elyse is Chief Operating Officer at Angus Knight Group and previously held executive roles in health, not for profit and government. She has a background in legal, governance, and risk.
Simone is the Chief Human Resources Officer of Victoria University have commenced at the University early in 2022. As a Strategic Human Resource leader, Simone has worked with business leaders to build capability, people and performance. She has a track record in the execution of major transformation programs where business models are changing.
Simone is most known for designing and delivering globally admired leadership and wellness programs within a multinational business while working with senior teams in all areas of HR including organisational design and employee relations.
As well as having a strong track record in building HR teams, Simone has led a number of communities of practice including sales effectiveness, diversity, equity and inclusion, and talent management. She is passionate about building human businesses and using design thinking to enhance employee experience while leveraging technology for positive change. She likes to be innovative with HR practices so seen as a positive disruptor looking for workplace improvements with an authentic leadership style and a desire to deliver operationally with excellence
Craig joined Big River in July 2013 as General Manager of the Wagga Wagga manufacturing facility, progressing in 2017 to General Manager Manufacturing and Supply Chain, reorganising the groups manufacturing footprint and building a global supply chain to support Big Rivers growth strategy.
In Jan 2022, Craig was named Executive General Manager Panels and supply Chain retaining responsibility for end-to-end management of Big Rivers global supply chain and leading the development of a market leading Panel & Board supply business across ANZ.
Prior to joining Big River, Craig held several positions in both Australia and China at CSR Building Products including NSW Operation Manager (Viridian Glass), Operations Manager and Production Manager for Bradford Insulation (Australia), Project Manager for Guangzhou Rockwool (China), and Project Engineer for CSR Roofing.
Craig holds a Master of Business Administration from the University of New England, Master of Supply Chain and Logistics from Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology and is a Member of Australian Institute of Company Directors
Matthew is the managing director of UST, a digital transformation and management consultancy. Founded in California in 1999, UST has expanded into 30 countries with 35,000 staff, backed by the $400B Singapore private equity firm, Temasek.
Having successfully led some of the largest and most complex digital transformations across APAC, Matthew has proven his ability to align business objectives and technology investment with customer outcomes. His hands-on approach sees him regularly advising boards and CxOs on growth strategies and cost transformation, as well as innovation and technology investment.
Prior to joining UST, Matthew has worked as Cognizant’s consulting leader in APAC and Middle Eastern markets, and as the managing director for a private technology strategy firm.
In addition to his honour’s degree in psychology and anthropology, Matthew holds a master’s in international management and a master’s in business and IT strategy. Championing data driven, research-backed decision making for boards, Matthew leads UST’s research collaborations with both universities and advisory firms. His current research focus is on the changing nature of business in a hybrid world, and cost optimisation strategies.
Matthew has a range of current board interests, including the Board of Governors for the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham).
Scott is an experienced CEO and executive leader with 20 years of experience across mining services, automotive & wholesale distribution, plant & equipment hire and construction materials sectors.
Since July 2021, Scott has been the CEO of Coxons Group, Australia's largest cooling component design, sales, service, and exchange provider - specialising in leading service exchange programs and pioneering the nosecone exchange system for major mining fleets.
Scott has a proven track record in high-growth environments through delivering organic/same store growth and inorganic growth through numerous successful acquisitions and integrations.
Colleen Harris commenced with Ramsay Health Care on 8 January 2018 in the role of Group Chief People Officer.
In this role, Colleen is responsible for the talent strategy for the Group including mapping where key expertise will be needed in the future, talent development, and succession planning for the most senior leaders across our organisation.
Colleen is a successful Human Resources (HR) executive with more than 20 years of experience across a variety of industries where she was responsible for designing and implementing talent, diversity, performance, and reward programs linked to both individual and business performance outcomes. She has served in several senior executive HR positions reporting to the Group CEOs of National Australia Bank, Federation Centres and MyState Limited. She has also held senior HR positions at Crown Ltd and Yellow Pages.
She holds a Bachelor of Education (Science) from the University of Melbourne, is a Member of the AICD, and a Fellow of the Australian Human Resources Institute.
Colleen is also a Director of Ramsay Sime Darby Health Care, Ramsay Health Care’s joint venture with Sime Darby and Ramsay Santé.
Matt joined boutique tier-one construction company, Roberts Co in February 2023 as CEO.
Prior to Roberts Co, Matt was the NSW/ACT GM of John Holland Building for four years. Matt’s tenure saw John Holland re-establish itself as a leading builder in NSW including the successful delivery of several major projects such as the recent Sydney Football Stadium Redevelopment (Allianz Stadium) and lead the successful strategy to re-enter several market sectors including major health and medical projects.
Prior to John Holland, Matt enjoyed a 24-year career at AW Edwards Pty Limited. Developing from an undergraduate site cadet to an Associate Director.
A relationship-driven leader; Matt is passionate about the future of construction. Specifically, diversity, technology, and ensuring the growth of all those around him. A Customer-focused and visionary senior executive with 28+ years of experience leading innovation and setting precedence within the commercial construction (tier 1 and tier 2) sector.
Matt is on the Industry Advisory Board for the Bachelor of Construction Management at the University of Technology, Sydney and enjoys involvement in several other industry bodies.
Matt has received several awards as a Project Manager including National AIB Professional of the Year in 2009.
Matt holds a Bachelor of Building (Construction Management) from UTS and a Global Executive MBA from the University of Sydney.
Greg is currently the Executive GM for InfraBuild Distribution & Processing a position he has held since July 2022. Having joined InfraBuild (then OneSteel) in 2007 Greg has held a number of senior roles across the organisation including CEO Liberty Steel USA, MD InfraBuild Rural & Wire Products and CFO InfraBuild Steel.
Greg has a passion for developing and implementing strategic plans which drive business improvement, encourage employee engagement, and deliver stakeholder value. With a finance background, Greg is a qualified CA and has extensive international experience working in multi-national organisations across four continents in the industrial, distribution, manufacturing, agriculture, electrical infrastructure, and pharmaceutical sectors.
Anthony was appointed as Managing Director of Ticket Manufacturers Australia Pty Limited in 1996. In October 2008 Anthony was appointed Managing Director of Mark Sensing Limited and to the Board of Queensland Gaming & Wagering Supplies Pty Limited.
In November 2008 he was appointed to the Board of Parking Australia and in 2010 as Executive Chairman of TMA Group of Companies Limited. In 2011 Anthony was appointed as a member of the Maronite Diocesan Finance Council where he served for 12 years. He also served on the Board of the Parking Association of Australia for over 7 years and in 2015 was appointed as Vice President of Parking Australia. In 2022 Anthony was appointed to the Board of Catholic Schools Parramatta Diocese Limited. He also holds several director positions in companies located in Australia, New Zealand, USA, Canada, Europe, China, Hong Kong and The Philippines.
Beverly Lennox is a seasoned finance executive who currently serves as the CFO and Head of Corporate Services for ANC, a leading last-mile delivery service provider in Australia that delivers over 5 million packages annually while prioritizing exceptional customer experience.
Prior to joining ANC, Beverly held the CFO position for two different family-owned wine businesses in Australia, where she faced significant competition and DIFFICULT market conditions including China wine tariffs. Despite the CHALLENGEs, Beverly found these roles to be both rewarding and valuable experiences.
Beverly's career ALSO INCLUDES 16 years of international finance roles with Diageo, where she worked in the UK, Canada, and the US in various senior finance positions. In her last role at Diageo, Beverly led the finance transition for Diageo Chateau and Estate Wines to Australian-based Treasury Wine Estates.
Beverly is a member of the Chartered Accountants of Australia and New Zealand.
Robert van Barneveld is Group CEO and Managing Director of the Sunpork Group of Companies which Collectively produces approximately 20% of Australia’s pork. In addition to his work with SunPork, Dr van Barneveld is also a Director of the Australasian Pig Research Institute Ltd, Chairman of the Autism CRC Ltd and is a Non-Executive Director of the ASX-listed Ridley Corporation (Australia’s largest stockfeed manufacturer).
In addition to his corporate roles, Robert has extensive experience as a scientist and nutritionist for pigs and poultry in Australia and overseas and specializes in the characterization and understanding of feed ingredients. He has worked widely with feedmills and livestock producers in Asia over the past 30 years and has a PhD in amino acid nutrition of monogastrics. Robert is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, a Fellow of the Australasian Pig Science Association, a Life Member of Autism Queensland, is a Registered Animal Nutritionist and is an Adjunct Professor within both the School of Environmental and Rural Science at the University of New England and the School of Agriculture and Food Sciences at the University of Queensland.
Nicole has 20+ years’ experience providing legal, governance and risk advice to C-suite executives and Boards across a diverse range of industries including property, infrastructure, FMCG, manufacturing, construction, energy, mining and private equity. As a Special Counsel in the Corporate Advisory team at top-tier law firm Corrs Chambers Westgarth she advised on public and private mergers and acquisitions, complex restructures, ASIC and ASX relief, FIRB approvals and ASX listing rules including continuous disclosure and capital raisings. She also undertook secondments to the Australian Government Takeovers Panel, Goodman Group, NBN and Rank Group.
Nicole is currently responsible for legal, risk and compliance, company secretarial, regulatory and corporate affairs at the privatised NSW Land Registry Services – a registry and data insights business owned by Aware Super, The Infrastructure Fund, NatWest Group and UTA.
Nicole has a Global Executive MBA from the University of Sydney where she studied and worked on projects in Bangalore, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Cambridge and Tel Aviv. She was awarded Australian In-House Lawyer of the Year 2022 at the Australasian Law Awards and Construction and Real Estate Lawyer of the Year 2022 at the Lawyers Weekly Corporate Counsel Awards.
David is the CFO of MedHealth Group. He specialises in working with teams to grow businesses, solve challenges, and fix things that aren't working well.
Initial roles were as an Auditor, Insolvency, and small business Consulting. Then into financial services with National Mutual Royal Bank, State Bank Victoria, and over 20 years with the NAB.
NAB roles included CFO of Markets and Treasury; M&A head for HomeSide in the US; leading the Group's EVA program and Group planning; CFO of the highly successful Business Bank; creating the investment case for the Group's NextGen program; GM leading the Business Deposit and Transaction products; and leading a complex program that remediated over a million customers for a major processing problem.
Post NAB, David ran a successful consultancy business, and since April 2015 has been the CFO of the MedHealth Group – a high growth health solutions, employment and workplace rehabilitation business.
He rounds out his social and community interests with non-executive director roles with Victoria Legal Aid, and Chartered Accountants ANZ.
He is known for being energetic, enthusiastic and positive, and highly action oriented.
Outside of work David leads a busy and full life with family and friends and is a keen bike rider, and a bad golfer.
Mark is the President and CEO of VetPartners, the largest and leading consolidator and operator of high-quality Veterinary medicine hospitals across Australia, New Zealand and Singapore with over 270 locations. Our vision is to build world class Veterinary communities that deliver leading animal health care. What unites us is our why: For the love of animals, and the people who care for them.
As an experienced leader of large consumer businesses spanning both healthcare service delivery and retail, Mark is energised by the art of bringing together strategy, culture, transformation, digital and data into unison, empowering people to deliver excellence and exceeding the expectations of our customer, clients and patients.
Prior to leading VetPartners was the Managing Director of Bupa Dental, Bupa Optical and Payless Shoes. Prior to this Mark worked across a number of leadership, transformation and business improvement roles across Woolworths Group, SAS the data analytics and technology leader and OPSM.
David Watkins is currently Chief Financial Officer at JCDecaux Australia and New Zealand. David has been with JCDecaux for SEVEN years previously as general manager of finance and company secretary before stepping up into the CFO role in late 2019. He leads a finance team of 30 and oversees technology for the jcdecaux business.
John Fogarty is the CEO of Royal Freemasons Limited a Victorian based aged care, retirement living and home care provider. Prior to joining Royal Freemasons in May 2022 he had been providing high level consulting to a range of aged care and health care organisations for the previous four years.
John previously worked with St. John of God Health Care in Western Australia for five years. He served as CEO for St. John of God Murdoch Hospital, as well as Executive Director of Perth Southern Hospitals and then as Executive Director (COO) of Western Australian Hospitals where he held strategic accountability for a portfolio of 7 hospitals in WA with turnover of $1.2B.
Earlier in his career, John was Chief Operating Officer of Mercy Health Australia (Vic, NSW, ACT) and Chief Executive Officer of St. John of God Hospital Ballarat. John has completed a Master of Business Administration and is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
Anna has more than 20 years’ experience as an engineer, project manager and business manager in the resources and energy industry. With a background in process engineering, Anna has had a technical contribution to projects for more than 15 years.
More recently she has applied her expertise in engineering and project delivery to her current role managing the ENGIE Net Zero Energy Solutions team. The team is focused on integrating infrastructure, services and technology to deliver Net Zero precincts across Australia.
Anna holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Chemical Engineering from RMIT.
James Taylor has more than 20 years’ of experience across the media and telecommunications sectors and has been the Managing Director of multicultural and First Nations public broadcaster, SBS, since October 2018.
Taylor oversees a workforce of 1,800 employees working across television, radio, and digital. During his time as Managing Director, he has overseen the expansion of the organisation’s digital strategy, taking SBS On Demand to over 12 million registered users, and increased investment in innovative multilingual content and services for all Australians, including the more than 5.6 million Australians who speak a language other than English.
He also has also overseen the launch of SBS’s industry-leading Inclusion, Equity and Diversity Strategy, supporting SBS’s position as a best-in-class inclusive employer and as a leader for diverse and inclusive content in the media sector.
Prior to his appointment as Managing Director, Taylor was SBS’s Chief Financial Officer for more than six years, having joined the organisation as Head of Corporate Finance in June 2012. During his time as CFO, James had oversight of the Finance, Corporate Strategy, People and Culture, SBS Media, Legal and Corporate Services teams.
Before joining SBS, Taylor was Director of Strategy Consulting at Deloitte, Head of Strategy and Corporate Development at British Telecom and Director, Corporate Development at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Hadrian Lee is a General practitioner, business owner, and CEO of MyHealth Medical Group.
Mark Tatit is the Group Executive, Head of development of Investa. A seasoned property executive with over 25 years of experience in the property building and development industry. An honours degree in Engineering (civil) and a Master of Property development.
Craig is a global senior executive having managed International, Australian and New Zealand pharmaceutical and complementary medicine companies including Warner Lambert, Novogen, Health World and Vitaco. He has an extensive background in general management and sales and marketing director positions and has a track record of growing and developing health and wellness businesses both locally and internationally.
Craig’s currnet role as CEO of Vitaco commenced in January 2018, prior to the CEO role, Craig held the postion of General Manager Supplements Vitaco Australia from July 2017.
From 2015 to 2017 Craig was the Director of Sales for Health World, one of Australia/New Zealands largest nautral medicine companies, responsible for the sales operations in the Pharmacy, Health Food and Naturopath channels (annual net sales $150 million).
For the two years before Health World, Craig was the CEO of McCann Health Advertising Agency, one of Australia’s most awarded and leading healthcare advertsing agency’s, working with clients and brands in the pharmaceutucal, OTC and natural medicine markets.
Prior to McCann, Craig was the General Manger for the international, Australian based Biotech company, Novogen Pty Ltd. During the nine years at Novogen he led the business into 23 countries. Novogen’s core business was the development, patenting and marketing of a range of complementary and natural medcines. A key brand was Promensil, a globalized, natural menopause brand.
Before Novogen, Craig worked 15 years in the Over The Counter (OTC) consumer pharmaceutical category including 9 years for Wellcome New Zealand and Wellcome Australia, 6 years for Parke Davis/Warner Lambert Australia and Pfizer Australia. He held senior sales, marketing and general management roles for all four companies.
He has a Batchelor of Management Studies from Waikato University in New Zealand and subsequently completed managerial development programmes at London School of Business and Duke University in USA.
Richard Satchwell is Managing Director, Country CEO, and Head of Investment Banking, Australia at Barclays, based in Sydney.
Richard is responsible for leading Barclays' Australia growth initiatives since the firm reestablished its Australia office in 2018 and building further upon the momentum with its local strategic partner, Barrenjoey Capital Partners. Under his leadership, Barclays has been a leader locally in the Australian leveraged finance market, successfully re-established its place amongst the strongest capital markets banks for offshore issuance, and played an active role in offering innovative Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance (ESC) solutions as well as supporting key clients across their acquisition financing requirements.
Richard joined Barclays in London in 2005. Most recently, Richard was Co-Head of Banking, in Australia before assuming the role as the sole lead and country CEO in 2020. Before the re-establishment in 201 8, Richard performed a number of Investment Banking roles for Barclays in London and Sydney with more than a decade of experience in Australia.
Before joining Barclays, Richard worked for Allen and Overy in London for six years as a Senior Associate in the Acquisition Finance group.
Richard has a Bachelor of Laws (Hons) from Sheffield Hallam University, a diploma from the
College of Law (Chester), and is a qualified Solicitor in England and Wales.
Nick was appointed Managing Director and CEO of Challenger Limited in January 2022 and has held a number of senior executive roles at Challenger since joining in 2015, including Chief Executive, Funds Management. Prior to joining Challenger, Nick held senior leadership roles at Colonial First State and Invesco.
Nick has more than 20 years of industry experience gained across Australian and international markets and has successfully led top-tier global equity and multi-asset businesses both in Australia and the UK.
Dee Arora is the Country Vice President of Startek. Broad experience leading large customer experience, sales and operations teams for global corporate clients. Proven track record in engaging executive decision makers of major corporate clients, and leadership of organisational transformation projects, including within ASX 50 listed businesses. Adept at maximising the capacity and capability of the business via devising/executing commercial strategies for revenue growth. Having formed responsive, flexible and customer-oriented units in lean and agile environments, she is a valued member of the GLOBAL executive leadership team of Startek.
As Managing Director for Asia Pacific and Japan, Brigid Archibald is responsible for leading one of Qualtrics’ fastest growing regions globally. In this role, Brigid ensures every aspect of the business is focused on driving success and outcomes for local customers, partners, and employees.
Brigid is a proven business leader and has held senior leadership positions at Salesforce and American Express where she accelerated sales performance across multiple industries. Drawing upon her experiences, she is passionate about helping create high-performance cultures for her teams and customers.
Brigid has served as a non-executive Board Member and Member of the Risk and Audit Committees within the finance industry.
Greg Adamson is a data communications engineer and now Chief Information Security Officer at the Victorian Department of Transport and planning. He has worked in federal and Victorian governments, at ANZ, with Fujitsu in the UK, at the University of Melbourne, for the asian development bank across South Asia, and in various other roles.
He has a post-graduate in cyber security from the University of Canberra, a PhD in e-commerce from RMIT University, and a Master of commercial law from the Melbourne law school. He is an honorary associate professor at the university of Melbourne school of population and global health and a recognised authority in professional codes of ethics, blockchain, and explainable artificial intelligence. his pro bono activities include with ieee as technical vp in the society on social implications of technology, and as a club Melbourne ambassador.
Dominic Del Giudice leads the Asia-Pacific & Japan geography for LTIMindtree, operating across all Industry Group segments and Service Line capabilities, to help organisations leverage cutting-edge digital and cloud solutions for competitive differentiation. He is a member of the LTIMindtree Global Leadership Team.
Dominic has a wealth of expertise in structuring complex business transformation programs, developing new business models and assets, managing client relationships, leading industry teams and Asia-Pacific markets. A natural entrepreneur, Dominic is focussed on harnessing the potential of LTIMindtree Services and LTIMindtree’s extensive Digital, Data, Enterprise Applications, IOT Assets, AI and Cloud capability for clients across Asia-Pacific. Dominic has a consistent track record of successfully delivering on client business outcomes and commitments including business led transformation programs, complex system integration, large-scale outsourcing, and unique AI and IOT engagements.
Dominic joined Mindtree in September 2021 following a successful career spanning 23 years in Consulting, Technology and Outsourcing services, with a variety of multi-national companies including IBM, Accenture, and Capgemini, operating across a variety of industries, including Energy, Utilities, Mining, Construction, Banking, Financial Services, Insurance, Telecommunications, Government, Logistics, Consumer Products and Retail. Dominic also spent his early professional career as an SAP Consultant and Project Manager working on local and international assignments.
Dominic holds a Bachelor of Business Computing from Victoria University, a Master of Information Systems and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Swinburne University, Australian Graduate School of Entrepreneurship.
Dominic is a citizen of Australia and the European Union.
Gaurav Oberoi is the CEO of Afea Care Services, an award-winning disability and aged care service provider. His passion is in innovating business outcomes by leveraging technology to challenge the status quo. He has previously been responsible for client solutions at large global tech companies such as Cisco and Toshiba Australia.
He first joined Afea in 2015 as the COO because he was motivated to translate his expertise in workforce optimisation to create more meaningful impact for the community’s most vulnerable. He spearheaded the digitalisation of Afea, which not only reduced the company’s carbon footprint, but distilled complex processes into a streamlined journey to provide better transparency, communication, performance tracking and financial management for all stakeholders.
As he transitioned to CFO, he developed a fisheye perspective of the business that allowed him to pinpoint areas to help Afea scale. Today, as CEO, Gaurav has led Afea to be named by the AFR as one of the fastest growing companies in Australia.
His success in strategic growth is complimented by a compassionate approach to leadership. An advocate for mental health, Gaurav has fostered a workplace that ranked third in the AFR Best Places to Work for two consecutive years.
Most recently, Gaurav was a 2022 Outstanding Business Leader finalist in the Western Sydney Awards for Business Excellence.
Carmel Hourigan is Charter Hall’s Office CEO and is a member of Charter Hall’s Executive Committee, with over 28 years industry experience spanning key senior leadership positions and roles in funds management, research and advisory services.
She is leading the A$22 billion office sector from end to end including Funds Management, Asset Management, Development and Property Management teams, and helps develop the overall strategy and objectives for the office funds in conjunction with the Charter Hall Fund Managers and our Investors and helps guide the portfolio management, capital transactions, treasury and trust management teams to execute strategy.
Carmel held the position of Global Head of Real Estate at AMP Capital between November 2015 and August 2020. She was responsible for leading the group’s global real estate investment and management business, including the portfolio management and performance of real estate assets for pooled fund investors and separately managed account clients. Carmel also oversaw AMP Capital’s strategic global real estate partnerships with investment managers in the United States, Singapore and New Zealand. Carmel also oversaw AMP Capital’s real estate investment committees, which govern investment strategy and implementation.
Prior to AMP Capital, Carmel was Chief Investment Officer at The GPT Group and prior to that, Head of Investment Management since 2012. Her experience also includes senior roles at Lend Lease and Challenger Financial Services Group in addition to roles within Colonial First State, Stockland Group, Jones Lang LaSalle and Raine & Horne Commercial.
Carmel formerly sat on the Property Council of Australia Board of Directors and has previously held the position of Vice President. She also served as Special Advisor to the Property Male Champions of Change group, which is dedicated to increasing gender equality in the property industry; and is a Fellow of the Australian Property Institute. Carmel has also previously held the position of Deputy Chancellor of Western Sydney University and the Chair of the University Infrastructure Committee.
Carmel holds a Bachelor of Business (Land Economics), and a Graduate Diploma of Finance and Investment from the Securities Institute of Australia.
Since December 2019 Philip has led Port Authority of New South Wales, as CEO and Director.
Philip joined Sydney Ports Corporation in May 2011 as Executive General Manager, Operations and Harbour Master.
Following the amalgamation of the Sydney, Newcastle and Port Kembla port corporations in 2014, he became Port Authority of New South Wales Chief Operating Officer and Harbour Master, Sydney.
In 1998, Philip joined the UK's largest port operator, Associated British Ports (ABP) in a port operations role. Following a number of roles within ABP he became the Harbour Master for the ABP Port of Southampton and the Marine Advisor for the group's 21 UK ports.
Philip has spent his entire career in the shipping and ports industries, starting as a 16-year-old cadet when he joined Ropner Shipping Services and later moving to Souter Shipping where he gained his Class 1 (FGN) Masters certificate.
Philip is a Director of Ports Australia, Australia's peak body representing the port sector and is also Chair of the Australian Cruise Association, the peak cruise industry association growing and developing the Australia Pacific region as the world's leading cruise destination.
Philip is committed to strong governance and growing understanding and collaboration across the maritime sector.
Oliver (Oli) Goodarzi joined Angus Knight Group in June 2021 and His previous roles include as a CFO/Finance Director within private equity, PLCs, and small/medium enterprises, across big-ticket consumer goods, travel, leisure, hospitality, and manufacturing.
Oli has strong international commercial experience, leading large parts of corporate strategy and teams through multiple stages, including high growth, exit process, strategic transformations, accelerated e-commerce/digital investment and subsidiary divestments/carve-outs.
Oli is a Chartered Accountant and has passed all 3 levels of the CFA exams.
Rachel Wiseman is the Chief Executive Officer NRMA Marine Investments and NRMA Group Chief Investment Officer. Rachel is charged with the oversight of the operations of the Manly Fast Ferry, Fantasea, the award winning Gordon River Cruises and Coral Expeditions, Australia's only international cruise business. Prior to that as CEO of NRMA Expeditions, Rachel grew the organisation’s interest in experiential tourism, with a focus on bespoke product that showcases Australia’s natural environment.
As the Group Chief Investment Officer Rachel leads the commercial interests of the Group including corporate development, investments and strategy. A member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, Rachel has held executive positions across the entertainment and media industries including Tabcorp, Fox Sports and Telstra.
Since joining the NRMA in November 2016, Rachel has also been responsible for NRMA partnerships and growth, public policy and research, community investment, as well as the corporate legal and company secretariat functions, safety, brand, external comms and marketing.
Before joining the NRMA, Rachel held the role of General Manager Corporate Development at Tabcorp Holdings, during which time she was responsible for establishing and overseeing Tabcorp's UK operations in London. Before this, Rachel held a number of senior roles at Fox Sports including Director Business Affairs and Commercial & Strategy Manager.
Rachel started her career as an accountant in New Zealand before becoming a corporate lawyer, first in private practice and then in-house.
Rachel holds a Bachelor of Law and Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Canterbury (New Zealand), GAICD, an MBA from the Australian Graduate School of Management and graduated from Havard Business School following completion of the Advanced Management Program.
Carol is a highly experienced senior executive with a solid track record of leading large-scale and highly complex enterprise-wide transformation programs in the corporate, education and not for profit sectors.
Effective communication and building trusted relationships have been the hallmark of Carol’s success. She successfully navigates complex stakeholder environments by partnering with key stakeholders, particularly with Boards, CEOs and senior executives. Carol's strengths include strategy development and execution, and creating pragmatic and achievable business plans that deliver organisational value and improved business results.
Being action-orientated and passionate about driving high performing teams, Carol empowers people to reach their potential and perform at their best. She has a collaborative leadership style and builds commitment to an organisation’s goals and priorities by working across functions and teams, to articulate mutual benefits and gain support.
Carol is currently Chief Transformation Officer at Melba Support Services – a leading provider of services to people with disabilities throughout metropolitan and regional Victoria. She is responsible for the Future Melba program, an enterprise-wide initiative that will transform the organisation to deliver the highest quality outcomes for the people they support.
Jon is currently the CFO and COO of The Big Issue and CFO of Homes for Homes.
Jon has over 25 years of financial and accounting experience working for commonwealth and state governments, industry, and financial services, and has held leadership roles in the not-for-profit sector for the last 14 years.
Drew is the CEO of The Civilmart Group. He is recognised as a leading business executive throughout the building & construction products industry. He has a reputation for delivering sustainable business growth by creating cultures whereby great people want to be and by gaining an understanding of who the customer is and how his teams can create the value they desire. Originally from Melbourne, Drew initially worked in the United States before returning to call Sydney home. From the outset Drew was quickly promoted into senior marketing, sales and operational leadership positions within a number of leading publicly listed and privately owned entities and Drew’s delivery extends across mature, turnaround and start-up businesses. He loves driving change and growth strategies.
His growth has been furthered through completion of a Master of Business Administration (MBA), the Columbia Business School (NY) - Digital Transformation program and the Melbourne Business School - Leaders Program. Drew has also held Directorship positions across multiple business’ in Australia and New Zealand. Outside of his working life, Drew is a proud husband and a father to two beautiful children. He takes great pride in coaching and mentoring their Australian Rules football, tennis and athletics ambitions.
Stephen Kowal is the CEO and Executive Director of Atturra. Stephen has been the CEO since early 2019 and, prior to his appointment, has held senior executive and non-executive positions in the IT and consultancy sectors since 2001. Prior to joining Atturra, Stephen led sales for the Australian and New Zealand division for DXC Technology, a US multinational business-to-business IT services provider.
Stephen was also previously the President of the Computer Sciences Corporation’s (CSC) Australian and New Zealand Insurance and Banking business. Stephen is highly experienced across the insurance, banking, government, and natural resources sectors, holding several Chief Information Officer roles within the US, Chile, and Australia.
Stephen holds a Bachelor of Science from the University of NSW, a Graduate Diploma in Applied Finance and Investment from the Securities Institute of Australia, and a Diploma of Insurance from the Australian and New Zealand Institute of Insurance and Finance (ANZIF). ANZIF awarded Stephen the PC
Wickens award in 2015.
Stephen is a Fellow of the Governance Institute of Australia, Fellow of the Financial Services Institute of Australia, Senior Associate of ANZIF and a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD).
Vasyl Nair is the Group Chief Executive Officer of Mine Super. Mine Superannuation Fund (Mine Super) is a profit to members, public offer super fund dedicated to serving the retirement needs of all Australians. Its enduring purpose is to deliver an exceptional retirement for members, achieving peace of mind along the way. Mine Super employs 180 staff and manages over $12.5 billion in funds for approximately 57,000 members. In addition to superannuation and pension products, Mine Super offers its
members' insurance and access to financial advice.
Vasyl Nair is the Group Chief Executive Officer of Mine Super (prior to this, Vasyl held the roles of Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Chief Risk Officer and Chief Strategy Officer since he commenced with Mine Super in 2016). Vasyl has a strong background in law and corporate finance, having also held roles across operations, strategy, marketing and risk-related functions at Westpac and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. Vasyl holds a Bachelor of Laws (Hon), Bachelor of Commerce, a Graduate Diploma of Legal Practice and an Executive Master of Business Administration. He is admitted to the Supreme Court of NSW as a solicitor, is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, and has achieved a
Certificate of Business Excellence from the Haas School of Business, U.C. Berkeley.
Kent is the CEO and Managing Director of MLC Life Insurance. He joined MLC Life Insurance as Chief Financial Officer in February 2020.
Prior to joining MLC Life Insurance, he was Chief Financial Officer of TAL (2012-2019), a Partner of Ernst & Young (2010-2012), and Regional Chief Financial Officer of AXA Asia Life (2007-2009). He has over thirty years' corporate and consulting experience in financial services, both in Australia and internationally.
Kent has a Bachelor of Economics, is a Fellow of the Actuaries Institute, a Chartered Enterprise Risk Actuary, and a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. He has served on a number of Boards, both in Australia and internationally, and is currently a Director of Hume Bank and a Board Member of the Country Fire Authority.
Gerald is Bupa's Former APAC Chief Customer and Strategy Officer with accountability for the Bupa’s Customer Transformation ambition, Corporate Strategy and new ventures in Digital Healthcare. Bupa’s purpose is to help people live longer, healthier and happier lives and making a better world.
To achieve Bupa’s global ambition of becoming the world’s most customer centric healthcare organisation, Gerald is driving the APAC enterprise customer transformative agenda. In 2021, Gerald released a thought leadership paper on the Growth of Virtual Care Models across Australia and the APAC region. Gerald is the executive sponsor of BenefitPocket, Bupa’s platform for everyday preventative health, part of Bupa’s Blua digital health ecosystem play.
With more than 25 years of working experience across Oceania, APAC, USA, Europe and the Indian Ocean, Gerald spent 15 years as a management consultant in Growth, Innovation and Digital Customer transformation at IBM, Deloitte and EY. As a former private equity investor for a global institutional PE firm, Gerald spent 5 years actively building and managing a portfolio of 10+ businesses.
Gerald started his career as a Corporate Intrapreneur designing and launching an internet banking growth venture for a well-established Banking Group. Gerald is passionate about innovation that creates value for customers and preserving the health of our planet for future generations and its biodiversity.
Martin is currently the CEO of Scentia Pty Ltd, a privately owned higher education business that operates heritage brands in leadership and management education such as The Australian Institute of Management (AIM) and the AIM Business School. Scentia also operates the Australasian College of Health and Wellness, Australia's leading higher education instituion for dermal science.
For the decade to 2020, Martin was the CEO and MD of two high-growth businesses. More recently, he was the CEO of a start-up disrupting the legal practice management industry. He has successfully led a disruptive challenger brand during its scale-up phase, an incumbent internet services business through a turnaround and ultimate transformation into a leading digital services business, and a start-up taking an innovative SaaS platform to market.
In addition to a dozen years of CEO experience, Martin has enjoyed senior leadership roles in functional areas including sales, marketing, product management, channel management, business development, and strategy and planning.
Professor Attila Brungs became President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of New South Wales on 31 January 2022. Prior to joining UNSW Professor Brungs was Vice-Chancellor and President of the University of Technology Sydney from 2014 to 2021 and previously the Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research.
Professor Brungs has held senior positions with CSIRO and McKinsey & Company. He is a Rhodes Scholar with a Doctorate in Inorganic Chemistry from Oxford University and a University Medal in Industrial Chemistry from the University of New South Wales.
Some of Professor Brungs’s present key appointments include a member of the Universities Australia Board; the NSW Innovation and Productivity Council; Committee for Sydney; and the NSW Treasury Tech Central Industry Advisory Board. His experience also includes many distinguished past board and committee memberships, including not-for-profit organisations, in addition to numerous state and federal government and institutional appointments.
Joe is an experienced business technology and transformation leader who has been at the forefront of Digital IT strategy and innovation with global blue chip companies across several sectors and countries including Mainland China, Asia Pacific and the Middle East.
He has been widely recognized within the technology industry and has received various CIO & innovation awards.
Joe has served as a Board Member and Council Member of the Société Internationale de Telecommunications Aeronautiques (SITA),as well as numerous Advisory Boards for Governments, Universities and Statutory Authorities.
He is a Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (MAICD) and holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics and Commerce from University of Melbourne, a Graduate Diploma in Marketing from Monash University, and has attended the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.
Jeremie is currently the Chief Financial Officer for Hitachi Energy in both Australia and New Zealand. Jeremie has an impressive background with over 17 years’ finance and operational management experience gained in senior executive roles with large multinationals in France, Germany, India and Australia including Alstom, ABB and Hitachi.
Specialising in the energy/power, engineering and manufacturing sectors with extensive large infrastructure project experience Jeremie has a broad skill set that allows him to excel in a variety of environments. Jeremie is driven, commercially focused and enjoys working with stakeholders across the business to foster growth and remove obstacles.
Over the years Jeremie has successfully implemented numerous successful change management and
improvement projects including ERP implementations, large scale reorganisations, mergers and acquisitions, governance framework implementations and refinancing
projects, to name a few.
Having lived in four different countries Jeremie has extensive experience working with colleagues from a broad range of cultures and understands both the positive impact that building diverse teams brings to an organisation and the importance of ensuring that stakeholders from all backgrounds are comfortable presenting their views in a secure and respectful environment. Jeremie enjoys mentoring junior employees and takes pride in turning employees into leaders.
Jeremie has a Bachelor's degree in economics earned at University of Cergy-Pontoise, a Masters in Finance and Management from NEOMA business school in France and is a registered CPA. Jeremie prides himself on working for organisations focused on making positive contributions to society whether that be through providing efficient and cost-effective transportation solutions or through the development of renewable energy solutions that contribute to a sustainable future for all.
Knowing that he is making a difference is what gets him up in the morning. When he’s not tackling the next challenge at the office Jeremie loves spending time with his two beautiful daughters and wife or taking his dog Selene out for a walk.
Deborrah is the CEO of Omnia Inclusive Employment Solutions Pty Ltd, a recruitment and consulting specialist, with a focus on disability and diverse characteristics. Our organisation provides pre- and post-employment support and training for people with a disability, or other diverse characteristics. In addition, we support training for students graduating from high school in becoming 'employment-ready' in a skills and social based framework, which underpins their progression to employment through the company’s 'pathway to employment'.
Omnia Inclusive also offers consulting services for employers in identifying their readiness in implementing their inclusive employment strategy.
Deborrah is a non-executive director in aged care and financial services and has previous experience as a business consultant and C-Suite executive with government and commercial organisations, across a range of sectors including banking and finance in the consumer, corporate and project financing and investment markets, higher education and professional services. Deborrah has worked in Australia, Hong Kong and the United Kingdom.
James Vincent is the CEO of NCS Next.
Senior people leader with twenty five years commercial IT experience. A proven track record for large scale strategic transformation in Enterprise environments. Committed to delivering successful business outcomes through technology.
Practice Manager for Strategic Consulting, Cloud and DevOps with specialist expertise in Enterprise scale cloud adoption. Mentor for diverse skill sets to expert level.
Takes a collaborative approach to team building and is highly regarded as a positive culture champion.
For three decades, Todd Harper has led organisations dedicated to global public health, including Cancer Council Victoria, Quit Victoria and VicHealth. Todd is a Board member and Past President of the NCD Alliance based in Geneva.
Since 2011, as Cancer Council Victoria’s Chief Executive Officer, Todd has led the organisation’s important work in cancer research, prevention, support and advocacy.
During this time Cancer Council has led research initiatives in tobacco plain packaging, screening campaigns, obesity prevention, been at the forefront of bans on solariums and campaigns on junk food, alcohol and smoking.
Todd has a bachelor’s degree in Economics, a Postgraduate Diploma in Health Promotion, a Master’s Degree in Health Economics, and an Honorary Doctorate by Deakin University for ‘outstanding contributions and commitment to public health and for willingness to be innovative and brave in advocating for public health.
Todd was appointed as a Member of the Order of Australia in June 2022 for significant service to cancer support programs and to medical governance.
Matthew Beattie was appointed Chief Executive Officer, SIXT Australia in December 2021. SIXT is one of the largest car rental operators in Australia and also operates in over 110 countries globally. Prior to this, he was Managing Director, Car Rental from May 2020. Matthew joined the NRMA Group in 2011, holding roles in strategy and product development, B2B sales as well as leading technology projects in vehicle connectivity and the initial customer experience design of NRMA’s electric vehicle fast charging infrastructure. Matthew was the General Manager of NRMA MotorServe, a retail automotive servicing and repair business with 24 outlets across NSW and ACT. This role was also accountable for the retail and wholesale distribution of NRMA-branded automotive products such as batteries, car electrics and vehicle inspections.
Prior to joining the NRMA, Matthew held leadership roles at ANZ and ING Australia leading business transformation that was focused on developing platforms to enable self-service, automation and an enhanced customer experience.
Matthew holds a MBA and Masters of Management from Macquarie School of Business as well as Membership with the AICD.
Antony was recently appointed Chief Executive Officer of HSBC Australia in September 2022 and also serves HSBC Australia’s Board as an Executive Director. He is also a standing member on the Counsel of the Australian Banking Association.
Antony joined HSBC in 2003 and has worked across multiple roles within HSBC’s investment bank. Most recently, Antony was Head of Institutional Sales for Asia Pacific, the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey, where he was responsible for covering HSBC’s global and regional institutional clients of the bank across 20 markets. Since 2019 he has also served as Global Head of Wealth for HSBC’s investment bank, focused on growing the bank’s service proposition for retail and private banking clients.
Prior to HSBC, Antony worked within investment banks including Macquarie Bank and Deutsche Bank in London before relocating to Asia.
Amit Yadav is the CEO for GE Healthcare in Australia, New Zealand and South Pacific Islands. Amit joined GE Healthcare in 2004 and has since held a number of senior executive roles with GE. Amit was appointed as an Executive Director of GE Healthcare Australia Pty Ltd in June 2021.
Amit has also held Non-Executive Director, Board Member, MD and Executive Director with over a decade of board level experience with particular expertise in the healthcare industry. At a board level, driving improved strategy & financial
performance, by ensuring clear commercial strategies are developed and implemented. Board level highlights include: Co-founder & Non Executive Director at Start-up Group of Radiology Practices and Non Executive Board Member at Obstetric and Gynaecological Imaging.
Amit holds a Bachelor of Applied Science in Medical Imaging and MBA with a specialization in finance from Charles Sturt University. Amit currently also serves as the Secretary of the Diagnostic Imaging and Monitoring Association.
Jenny was appointed as Chief Human Resources Officer in October 2016 and led the Wesfarmers Advanced Analytics team from 2017 to 2021 in addition to her human resources responsibilities. She joined Wesfarmers in 2011 as the Human Resources Director, Coles and held this role until 2015 when she took on the role of Business Development Director, Coles.
Jenny started her career at Mars Inc, where she spent ten years in a variety of roles across Europe and the USA, working in manufacturing; sales and marketing; and human resources. She then moved to Vodafone where she held a number of international human resources roles, spanning 20 companies across Europe, Africa, India and Australasia. After ten years with Vodafone, Jenny joined EMI Music as Global President, Human Resources.
Jenny holds a Masters of Arts (MA) with honours from Cambridge University, and has lived in France, Germany, Italy and the USA. Jenny is a Director of the Flybuys joint venture with Coles Group Limited.
Hudson RPO is shaping the future of talent for organisations worldwide by providing recruitment outsourcing and talent solutions that help transform recruitment functions to deliver superior results. As CEO of the Asia Pacific region, she oversees all aspects of the business, including strategy, operational excellence, new business acquisition, brand and marketing, HR, technology, finance, legal and innovation.
Kimberley has over 30 years of experience in the Recruitment and Talent Management industry and over 23 years of experience in RPO. She offers deep expertise across the talent management continuum from workforce planning, recruitment marketing and sourcing to diversity, assessment, internal mobility, recruitment technology and onboarding.
Tim commences as the CEO of Resolution Life Australasia from February 2023. Prior to this he was the CEO, Medical Indemnity at Avant Mutual. He has over 20 years of experience in the insurance industry with an extensive background across distribution, M&A, strategy, reinsurance, product, pricing, marketing, strategy and government relations.
In his previous role at AIA as the CEO of AIA Health Insurance he grew the fund 10x in premium within 2 years and established AIA Health as top 5 for net growth.
Prior to this he successfully led the $3.8b acquisition and integration of the Commonwealth Bank’s life insurance businesses in Australia and New Zealand.
Tim also led the product, business development, pricing and marketing teams, as well as leading the global team to successfully launch the world’s leading health & wellness program Vitality in Australia, in his former role as Chief Marketing Officer at AIA.
Tim is the former Director of the Financial Services Council Life Insurance sub-committee and in 2015 was voted in the top 25 Chief Marketing Officers in Australia by CMO magazine, with his contribution to the industry being recognised in 2016 by being voted “Asia’s Best Marketer” by CMO Asia.
Bernadette McDonald was appointed to the role of CEO of The Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH) in September 2021.
Bernadette was previously the CEO of Canberra Health Services at a time of great change in the ACT’s health service system. Prior that appointment, she was the Deputy CEO and then Interim CEO of Austin Health, having previously been the CEO of the Orbost Regional Health Service.
Bernadette is a highly experienced leader with a track record of delivery in the Australian health sector. Known for her strategic vision, strong relationships, inspirational leadership and commitment to exceptional patient care, she demonstrates authentic leadership, and positions organisations for success by strategically assessing the environment and providing foresight to maximise impact and reputation.
Bernadette has a Bachelor of Nursing, a Masters of Health Administration, post graduate diplomas in Health Services and Health Systems Management, and is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
Professor Renée Leon is the Vice-Chancellor and President of Charles Sturt University. Prior to her appointment as Vice-Chancellor in 2021, she had a distinguished career in both
Commonwealth and State public administration.
Professor Leon has been the Secretary of two Commonwealth Departments – the Department of Human Services and the Department of Employment – and the CEO of the ACT Department of Justice and Community Safety. She was appointed National President of the Institute of Public Administration Australia in 2022. In 2013, she was awarded a Public Service Medal for outstanding service to public administration and law in leadership roles in the Australian Capital Territory and the Commonwealth.
Professor Leon holds a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws from the Australian National University and a Master of Laws from the University of Cambridge, which she attended as the Menzies Foundation Law Scholar in 1995.
Professor Leon is a Fellow of the Institute of Public Administration Australia and a member of Chief Executive Women Australia.
John Taylor has over 25 years’ experience in technology and is currently the Group CIO of MedHealth, a multi-brand national health services provider. Prior to his current role John was an IT executive with AGL where he performed a variety of roles including the CIO for AGL’s Retail business, CTO, established its IT shared services capabilities and was AGL’s first Chief Information Security Officer (CISO).
John has wide-ranging experience across various sectors with extensive international experience in a variety of global roles for top 5 FTSE and top 20 ASX organisations. Throughout his career, John has delivered various major transformational programs, lead complex operational and development teams and provided consulting services up to Board level regarding various strategic IT topics. John’s unique perspective is that he has held multiple CIO and CISO roles.
John holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree in Management Information Systems and a Master of Business Administration.
Bachelor of Commerce with double majors in Economics and Marketing. MBA. Chartered Banker. Australian Institute of Company Directors course.
Member of CountPlus Board
Member of Technology & Innovation Committee
Member of Acquisitions Committee
Hugh is the Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of CountPlus, and a Director of Count Financial.
Hugh is a highly regarded executive in the financial services sector. He started his career at global accounting giant PricewaterhouseCoopers, has been the CEO of Hillross Financial Services and was the Executive General Manager for Wealth at Commonwealth Bank.
Most recently he was the senior executive responsible for NAB’s personal banking business in NSW. Hugh is renowned as a growth leader and has delivered large-scale change programs including wealth transformations at AMP and CBA. He has significant expertise in effective risk management, business
compliance and customer remediation. He has deep client experience capabilities and digital expertise that he developed in his time leading consumer and enterprise businesses in telecommunications
with Optus and Vodafone.
He is a non-executive Director of The Infants’ Home and has previously been a director of Hillross Pty Ltd, Vodafone Fiji and a non-executive Director of the Future2 Foundation. Hugh holds a Bachelor of Commerce from The University of Sydney with double majors in Economics and Marketing. He has an MBA from Henley Business School at the University of Reading, UK. He is a Chartered Banker and he has completed the Australian Institute of Company Directors course.
Jeremy is an experienced financial services professional, managing a range of collaborative relationships with Boards, executives and external stakeholders, advisers and regulators. He has extensive strategic, corporate finance, transformation and risk management experience in financial services and NFPs.
Jeremy began his career with Accenture in the Financial Services strategy team, before joining ANZ's Group Strategy team. During his time at ANZ, Jeremy executed strategic intiatives, mergers and acquisitions for the bank and went on to hold key roles in the Australia Risk team and Private Bank. Jeremy joined Catholic Church Insurance (CCI) in 2016 and led a transformation program for several years prior to becoming Chief Risk Officer. Recently, he became the GM, GI Claims (on secondment) prior to returning to the CRO role.
In addition to his current executive role as the CRO for CCI, Jeremy also chairs the CCI Giving foundation, which provides funding to a diverse range of grass roots initiatives and charities through small grants and a workplace giving program. CCI Giving also supports the "In a Good Place" program, targeted at addressing mental health in rural and regional communities.
John Harris is the CFO of ASX listed software company Iress Limited. Prior to Iress, he held senior finance, strategy, and operations roles with a focus on financial services and technology. His global experience spans Asia, Europe, US, and Australia.
Mari Ruiz-Matthyssen was appointed Chief People Experience & Marketing Officer of Australia
Pacific Airports Corporation (APAC) in October 2018. In this capacity Mari is responsible for all
People Experience (PX) functions that deliver a number of initiatives to champion and drive
cultural transformation. In her Marketing remit, Mari is responsible for general marketing and
brand, social media, and event management. APAC is the owner and operator of Melbourne and
Launceston Airports, with an enterprise value in excess of $6 billion.
Mari has extensive commercial experience as a CPX&MO spanning more than 30 years across multiple
industries and geographies including banking & finance, telecommunications, professional services,
logistics and aviation. She brings a wealth of expertise in creating high performance teams
through a values-led approach to organisational culture.
Mari currently sits on the Board of Launceston Airport, and has been a recipient of many HR awards,
including finalist of the Australian HR Awards HR Director of the Year 2021, the CEO Magazine HR
Executive of the Year Award 2017 and the AHRI Dave Ulrich HR Leader Award 2017.
As the Deputy Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) of the Victorian government. Shane was responsible for developing a cyber security strategy covering 340,000 staff or 8% of the Victorian workforce.
Based in the Victorian Department of Premier and Cabinet. Shane is responsible for guiding effective cyber risk management across the enterprise, while enabling digital transformation. With a technical history, Shane works across all levels of the business to technical risk and opportunity is understood at the strategic level to enable the enterprise to deliver on mission.
Shane is a strong advocate for diversification of the Cyber workforce and was recognised as a finalist “Male champion of change” by the Women in Security cyber awards.
Karen is a senior retail and consumer executive who has worked in some of Australia’s most iconic retail brands: Woolworths, BIG W, Caltex (now Ampol), and Rebel Sport. Karen has been a CFO, COO, GM of Strategy, Transformation and Replenishment and is now the Group CEO of Australia’s largest born and bred quick service restaurant group, Craveable Brands, who operates 570 Red Rooster, Oporto, and Chicken Treat restaurants. Karen is a CEW and ARA member and is passionate about retail, people, and diversity.
With a strong vision and an ambitious approach to progress, Nabeel’s experience in the construction industry is a key growth driver at Symal. A proven leader, with a track record for forming effective, long-term partnerships, Nabeel has the engineering skills and business acumen to bring people together through shared values.
Daniel is Interflow's Managing Director and the fourth generation of the Weaver family to lead Interflow.
He joined the business in 2003 and quickly worked up the ranks, expanding his portfolio to include a broader range of services and regions. In 2019, he moved into the role of Chief Operating Officer, joining a newly expanded executive leadership team.
As Managing Director, Daniel is now responsible for leading our company across its domestic and international footprint.
An accomplished Public Sector Executive and Board Director with a proven track record of transforming and driving key government reforms across complex agencies within Local and State Government in Victoria. She is a visionary with a reputation for delivery, strong future focus and passion for people and impact.
As Managing Director APAC for Rokt, Stuart FitzRoy leads the team in APAC and partners with the CTO to design, build and maintain Rokt’s products. In his previous role, as Chief Product and Engineering Officer, Stuart directed all Rokt's product development activities from Sydney. Stuart joined Rokt in 2015.
Prior to Rokt, Stuart was a Principal at the The Boston Consulting Group (BCG). While there, Stuart worked with clients on technology projects across a range of sectors including travel and tourism, infrastructure and mining. He has expertise in digital technology, commercial strategy, distribution, sourcing and procurement.
In the middle of his tenure at BCG Stuart left to join Jetstar, the low fares airline serving the Asia-Pacific region. He was responsible for distribution and product management of the airline’s technology platform for booking, payment and check-in. He returned to BCG after helping to grow the Jetstar Group from concept to $1 billion in revenue.
Stuart holds an MBA from INSEAD as well as a Bachelor of Commerce in Economics & Finance and Bachelor in Chemical Engineering from the University of Sydney.
Scott Wyatt has more than 30 years’ experience in the oil and gas sector and has held various leadership roles within Viva Energy’s downstream oil and gas business (formerly Shell) including strategy, marketing (consumer and commercial) and supply and distribution.
After a long career with Shell across Australia and New Zealand, Scott was appointed CEO of Viva Energy Australia in August 2014 and has led the company through private ownership and subsequent listing on the ASX in 2018. Scott is a director on Viva Energy Australia and is a former Board member of Viva Energy REIT (now Waypoint REIT).
Scott holds a Bachelor of Commerce and Administration from Victoria University of Wellington and lives in Melbourne where Viva Energy's head office is located.
Jason Kovacic graduated from The University of Melbourne Medical School in 1994, and then undertook residency and cardiology specialty training at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney. Jason then completed a PhD at the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, before relocating to the USA, to the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland. At the NIH, Jason undertook a postdoctoral fellowship with the then Director of the NHLBI, Dr. Elizabeth Nabel. In 2009 Jason moved to Mount Sinai in New York. As a physician-scientist and investigator at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Jason established a cardiovascular research laboratory with a strong interest in the cellular, molecular and genetic mechanisms underlying cardiovascular disease. He also established a large clinical practice as an interventional and clinical cardiologist. Major career achievements include successful investigator-initiated clinical studies of cardiovascular progenitor cell therapy, molecular characterization of a novel vascular progenitor cell population, unravelling the pathobiology of fibromuscular dysplasia and spontaneous coronary artery dissection, numerous basic and translational studies on the biology and manifestations of atherosclerosis, and pioneering studies regarding the role of endothelial to mesenchymal transition (EndMT) in adult vascular biology and disease.
In early 2020 Jason was recruited to return Australia, and to take on the role of the Executive Director of the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute. Jason has now established his research program at the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, where he continues his focus on cardiac and vascular diseases, including fibromuscular dysplasia and spontaneous coronary artery dissection. Jason currently holds the positions of the Robert M. Graham Chair and Professor of Cardiovascular Research at University of New South Wales, and continues his appointment as Professor of Medicine (Cardiology) at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, USA.
Nick Jenkinson is the Chief Executive Officer of Essential Facilities Services.
With over 20 years’ experience in Facilities Services, Nick Jenkinson applied himself in all facets of the Industry. Over this time he has handled many roles successfully; from his recent position as General Manager Business Development (national role) to former roles as General Manager for NSW and the ACT, Business Development Manager, and Operations Manager.
Nick Jenkinson is a highly skilled and diverse facilities services professional. His hands-on approach to relationship management has enabled him to develop and sustain strong business partnerships and client relationships throughout Australia and New Zealand.
He is a skilled in developing and implementing profitable strategies. I have overseen growth of companies over the last 10 years and successfully transformed businesses in to mid tier entities.
Growth was achieved through the management, implementation and retention of key contracts for some of Australia’s best known and leading businesses in Education, Retail, Healthcare, Government, Aviation, Telecommunications and Industrial.
In his current role as CEO of Essential Facilities Services, it is his intention to use his years of experience to grow the business, the brand, and the people and create a tier-1 national facilities services company.
Damian Hill was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Commonwealth Superannuation Corporation (CSC) in July 2020. CSC is the trustee and administrator of 11 schemes dedicated to providing benefits to current and former members of the Australian Public Service and Australian Defence Forces. CSC has over 700,000 members, $200b in benefit liabilities and almost $60b in assets. It comprises both DB and DC schemes.
Prior to CSC, Damian was CEO at Industry Super for over 11 years, after joining REST in 1999 as Administration Manager. Damian has over 30 years’ experience across superannuation and life insurance industries.
During his time at REST, it was acknowledged as one of the best performing funds in the industry delivering competitive long-term returns for members. SuperRatings awarded REST Pension of the Year 2015, the second year in a row REST has won this award. REST also received Money magazine’s 2015 and 2014 Best of the Best award for Best Super Fund Manager and Best Pension Fund Manager. Chant West Winner Innovation Best Fund 2017 and Heron awarded REST a 5 quality star rating for 2017.
Damian is passionate about improving member mental health and wellbeing; having served 11 years as the inaugural Chairman of Superfriend, a mental health foundation established by industry super funds.
Kim is the CEO & Co-founder or Mr Yum, an Aussie born hospitality fintech startup. Mr Yum now operates in 5 markets including Australia, UK, US, Singapore and New Zealand. In 2021 Mr Yum raised Australia’s 3rd largest series A, and the largest by a female founder. Kim is known for her contrarian views, hyper transparency and wanting to win the right way.
Gaven Morris is Managing Director of Bastion Transform, a content strategy and digital transformation consultancy, part of the Bastion Group, Australasia's largest independent creative and content agency.
Bastion Transform is working with large organisations, trusted institutions and emerging digital enterprises to reach their potential during a time of profound change and disruption.
Until December 2021, Gaven was the Director of News, Analysis and Investigations at the ABC and led a team of 1300 of Australia's most trusted journalists, content makers and broadcasters. He initiated and drove a digital transformation of ABC News which resulted in it becoming Australia’s leading online and social media news service during a time of reduced funding, editorial and political controversy, and through a tumultuous time in global and national events. He was previously the Executive Head of News Content responsible for all daily news output and for the launch of the ABC News Channel.
Gaven spent a decade in international news, firstly as a producer, correspondent and senior editor at CNN based in London and travelling extensively on assignments globally, and then as a senior member of the team that built and launched Al Jazeera English, the largest news channel and digital start-up in world journalism.
He’s covered many significant breaking news events from the Iraq War and the second Intifada in the Middle East, to conflict in Africa, terrorist attacks and natural disasters across Europe and the Middle East, political assassinations and upheaval in Lebanon and national elections, U.S. Presidential visits and global summits.
Duncan Bentley is Federation University’s Vice-Chancellor and President who believes a dual-sector regional university sits at the heart of its communities, playing a core role in their prosperity and growth.
Throughout his career Professor Bentley has supported universities to grow through design thinking, digital innovation, deep community engagement and long-term global partnerships.
He comes to Federation from a distinguished academic career at Swinburne University as Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic).
There, he led the academic, international, online and Indigenous portfolios. He is known for his national leadership in lifelong learning so that everyone can develop the skills to thrive in a digital society, beginning in early childhood and continuing throughout life, inspired by curiosity, giving life to dreams.
Previously at Victoria University he had oversight of vocational education, external engagement and international. He believes that the happiest and most successful organisations and communities are diverse and inclusive.
Growing up on coffee plantations and game reserves in Africa, he champions adoption of technologies to support sustainability. Professor Bentley completed a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws from the University of Cape Town.
He went on to complete a Master of Laws from the University of London, Master of Laws (Corporate and Commercial) and PhD from Bond University.
Peter Horgan is the CEO for Omnicom Media Group.
Peter's 26 years in media agencies spans the UK and Australia. In 2016 Peter took the CEO role at Omnicom Media Group after 6 years at the helm of OMD. He leads over 1,500 media & consultancy specialists across Australia & New Zealand and has been Chairman of the Media Federation of Australia since 2014. He is also the sole agency board director on the peak client body, the AANA.
Peter was named in the top 3 influencers in AdNews power 50. The business has grown steadily on his watch, and he is committed to sustainable growth via continual investment in people and driving a performance culture across the group. At an industry level Peter has been a vocal champion of transparency and equitable commercial behaviour.
Chris Andrews is the Chief Executive Officer of La Trobe Financial, responsible for all of the Group’s operations.
Chris joined La Trobe Financial in 2006 and, throughout his career with the business, has served in a variety of senior executive roles, including as Chief Investment Officer, Senior Legal Counsel and, prior to his current appointment, Deputy CEO.
Prior to joining La Trobe Financial, Chris worked at Minter Ellison Lawyers.
Chris is Chair of La Trobe Financial’s Executive Committee.
Dean Ormston was appointed Chief Executive of APRA AMCOS in July 2018.
APRA AMCOS is Australia and New Zealand’s largest music industry organisation with over 100,000 members who are songwriters, composers, and music publishers. APRA AMCOS licenses businesses and organisations to play, perform, copy, record or make available members’ music and distribute the royalties to members.
His appointment as CEO follows over 20 years with the organisation leading its member services, licensing and advocacy work and comes at a time of major change for Australian and New Zealand music creators and publishers and the industry that supports them.
Darren Kane has been the Chief Security Officer at nbn™ since 2015. Under his leadership, the nbn Security Group has become a converged centre of physical and cyber security enabling Australia’s biggest critical infrastructure owner to better protect its people and assets against evolving threats. In 2020, Darren was appointed to the Federal Government’s Cyber Security Industry Advisory Committee to help guide the implementation of the nation’s Cyber Security Strategy and provide ongoing advice to address emerging cyber security challenges.
Prior to nbn™, Darren served in Federal Government Law Enforcement Agencies for over 19 years in the Australian Federal Police and financial markets regulator the Australian Securities & Investment Commission, and 11 years at Telstra Corporation in varied security management roles culminating in 5 years as the Director, Corporate Security & Investigations.
Darren was appointed as an Adjunct Professor in the School of Information Technology, Faculty of Science, at Deakin University in 2020. Darren has a Master’s in Business Administration, a Diploma of Financial Markets and is a Graduate Australian Institute of Company Directors.
In 2020 Darren was awarded Male Champion of Change at the AWSNA (Australian Women’s Security Network Awards).
Matt is the COO for Credit Corp Group Limited.
Matt is responsible for oversight of the revenue-generating businesses of Credit Corp across all geographies. He is committed to delivering on the revenue and profit objectives of the Group each year, whilst also overseeing the execution of strategic priorities that will deliver growth into the future.
Matt has over 25 years of management experience and prior to joining Credit Corp ran software development and consulting teams in Australia and the USA.
Thomas Beregi BEc(LLB)Hons CPA GAICD
Thomas Beregi is the CEO of ASX 200 financial services company Credit Corp Group Limited (Credit Corp) and has held this position since 2008.
Under Thomas’s leadership Credit Corp has grown substantially, with net profit after tax increasing from $5 million in 2008 to $96 million in 2022 and market capitalisation increasing from $20 million in 2008 to $1.2 billion in 2022. Thomas has led a programme of disciplined organic expansion, taking Credit Corp from a small mono-line Australian debt buyer to become a leading global debt buyer and a successful Australian consumer lender. Credit Corp has established a strong reputation as the most sustainable and compliant operator in its segment of the financial services market.
Thomas has previously served as a non-executive director of the Credit and Investment Ombudsman Service Limited.
Prior to joining Credit Corp Thomas held executive-level finance and operational positions with leading FMCG and business services organisations including PepsiCo Inc, Diageo PLC and Jones Lang LaSalle Inc.
Thomas lives in Sydney with his wife and three children.
Bridgid commenced as Chief People Officer (CPO) at RMIT University in October 2022.
Bridgid is a passionate human resource executive and values-driven leader, with extensive experience creating high performing organisations through culture and leadership aligned to strategy and managing change in complex organisations.
Bridgid has held several senior executive roles across health, government, education and regulatory bodies including positions with Epworth Healthcare, Monash University, Melbourne Health and the Department of Justice and Regulation Victoria.
Bridgid has a strong interest in organisational and individual wellbeing and holds a Master Applied Positive Psychology in addition to Executive Master Public Administration qualifications.
As Chief People Officer, Bridgid leads the People portfolio and is responsible for RMIT's people strategy, including growing people capability for the changing world of work, and shaping a culture that fosters wellbeing, care and community.
David Grant is one of the world’s most qualified pet care leaders, who led the 2016 acquisition of the group by Quadrant PE. He also had a 25-year global career with Nestlé, which included the Purina pet care ANZ/APAC region.
David is now focused on growing RPFC both through acquisitions and organically.
Zoe Hugginson is the CPO of Eclipx Group. With 15+ years’ experience as an HR professional, Zoe adapted readily to diverse work environments and industry sectors including Facilities Management, Engineering, Fleet Management, Financial Services, and local Government, across the UK, New Zealand, and Australia.
As an agile and commercially astute Head of People and Culture, she established credibility as a trusted advisor to the Board and senior executive team, delivering subject matter expertise to help navigating large and complex ASX-listed businesses through significant growth and business transformation.
Zoe is passionate about building leadership capability and equipping HR teams to act as true business partners to cross-functional leaders, embedding commercial and operational acumen alongside people management expertise to ensure people programs are aligned with business objectives.
Stephen Leane is a former police officer with Victoria Police who served for 40 years with time as an Assistant Commissioner across portfolios including road policing; Northwest Metro Region; Professional Standards Command; Corporate Strategy and Governance; and as a chief of staff to a former Chief Commissioner. He holds extensive experience in delivering change management programs and a deep understanding of service delivery, the community, and political environments. He was awarded the Australian Police Medal in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List in June 2021. After a short period as a Board member, Stephen stepped into the CEO role at ESTA, the Victorian 000 response service, following the resignation of the then CEO in October 2021. He is also Deputy President of the Police Registration and Service Board (Victoria). He holds a law degree, LLB (Hons) and Masters of Education from Monash University, and a Graduate Diploma of Legal Practice (with Merit) from the ANU and was admitted to practise as an Australian Lawyer in 2001. He has undertaken executive leadership programs at Warton and the London Business School.
Christine Zeitz is a leader in Australia’s defence industry, with over 30 years’ experience delivering world class solutions and services across the Asia Pacific region to Defence, security, ICT and intelligence customers.
Christine was appointed General Manager, Asia Pacific region, at Northrop Grumman in July 2020 with responsibility for all aspects of growth, program awards and financial performance in Australia, and oversight for Japan and Korea market development.
Prior to joining Northrop Grumman Australia, Christine served as Chief Executive Officer of Leidos Australia for five years, where she delivered a 100 per cent growth in revenue through an ambitious restructure of the Australian business. This followed roles at Lockheed Martin, where she served as Vice President and Managing Director for Australia and Asia Pacific, and 25 years at BAE Systems Australia in various roles, culminating in her leading the maturation of globally strategic partnerships as President North East Asia.
Christine is an active board member of SBS Australia, Port Adelaide Football Club, the Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA), President of the South Australian/Northern Territory State Advisory Council (SA/NT SAC) and the Chair of Defence Trailblazer.
With a diverse background in program management, operations, strategy, business development, contracts and finance, Christine has a proven track record of building high-performing teams and programs, and achieving business growth in the Asia Pacific region.
Tamas is Group CEO of Pepperstone a multinational Fintech with its headquarters in Melbourne. It offers speculative trading on a large range of financial products and one of the largest providers of it’s kind globally. Pepperstone offers an award winning service which is one of its points of differentiation as well as fast execution speeds and highly competitive pricing on forex and CFDs.
Prior to joining Pepperstone, Tamas spent more than 20 years at IG Group in Australia and the UK. Joining IG in 1996 when the business was at its early stage of growth with only 40 employees, the business grew significantly and underwent two IPOs. IG now has a market cap of GBP3.2bln and over 2000 employees.
Tamas joined the IG Group as a graduate trainee from the London School of Economics and University College of London, where he received an honours degree in Bachelor of Science (Engineering), majoring in Mechanical Engineering and Business. He has an MBA from AGSM at UNSW Sydney .
A Founder and previous Chair of the Australian Forex and CFD industry association, Tamas has also been involved in various important industry reforms in the sector. Tamas is Chair of the Biggest Blokes lunch, the largest community based fundraiser of prostate cancer research in Australia.
Kerri Wane is the CEO of San Churro and is humbled to lead an extremely passionate group of Franchise Partners together with 1500+ team members who are on a mission to cement San Churro’s place as Australia's most loved and recognised sweet treat experience.
Previously, Kerri’s executive career spanned senior leadership roles in the hospitality/QSR, fashion, and F&B sectors both domestically and internationally in brands such as Domino’s, Mad Mex and Gelatissimo.
Kerri is passionate about people, brands and growth and loves to work in transformation, growth, and turnaround environments. Making a difference is important to Kerri and vision, care, authenticity, passion, and integrity are central to her leadership style.
Kerri’s formal qualifications include Master of Labour Law & Relations (Sydney Law School), an MBA, and a Bachelor of Science. In 2021 Kerri was recognised by Inside Franchise Business for her achievements in the Franchising sector receiving a place in the ‘Top 30 Franchise Business Executives’ awards as well as the National ‘Up and Coming’ award for the executive showing great potential.
Frances has a wealth of leadership experience in both the public and private sectors. She draws on extensive experience in information technology, large transaction processing centres, customer contact centres and client relationship management.
Frances has held the position of Chief Executive Officer of Cenitex since July 2019. Cenitex provides shared information and Communications Technology (ICT) services to the Victorian public sector. It enables departments, agencies and more than 55,000+ users to deliver services for the Victorian community.
Prior to joining Cenitex, Frances was with the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) for 14 years and for the last 7 years held the role of Chief Financial Officer. As Chief Financial Officer she managed a $3.6 billion operating budget and a capital budget in excess of $180 million including a property portfolio of approximately $300 million. Frances led several business divisions within the ATO, comprising very large workforces of up to 7500 employees across 36 national sites.
Frances’s roles in the ATO provided her with a strong understanding and appreciation of public service ethics, delivery to government and the community.
Each of her roles has included regular appearances at Senate Estimates, frequent appearances at other committees of enquiry such as the Joint Committee of Public Accounts and Audit (JCPAA) and regularly briefing Minister’s and their advisors.
Frances has held various committee positions over her career including the Australian Bureau of Statistic 2021 Census Board, the Victorian State Revenue Committee and the Federal Circuit Court Audit and Risk Committee.
Mark Steinberg is First Sentier Investors Chief Executive Officer and is based in Sydney.
Mark brings a strong background in acquisitions and wealth management to his role of CEO. He re-joined the company in October 2017 and was appointed Chief Executive Officer in September 2018. He had previously been the Chief Financial Officer of CFSGAM (First Sentier's previous name) from January 2008 – December 2012.
Prior to re-joining the business, Mark was Group Chief Financial Officer and Group Chief Operating Officer of Cover-More Group Limited, an Australian Securities Exchange listed company, where he oversaw several acquisitions before Cover-More was acquired in April 2017.
Prior to his time at Cover-More, Mark was the Chief Financial Officer at Colonial First State and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s Advice business. He also previously worked for Macquarie Bank, where he was a Divisional Director, and Vodafone, where he was Chief Financial Officer of the Australian and New Zealand businesses and Finance Director of the Japanese business.
Mark is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia and New Zealand and a Senior Fellow of FINSIA.
Robert is the former CEO of SPC Global and is now the CEO of Pure Dairy. With 30 years industry experience, Robert is a key leader in Australian large scale FMCG manufacturing and distribution. Working with some of Australia’s largest manufacturing brands, Robert has demonstrable experience and success in innovation, leadership, strategy, brand growth and delivering profitable outcomes for business. Through his work with Simplot Australia Pty Ltd and Nestlé, he has built impressive business management skills and networks which now direct SPC Global’s successes.
Appointed as Chief Executive Officer of SPC Global in 2019, Robert has redefined SPC’s brand vision, launching a company wide rebrand, Better food for the future, in 2021. The realignment better reflected SPC’s global business strategy as they strive to demonstrate the value of high quality food and drink products as a driver for good health and wellbeing. Robert’s industry experience has influenced SPC Global’s Australian growth, as the brand prepares for global expansion, celebrating Australian manufacturing on the world stage.
Robert’s expertise and leadership was paramount as SPC unveiled the first COVID-19 mandatory vaccination program in Australia. The program garnered local and international attention and set a precedent for other national and global businesses to streamline a return to ‘COVID normal’ and encourage the uptake of vaccination status in Australia.
Passionate about ensuring accessible and secure food and drink products for Australians, Robert is dedicated to elevating the local manufacturing industry and future proofing Australia’s employment and economic security.
Rose Herceg leads WPP’s business in Australia, supporting the agency leaders, promoting WPP’s collective capabilities and bringing together people and resources on behalf of clients. Rose was previously Chief Strategy Officer of WPP AUNZ, which became a wholly owned part of WPP in 2021. In this role, she led client-facing activity at the WPP level, helping to deliver the company’s integrated offer of communications, experience, commerce and technology across its network of agencies.
Earlier in her career, Rose founded Pophouse, one of Australia’s leading agencies for innovation, social trends and business strategy. She sold this to STW Group in 2007 and joined as a strategic consultant. She became Chief Strategy Officer of WPP AUNZ following the WPP merger with STW in 2016. Rose is the author of three books on business leadership and innovation and is one of Australia’s leading social forecasters and futurists.
Bryan Fry is the Chairman & CEO of Pernod Ricard Winemakers. Bryan assumed the role in 2019 and is responsible for Pernod Ricard’s global wine business across Australia, New Zealand, Spain and the US, as well as the distribution of the wine, spirits, Champagne and RTD portfolio across Australia and New Zealand.
Prior to returning to his homeland in Australia to lead Pernod Ricard Winemakers and the Pacific business, Bryan was President and CEO of Pernod Ricard USA.
Bryan began his Pernod Ricard career in 1995 as Grower Liaison Officer at the Orlando Wyndham Group in South Australia, and since then his career has taken him all over the world. Over the years, Bryan has successfully held various sales, marketing and leadership roles across Australia, Asia Pacific, Brazil and the US.
Bryan holds a bachelor’s degree in agricultural science from the University of Adelaide and a graduate diploma in economics from the University of New England.
Andrew McMullan is the Chief Data & Analytics Officer for CBA.
Prior to joining CBA, Andrew was Director of Customer Analytics & Decisioning at Royal Bank of Scotland, where he was accountable for the delivery of Data, Analytics, Customer Decisioning, Customer Contact, Pricing Strategy and Customer Value Management for the Retail Bank and Small Business portfolio for all brands within RBS.
Earlier in his career, Andrew worked in Academia as a lecturer in Mathematics and Statistics, before leading the Rating and LGD methodology team for several years at UBS Investment Bank.
In his capacity as Chief Data & Analytics Officer at Commonwealth Bank, Andrew leads the data and analytics team, who are responsible for the delivery of world-class data, analytics and technology capabilities to build a brighter future for all.
The core functions include: Customer Engagement Engine (design and delivery of all customer contact strategies, across all systems and all channels), Data Office and Data Science and Advanced Modelling (all AI, Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Adaptive Modelling and Advanced Analytics).
Frank Greeff is the CEO for Realbase.
At 22 he made a life changing decision to hang up his chef whites and join forces with his 2 brothers to disrupt the property tech market. Over a period of 6 years, Realhub grew from 3-35people with a $3m+ turnover. In 2020, Realhub started a new chapter by joining together with the industry leader Campaigntrack, appointing Frank at the age of 28 as the CEO of the combined business Realbase. The merger signaled a new vision and future for real estate marketing. Combining their innovation and future R+D roadmaps, delivering better outcomes and real value to customers.
In 2021 Frank and a number of shareholders went through a 9months M&A process to find the right business which could help unlock Realbases true potential and supercharge the growth. In March 2022 it was announced that Domain acquired Realbase for $180M. Domain saw the strong market position of Realbase and the complementary fit between the products which ultimately led to the decision.
Deena Amorelli is the Chief HR Officer at UNSW.
As a results driven and pragmatic HR executive, Deena has over 20 years’ experience in HR having worked in sectors including retail, hospitality, and higher education. She has a proven track record of partnering with senior leaders to deliver strategic and operational people objectives across multiple sites and organisational lines, ensuring the people agenda remains aligned with business strategy and values at every step.
With undergraduate and postgraduate qualifications in Psychology, Deena enjoys the different perspectives that diverse teams bring, and is passionate about working with leaders to deliver outcomes which lead to success at an organisational, team and individual level.
Dr Sidney Chandrasiri MBBS MHM FCHSM FRACMA CHIA GAICD, is a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Medical Administrators (FRACMA), a Fellow of the Australasian College of Health Service Management (FCHSM), Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD), and holds a Masters in Health Management and Certification in Health Informatics. She is a graduate of the highly selective Harvard Business School Intensive Seminar program on Value Based HealthCare.
Dr Chandrasiri is the Deputy Chief Medical Officer and Group Director of Academic and Medical Services at Epworth HealthCare, a Board Director in the disability services sector and a sentinel event reviewer for the Department of Health.
She has medical management experience in both public and private healthcare organisations across Australia and New Zealand, has lectured in health system management to post graduate students at the University of Monash in Melbourne, is a speaker at multiple medical forums across Australia and has published widely in leading medical management journals. Her current portfolio encompasses health service leadership, and a number of areas across clinical governance, through to clinical services design and strategic planning.
Tanya Steigerwalt was appointed Chief Human Resources Officer in November 2021 and is accountable for all aspects of human resource management, including culture and leadership, performance and reward, talent management and development. A highly experienced HR professional, Tanya has held senior HR leadership roles for several listed companies across numerous industries, including Toll Holdings, Westpac Group and Singtel Optus.
Most recently, Tanya was the General Manager HR Services & Employee Relations for global metals, energy and mining business GFG Alliance. Tanya has a Masters in Human Resource Management from Charles Sturt University.
Steve Chugg joined Great Southern Bank (formerly CUA) in April 2015. He leads the division that drives Great Southern Bank’s operations, as well as being responsible for strategy, transformation, managing current strategic partnerships and exploring new opportunities to collaborate or partner on future innovations. This includes responsibility for our subsidiaries Credicorp and also CUA Health prior to its sale in October 2021.
Steve has more than 20 years’ experience in banking operations in Australia. He has extensive experience in building teams and working with them to deliver positive customer outcomes and strong returns. He has held a variety of executive and management roles with ANZ across multiple customer segments including General Manager for Esanda & ANZ Direct Sales, and Queensland State Manager for Regional Business Banking.
Steve’s previous roles have involved understanding and meeting the needs of a diverse range of customers such as third party dealers, agricultural and commercial clients, corporate and retail customers.
He is Managing Director of Credicorp Insurance Pty Ltd, and a director of Mutual Marketplace Pty Ltd and Mutual Marketplace Property Pty Ltd. Steve is also a director of the Customer Owned Banking Association (COBA). Steve was also Managing Director of CUA Health Ltd at Great Southern Bank.
Steve was attracted to Great Southern Bank being a customer-owned organisation with the aspiration and strategy to adapt to our fast-paced world. He views Great Southern Bank as a financial service provider that crosses the generational divide – one that both his parents and children would be proud to be part of.
Outside of Great Southern Bank, Steve is kept busy by his three sons and volunteers regularly as a basketball coach at the local PCYC. Steve also enjoys international travel with his wife and boys to gain new perspectives and enjoy some family fun. Steve keeps fit by cycling with a like-minded group of cycling enthusiasts from across Great Southern Bank.
Alison Huitfeldt is the General Counsel at Linfox Armaguard.
I am a driven and outcomes-focused senior executive with 5 years C-suite experience working within one of Australia’s largest privately-owned groups – the Linfox Group. In an industry where security and compliance are a critical priority, I oversee several functions including Legal, Risk and Compliance, Internal Audit, WHSE and Security.
Previously a lawyer in several organisations for more than 12 years, I am proficient at understanding the legal and commercial needs of stakeholders across a range of operational areas. I am people-focused and enjoy working closely with my teams and developing staff. I have sponsored key projects including mergers and acquisition activity, and have executed significant change via the implementation of key strategic initiatives. My key stakeholders include the board and its subcommittees, key executives, regulators, key customers and suppliers, and staff. I have some board and panel experience in the not-for profit and government sectors and look forward to developing this area of expertise.
I am also passionate about diversity and inclusion and is looking forward to expanding my network and being exposed to a range of perspectives and experience via this group.
Amanda Gore joined Great Southern Bank as General Counsel in July 2021.
Leading and inspiring people, and being a trusted advisor to Great Southern Bank drives Amanda.
Amanda is commercial, strategic and solutions focused.
Extensive experience advising Boards and Executives on potential risks, options, mitigation strategies and strategic communications to protect & promote business.
Experience across various industries including financial services, resources, technology disruptors, government owned enterprises and logistics.
Amanda is a Fellow of the Governance Institute.
Isaac Ryan is the General Counsel at Gold Coast Hospital and Health, a statutory corporation delivering a broad range of secondary and tertiary health services to the Gold Coast region across more than 20 facilities, including three hospitals and two health precincts.
Prior to joining GCHHS, Isaac worked for Queensland University of Technology as a research and commercialisation lawyer and, before that, at Education Queensland as a senior lawyer in commercial and administrative law. A civil service career was not planned, but Isaac found the practice of law in a public sector setting to be fascinating, challenging, and immensely satisfying.
Isaac is an admitted Solicitor of the High Court of Australia, Supreme Court of Queensland, and the Senior Courts of England and Wales. He holds a Masters of Business Administration, Bachelors Degree in Law, Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice, and Bachelors Degree in Contemporary Studies with majors in Media Communication and Ethics Philosophy.
Sarah Goetze is the General Counsel at EML Payments Ltd.
I am an experienced Legal counsel with a demonstrated history in the fintech and financial services industry, with a focus on regulatory licensing, business establishment and compliance for innovative payment services in a range of jurisdictions including Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, the UK, South Africa, Canada, the USA and Mexico.
I started my legal career at Corrs Chambers Westgarth in Melbourne in 2003 in the Corporate Advisory group, moving on to London and starting an in-house legal career from 2007. I have since worked for a range of corporates in the manufacturing, technology and payments industries in both London and Melbourne.
Prior to joining Brisbane-based EML Payments in March of 2022 I spent 8 years at fintech Optal Limited, with responsibility for establishing its regulated financial services operations in a range of jurisdictions throughout APAC and the Americas.
Melanie Rice is the General Counsel of LifeStyles, a global leader in the sexual wellness industry. As an experienced lawyer, designer/business-owner and mother, she applies her knowledge, passion, ethics and drive holistically across all facets of life. Her optimistic attitude coupled with an instinct to quickly identify and assess key risks allows her to align quickly and work closely with business partners to achieve practical and tailored solutions. She is a commercial, creative and agile business partner who successfully manages rapidly changing, high-pressure environments by building and developing strong, dedicated teams and delivering strategic and focussed results.
Melanie commenced her career in private practice, specialising over the next decade in commercial litigation and media law across large as well as boutique firms, where she gained extensive experience both in the court room and in conflict resolution. Concurrently, she pursued a path in design - creating and building a brand and small business, acquiring skills in design thinking as well as gaining a unique perspective on the importance of strategy and planning in business growth. A leap into the corporate sector at Ansell Ltd - first as inhouse Legal Counsel in the Asia Pacific Region, followed by Senior Legal Counsel managing the Europe, Middle East and Africa regions – advanced her technical and management skills, propelling Melanie into her current role as General Counsel of LifeStyles. LifesStyles was born from a spin-off from Ansell Ltd’s global sexual wellness business in 2017. Having recently celebrated its 5-year anniversary as a new standalone global organisation, LifeStyles is thriving, ready with ambitious plans for growth and continued success.
Rachel Banks is the Chief People Officer for Westpac.
She is an accomplished Transformation, Strategy & People Executive with outstanding commercial acumen and extensive leadership experience in ASX and multinational organisations. Rachel is currently the Chief People Officer for Westpac’s Specialist Businesses Division which includes the subsidiary businesses BT Wealth and Panorama, BT General and Life Insurance, Pacific Bank, Auto and Specialist Finance and the Fin Tech Start Up Banking as a Service. Rachel is experienced in leading large teams through transformation, complexity and ambiguity from her time in senior HR roles and her previous career as a Partner at EY Consulting and CapGemini.
Her ability to drive critical fast paced change especially in environments requiring influencing complex stakeholders across c-suite and board has become her trademark. Some of her work has included the challenges of navigating AMP through the fallout of the Royal Commission including supporting the subsequent ASIC investigation into Senior Executive Accountability and the implementation of the Sedgwick and BEAR Regime, the divestment of 7 businesses from Westpac’s core business in a 2 year period and developing an employee experience that saw these businesses engagement and retention at higher levels than the main group of Westpac. Rachel is also married and proud mother to 3 Young Adults a daughter at University and 2 sons in their final years of high school.
Kris Webb is the Chief People Officer for Coles Group Limited, one of Australia’s largest retailers and most trusted brands. Coles makes life easier for Australians by delivering quality, value and service across a portfolio of leading brands like Coles Supermarkets, Liquorland, First Choice Liquor, Vintage Cellars and Coles Express. The scale of the business is significant with revenues of more than $37B, and over 20 million customer transactions processed each week. This is made possible by the efforts of over 130,000 team members that are united in Coles’ purpose to ‘sustainably feed all Australians to lead healthier and happier lives’.
Kris has over 30 years of global experience working across multiple industries in senior executive human resources roles. This includes over a decade with GlaxoSmithKline across Australia, Singapore and the UK, prior to joining Coles. Earlier in Kris’ career she spent 10 years with BP, before becoming HR Director, Asia Pacific for PWC and then National HR Director for Clayton Utz.
Kris holds a Bachelor of Business, is a Fellow of AHRI and a member of the SAP CHRO Advisory Committee.
Richard Sampson Genest, BA(Hons) MBA
Chief Commercial Officer
Director
Stahmann Webster
Richard joined the tree nut industry in 2005 as marketing manager at Stahmann Farms (now Stahmann Webster), following a career in specialty food marketing and before that in aquaculture. He has been a director of the business since 2011 and currently holds the role of Chief Commercial Officer, with executive level responsibility for sales and marketing, procurement, business strategy and industry relationships.
Stahmann Webster (SW) was formed in late 2020 though the integration of Stahmann Farms, Australia’s leading grower and processor of pecans as well as macadamias, and Webster Ltd, the preeminent grower, processor and marketer of Australian walnuts and a grower of almonds. The business conducts farming and processing operations from Bundaberg in Queensland to Swansea in Tasmania, with major activity centres in the Riverina, Moree and Toowoomba.
Richard has been a director of the Australian Nut Industry Council since 2006, holding the chair from 2012 to 2014 as nominee of the Australian Pecan Association. He is also a member of the National Pecan Shellers Association (USA), Australian Macadamia Society (past chair of the Marketing Advisory Committee), Australian Macadamia Handlers Association (past secretary), the International Nut and Dried Fruit Council (member of the Global Statistics Committee) and most recently a foundational director of the World Macadamia Organisation.
Emma Costello joined the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) as CFO in February 2021.
DR RACHNA GANDHI, CHIEF DATA AND DIGITAL OFFICER (GLOBAL)
Dr Rachna Gandhi commenced as Chief Data & Digital Officer in December 2021. Rachna is an experienced multi-industry ASX 30 and public sector executive. She has held roles across strategy, operations and digital, and has a track record in delivering transformations that achieve world class customer experience and growth in highly regulated and complex environments.
In her role as Chief Digital and Data Officer at Ramsay, Rachna leads the Australian digital and IT teams, while also working with international Ramsay teams to develop and deliver the global digital strategy and data management framework to enable Ramsay’s vision to be a patient centric integrated healthcare provider of the future.
Rachna has previously held positions where she was responsible for the customer service and digital transformation agenda at organisations including the Westpac Group and Suncorp. Rachna’s leadership experience in digital also extends to her time in the public sector as CEO of Service NSW which radically transformed government service delivery. Service NSW is regarded as best practice in customer centric service and digital transformation.
Rachna has led teams globally across business and technology domains and is passionate about building high-performing, customer obsessed teams and incubating a digital DNA.
Rachna has a Bachelor of Business and Doctor of Philosophy, as well as qualifications in Leadership, and Leading Strategic Transformations and Culture Renewal from Stanford University and Harvard University, USA.
Tom Burton is the Executive Director, Engagement and Enterprise for Charles Sturt University.
He is a senior leader with 15 years’ experience transforming lives through education. His range of skills includes business and regional development, government relations, international education leadership, change management, stakeholder engagement, public relations and philanthropy.
He currently leading a passionate team to extend Charles Sturt's pivotal role as a driver of regional development through education initiatives.
Christopher Tuttiett is the General Counsel to BMD Group, Australia’s largest privately owned construction company comprising a number of businesses involved in large scale civil construction, urban development, project management, real estate and property development.
Previously, worked in the commercial litigation team at a national top-tier law firm contributing to and conducting matters in intellectual property litigation, insolvency, banking and financial industry disputes, Royal Commissions/Commissions of Inquiry, personal injuries and insurance.
Solicitor admitted in the High Court of Australia, Federal Court of Australia and Queensland Supreme Court holding a degree in law with first class honours and an Executive MBA.
Matthias Hansen joined Domino’s Pizza Enterprises Limited (Domino’s) as the Company’s Group Chief Technology Officer(CTO)in 2021, and his responsibility spans the Company’s ten markets–Australia, New Zealand, France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Japan, Germany, Luxembourg, Denmark and Taiwan.As a member of the Company’s Global Leadership Team, Matthias puts Domino’s digitalisation at the centre of the Company’s aggressive growth and innovation strategy globally.Matthias is a highly accomplished leader in the technology space, with more than 30 years’ global experience in technology and digital leadership roles with Telstra, Centrica Plc, T-Mobile, Dell Corporation and Renault Financial Services. Prior to taking on the role of Group Chief Technology Officer at Domino’s, Matthias was based in Switzerland, where he worked for a private equity-based security solutions company with a footprint across 16 countries globally, and led a team of 600staff across Europe. Matthias began his role for Domino’s working with the Company’s European team, and has since relocated to Australia, and is based in Domino’s Head Office in Brisbane.
Teena is an experienced executive, with a demonstrated history of working in the health care industry. Skilled in building successful businesses Teena has over 20 years’ experience working across leadership roles, particularly in the delivery of clinical services both locally and abroad. Teena has worked across SE Asia as Regional CEO for Icon Group before returning to Australia where she was most recently the COO at Virtus Health, one of the largest Reproductive Services in the world before commencing as global ceo for Nucleus network in 2023. Innovation and growth remain some of her core interests and she believes that it is through technological advances, that more people will access improved healthcare globally. A strong business development professional, Teena graduated from Griffith University (AUS), holds a GACID from Australian Company Directors, and is an avid traveller.
Jodette Cleary is the Chief People & Culture Officer at hipages Group joining the team in 2015 after founding and managing the successful boutique HR consultancy We Know HR for 8 years.
Jodette’s many successful consulting assignments span a host of impressive companies including Red Balloon, Atlassian, BigCommerce, AppSense, Moneytech, nearmap and Campaign Monitor.
Prior to this she was the Asia Pacific HR Director for Honeywell Building Solutions, a company that provides building automation and building security technology and solutions. Jodette was a Board Director at Honeywell, with her role spanning 11 countries in the Asia Pacific and employing 2,000+ employees. Prior to her 6 years at Honeywell, Jodette worked in IT&T, Recruitment and Mining.
Jodette holds a Bachelor of Arts degree (Industrial Relations & Psychology) from the University of NSW, a Masters of Labour Law and Relations from the University of Sydney and is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
Kevin Jackson is the CEO at Sanitarium.
He is an experienced senior manager with over 20 years of experience as a CEO and as a Board Director. Kevin has a finance, accounting and management background.
He has a broad range of food manufacturing and healthcare experience and is currently the CEO of Sanitarium Health and Wellbeing Group and is also a director on a number of food, healthcare and pharmaceutical organisations that geographically span Australia, New Zealand, UK and USA.
Kevin started his career at Ernst and Young in audit and went on to obtain experience in Corporate Advisory and Performance Improvement Consulting. Kevin is a graduate of Auckland University and is also a Chartered Accountant.
He has specific interest and focus on organisational strategy, leadership, innovation, culture and business model transformation.
Sean Slattery is the CFO for Rhinomed.
A commercially experienced Chief Financial Officer with 20+ years experience in the management of Finance and Accounting. A Chartered Accountant with a Masters in Taxation.
Industry experience across the medical devices\biotech, media publishing, technology (SaaS) and the financial services sectors.
Specialties include:
• Mergers & Acquisitions - capital raising, global divestment, trade sale, IPO preparations, and due diligence processes,
• Chief Financial Officer, Director, and Company Secretary of an ASX listed company,
• Director and Company Secretary of private and public companies across Australia and Asia Pacific,and
• Management of Asia Pacific finance and accounting function.
An accomplished CFO with experience working across ASX listed companies, multi nationals, and SMEs.
A Chartered Accountant, holding a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from Salisbury University and a Master of Taxation from University of Melbourne.
SHAUN NESBITT
Chief Digital and Information Officer
BSc, MBA, TOGAF, MAICD
Shaun Nesbitt the Chief Digital and Information Officer for Urban Utilities. He is responsible for leading all aspects of the company's information, technology and digital capabilities.
A skilled digital and technology executive, Shaun has over 20 years’ experience in delivering innovative, customer-focused and system-wide digital transformation.
Shaun has previously held executive roles within the public and private sectors, both locally and internationally. Most recently, he held the role of Chief Information Technology Officer at Health Support Queensland.
Shaun’s core competencies include digital transformation, people management, strategy development and implementation, digital governance and risk management.
Prior to working with Brown Brothers, Dean commenced his sales background through Smiths Snackfoods before engaging in a variety of roles in the Liquor Industry. Firstly working for the world’s biggest Spirit Company in Diageo, followed by gaining Wine and Agency experience via Tucker Seabrook. When Tucker Seabrook merged with Lion Nathan’s Wine business and formed Fine Wine Partners, Dean worked on the team that pulled the merger together and continued on for a further 12
months heading up Retail Sales.
After a year working outside of the Industry in setting up a Sales and Marketing function with a Vehicle Leasing company the call back to Wine was strong with Brown Brothers being a perfect fit.
Dean joined Brown Brothers in July 2007 as National Sales Manager before he was promoted to the role of Chief Sales Executive in 2011 with responsibility for all Global Customer Sales areas including Customer Service.
Dean was appointed CEO of Brown Brothers in December 2016 and subsequently moved to live in the North East. Over the last 5 years Dean has been at the helm as Brown Brothers evolved into a multi-branded Family wine business that is now Brown Family Wine Group.
Dean has completed a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) from Melbourne University and believes in continual improvement and acquiring knowledge. Following 4 years with a TEC group he recently joined a Mastermind Mentor List CEO group to further his development.
He has a wife, Carol (no, she didn’t take my last name!!) and two (spoilt) dogs and when time permits enjoys playing tennis and golf or just being at the Beach.
Sharon Fitter is the Chief Revenue Officer for Australian Community Media.
She is an established Commercial business leader, mentor and coach with a diverse range of skills.
With over 20 years Leadership experience and 4 years consulting experience, she has held both frontline Commercial and Executive leadership positions. With a passion for Enterprise Sales and People, Sharon has learnt to be versatile and collaborative which allows her to engage, develop and maintain successful relationships at all levels.
Sharon currently specialises in establishing high performing sales cultures at scale and Sales Leadership Coaching. Sharon is experienced in commercial and strategic thinking enabling outcomes and behavioural change that are sustainable in today’s diverse corporate environment. Previously, she have been instrumental in initiating and enabling outstanding leadership development programs across large corporations and she has an exceptional ability to help executives navigate through corporate environments using effective stakeholder management skills. Sharon has worked across a diverse range of sectors including large Consultancy firms, Media and Mining Corporations and both Government and Private organisations. Currently the Chief Revenue Officer for Enterprise sales, Sharon is responsible for over 170 publications nationally, print and digital with a sales force of 400.
Megan Millman is the Chief Financial Officer of Bolton Clarke. Starting her career in audit at
KPMG, she spent 10 years at Virgin Australia undertaking a variety of finance roles and special
projects. Megan joined RSL Care as Financial Controller in 2015 and led the finance team
through the merger with Royal District Nursing Service. She was appointed CFO of the newly
merged Bolton Clarke in 2016 and over the past five years has been part of a highly motivated
executive leadership group overseeing an extraordinary organisational growth trajectory. Megan is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and a Fellow of Chartered
Accountants Australia and New Zealand. She is actively involved in the Chartered Accountants
program and enjoys working with future Chartered Accountants providing facilitation and
mentoring support.
Professor Robina Xavier, PhD, GAICD, is DVC (Academic) at QUT with overall responsibility for the quality and integrity of learning and teaching across the university. Professor Xavier has more than 25 years’ experience in the tertiary sector including serving as Executive Dean, QUT Business School. Her doctoral studies were in crisis management. Prior to joining QUT, Robina worked as a consultant to both the private and public sectors, specialising in corporate and financial relations. She has received state and national awards for her work in public relations practice and research and has published in national and international journals. She is the co-editor of Public Relations Campaigns published by Oxford University Press.
Robina is a former National President of the peak industry body, the Public Relations Institute of Australia and is a former chair of the industry’s National Education Committee which oversees accreditation of Australian university programs. She has served on international committees for the Association of Advanced Collegiate Schools of Business in the US and the European Foundation for Management Development including the EFMD Executive Academy. Robina currently serves on the boards of Financial Services Institute of Australia and the Queensland Academy of Arts and Sciences. Robina is a Senior Fellow of the Financial Services Institute of Australia and a Fellow of the PRIA and the Queensland Academy of Arts and Sciences.
I have worked as a lawyer and business development professional for over 25 years, I'm passionate about understanding and delivering value to clients, building diverse and high performing teams and serving the community.
I have worked for MinterEllison for 20 years, as an employment lawyer and since 2005 in business development where she has held a number of leadership positions across the firm's government, real estate and education practices. With a reputation for a strong influencing skills, stakeholder management and building high performing teams to work through challenging issues and to collectively own the solutions.
One of the joys at MinterEllison is being the fairy godmother, a founding member and champion of the Diversity and Inclusions committee focused on the LGBTI+ community PRIME.
I'm also on the Board of the Bread and Butter Project Australia's first social enterprise bakery, whereby 100% of profits are reinvested into baker training (importantly a TAFE accreditation in baking and ESL training) and employment pathways for refugees and asylum seekers.
For 9 years I was on the Board of an independent Catholic boarding school St Vincent's College with a very proud tradition of educating strong women, including indigenous students and isolated rural students.
Calvin Gordon is the CFO for Quanta Services Australia.
He has a MBA and Bachelor of Business with a major in Accounting and is a member of the Certified Practicing Accountants (CPA). He has 28 years extensive experience in construction and asset maintenance/management companies operating in Australia, New Zealand, Pacific, South East Asia and the Middle East. His experience and expertise include accounting, project finance, international taxation, treasury, insurance, project management/cost control systems, IT and corporate finance.”
Susannah Rooney’s appointment as the Chief Operating Officer of the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, Australia’s home of heart research, occurred just weeks after the World Health Organisation had declared the COVID-19 outbreak a global pandemic in March 2020. Navigating this new world presented many challenges and also highlighted the critical importance of medical research in the world.
Susannah is a qualified commercial lawyer, who has worked for Allens in Sydney and Clifford Chance in London and then worked in a series of combined legal and commercial senior executive roles with a strong strategic focus in the private sector.
Susannah’s unique set of skills in law and senior management serves the Institute well. As the COO, she has a commercial outlook on running a medical research institute that includes a solution-based approach to the management of competing priorities in a high-pressure environment to achieve the desired financial, strategic and research outcomes.
Susannah has oversight of all the operations teams, the Biocore teams, is the Institute’s Company Secretary, Risk Officer, Whistle-blower Protection Officer and sits on the Institute’s Commercialisation Committee and the Innovation Centre Leadership Committee. She also represents the Institute on numerous management committees with strategic and operational functions with our partners on the St Vincent’s Health Precinct.
Susannah embraces all the scientific aspects of the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute and the medical research sector. Her priority is to provide an environment that enables scientists to maximise their research potential while meeting their significant regulatory and administrative requirements and ensure that the Institute is positioned to achieve its strategic goals.
Gavin Gibson is the Chief Product Officer of Mindshare. He has over 20 years in the media industry, 17 of those as a strategist.
Gavin has worked across multiple markets including, Hong Kong, China and more broadly in an Asia Pacific remit.
Gavin is a globally recognised strategist having won multiple effectiveness and creative awards at Cannes, the global festival of media and locally at the Effies and MFA’s.
Les Wigan is the Chief Technology and Operations Officer, Foxtel Group with responsibilities for Production Innovation, Technology, and Operations across Foxtel, FOX SPORTS and Streamotion - Kayo Sports and Binge.
Les was the founding COO of Streamotion, home to Kayo Sports, the leading multi-sports streaming service, and BINGE, Australia’s fastest growing entertainment streaming service. With accountability for driving both strategic and day-to-day management of the business across Product, Programming and Content, Key Commercial Partnerships Technology, and Subscriber Management and Data, Les was instrumental in the development, build and implementation of Kayo Sports and BINGE, ensuring successful launches of both streaming services.
Previously, as Fox Sports’ Director of Digital, Technology, and Broadcast Operations, Les championed a future-focused corporate and digital strategy, including the introduction of a transformative world-first broadcasting operating model. His role spanned across broadcast and digital operations, technology, sports statistics business, and digital accountability.
Prior to this Les held the role of Director of Commercial Development at News Ltd, along with a number of corporate and commercial finance roles at British Pay TV operator BSkyB.
Brett Wickham is the Managing Director of ACCIONA’s Energy Division in Australia and is responsible for leading ACCIONA Energy’s Australian team, its operations, strategy, and growth in the Australian market. Brett is an experienced industry executive who brings commercial focus and international expertise to the role, having worked on renewable energy projects in 14 countries. First joining ACCIONA in 2006 as Director Engineering, Construction & Operations in the Australian energy business, he then moved to South Africa in 2012 as Director Construction & Operations, helping establish the brand in that country. From 2015 until mid-2017, he worked for ACCIONA at its energy headquarters in Spain as Director Projects Organisation, creating a new framework for the development of international solar and wind farms around the world.
Matthew McDonnell is the Chief Financial Officer at Anteris Technologies Ltd (ASX:AVR), a structural heart company focused on developing innovative & durable health solutions. Matthew is responsible for the Group finance and Information Technology divisions and supports the Corporate Secretarial function.
Before joining Anteris Technologies, Matthew was a partner for ten years at KPMG providing audit, accounting and advisory services to entities in the public and private sectors across multiple sectors.
Matthew was also a Director at the State Library of Queensland and chaired the Audit and Risk Management Committee.
Matthew holds a Bachelor of Economics from Macquarie University, a Graduate Diploma in Finance and Investment from FINSIA and is a Chartered Accountant with the Institute of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand.
He is married with two children and his interests include soccer and cycling.
Chrissy McCallum, CFO, Orygen Limited
Chrissy McCallum is Chief Financial Officer for Orygen, a for purpose youth mental health organisation. Orygen believes that all young people deserve to grow into adulthood with optimal mental health. Everything Orygen does is focused on that outcome. Orygen is a world-leading, impactful organisation defining what’s possible in global youth mental health research, policy, education and clinical care.
As CFO, Chrissy is responsible for the financial, procurement, facilities & maintenance, and fundraising & philanthropic functions across the organisation. The role provides strategic leadership to the overall operations of the organisation, supporting value maximisation in line with Orygen’s strategic and annual financial plans.
Chrissy has extensive commercial and financial experience spanning more than 20 years. Chrissy gained global experience working for large multinational organisations in New Zealand, United Kingdom, and Europe, before settling in Australia. Industries have been varied, and include financial services, energy, aviation, technology, and now mental health.
Throughout Chrissy’s career she has demonstrated a passion for leading and empowering others to reach their full potential. She prides herself in driving value maximisation and positive organisational change.
Chrissy is a Chartered Accountant, and holds a Bachelor of Commerce and Bachelor of Law from Otago University New Zealand, and a Masters in Applied Positive Psychology from The University of Melbourne.
On a personal note, Chrissy loves the outdoors, good coffee and a nice glass of red wine.
Alana Bailey
CA, B.Bus, GAICD
Alana joined Great Southern Bank in July 2020 as Chief Financial Officer with responsibility for managing the Group’s accounting, treasury and treasury settlements, regulatory reporting, capital management, tax, and corporate finance practices.
She has extensive experience in financial services garnered over the last two decades in senior positions at Suncorp, with leadership roles in its general insurance, banking and wealth divisions in Australia and New Zealand. During her time at Suncorp, Alana gained broad experience in audit, risk, financial accounting, management accounting, decision support and shared services roles.
In her last role as Chief Financial Officer for Corporate Services at Suncorp, Alana led a large team responsible for the general ledger system and processes, statutory and regulatory reporting, performance management, taxation, investment operations and risk and governance.
Prior to this, her previous roles at Suncorp included the Chief Financial Officer for Suncorp’s Banking and Wealth division, the Executive General Manager of Internal Audit, and Chief Financial Officer of Vero, a Suncorp general insurance subsidiary based in New Zealand.
Alana holds a Bachelor of Business degree from the University of Southern Queensland and is a Chartered Accountant and Graduate of the Institute of Company Directors.
Dr John Moller joined Novotech in January 2014 to lead the expansion of Novotech’s Asia operations and became CEO in 2017.
Prior to Novotech John was Managing Director of IVF Australia and Queensland Fertility Group and sat on the Board of the parent company Virtus Health.
John was previously a management consultant with the Boston Consulting Group specialising in developing growth and operational improvement initiatives with a particular focus on healthcare.
John has a Medical Degree from the University of Auckland, a degree in advanced logic from the University of Canterbury and an MBA from the University of Oxford.
Josh has been the Chief Executive Officer of the Melbourne Racing Club since December 2017. Prior to that Josh held the position of Executive Director, Racing and Corporate Affairs at the MRC for four years.
In that role Josh oversaw the establishment of the MRC Foundation, the charitable arm of the Club. He is also a director of Victorian Thoroughbred Racing Integrated Media Business (Racing.com).
Prior to joining the MRC, Josh was the Director of Legal and Corporate Affairs at Betfair for seven years and before that practised corporate law.
Josh is committed to making racing more accessible and attractive to a wider range of the community. This includes the current Caulfield Master Plan to make the Caulfield Racecourse one of the premier horseracing destinations in the world and is committed to supporting the Caulfield Racecourse Reserve Trust realise its vision for community for the Reserve.
Brent is the CFO for the Melbourne Racing Club (MRC).
A commercially experienced Chief Financial Officer with over 20+ years of experience gained in Australia and the UK. Industry experience across the sport and hospitality, events, wagering and gaming, property, financial services, insurance, media and entertainment, mining and professional services sectors.
Brent has been at the MRC since 2013 and CFO since 2018. He is responsible for: Finance, IT, Procurement, Sustainability, the Project Management Office and Mergers and Acquisitions.
Prior to the MRC, Brent worked in London for ten years at a number of FTSE100 listed companies. He started his career in audit at KPMG. A commercially minded finance professional with extensive hands-on experience in leading finance teams and delivering across a broad range of areas including management and financial reporting, financial systems and controls, corporate finance (M&A), tax and treasury. “Big Four” trained, a 10-year plus qualified CPA and registered project manager with a strong technical accounting background and an established record of success in operational improvement and developing finance teams. Strong leader and team player able to set and achieve high standards.
Company Overview
The MRC is a not-for-profit members club with over 10,000 members. It conducts more than 70 race meetings annually across three premier racetracks in Victoria - Caulfield, Mornington and Ladbrokes Park.
MRC Foundation is the charitable arm of the Melbourne Racing Club housing the company’s charitable and community work under one brand.
Pegasus Leisure Group operates a portfolio of 14 hotel and club venues located across greater Melbourne and offers a diverse array of hospitality options ranging from state of the art sports bars with full wagering facilities, bistros and restaurants many with relaxing outdoor offerings, café areas, private function facilities and retail liquor outlets.
Dean Robinson is the Group Chief Financial Officer at TeamInvest Private Group.
Dean has held a long and successful career as a high-performance manager/coach/consultant and physiotherapist, working with a variety of AFL and NRL clubs, including Sydney Roosters RLFC (2013-2019, 2021), Essendon Football Club (2011-2013), Gold Coast Suns Football Club (2010-2011), Geelong Football Club (2006-2010) and Manly Warringah Sea Eagles RLFC (2004-2009).
A professional sportsman himself, Dean was raised in country NSW and pursued his love of the country through Rodeo, which led him to the USA where he qualified for World Finals in 1997 as a Steer Wrestler.
Today Dean holds numerous roles, including Chief Financial Officer and Company Secretary of the ASX Listed company Teaminvest Private Group Ltd (ASX:TIP), Director Agriventis Technologies, and Advisor to Executive Chairman of EFT Solutions (SEHK:8062) and EFTPay. Prior to joining Teaminvest, Dean worked as a Director of Mergers and Acquisitions with KPMG.
Dean is also known for his academic excellence in multiple fields including over a dozen published articles, Master’s degree in Applied Finance from Macquarie University, a Senior Executive MBA from University of Melbourne, and a Masters in Physiotherapy from University of Sydney.
Executive MBA | MAICD | FCPA | FCMA | BBA (Hons)
Shireen Jahan is a results-driven finance executive with a passion for breaking down complexities with proven commercial experience working with Iconic Retail Businesses, Government and Not for Profit Organizations across 16 years in Executive Financial Management, Technological and Operational Leadership roles. A Transformation and Change Leader who has successfully managed end-to-end finance shared services & IT functions and led diverse multi-cultural teams, with demonstrated results in adapting to the business challenges with the capacity to influence and deliver sustainable solutions across all levels.
Shireen is currently the Chief Financial Officer for SMCT, which is a not-for-profit organization and a self-funding government agency (Department of Health)
Robert Meissner was appointed CFO of Althea Group Holdings in 2018 and also hold the position of Company Secretary. Althea is a market leader in the Cannabis industry and has operations in Australia, United Kingdom, Germany, France and Canada. Althea’s business’s span both medical and recreational cannabis and continues to be at the forefront of cannabis products in both areas of the industry. Robert was one of the first employees at Althea and has been instrumental in building the foundations of the business to allow it to expand around the world.
Adrian Leach is the CEO for World Travel Protection.
“Prepare, plan and enjoy” is Adrian Leach’s advice for a successful travel experience.
Joining World Travel Protection (WTP) in early 2019 as CEO, Adrian oversees a team of medical, security and logistics professionals who prepare and assist both people and organisations movements across the globe.
With a background in operations and senior management roles, Adrian previously worked with International SOS and Linfox Australia.
His well-rounded education in both Australia and the U.S. included economics, management development and science.
At WTP, Adrian leads teams in Brisbane (Aust), Toronto (Canada), London (UK) and across the U.S. WTP services both the corporate and leisure markets globally and provides valuable travel risk management services for organisations.
In Australia, Adrian works from WTP’s Sydney office.
He’s passionate about providing a safer experience for business travellers, with WTP also offering specialised training for clients’ employees specific to their needs and destinations, such as ‘Female Traveller Safety Training’. “Being able to help people in need has always been an aspiration of mine,” Adrian says.
His favourite travel experience to date has been visiting Mongolia and staying in a yurt.
Tanya Watt is Chief Marketing Officer at Hive + Wellness (formerly Capilano Honey Ltd), the largest honey packing company in Australia and the biggest supporter of Australia’s beekeepers. With industry experience predominantly across FMCG, Health (Sanofi) and Luxury Beauty (Chanel and Estee Lauder), Tanya is a Senior Executive leader who has held roles across marketing, innovation, business strategy, and sales across her career.
Tanya is passionate about developing and empowering others and is a caring and authentic leader. Along with leading projects that drive positive organisational change, Tanya has a particular interest on improving sustainability across her Company’s business practices and industry.
Married to Dave for 15 years, they have two active tween-aged boys, meaning a good deal of Tanya’s spare time outside of work is happily spent watching her children play sport.
Val Mathews joined ASX in May 2019 and was appointed Chief Customer and Operating Officer (CCOO) in July 2021. As CCOO, Val has overall responsibility for managing ASX’s live operating environment. She is also responsible for driving ASX's customer and digital transformation; ASX marketing, brand and digital delivery; ASX customer experience and customer facing support areas; project delivery and PMO office. Prior to her current role, Val was ASX Chief Operating Officer (2020-2021) and Executive General Manager of Operations (2019-2020).
Before joining ASX, Val was Chief Information Officer at QBE Australia and New Zealand, and Chief Information Officer at NRMA Insurance, IAG. She also has extensive domestic and international financial services experience, leading large customer and strategic transformation programs, business optimisation, customer experience and digital solutions. Val previously worked at ASX in the late 1990s and early 2000s. During this time she held various roles including General Manager, Market Integrity and Communications (2003-04) and General Manager, Technology Solutions (2004-06).
Ulric Adom joined Rio Tinto in 2018 as CFO, Growth and Innovation, and is currently CFO Business & Technology Support, overseeing the Finance Business Partners, Business Analysts, and Business Improvement teams supporting all the parts of Rio Tinto not directly producing or commercializing materials. He also oversees a portfolio of company-wide projects, and is a member of the Rio Tinto leadership team and of the Finance leadership team.
Ulric began his career in 1999 as a Management Consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting and then joined French pharmaceuticals company Sanofi. During his fourteen years with Sanofi, Ulric held various finance positions of growing importance across Commercial operations, R&D, Biotechs, Corporate strategy and, prior to joining Rio Tinto, as CFO for Japan and JPAC region based in Tokyo.
A citizen of both France and Ivory Coast, Ulric is a graduate from Sciences Po Paris, holds a Post-graduate degree in Banking and Finance from La Sorbonne and obtained the TRIUM Executive MBA which is jointly delivered by HEC Paris, New York University Stern School of Business and the London School of Economics. He has lived and worked in the US, Europe, Japan and now calls Brisbane home. He is married to Clarisse and proud father to Mathieu and Clara.
Professor Carolyn Evans is Vice Chancellor and President of Griffith University, which employs over 4000 staff and educates over 40,000 students every year. Carolyn graduated with degrees in Arts and Law from the University of Melbourne and a doctorate from Oxford where she studied as a Rhodes Scholar. Carolyn taught law at Oxford and Melbourne Universities. Prior to commencing at Griffith, Carolyn held the positions of Dean of Law, Deputy Vice Chancellor (Graduate and International) at the University of Melbourne. Carolyn works in the areas of law and religion and human rights and was awarded a Fulbright Senior Scholarship in 2010 to work on comparative religious freedom. In 2019, Carolyn was elected as a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia and became a member of the organisation, Chief Executive Women. In 2020, she became Chair of the Innovative Research Universities and President of the Australian Higher Education Industrial Association. She is also a board member of Open Universities Australia and was previously a member of the State Library of Victoria Board.
JULIE COATES BA, DipE.
Julie was appointed CEO and Managing Director of CSR Limited on 2 September 2019.
Julie was formerly the Managing Director of Goodman Fielder Australia and Goodman Fielder New Zealand.
Julie has also held several senior roles at Woolworths Limited, including Managing Director of Big W, Chief Logistics Officer and Human Resources Director, working closely on business strategy and major transformational change programs.
Julie has proven leadership skills, a strong understanding of manufacturing, safety and operational processes and deep experience in supply chain efficiency, optimisation and digitisation.
Other directorships/offices held
Previously a director of Coca-Cola Amatil (until November 2019)
Previously a director of Spotless Group Holdings Limited (until July 2017)
As a CFO at AHPRA, Liz is responsible for financial strategy and integrity, procurement, corporate assurance and risk management, enterprise project governance, and as a member of the National Executive she ensure effective and efficient regulation of Australia’s health workforce.
Liz is also an independent member of the Dental Health Services Victoria, Audit and Risk Committee.
Inquisitive and inclusive, Liz enjoys connecting diverse thinkers to tackle complex opportunities. Leading teams to success in high value business cases for Victoria, policy work for billions in State assets, recovery of under-performing agencies, commercialisation strategies, corporate services design and implementation.
Leigh Morrison is CEO of RYCO Hydraulics Pty Ltd, a global leader in fluid conveying technology.
RYCO products service a range of hydraulic applications across industries including mining, forestry, transport, construction, military, marine, oil and gas, and agriculture.
Leigh began work with the Victorian-based, family-owned company in 1977 and, after working in a number of senior management roles, was appointed CEO in 1988. During his time with the company, Leigh has been instrumental in its growth from a small, regional business with approximately $7 million in turnover to an industry leader with operations and distribution throughout the world and an annual turnover approaching $200 million.
Under Leigh’s leadership, RYCO has successfully built green-fields businesses in the USA and in China and has made several strategic acquisitions in other parts of the world. In 2019, RYCO entered into a merger with European based industry player, Manuli (post-merger combined revenues of approx. $800 million), creating a new industry leader with enhanced technology, a broader product offering, stronger manufacturing footprint, and a truly global reach. The merged group will be renamed ManuliRyco at the end of this year.
Leigh has direct experience across a range of functions including product development; manufacturing and supply chain; marketing and financial management.
An honours graduate in Mechanical Engineering from The University of Melbourne, Leigh is acknowledged as a leading authority on hydraulic hose and couplings and has personally led innovation investments that have resulted in major process control efficiencies, and world leading metal process developments in hydraulic couplings that have brought material waste levels down from 75% to 8%.
Leigh’s commitment to customer-driven marketing has helped build RYCO into a brand that is recognised for product quality, engineering excellence and reliability and unparalleled customer service. And his leadership style has retained the values and cultural strengths of a family-owned business as RYCO has continued to expand its reach and size.
Leigh’s commitment to tight financial controls and delivering targeted returns on investment has underpinned RYCO’s track record of sustained, profitable growth.
Leigh’s interests include outdoor adventure, snow skiing, remote fishing and celestial physics.
Wes Self is the Chief Operating Officer – Health Insurance at GMHBA Limited. The key accountability areas of his portfolio include Customer Engagement and Operations, Product, Digital and Growth, Customer Portfolio Management and Benefits Management (inclusive of hospital contracting) for the business.
Throughout his 10 years at GMHBA, he has held a number of key roles including Chief Financial Officer, Group Financial Controller and Commercial Manager of Digital Business running GMHBA’s digital brands.
Wes is a Chartered Accountant with over 10 years at KPMG Melbourne working in Private Enterprise, with a focus on privately-owned client groups, corporate group structuring and incorporations, financial reporting and advisory, taxation and audit.
Scott Prebble was appointed Chief Financial Officer at Teys Australia in February 2018, and is a Non-Executive Director of Teys USA, Adams Food Group and Melrina Meat.
Scott was previously Acting CFO, Head of Finance and Investor Relations at AACo.
Scott has more than 18 years’ experience in agriculture, resources, banking and professional services across Australia, the United Kingdom and Africa.
Scott has worked for various multinational companies, including KPMG, PwC, Credit Suisse, Lloyds Bank and Discovery Metals Ltd.
Scott holds a Bachelor of Commerce and Bachelor of Business Management from the University of Queensland, is a Chartered Accountant and a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
Highlight quals/ certs if any/relevant:
B Com
B Business Management
Chartered Accountant
Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors
Tom Howitt was appointed as the first Chief Financial Officer of Cronos Australia in December 2018 and as Company Secretary in August 2020. Cronos, which listed on the ASX in November 2019, is the largest and most successful distributor of medicinal cannabis in Australia, accounting for more than half of all sales made in the country.
Prior to joining the Company, Tom was Chief Financial Officer of Global Kinetics Corporation, a pre-IPO life sciences company, Chief Financial Officer/Company Secretary of Simavita (ASX:SVA, TSX-V:SV) a digital healthcare company, Chief Financial Officer/Company Secretary of Genetic Technologies Limited (ASX:GTG, NASDAQ:GENE) Australia's largest genetic testing company at the time, and several other ASX-listed companies. Prior to that, Tom worked in the investment banking industry and was a Taxation Manager at EY. Tom is a Chartered Accountant, a 10-year member of the Victorian Branch Committee of AusBiotech, a member of the CCRM Australia Industry Interface Committee based at Monash University and a Director of The Metropolitan Golf Club.
Poul Bottern (MBA Hons, GAICD) joined IntoWork Australia as Group CEO in 2012 having over 20 years experience in management and executive level roles across community, training and employment related services.
Poul has worked with the Board and Management Team to build IntoWork Australia into a leading national provider of Employment, Skills and Support services that enable educational, economic and social participation. He is actively involved in various forums and peak bodies, including his role as the President of the National Australian Apprenticeship Association.
Mark Benson is the Managing Director and CEO for Saunders International Ltd
He has 27 years experience in executive management roles in the engineering and construction industry. His last role, prior to joining Saunders International, was General Manager of RCR Energy, a division of ASX Company RCR Tomlinson. He has also held senior positions with several major utility alliances. Mr. Benson holds an Advanced Diploma in Management from Ballarat University, along with an Advanced Diploma in Project Management, and has an electrical engineering background. Mr. Benson has been a Director of Saunders since 10 August 2015 and Managing Director since 5 October 2015.
He enjoys sailing, Italian food and travelling.
Russell Bryant is the COO for Allied Credit Group.
He is an accomplished strategic and enterprising leader with experience in Australia and Asia.
Previously he worked at ANZ (Retail Banking, Esanda and Retail Asset Finance – Asia) and Macquarie in operational and strategic roles where he delivered agile business transformations and led operational and business development teams.
Russell has more than 30 years’ banking and finance industry experience spanning operational, customer facing, internal and industry influencing roles.
He holds a Bachelor of Business (Accounting & Business/Management) and a Graduate Certificate (Banking law and lending practice) and attained his CPA accreditation.
Bill Brown is a veteran senior executive with over 25 years of international experience in London, New York and Sydney.
Before joining Vitex, Bill helped prepare the NSW Electricity Assets for privatisation as GM Program Management and Investment Governance, Networks NSW, the parent company of Ausgrid, Endeavour and Essential Energy. Prior to that he held various senior executive roles at Thomson Reuters where he was CFO for Australia/NZ, and Global Head of Finance for their Investment Banking business, based in New York.
Under Bill's stewardship, Vitex Pharmaceuticals has strengthened its position with an ongoing focus on operational efficiency, and the deployment of transformational process changes at its advanced manufacturing facility. Driving Vitex’s financial and organisational performance, Bill leads the company’s functions in finance & accounting, strategy, tax, treasury, audit and risk management, information technology, real estate and corporate development.
Bill holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Economics & Accounting)/Bachelor of Science from the Australian National University, and an MBA with Distinction from Columbia Business School and London Business School.
Steve Clare is the Group CEO/MD for ASKIN Performance Panels.
A Global business leader with strong turnaround and shareholder value creation capability; extensive experience in consumer, industrial, construction and automotive markets; and a proven track record of profitably growing businesses.
Core Skills:
Building, developing and leading diverse strong and effective management teams, whilst engaging
employees to build a winning culture.
Strategically creative whilst rigorous in approach, ability to think conceptually, analytically
and pragmatically.
Strong effective relationship and stakeholder management within complex and diverse
organisations.
Strategy Development, Deployment and Execution.
Business Growth, Improvement and Performance.
Deep understanding of the Private Equity Business Model and Finance Models.
I graduated as a Mining Engineer from the University of Queensland in 1995 and commenced my career working
for Western Mining/BHP at Olympic Dam in outback South Australia.
After five years of life in a remote mining town, I resigned and spent several months traveling through Africa to the UK.
After arriving in the UK, I worked in London for three years as a Contract Executive for the London Underground followed by six months of travel throughout Ireland, Europe, Egypt, and Asia.
In 2003 I commenced a new chapter of my career working for a tech startup and have continued in the world of software IT for the past 20 years.
My current role as COO for Datamine involves the acquisition, integration, and operational oversight of global software businesses.
Rob Goss is the Chief Financial Officer and Company Secretary of Audinate Group Limited, a technology company in the ASX 300. Audinate is the global leader in AV networking technologies. He currently has responsibility for finance, risk management, payroll and investor relations. Rob was also responsible for establishing the HR function at Audinate, which was subsequently relinquished as his role extended to include Data Science and ESG.
He is a member of the Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand and has a Bachelor of Business degree, majoring in Accounting, from the University of Technology, Sydney.
Before joining the Group in 2017, Rob served as Chief Financial Officer for BuildingIQ, Inc. (ASX: BIQ). Prior to BuildingIQ, Rob was Chief Financial Officer at iProperty Group Limited (ASX: IPP), an online property portal operating in Malaysia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand. Previously, Rob held senior finance roles at ANZ Bank and Allco Finance Group after commencing his career as a chartered accountant at KPMG.
Victoria Hickey joined CBA as the CFO of Business Banking in March of 2020. Prior to working at CBA, Vicky was the CFO at AMP Bank and before that was a partner at KPMG for almost 10 years.
Vicky is a mother of 2 boys, Tyson and Jack, and truly believes in equality. Vicky is passionate about:
- helping others find their balance. Having worked flexibly for the past 9 years and seen the personal benefits her family has received, Vicky wants everyone to have the same opportunities. The recent COVID-19 crisis has been a great example of how flexibility can really work;
- investing in her teams and colleagues to help them achieve their goals. Vicky loves working in a team environment and helping others to achieve their goals and be the best they can be;
- working together with Mike and the Bank to make CBA a great place to work and one that customers value and want to do business with.
- giving back to the community - be that through mentoring not-for-profit organisations or helping to raise awareness and donations for great organisations like Wesley Mission and the Junior Indigenous Marine and Environmental Cadets program.
Brent Pitts is the CFO/GM Corporate Services for the Royal Flying Doctor Service South Eastern Section.
As a Fellow Chartered Accountant (FCA) and Graduate of Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD) I combine over 25 years of experience across both commercial and human services sectors, across blue chip diverse organisations, spanning different cultures. I have acquired the capability to;
• Quickly assess current states for risk and opportunity;
• Remain resilient and focused in times of significant business disruption;
• Identify internal and external challenges that pose a risk to strategy and the organisation;
• Make difficult and complex decisions by consulting widely and researching thoroughly to achieve strategic outcomes;
• Communicate clearly to have people aligned, engaged and committed;
• Build robust relationships with peers and stakeholders throughout the value chain, Board members and industry bodies;
• Build collaborative, capable, and resilient teams that drive outcomes;
• Lead change through visible leadership
Jenny Martin is the current CFO and Head of Shared Services for The Citadel Group, which was an ASX listed software and services company before being acquired by private equity in December 2020. Prior to this, Jenny has spent the majority of her career in ASX listed businesses in senior finance roles.
Jenny is an experienced senior executive with a diverse career focused on working in dynamic, demanding, and complex organisations. Jenny has an impressive track record of providing strategic, management and operational leadership through articulation of a clear vision, a relentless pursuit of excellence, and a strong focus on team and organisational culture. Her executive experience spans a range of sectors including media, technology, property, retail, franchising, financial services, and professional services across both listed and unlisted public companies and private organisations.
Matthew Prior, Former Group Chief Financial Officer
Matt joined Virtus Health in June 2021, and brings a deep understanding of the value drivers in healthcare as well as industry experience.
Having been an executive at Cochlear Limited (ASX:COH) since 2015, initially as Head of Strategy and then as Vice President Finance and Commercial Operations - Asia Pacific, Matt had responsibility for driving value across their operations in China, India, Japan, Korea, ASEAN, Australia, and New Zealand.
Matt also covered healthcare stocks for close to a decade as an equities analyst at Deutsche Bank, as Head of Healthcare Equities Research Asia Pacific at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, and Head of Equities Research Australia at Evans & Partners. This experience provided Matt with a rich insight into the structure of the industry as well as the impact of regulation and consumer trends. Prior to that, Matt spent a number of years in the corporate finance and values team at Deloitte.
Matt gained significant M&A and transactional experience both in Australia and Asia through his time at Deloitte, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Cochlear.
Tania Abbotto is the Chief Customer, Sustainability and People Officer at Sportsbet, Australia’s largest pure play e-commerce company. Tania is an instrumental member of Sportsbet’s Executive team, driving sustainable growth to achieve market leadership.
Tania’s career spans senior roles within the retail, telecommunications, technology and legal sectors with teams of up to 7000.
Tania is recognised as the thought leader in the design, articulation and alignment to purpose, strategy and culture at Sportsbet. She has created a great place to work for its people, delivered innovative personalised experiences to its customers and transformed the contribution to the community in which it operates. Tania has proven herself as a leader who grows and transforms business through clear strategy, building exceptional teams, customer focus and innovation.
Tania joined Sportsbet as HR Director and has since transformed the People & Culture team to be multi award winning and one of Australia's best. Tania has led the customer marketing; value and service teams to attract and retain more than 2 million active customers, deploying the most personalised customer experiences and engagement in the industry. In 2020, Tania led the acquisition and integration of BetEasy and more recently, Tania created the Sustainability function at Sportsbet, developing and deploying a strategy that will see Sportsbet set the standard for the industry, so it customers can Play well always through a commitment to normalising safer gambling tools; its people can Be Better by accelerating its commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and Sportsbet to do more through its community contribution, positively impacting the lives of over 2.5 million Australians.
Tania is a mum to two boys, aged 8 and 3, a Melbournian who loves all that it has to offer – sports, theatre and food. You can find Tania on the Mornington peninsula when she is taking a break, a place where she spent allot of her childhood and now spends time with her own young family.
Farid Jarrar is a commercially astute CIO with significant knowledge and expertise in leading, managing and exploiting technology to drive extraordinary business outcomes. Farid has more than 25 years’ experience in senior executive roles across a variety of global organisations.
He has a track record of achievement in the following areas of business process: Outsourcing, labour hire, healthcare, professional services, consulting, telecommunications, utilities, and government sectors and is experienced in the supply and demand side of digital services.
He has considerable experience in digital transformation, customer-led innovation, change management, mergers and acquisitions, program delivery, ecommerce, and customer experience. He specializes in transforming organisational capabilities to better engage with digital consumers.
Farid holds a Bachelor of Computer Science and a Master of Technology Management from Swinburne University, several credentials in innovation and digital transformation and a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and alumni of IMD.
Michael Hiller leads the Queensland practice of KPMG. He is also the Deputy Chairman of the National Board of KPMG and is the Markets leader for the national Management Consulting practice.
Michael is both a Chartered Accountant and a registered psychologist. He spent the early years of his career working in external audit across the financial services, energy & natural resources and the industrial markets industries.
Upon completing his psychology qualifications he joined the Management Consulting Division within KPMG and has been practicing as an organisational psychologist in the People & Change team.
In this role Michael has consulted to organisations to improve their performance by focusing on their people, strategy, technology, and corporate structures.
Prior to taking on the leadership of the Queensland Practice of KPMG Michael led the national Infrastructure, Government & Healthcare team within KPMG for 7 years. He has consulted extensively across all levels of Government, in particular the Queensland Government. Michael was also a founding member of the Global Government Steering Group within KPMG.
Sumith Perera is the Chief Operating Officer and the national Head of Corporate Services at Hall & Wilcox. He has over 20 years’ experience in leading and managing teams at professional services firms.
Sumith is responsible for leading the firm’s Smarter Law innovation strategy which has repositioned the firm as a leader in developing client solutions and responding to disruption in the legal and professional services sector.
Sumith is a coach and mentor to Directors and Senior Managers that lead all of the operational functions of the firm including HR, Finance, IT, Office Services, Business Development, Quality & Risk and Knowledge.
Sumith is commercial counsel to the Managing Partner in implementing the strategic direction of the firm. He has lead the implementation of the firm’s national expansion strategy.
Sumith is known for his commercial approach and ability to lead complex time critical projects.
Sumith is the Chair of Marshall Day Acoustics, an international consulting engineering firm, specialising in acoustic design and advisory services.
Melanie Cochrane was appointed Group Managing Director Equifax Australia and New Zealand in May 2021. Melanie and her team deliver unique and innovative solutions and insights to empower consumers and customers to make great decisions.
Leading a diverse business that plays a pivotal role in the A/NZ economy, Melanie is responsible for solutions spanning Consumer and Commercial Risk, Fraud Prevention, Identity, Verification and Ratings, across a range of industries including financial services, telco & utilities, automotive, property & construction, insurance, retail, professional services and government.
Prior to Equifax Melanie was General Manager, Merchant Services American Express for the APAC region where she consistently delivered double digit growth and a threefold increase in Net Promoter Scores.
Previously, she led the Corporate Payments Business for APAC as well as the Global Digital Servicing Transformation Program. She also served on the Board of American Express Australia Ltd.
With over 25 years in Financial Services, Melanie has a diverse background in cultures and leading businesses in the US, Australia and Asia. Melanie is passionate about customer advocacy and has
led large scale global digital transformation programs, new disruptive digital payments and third party partnerships.
Throughout her career, she has driven diversity and inclusion initiatives, focusing on developing talent and an inclusive culture.
Originally from the UK, Melanie completed her Business Studies degree at Brighton University, and is a Graduate of the Australia Institute of Company Directors.
Wayne Lasky is the Founder & Executive Chairman of MaxCap Group, responsible for business strategy, execution, key stakeholder relations and capital raising. He has over 15 years of real estate and finance experience having worked on all sides of the table as an originator, lender, asset manager, real estate investor & developer, project manager & Property Manager.
Wayne holds a double degree, Bachelor of Business Management & Marketing (Hons), graduating Dux from Monash University, Melbourne. Wayne is on the Executive Committee of YPO Australia and is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Management and a Senior Associate of the Financial Services Institute of Australia (FINSIA).
Currently, John Rayment is the CEO of Identitii (ASX:ID8), Non-Executive Director of Payble and Board Advisor at Docsies. Very fortunate to have lived and worked in London, New York, Tokyo and Sydney, and specialise in growing enterprise value, by focusing on employee engagement and building high performance teams with clarity of purpose and vision.
Happily married father of two young girls; proud son, grandson and Godson of decorated naval officers; former rower, boxer and club rugby player; avid fan of the ocean, the outdoors and time with friends; willing contributor to the happiness and growth of others.
Skander Malcolm is the current CEO and MD of OFX (ASX: 'OFX') since 02/17. Previously 13 years with GE (NYSE: 'GE'), across GE Capital & GE Healthcare. Previously Westpac (2000 - 2003), Household International (1990 - 2000).
Growth leader; market and customer driven, with operational discipline and strong belief in developing people and teams. Worked and led in multiple geographies, in regulated industries, across economic cycles. Inspired by creative, problem-solving, compassionate people. Hopeless technologist, proud Australian.
Rupert Haywood joined QTC in January 2010 with more than 20 years’ international capital markets, treasury management, risk management, structured financial solutions and commercial arrangements experience under his belt.
Rupert has a comprehensive knowledge of financial markets and experience in developing and implementing team-based business and financing solutions with a diverse range of clients. Prior to joining QTC, Rupert held senior positions in Suncorp, Macquarie Bank and Westpac including 13 years in London. Rupert was also a Board member of the former QTC joint venture Local Government Infrastructure Services.
From July 2018, Rupert was appointed Managing Director, Corporate Services and Chief Risk Officer. Prior to moving into this role, Rupert has led both the Risk and Financial Operations Division and Client Services Division. His experience in financial markets, enables him to focus on managing risk and that the organisational needs and are supported to meet its strategic objectives.
Rupert attributes QTC’s success to its genuine client focus that ensures we deliver valued products and services to make the right difference and drive continual improvement
Joanne Smith serves as the CMIO of Blackmores Group. A proud wife to Tony and Mum to two daughters aged 16 and 13, Joanne loves exercising, being outdoors, reading and learning, eating great food and celebrating life's special moments with friends and family. Joanne is looking forward to connecting with the world again in person, instead of through a screen.
Proud wife and mum to two daughters aged 16 and 13, I love exercising, being outdoors, ocean swimming, reading and learning, eating great food and celebrating life's special moments with champagne. I want to enjoy experiences over objects and I miss being out in the world. I am hopeful for a future where we can connect with the world again in person instead of through a screen.
Over 25 years of extensive global MNC marketing and commercial leadership experience. An experienced global senior leader (Unilever, Johnson & Johnson, DuluxGroup and Blackmores Group) with deep experience across ANZ, North America (8 years), EU and Asia (8 years). High level competencies in global and regional business and brand development, growth strategies, transformational organisational change and leadership of global teams. An excellent record of developing and launching successful business models and first to market innovation, and purpose led brand communication strategies.
Senior leadership roles include Global Marketing Director Unilever (NY,USA) , Regional Director J&J (Singapore), Global Marketing Director DuluxGroup (Sydney), Chief Marketing and Innovation Officer at Blackmores Group. Commercially driven with a highly respected track record of delivering profitable growth, working collaboratively across cultures, and developing teams. MBA with an International Business major.
In December 2021 Domenic Capomolla was appointed to the role of CEO of Pacific Hydro Australia, with responsibility for the company’s businesses in Australia.
Prior to his appointment as Interim CEO, Domenic was CEO of Tango Energy, Pacific Hydro’s retail arm, since 2018. Since its launch in 2016, Tango Energy has established itself as one of the fastest growing electricity retailers in Australia, and has won a number of consumer awards including the Canstar Blue award for Most Satisfied Customers – Electricity Providers, VIC 2018.
With a history of starting and operating energy retailers in Australia and Asia, Domenic has held chief executive and senior executive roles with Sumo Power, where he was founder, Alinta Energy, Simply Energy/International Power and Sembcorp Power (Singapore) spanning 20 years. He has established a reputation of taking start up energy retailers and growing them into established, high performing profitable and customer focussed businesses. Domenic has formal tertiary qualifications in Mathematics and Applied Finance.
Melissa is the Chief Financial & Operations Officer for hipages. Melissa is a Senior Executive with extensive experience across digital, technology, eCommerce, media, retail, travel, corporate development, private equity and financial services and markets.
Melissa has experience preparing businesses for IPO / sale, restructuring / turnarounds, strategy, M&A, integration and implementing transformational change.
Melissa commenced her career with PwC and spent 10 years overseas where she spent the majority of the time as an Investment Executive for Henderson Private Equity. Melissa returned to Australia at the end of 2011 when she joined APN, now HT&E as a Finance Director in their Digital division. Melissa then spent 5 years as the Group CFO of Lux Group / Luxury Escapes, one of Australia’s largest e-commerce businesses. Melissa has vast experience in working with high growth, fast paced businesses.
Melissa holds a Bachelor of Commerce Degree, majoring in Accountancy and sub major in Law. She is a Chartered Accountant and has a Graduate Diploma in Applied Finance and Investment.
Appointed as UGL's Chief Operating Officer in 2020 after leading governance and risk across the business since 2014. Extensive experience having held senior executive and project management positions in the general contracting and infrastructure sectors of the construction industry for over 35 years.
In addition to my current COO responsibilities, I am also Chair of Australian Terminal Operations Pty Ltd (a joint venture between BP Australia and UGL). Previously, I was also Chair of UGL Unipart Pty. Ltd. (a joint venture between Unipart and UGL) and Chair of the Inpex MEC-1 Contractor Steering Committee (a joint venture between Kentz and UGL).
Prior to joining UGL, I was Group General Manager – Commercial at Tenix and held key senior executive positions at St Hillier’s. I am also the recipient of various industry awards.
I hold a Bachelor of Building from the University of New South Wales and am a graduate member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
John Biviano is the current Chief Executive Officer of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS) and has been in the role for 3 years, from 2019, and previously the Deputy CEO since 2015. He has over 40 years of experience working in the health sector, including working in medical colleges, teaching hospitals and in government. For the past 14 years he has worked in senior executive roles in two of the largest specialist medical colleges in Australasia, with expertise in leadership and culture, partner engagement and collaboration, strategic policy development, professional standards, and government relations. While at RACS he has had major involvement in the development and implementation of various sustainability in healthcare initiatives, the indigenous health strategy, and the Building Respect Improving Patient Care Action Plan.
He holds a Bachelor of Applied Science in Medical Laboratory Science, a Masters in Management, specialising in Leadership, and is a Fellow of the Institute of Managers and Leaders and a Graduate of the Australian Institute Company Directors.
Focused on creating value, by providing experiences that leave customers, the company and the community better off. Benjamin Zeccola is the CEO for Palace Cinemas. An entrepreneurial problem solver who delights in promoting the talent of the people around him, further enabling them to make their unique contribution. Quick to smile with a real love of learning, a (not always fluent) speaker of 4 languages, a movie fan and an avid reader with over 27 years experience demonstrating innovation and achievement, with a wide range of skills acquired in roles in Exhibition (Retail) and Distribution and skilled in Leadership, General Management, Business Development, Marketing, Sponsorship, Acquisitions, Production and Sales. Also sits on various boards and was Winner of the 2017 CEO AWARD from the Independent Cinemas Association of Australia.
Karen Winfield a wife, doing her best at raising 3 smart, caring and beautiful daughters, looking after a dog, 5 horses and a global training business. Let's just say I like to keep myself busy and I love a good juggle and for sanity I like to take myself on hikes.
Around 20 years ago I found my niche which was making a difference in people's lives through education. I had an opportunity and a way to inspire them to grow and I didn't want this to be limited to just me. Hence PD Training was born. 12 years later, PD Training is in 6 countries, over 300 trainers in our network, and have just started a new sister business, pdtrainingglobal.com which is a virtual only training provider.
I enjoy my companies and what they achieve for our clients.
I am an accomplished executive, with a strong strategic mindset, who delivers results through helping the organisation to maximise its investment in technology and ensure technology retains a strong service and customer focus.
I am a change agent, who possesses excellent leadership skills, strong communication and inter-personal skills, ability to engage and influence senior business and IT stakeholders, strong operations management, extensive team development and capability development skills, and ability to negotiate, establish and maintain strong partnering relationships with external suppliers.
I put myself on the line for complex adaptive challenges, whether these are about leading technological transformation or cultural transformation.This is what gets me out of bed every morning and is without a doubt my over-arching life purpose.
I have diverse industry experience having worked across Banking and Financial Services, Resources (primarily Utilities), Professional Services and the Government sector.
I am passionate about diversity and inclusion and co-founded the ground breaking NAB Women in Technology Program in 2014. I also am a Company Director of NAB’s broker licensing company.
For fun, I am a keen amateur interior designer and to keep me sane and my energy levels up I train three times a week with a trainer.
Hayley is the Chief Executive Officer of Melba Support Services and has more than 30 years of experience in the disability sector. She is an innovative, experienced leader, having led organisations through complex change. Hayley brings a wealth of knowledge in service design, governance and compliance.
Hayley was Melba’s Chief Outcomes Officer for four years before becoming CEO in 2020. As the COO, Hayley oversaw Melba’s successful tender for the transfer of government group homes. In under 12 months, Melba transformed from a small, regional service to one of Victoria’s largest disability service providers – expanding across the state, quadrupling its revenue and doubling the number of people supported.
Hayley is passionate about putting power in the hands of the person with a disability to live the life they choose. Hayley has focused on people’s human rights throughout her career – in the early 1990s, she co-designed many innovative approaches, including one of the first brokerage respite programs. Her experience includes three years as MOIRA’s Chief Operating Officer, where she implemented a human rights framework of service delivery and a complete service redesign.
Hayley currently serves on the Lilydale Revitalisation Board and the National Disability Services State Committee. She is a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and has a Bachelor of Arts in psychology and disability from Deakin University.
David Noon is co-founder and CEO of GroundProbe, and co-inventor of the patented Slope Stability Radar technology. David has led the successful global commercialisation of this new technology, which is now considered world’s best practice in mining with many hundreds of installations across over 30 countries.
In 2018, GroundProbe was acquired by Orica Ltd, the world’s largest provider of commercial explosives and innovative blasting systems for mining, quarrying, and construction markets.
David has completed executive management and entrepreneurial training at Stanford University and MIT. He has been honored with prestigious awards as a technology innovator, entrepreneur, commercialiser and outstanding contributor to the global mining industry.
David is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering (ATSE) and current Queensland Division Chair.
David is a founding Board member and passionate supporter of the Wonder of Science Program. This program promotes an exciting and accessible STEM culture to middle/high schools students, teachers, principals and parents through STEM challenge tasks led by a PhD student cohort of “Young Science Ambassadors”.
