speakers:

PANEL DISCUSSION: How can we create a more inclusive, fair and functional workplace?

Jane works at Commonwealth Bank in her current role as EGM Human Resources. This role sees her lead the Human Resources team that supports the Bank’s Group CIO and Chief Operations Office teams, including CBA India  - circa 15k employees. She also leads the Learning centre of excellence for the group.

Her work background has spanned consulting, strategy & transformation and human resources roles across a number of industries. In these roles she has operated as both an advisor and an executive on business and people strategy, designing and achieving transformation and business improvement. She is passionate about transformation and supporting organisations and skilling people get ready for the future of work.

Qualifications and Professional Associations:

• Graduate – Australian Institute of Company Directors

• Master of Science, Applied Psychology (First Class Honours) - University of Canterbury

• Diploma for Graduates, Management - University of Otago

• Bachelor of Arts, Psychology - University of Otago

ROUNDTABLE 6: Successfully implementing technology in your business – getting buy-in and managing risk

After converting from a career in Journalism at Fairfax in a previous life in Auckland, Dominique cut her teeth in web at a digital agency in Melbourne, where she was exposed to over 50 website and application projects in just 4 years – pre-empting a move into Information Technology in the University sector. It was here she worked in an innovation hub at Deakin, as part of a broader technical team, building revolutionary online platforms from the ground up. Since then, she has lead the operations and strategy of the online learning environments at RMIT during the pandemic, and now works as the Chief Information Officer at Melbourne-based Federal Government agency, The Australian Institute of Family Studies, where she is continuing her journey of IT leadership, transformation and delivery as a public servant.

CASE STUDY: Using tech to amplify customer engagement & customer spending by 27.5%

Katrina is a dynamic leader, highly skilled in creative thinking and delivering commercial outcomes in businesses at the forefront of digital, data and tech. Currently CEO at me&u, Katrina is spearheading the global transformation of how the world orders and pays at hospitality venues.

Prior to me&u, Katrina had a foundation in strategy consulting with McKinsey, to executive start-up roles within the Virgin Group and transformational executive tenures with BT Financial Group, Contiki and Trafalgar Tours. In addition, Katrina is an experienced Non-Executive Director currently serving on the Boards of Webjet and Petsure Australia.

PANEL DISCUSSION: How can you maximise tech in the workplace while navigating the disruption and risk?

PANEL DISCUSSION: How do you balance generative AI’s many opportunities with the evolving risks?

Professor Hind Benbya is Founding Director of the Centre for AI and the Future of Business at Deakin University in Melbourne. She has 20+ years international leadership experience in diverse research, engagement and education roles including Head of School, Faculty Head, department chair and Director of a research centre.  

She has previously served on the faculties of Montpellier Business (FR), and held visiting positions in Oxford University (UK), Cambridge Judge Business School (UK), The London School of Economics (UK), Georgia State University (USA), University of California, Los Angeles (USA), and Grenoble School of Management (France). She also worked as consultant for many companies in the Silicon Valley (e.g., HP, Cisco) in the US, in IBM (Italy) and STMicroelectronics (Switzerland and Morocco). Her work appeared in top academic (e.g., MISQ, JMIS, JIT) and practitioner journals (e.g., MIT Sloan Management Review & MISQ Executive) and she is author/editor of four books.

PANEL DISCUSSION: What do you need to become an effective leader in tech?

Amanda is General Manager Technology for HESTA. She is a strategic technology executive with 10+ years of experience driving innovative technology strategies and complex cloud solutions within competitive commercial environments. Amanda has proven experience in delivering adaptive and agile IT solutions and guiding businesses through digital transformation to ensure increased competitiveness and profitability.

Amanda joined HESTA in July 2023 and is responsible for ensuring that technology remains a competitive advantage for HESTA and its members, creating a future-ready vision through the formation and execution of the enterprise-wide IT strategy.

Prior to joining HESTA, Amanda was the Chief Information Officer at Gadens, where as a member of the executive management team, she was responsible for the strategic development, delivery and support of information and digital solutions. In this role Amanda was instrumental in Gadens being recognised as a leader in technology and one of Australia’s most innovative law firms.

Session: Opening remarks from the Chair

Renece Brewster is the CEO and co-founder of Visual Domain, Australia’s largest in-house video production agency. Under her leadership, Visual Domain was acquired by News Corp in October 2021, further accelerating its growth and opportunities.

Renece has a passion for emerging tech and has partnered with her hustle and grit to build a multidisciplinary business that spans multiple industries. She is also the CoManaging Director of Girls in Tech, a global non-profit organization that aims to empower women in technology.

As an early adopter of new technologies and business practices, Renece knows when a good idea is worth backing – which has led to Visual Domain's growth with over 100+ creatives across Sydney, and Melbourne. As a young mum herself, she gained firsthand experience of the entrenched biases against women – especially mothers – trying to build their careers. Now that she’s come out the other side, she’s determined to make it easier for others who want to follow in her footsteps.

Renece is driven by the belief that there's no limit to what women can achieve. She loves helping people figure out how they can use their skills and talents to reach their goals.

CASE STUDY: Securing a competitive advantage: evaluating, implementing & updating your generative AI strategy

Sarah is the Chief Technology Officer for Microsoft ANZ, where she leads the technical strategy, vision, and execution for our largest and most strategic customers. Prior to Microsoft Sarah served in the Australian army, followed by a decade travelling the world and working across a broad range of industries in both Europe and the Middle East. She has supported Think Tanks, built custom business applications and attended ballet for a living. Her varied experience and perspective across industries brought her back to Australia, first to telecommunications, and then to IT.

PANEL DISCUSSION: How can we create a more inclusive, fair and functional workplace?

An experienced people manager and leader, I am passionate about achieving business growth through establishing and maintaining a supportive and encouraging culture, building and sustaining a successful business model and developing and supporting great people.

Specialties:
- Operational Management 
- Business Planning & Strategy
- People Development & Management
- Customer and Revenue Protection
- Creating Culture
- Sales & Relationship Management

Originally studying as a Youth Worker, I changed careers and found myself head over heels for the tech world. Since that change, I have not left the tech field and feel enamoured by the way tech can enhance our lives, simplifying processes, increasing capabilities and creating opportunities. 

Further, having a variety of learned experiences in my career and knowing the feeling of being supported and advocated for, I am continuously looking for ways to give back to my community and to others. I have sat on a number of NFP Boards and get involved in other organisations through volunteer work. My goal in life is to leave the world as I know it, in a better place.

PANEL DISCUSSION: What do you need to become an effective leader in tech?

Leeanne is an experienced senior executive with a passion for driving value using large scale transformation programs through the nexus of data, technology, people and innovation.

With a proven track record of leading disparate teams across strategy, delivery and technology experience in both private and public sectors, Leeanne has delivered sustained improvements in customer and user experience, operational efficiencies and data and technology innovation.
A collaborative and people focussed leader, Leeanne has a reputation for building diverse and high performing teams while growing and strengthening organisational capabilities.

PANEL DISCUSSION: What do you need to become an effective leader in tech?

INSIDE THE INDUSTRY: Zoë Condliffe’s path to gender advocacy and making women safer through tech

Zoë Condliffe is a data activist, gender advocate, public speaker, researcher and Founder & CEO of She’s A Crowd.

Zoe Condliffe was inducted into the Victorian Honour Roll of Women in 2022.

Zoë started her first social enterprise in rural Cambodia and has since gained experience across the university, NGO and start-up sectors, becoming an outspoken leader in the social change sector. Zoe has been named one of the Top 100 most influential, creative and provocative people in Melbourne by The Age, one of the Women’s Weekly Women of the Future for Innovation and Technology in 2019 and her company was listed on the Smart Company Smart30 List for in 2018 and 2019. She has also been the winner of multiple pitch competitions including the City of Melbourne Knowledge Week International Prize. She is a SheStarts alumni, and was sponsored by Google for Startups to travel to San Francisco to participate in the Blackbox Accelerator Program. She was a Young Social Pioneer with the Foundation for Young Australians, and she is a Finalist for the Victorian Young Achiever Awards 2020.

In 2016 Zoë started working in gender and youth advocacy for Plan International Australia, where she pioneered the digital crowdmapping tool for street harassment, Free To Be, the Youth Activist Series and Girls’ Walks. From there she decided to start her company She’s A Crowd, to leverage the power of storytelling to address the gender data gap.

SKILLS SPOTLIGHT: It’s not all about technical expertise – developing the often overlooked skills you need for your tech career

Lisa’s key strength is my ability to develop effective working relationships, with a diverse group of stakeholders, at various levels within her organisation, and the broader government and private sector community. This ability enables her to effectively identify business needs, through stakeholder engagement and negotiation, and implement frameworks, strategies, policies and compliance mechanisms to ensure effective measures are in place.

The skills Lisa developed during my academic studies in psychology and her MBA, and various professional roles, allows her to take both a strategic and operational approach when implementing an organisation’s strategic objectives and operational requirements that align to both government and international standards. 

Lisa’s ability to lead and engage effectively with my team has resulted in increased individual and team performance, during periods of organisational change and ensured the successful implementation of business unit deliverables.

PANEL DISCUSSION: How can we create a more inclusive, fair and functional workplace?

Dr Marguerite Evans-Galea AM is an accomplished scientist, executive, board chair and director. She is Director of the Cell & Gene Catalyst, a national joint venture of two industry peak bodies, AusBiotech and Medicines Australia. Together with an expert steering group of industry partners, Dr Evans-Galea leads the strategic direction, development and delivery of the Catalyst with the aim of ensuring everyone in Australia has ready access to world-class advanced therapeutics such as CAR-T immunotherapies for cancer, and cell & gene therapies and gene-editing for debilitating inherited diseases. 

Prior to this, Dr Evans-Galea was Director, STEM Careers Strategy at the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences & Engineering (ATSE) where she led the strategic development and delivery of ATSE’s $43M portfolio of prestigious national STEM Careers initiatives, including Elevate: Boosting Women in STEM funded by the Department of Industry, Science and Resources; the IMNIS Industry engagement initiative; and the STELR STEM Education program. 

During her 18-year research career, Dr Evans-Galea led international pre-clinical research programs in cell and gene therapy for inherited diseases at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in the United States and at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute in Australia. She has received multiple awards for her research and leadership. Dr Evans-Galea is also an experienced consultant, editor, author and peer reviewer. 

An advocate for STEMM research, education and innovation, Dr Evans-Galea routinely engages and collaborates across multiple professional sectors in the broader STEM ecosystem and has served with government advisory groups. She communicates on a range of science-related topics via social and mainstream media. 

Strongly committed to diversity and allyship, Dr Evans-Galea co-founded Women in STEMM Australia and is now an ambassador. She served on the SAGE Expert Advisory Group and the first Ministerial Council for Women’s Equality in Victoria. She is an inductee in the Victorian Honour Roll of Women and has also represented Australia at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Women in STEM & Entrepreneurship meetings. 

Dr Evans-Galea has an Australian Leadership Award and the Vice-Chancellor's Alumni Excellence Award from The University of Queensland and is a Member of the Order of Australia (AM).

Session: Masterclass B: Generative AI fundamentals - building your essential AI toolkit

SKILLS SPOTLIGHT: Leading through technical expertise: balancing technical proficiency with leadership skills

Leigh is a technology executive with extensive experience delivering complex and high profile outcomes at scale while also building and maintaining happy and motivated teams. She is an executive with an active interest in architecture and connecting technology outcomes to business value. And is an active sponsor who enjoys seeing engineers progress and succeed in their careers. 

CIO50 Australia 2020. Twice Red Hat APAC innovation award winner 2020 - Digital Innovation + Cloud Native Development

Former Founder and Director. Alumna of ANZ, London Olympics, Telstra, Suncorp, Melbourne Commonwealth Games and more.

Session: Opening remarks from the Chair

INSIDE THE INDUSTRY: Zoë Condliffe’s path to gender advocacy and making women safer through tech

SKILLS SPOTLIGHT: 3 strategies to set yourself up for success as a leader in tech

INSIDE THE INDUSTRY: Katherine King’s technology journey to software CEO

Kathryn Green is an Executive MBA qualified and technically certified career technology professional with a passion for delivering great business solutions while consistently striving for an exceptional customer experience.

Kathryn is the Director of Digital Technology, CIO & CISO at ARPANSA, Australia’s peak body for radiation protection and nuclear safety and has recently completed the AICD Company Directors Course.

Kathryn established ARPANSA’s first Digital Strategy, Digital Technology Plan and Platform and Systems Roadmap and is guiding the agency through the digital transformation journey with a focus on adaptive user experience. A key focus is implementing a Cybersecurity Plan to ensure the agency is well equipped to succeed in the ever challenging security environment.

Kathryn values supporting people to achieve their best, getting to know the real problem behind a business issue and promoting Digital technology to achieve business success.

PANEL DISCUSSION: What do you need to become an effective leader in tech?

As a leader, Merissa delivers business wide transformation in environments that are complex and data rich, supporting omni-channel retail across B2B and B2C markets.

With over twenty years’ experience in technology leadership, Merissa is highly commercial and results focused, and has delivered successful transformations that spans digital and in-store retail; business intelligence and category planning; and process development and improvement outcomes.

She is passionate about using technology to innovate and drive value, and excel in bringing together multifaceted technical solutions to solve complex business problems by drawing on my strong abstract thinking capability, engaging stakeholder management and leadership experience across IT Business Applications, Digital, Retail and Program Delivery.

Merissa thrives in large, complex omni-channel transformation environments, focused on delivering growth and expanding their market reach.

PANEL DISCUSSION: What do you need to become an effective leader in tech?

Jo is a business and technology leader with over 25 years experience leading transformations at top-tier firms across diverse sectors including banks, superfunds, the resource and public sector. She has led very large culturally diverse teams across multiple geographies in complex organisations including ANZ, NAB, BHP Billiton, AustralianSuper and the Future Fund. Jo is known for her operational and commercial success, building expert teams and operating models and carefully analysing situations and stakeholders to get the right outcomes for companies, people and communities.

Before her role as Divisional Chief Information Officer for Group Services, She was the General Manager, Risk Technology at ANZ. Prior to ANZ, she was Head of Technology Business Management at AustralianSuper and Director Technology Strategy at Future Fund.

Jo is a passionate advocate for gender diversity and has sponsored over 100 talented women to undertake women in leadership training in the last year #WomenRising. She participates as a coach and openly shares the challenges and opportunities in leadership and she is proud to have driven diversity in our business.  It’s simple - you hire great women, they hire more great women!

Session: Masterclass A: Leadership skills for women in tech

Catherine firmly believes that every leader has a powerful contribution to make to the world. But they can’t do it alone. They need to connect with and influence their team, customers, suppliers, investors and networks to support them on the journey. And this requires effective leadership communication.

In fact, as the world leverages the power of technology, digital and social media, virtual reality, automation and AI, the power of - and need for - effective interpersonal communication skills grows stronger, especially for leaders.

It’s with this in mind, that Catherine’s mission is to equip both current and future leaders and with the knowledge, skills, resources and confidence to communicate in a way that connects more meaningfully with their stakeholders and increases their ability to influence others so they can achieve their goals and make a positive impact.

For over 20 years, through her individual coaching, group workshops and strategic consultancy, Catherine has empowered leaders at Fortune 500 organisations, some of Australia’s leading corporates and small-to-medium businesses, as well as entrepreneurs as they launch and scale their start-ups to realise their full potential.

She hopes she can do the same for you.

PANEL DISCUSSION: How can we create a more inclusive, fair and functional workplace?

I am a thought leader passionate about helping businesses leverage data as a strategic asset to solve problems and identify new opportunities. With over 17 years of experience in a number of data disciplines such as Analytics, Insights, Reporting, Data Science, AI/ML, Data Governance & Quality, I take pride in driving customer and commercial value through effective use of data. Lately my focus has been on building data rich culture in the organisations by uplifting data literacy, improving data trust worthiness and promoting self-serve capabilities.

Outside of work, I volunteer as a Girls Liason director for a not-for-profit organisation called "Go-Girl, Go for IT'' which is a part of VIC ICT for women. Go-Girl is mainly focussed on helping young girls from the age of 10-17 understand and develop interest for career in STEM.

I have 2 beautiful children, a boy aged 8 and girl 5 and work - life balance is an important input into my everyday decision-making.

Session: Synthetic media and deepfake detection

Dr Jyoti Joshi, founder and CEO of Kroop AI, is a research scientist with a doctorate in affective computing from University of Canberra, Australia. She has done research at several academic institutions including Monash University, University of Waterloo, Australian National University, University of Pittsburgh and Queen Mary University of London. She has also worked at Cadence Design Systems in a product development team. She has received several awards including finalist of Google Anita Borg Scholarship in APAC, the Fiorella De Rosis honour as a recognition of her research work by Humaine Association Conference on Affective Computing and Intelligent Interaction, finalist to ‘Future Women Leaders Conference’ jointly hosted by University of Melbourne and Monash University.

INSIDE THE INDUSTRY: Katherine King’s technology journey to software CEO

Dr Katherine King is the CEO of Yarris Technologies and co-founder of Dazychain matter management software for corporate legal teams.

Katherine's PhD is from Boston University where she studied the interaction between people and computers, leading to a career focused on developing and implementing software that people can actually use and enjoy, and changing the way people work.

Before joining Yarris, Katherine worked as Corporate Director at a large hospital, the Global Head of Learning Platforms and Recruitment at an international bank, and the Head of Development for the postal service. What links this all together?

Katherine's goal is to bring people together to use technology to improve our working and personal lives.

Session: Masterclass B: Generative AI fundamentals - building your essential AI toolkit

Samantha Lengyel is the Co-founder and CEO of Decoded.AI, an Australian startup focused on managing and investing in AI risk. She spent the past 5 years leading a research team on a mission to redefine AI as a cultural practice of ceding decision-making to autonomous systems that actively co-shape us. Sam is the youngest female founder to have taken a company through APAC's premier cyber accelerator, CyRise, has secured both state and federal funding for their work, is an alumnus of the Griffin Accelerator and Canberra Cyber-Security Business Accelerator, was awarded the Australian Women in Security The One to Watch in IT Security in 2022 and runner up of APAC Women in AI Awards - AI in Innovation 2023.

PANEL DISCUSSION: How do you balance generative AI’s many opportunities with the evolving risks?

Xi Liang is the Head of AI and Data Products at Judo Bank, leading Data Analytics, Business Insights, Data Science and Data Product teams. She has more than a decade of experience in data and AI and has built and implemented advanced analytics strategies for multiple international companies in Australia, US, China, and Japan. Prior to joining Judo Bank, she was Practice Lead of Data Science, Analytics and BI at Endeavour Group, leading more than 80 data specialists in delivering data initiatives that brought in double-digit millions of dollars incremental sales for Endeavour Group. She established their data science capability from scratch to more than 40 Data Scientists and Machine Learning Engineers in 2 years. She spent 4 years at McKinsey to advise more than 10 companies in setting up their advanced analytics strategy and capabilities. She owns 4 patents in AI and published more than 10 scientific papers at renowned international journals and conferences.

PANEL DISCUSSION: How can you maximise tech in the workplace while navigating the disruption and risk?

Susanne inspires teams and individuals to deliver better outcomes, faster by putting the customer and employees at the heart of everything they do.

Those that work with Susanne will get:

• A leader who will passionately advocates the “New Ways of Working philosophy”

• Technical knowledge to bring the best outcomes for the business

• A strong leader who can delivers transformation and transition for large-scale complex initiatives

• Key partnerships developed and stakeholders influenced at the highest levels

• Expertise in building and leading high performing diverse teams

Susanne has worked in technology & transformational leadership with a track record delivering business strategies through Employee Experience, Workplace, Service Management, Cloud, Networks, Automation, Marketing, HR, and Program Delivery. She is experience in delivering end to end; from strategy development through to execution. She is known for being outcome focused using her pragmatic approach to delivery.

Her industry experience includes Financial Services, Transport, Health, IT vendors, Tourism and Utilities.

PANEL DISCUSSION: How can you maximise tech in the workplace while navigating the disruption and risk?

Georgia leads Technology Strategy for Coles Group, where her focus is on leveraging technology to deliver corporate strategy, drive growth and transformation. She is based in Melbourne and has 20 years’ experience in shaping and driving large scale business and digital transformations, across Retail, Healthcare, Utilities and Telco. She is an expert in aligning technology with overall business objectives, to enable organizations to realize the full potential of their tech investments. With expertise in corporate strategy, operating models, workforce, and talent strategies, she takes a holistic approach in order to improve speed to market, customer experience, empower the workforce and reduce cost to serve. She is passionate about harnessing the power of technology to drive positive change and is Co-chair for Coles Gender Equity Team Member Network.

PANEL DISCUSSION: How can you maximise tech in the workplace while navigating the disruption and risk?

Nicole Pelchen was appointed Chief Technology Officer on 4 October 2021.

Nicole has over 25 years’ experience in the technology and banking industries. Nicole was most recently Chief Information Officer, Retail and Commercial at ANZ, where she was responsible for technology including digital, data and automation programs, leading teams across Australia, China and India.

Prior to ANZ, Nicole held various leading technology, transformation, IT operations, digital and strategy roles. For a large part of her career, she worked at IBM in Australia and Europe, where she partnered with clients across several sectors including the public sector, financial services, telecommunications, resources and consumer goods across multiple geographic regions.

Nicole holds a Bachelor of Applied Science and is a graduate of the AICD Company Directors Course (GAICD).

PANEL DISCUSSION: How can you maximise tech in the workplace while navigating the disruption and risk?

Colleen is a technology leader with over 20 years working in various industries including IT, Finance, Logistics and Local/State Government. She has significant experience leading technology transformations, large-scale releases and projects.

Colleen is currently working at the National Australia Bank on a major migration program which is one of the largest the bank has delivered. Colleen has worked with senior client and vendor stakeholders spanning over multiple international locations. She has a strong delivery focus and excels at finding solutions to challenges. Her strong communication and negotiation skills help her to operate effectively in complex environments and achieve the best outcomes for organisations and customers. She is a passionate leader and coach who empowers individuals and inspires teams to drive change and continuous improvement.

Colleen has a love of learning, with a Masters of Business Administration, a Masters of Information Systems Management and a Bachelor’s degree in Business Systems. She also holds multiple project management, technology and cloud certifications, with her latest accomplishment being a Diploma of Building and Construction.

Session: What the latest international tech trends mean for Australian businesses & people in tech

Lucy leads the Digital Strategy, Architecture and Discovery Division which focuses on providing whole of government strategic leadership to the development and implementation of digital policies, the Australian Government Architecture as well as the Data and Digital Government Strategy. 

In this role, Lucy also oversees the management of the government’s digital investment pipeline to ensure an integrated and coordinated approach to government’s investment in digital and ICT.

A key priority for Lucy is driving the achievement of the Australian Government’s vision to implement world class digital capabilities to deliver outstanding outcomes for all. This includes the analysis of how emerging technologies can better support the delivery of simple, secure and connected services for all people and businesses.

Prior to joining the DTA, Lucy held senior executive roles at the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet and the Australian Public Service Commission where she led several transformation programs. Lucy has experience across a range of sectors including Australian federal and state governments, the private sector and the UK civil service.

Session: Strengthening Australia’s tech workforce: challenges, opportunities and changing the status quo

Kate is an experienced tech policy expert and senior executive who has worked across the public, private and non-profit sectors.

She is the CEO of the Tech Council of Australia, the peak body representing the Australian tech sector. Before her time in consulting, she spent 15 years working in technology policy roles with the Australian Industry Group, National ICT Australia (NICTA), Network Ten, and the Federal Government.

Kate is passionate about growing Australia's tech sector, creating new jobs and businesses, and helping all Australian businesses make the most of tech adoption.

Session: 3 paths to a diverse and more productive workplace: leadership, policies & collaboration

Miranda is the CIO of Group Business Units for Westpac. She is a leader of large scale and complex technological and digital transformations. Miranda has developed strategic and tactical direction, built high performing teams and enabled service to uplift to customer experiences. Her leadership, focus and business direction results in improved engagement and productivity through enhanced employee experience, delivering significantly engaged teams who have more time to delight customers. Driving excellence in product delivery is key to having systems that provide the right experience - Miranda has 25 years of global experience and is a master of this craft. Her experience spans Federal Government, Telecommunications and Financial Services sectors across Europe, Asia and Australia. Community is a strong anchor for Miranda, and she is also a volunteer yoga teacher. Miranda is passionate about diversity and promoting women in Technology

PANEL DISCUSSION: What do you need to become an effective leader in tech?

Mirella Robinson brings extensive digital, technology & data experience in corporate, IT, business and marketing strategy to Cbus. She has delivered operational improvement; hands on digital capability and e-commerce solutions across the finance, telecommunications, media, retail utility, gaming and banking sectors.

Mirella has been acting Chief Data Officer at Latitude Financial Services, and held technology roles at ANZ Bank, Sportsbet, Origin Energy, Sensis and AXA Australia before the role of Chief Information Technology Officer at Cbus Super. Mirella’s experience is supported by an MBA from Swinburne University.

ROUNDTABLE 3: Nurturing confidence, resilience and tenacity in yourself in your teams

Hannah is a versatile technology leader, with an extensive background of over 22 years in areas such as information systems, software engineering, and forward-thinking architectural solutions. Her focus in the past decade has been on engineering leadership and delivering transformative initiatives. She excels at shaping a cohesive vision for her domain that supports organisational strategies, managing risks and unlocking business value through technology.

In her current role at SEEK, Hannah is committed to fostering a culture defined by exceptional performance, embracing diversity, delivering technical innovations, and nurturing the development of emerging leaders.

Before her tenure at SEEK, she was employed by Coles Group, where her responsibilities included strengthening the mission and objectives of delivery teams and establishing a clear connection between team goals and the overarching group vision, strategy, and customer roadmaps. During this time, she transformed the integration technology landscape ensuring alignment between technology and business strategies. 

Hannah embarked on her professional journey as a technology consultant and subsequently took on various roles at Super Partners, Link Group and RMIT University.

Her academic qualifications include a Master of Business Administration degree and a Bachelor of Engineering degree.

ROUNDTABLE 1: Finding your career path: How I went from accountant to CIO

Angela Ryan was an accountant by profession, but moved into Information Technology many years ago and has never looked back! 

Leveraging her commercial skills, she has built a career in IT and General Management that has seen her head up significant IT teams, lead large (successful) enterprise-wide projects and contribute to a senior leadership team of successful Australian companies.

PANEL DISCUSSION: How can we create a more inclusive, fair and functional workplace?

Alex is a pragmatic and dedicated design leader; juggler of life who loves to inhabit the ‘getting things done’ space between design and development. 

She has over 12 years digital experience as an interactive visual designer in advertising, digital agencies and e-commerce. 

She is all about systems thinking, building high functioning design teams and creating intuitive experiences that customers love to use. Currently, Alex is executing on a 5-year strategic vision for Jira Software at Atlassian, through an insanely talented group of content and product designers. 

Alex is also a board member for the Australian Web Industry Association.

CASE STUDY: Seamlessly integrating new technology to align with business goals and objectives

Jenny was appointed Chief Technology Officer of Football Australia in October 2021.

Prior to joining Football Australia, Jenny forged an award-winning career in SaaS technology, financial services, management consulting, resources, and industrial with leading firms such as NAB, AMP, Dai-ichi TAL, ORIX, Chevron-owned Caltex, Shell, BHP, Weir Group, AT Kearney, Standard Chartered, Zurich Financial, Cuscal, Sage Group which sponsored 2018 Invictus Games, and Halliburton KBR Kinhill which provided services for Sydney Olympics and Melbourne F1 Grand Prix.

Jenny co-founded ABTY, an international digital art start-up and business technology consultancy. She is passionate about building business success and delivering technology for great experience, value, and growth. Jenny has held leadership roles in digital, technology, innovation, data, strategy, programs, and operations across multiple industries.

Jenny served in directorship roles, in parallel with her corporate career, at leading organisations such as Engineers Australia, NDIS accommodation & services provider The Housing Connection, and University of Technology. She helped nurture industry talent as a Mentor for Women in Banking and Finance, and Ambassador for Sustainable People Solution’s Leadership Alliance Program with member organisations including Australian Army, Infrastructure NSW, Transport NSW, Bechtel, John Holland, AECOM, Clayton Utz, Minter Ellison, Roberts Co, Architectus, and E3 Advisory. 

Jenny inherited her Dad’s love of football and personally understands the games’ ability to transcend culture, languages, and circumstances. Jenny holds a Master of Business Administration from the Australian Graduate School of Management and Bachelor of Engineering from the University of Queensland. She is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and is a member of Fishburners Start-up Founders Hub.

CASE STUDY: Developing new skills, strategies & flexibility to manage the impact of AI and automation on the tech workforce

I am the Michael J Crouch Chair for Innovation at UNSW where I collaborate to grow entrepreneurship and accelerate innovative thinking in Australia. Micheal Crouch was an inspiring Australian entrepreneur and business leader. He was a visionary and extraordinarily generous benefactor. In 2017 Michael Crouch was appointed Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) for eminent service to the community through philanthropic contributions to youth, cultural, medical research and health care organisations, to business in the areas of manufacturing and international trade, and as a supporter of innovation and higher education.

I have pioneered unique transdisciplinary approaches in AI, innovation, venture, cognitive science, computer science, robotics, and human-AI collaboration. I have led 12 research teams to international competitions and world championships. I have led numerous projects technology-enabled innovation and built solutions using AI, Design Thinking, Experimentation, and Analytics. Our industry and government partners included Roche, EY, South Western Sydney Local Health District, IBM, Google, Disrupt, Linkedin, bigtincan, Willow Garage (now Savioke), Amazon, Visual Risk, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Denmark's National Bank, Samsung, Sony, and Softbank.

ROUNDTABLE 5: Building effective cyber security measures

Christie is an accomplished Cyber Resilience Manager at UniSuper, using her extensive expertise to empower employees in understanding and mitigating cyber security threats. With a unique blend of technical acumen and business acuity, Christie delivers straightforward and accessible guidance to safeguard both work and personal environments from cyber risks. Her ability to provide up-to-the-minute insights on the latest threats and effective response strategies is highly valued by the organisation.

With a remarkable career spanning over 25 years in the IT industry, Christie has excelled in diverse roles across vendors and corporate settings. Before transitioning into the dynamic field of cyber security, she garnered invaluable experience in sales, service delivery, management, vendor governance, and IT governance, risk, and compliance.

Christie’s academic achievements further complement her practical expertise. She holds a BA in English Literature and Sociology, as well as a Graduate Diploma in Social Sciences, both from the University of Tasmania. Her commitment to continuous learning and her passion for equipping others with cyber security know-how make her an indispensable asset to UniSuper’s cyber resilience efforts.

PANEL DISCUSSION: How can we create a more inclusive, fair and functional workplace?

Stephanie is passionate about building diverse teams, celebrating differences and creating cultures where people can be themselves and thrive.

Stephanie has worked within the tech industry for over 20 years - originally starting at IBM after college and continuing her journey in many roles in the Australian IT Recruitment and Talent Acquisition industry. Diversity, Equity and Inclusion has been a lifelong journey for Steph. She has a BA in Political Science and Women's studies from Duke University.

Originally from Washington, DC, she is currently a DEI Partner at Canva in Sydney. Stephanie brings a global perspective and international lens to discussions around Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. In her very rare spare time, she loves cooking, Wordle, being a very average dancer, eating tacos and making ice cream.