Michele commenced work at the Reserve Bank in 1985.  She worked in Economic Group and International Department before joining Payments Policy Department in 1998 as Chief Manager.  Michele has been the Head of Payments Policy Department since February 2007.
Michele has been involved in all aspects of the Bank’s work on payment systems over the past decade, including the reforms to card payment systems in Australia, issues in high-value payment systems and licensed securities clearing and settlement facilities, and the review of payment system reforms. 
Michele has a first class honours degree in Economics from the University of New England, Armidale and a Master of Science (Economics) from the London School of Economics. 

Douglas Swansson is the Head of Payment Services for Coles and is responsible for the group’s electronic payments strategy, industry and regulatory relations, and EFT operations. Douglas represents Coles on a number of payments industry forums and has been an APCA CECS Management committee representative for 9 years. 
 
Prior to joining Coles in 2000, Douglas held a number of positions at National Australia Bank in the Finance and Global Payments Divisions.
 
Douglas has an honours degree in Economics and a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Melbourne.

John began his career with First Data International in 2001 and in the years following has spearheaded an array of major achievements and career milestones.

His roles have capitalised upon his skills in business development and client relationship management and culminated in local, regional and global partnership arrangements across multiple business lines.

Today, John holds the title of Senior Vice President for Sales & Marketing. He is responsible for the development and support of First Data’s regional corporate client base, ATM and Merchant Acquiring Businesses, further capitalising on his wealth of experience.

His most recent achievement spans multiple Asian markets and economies with the merchant services’ joint venture transaction with Standard Chartered Bank.  First Data executed this deal in December 2006 to exclusively manage Standard Chartered customers initially within Bangladesh, Brunei, Hong Kong, India, Macau, Singapore and Sri Lanka.  Further Asian markets are expected to be added in the future.

This major deal with Standard Chartered followed another significant transaction with global partner HBOS in 2005.  John was instrumental in the merchant acquiring alliance transaction between First Data International and Bank of Western Australia Limited (BankWest), a local subsidiary of HBOS, in the Australian marketplace.  The BankWest/First Data International alliance was finalised in September 2005, and the business was officially launched as BWA Merchant Services. 

Prior to his current role at First Data, John spent the previous four years in a number of strategic Senior Business Development and Relationship Management Roles, primarily focusing on growing and supporting First Data International’s Financial Institution client base.

Before joining First Data International, John spent four years as Sales Manager for the National Australia Bank’s payments business.

John holds a Masters of Business Administration from the Sydney Graduate School of Management.
 

Liam Tung has been a journalist with Australia's most widely read online business technology publication, ZDNet.com.au, for two years.

During this time he has broken technology stories of global significance, which have been syndicated to CNET USA and the New York Times, and which have been widely referenced in the blogosphere.

Liam has covered IT security extensively since joining ZDNet.com.au, and has interviewed many of Australia's top technology chiefs, including CommBank's CIO Michael Harte, Defence CIO Greg Farr, Centrelink's CIO John Wadeson, and many more.

His main focus is technology news and major deals affecting the banking and finance sector, government and the wider Australian corporate marketplace.

After 5 years working as business Analyst at the Directorate General XIII (telecommunication, information industries and innovation) of the European Commission, Mr. Tur Hartmann joined the European Monetary Institute, the forerunner of the European Central Bank, in May 1995. During the first years Mr. Tur Hartmann participated in the development of the TARGET system (the RTGS system for the euro). In 2000, Mr. Tur Hartmann joined the Payment Systems Policy Division of the Directorate General of Payment Systems and Market Infrastructure and since June 2005 Mr. Tur Hartmann is working in the Market Infrastructure Division in the same Directorate General. As Principal, Mr. Tur Hartmann is currently in charge of coordinating the work of the Payments Market Integration team. Among other tasks, the ECB co-operates with the European banking industry in the development of a more efficient and safe payment infrastructure to process retail payments in the euro area. This covers specially the SEPA project. In this respect, the Market Infrastructure Division is in charge of developing an ECB policy on SEPA and to monitor the development of the banking industry in this important project. Mr. Tur Hartmann holds a graduate degree on computer science from Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona (Spain)

Angus has had 12 years experience working in the financial services industry with leading firms including Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, Citigroup and now Westpac. His experience has been across a wide range of areas including equity and debt markets, corporate finance, strategy consulting and more recently in consumer banking.

He was involved in the acquisition of CUSCAL's and Suncorp's credit card portfolios leading the economic valuation and structure of the offer whilst CFO for Citigroup's cards and personal loans business. Now at Westpac, Angus heads the portfolio management group looking at maximising the profitability and performance of the credit cards and personal loan assets whilst driving customer satisfaction and engagement in the products.
 

Michael is a Director of EDC, based in the Sydney office.  He has 20 years experience in senior management and consulting roles in the cards and payments industry, primarily in Australia, the US, and several Asian markets. Michael commenced his career in the management consulting division of Deloitte Haskins & Sells, and subsequently co-founded Electronic Trading Concepts (an ecommerce consulting firm), Catuity (a loyalty systems provider), and Cards etc (a smart card management system provider). Since joining EDC in 2002, Michael has conducted projects with clients in the financial services, retail/wholesale, government, and travel/ tourism sectors, primarily concentrating on business development, new market entry (organic and inorganic), infrastructure development, transaction acquiring, and emerging technologies / products. These projects have been conducted in over 20 markets globally, including more than a dozen in the Asia Pacific region. Michael holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the Australian National University (majors in management accounting and information technology), has lectured at two universities, has had published academic papers and articles on payment systems, and has spoken at numerous industry conferences globally.

Sharon Waterhouse is the Head of Direct Distribution for Newcastle Permanent Building Society.  Sharon’s career has encompassed a range of senior management positions in the financial services industry, and she is recognised as an inspirational leader and driver of innovation.  Her work at Newcastle Permanent Building Society has been recognised by being named as a Finalist in the International Financial Services Financial Innovations Award in 2007 for Best Direct Channel Initiative, and by invitations to present Newcastle Permanent Building Society as an international best practice case study at international conferences hosted by International Financial Services and Gartner.

Sharon holds a Bachelor of Economics, Postgraduate Diploma in Applied Finance and Investment, Master of Business Administration and Master of Arts (Business Administration), and has recently commenced a Doctorate of Management.  She is a Fellow of the Financial Services Institute of Australisia (FINSIA), is a guest lecturer for the FINSIA Master of Business program, and is a qualified Executive Coach.

Among Sharon’s many achievements are the 2004 FINSIA Williamson Scholarship in recognition of her contributions to the financial services industy, and the Strategic Marketing and Olympic Circle Awards for leading strategy that developed Westpac’s revenue winning capability.  Sharon was a founding member and Board member of the Lending Industry XML Initiative (LIXI), which won the 2005 MIS Innovation Award (Best Business Enabler). 

Throughout her career, Sharon has maintained a strong involvement with community work, supporting the improvement of the corporate reputation of the financial services industry by actively contributing to positive community outcomes.  Sharon also undertook a four-week secondment to Cooktown to work as a business hub facilitator for Cape York, forming partnerships to help Indigenous groups develop business ideas, writing business plans, facilitating workshops and presenting submissions for business funding.  This program subsequently won an Innovative Partnerships Award at the Corporate Conscience Awards in New York.  Sharon has also lent her skills to Tresillian, Salvation Army and Clean Up Australia. 

Sharon is Chair of the University of Newcastle Services Limited, Vice-President of the Hunter Business Women’s Network, Board Member of the Global ATM Industry Association, and a Member of Women on Boards.
 

Keith has 40 years banking experience with 27 years in cards and payments, including EFT switching.  Kevin is responsible for BOQ’s ATM and EFTPOS acquiring business and 3rd Party ATM relationships. He has been an APCA CECS Management committee representative for 13 years and in recent years represented Bank of Queensland’s interests through the credit card, EFTPOS and ATM reforms.

Stephen Wilson is a leading independent authority on authentication and identity management.   Stephen is deputy chair of Smartcards and Information Security Australia (SISA), chair of the OASIS PKI Adoption Technical Committee, and a member of the Australian Law Reform Commission’s Developing Technologies Sub-committee.  His major recent consulting projects include the Australian Government Smartcard Framework, the Internet Industry Association’s two factor authentication model, and a national digital credentials scheme for healthcare professionals.