Our Leading Industry and Government Speakers

Major General Marcus Thompson was born and raised in country Victoria. On graduation from the Royal Military College in 1988 he was allocated to the Royal Australian Corps of Signals. He served in a variety of command, regimental and Special Operations appointments including; Command of the 3rd...

Dr Tobias Feakin is Australia’s inaugural Ambassador for Cyber Affairs. He leads Australia’s Whole of Government international engagement to advance and protect Australia’s national security, foreign policy, economic and trade, and development interests in the internet and in cyberspace.Ambassador...

Stephen is Australia's most authoritative voice on digital disruption, strategy, culture and leadership. He is the former Facebook CEO for Australia and New Zealand, where he guided Facebook’s unprecedented rise from quirky Silicon Valley start up to media and technology titan. Working with...

Jonathon Thorpe joined the Digital Transformation Agency in January 2018 to head the delivery of a whole-of-economy Digital Identity system. Jonathon is currently  Assistant Secretary for--Digital Identity / GovPass for the Digital Transformation Agency (DTA) with responsibility for Digital...

Stephen Brady concluded his Australian Public Service career as Australia’s Ambassador to France. During his 36 years of service he was ambassador to twelve European countries, chief of staff to two Governors-General – including Australia’s first woman - and Senior Adviser to Prime Minister John...

Regis is a commercially astute leader who is passionate about identity solutions and leading high-performing teams. Throughout his career, Regis has been responsible for the implementation of large scale national identity programs in Australia, India, Albania, and the UAE resulting in tangible...

As the Chief Cybersecurity Advisor for Microsoft Asia’s Cybersecurity Security Groups, Abbas Kudrati, leads Microsoft’s initiatives and operations to provide thought leadership, strategic direction on the development of Microsoft security products and services and deep customer and partner...

Manal al-Sharif has been listed as one of TIME Magazine's 100 most influential people, as one of Forbes Top 50 Women in Tech and by Newsweek as one of the 10 tech-revolutionaries in the world. She is a prominent voice advocating for women's rights and empowerment and was one of the first...

David G.W Birch is an author, advisor and commentator on digital financial services. He is Global Ambassador for Consult Hyperion (the secure electronic transactions consultancy that he helped to found), Technology Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Financial Innovation (the London-based think...

Warren is a business leader and entrepreneur with over 20 years’ experience in senior commercial leadership roles across the globe. He specialises in building successful technology organisations to drive rapid growth.Warren was appointed Chief Executive Officer, Sypht in 2018. Sypht uses the latest ...

John has over 30 years’ experience in Information Technology and Research areas across a broad range of areas. John has extensive Public Sector, Defence and Intelligence experience including postings into Australian and US Intelligence agencies in integrated Military and Civilian teams.John worked...

Sandra Slater is the Chief Information Officer for the Department of Transport and Main Roads (TMR), leading a team of more than 400 staff and contractors and an annual budget of $100M. She is responsible for delivering a significant Information and Communication Technology (ICT) program to improve ...

Marcus Vogt is an Identity, Access and Privilege Solutions Consultant with an extensive career in IT. He started off as a systems programmer in an ISP and then joined the dark side as a system administrator to truly appreciate the fun of operations. After a number of years, he worked out that it...

Dr Nalin Asanka Gamagedara Arachchilage holds a Ph.D. in Usable Security entitled “Security Awareness of Computer Users: A Game-Based Learning Approach” from Brunel University London, the UK where he developed a game design framework to protect computer users against “phishing attacks”.Prior to...

Alan is an experienced strategist in the government digital arena in New Zealand, and a senior leader in the office of the Government Chief Digital Officer. His previous roles include, leading the development of New Zealand’s first Cyber Security Strategy, developing the government’s cloud...

Lindsay Boulton is the Assistant Governor (Business Services) at the Reserve Bank of Australia. He is responsible for the Bank's provision of a range of services to the community, including banking services to the Australian Government and overseas central banks, payment and settlement services ...

Nick Byrne is the CEO and co-founder of TypeHuman, one of Australia’s first Blockchain Venture Studios.  Prior to TypeHuman, Nick was consumer lead on Australia Post’s Digital ID product and innovation lead at Thoughworks.Nick holds an Master of Social Science from RMIT and a Bachelor of...

ID Exchange’s Founder, Joanne Cooper is the entrepreneurial daughter of Australian IT pioneer Tom Cooper a prominent figure during the 1980’s PC era.  Currently she is forging Privacy Enhancing Technologies for individuals by developing advanced digital consent controls to regain Personally...

Kylie has deep expertise in customer led-organisational transformation and complex program delivery. As Chief Customer Officer at Service NSW,  her current portfolio includes Strategy, Customer Experience, and Insights & Analytics. In addition, she is the Executive Director of the Easy to do...

Rachel Dixon is the Privacy and Data Protection Deputy Commissioner at the Office of the Victorian Information Commissioner (OVIC), where she is responsible for the Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014, including the Victorian Protective Data Security Standards.In former lives Rachel headed the...

Katryna Dow is the founder and CEO of Meeco; a personal data platform that enables people to securely exchange data with the people and organisations they trust. Katryna has been pioneering personal data rights since 2012, when she envisioned a time when personal sovereignty, identity and...

Fergus Hanson is the Head of the International Cyber Policy Centre.He is the author of Internet Wars and has published widely on a range of cyber and foreign policy topics.He was a Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Institution and a Professional Fulbright Scholar based at Georgetown University...

James is a digital commerce innovator and thought leader with a deep passion for driving business success from digital commerce ecosystems.With more than 20 years of experience as a solutions architect. James made his first online sale (a music CD) via an eCommerce system built with open source...

Anne Lyons is an Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) Fellow and former Chief information Officer and Assistant Director-General with the National Archives of Australia, and a Visiting Fellow with ASPI’s International Cyber Policy Centre.

Gus McLachlan recently completed a 37-year career in the Army. He completed his tenure as the leader of Forces Command, the largest unit of The Australian Defence Force and comprising 35,000 people. Prior to that, he had extensive involvement in capability development and modernisation where he was ...

Cassandra Meagher is Executive Director, Service Reform at Service Victoria.Service Victoria is the government’s new dedicated customer service agency. It has been established to make transactions quick, simple and easy for Victorians to get things done with government and is helping the way the...

Prerana Mehta joined AustCyber, Australia’s Cyber Security Growth Network, as Chief of Ecosystem Development in January 2019, charged to promote Australian cyber capability, talent and profile nationally and overseas.  Prior to this role, Prerana was Minister Counsellor and Senior Trade and...

Cindy has 30 years international experience with Investment Banking, Management Consulting, Software Solution Providers and Telco with a consistent theme of Innovation and Entrepreneurship.She has established a number of start-up technology and management consultancy companies, and played a key...

Stephen manages the Kurz Kinegram DOVD solutions which are incorporated into the design of Australia’s new banknotes. An authority on the integration of security into design, he works closely with forensic document examiners on latest trends & today’s best practices. He is also a leader in the...

Warren Prentice commenced his career in the ICT profession in the early 1990s. He has an interesting mix of industry experience in military, government and has held prestigious senior roles in Fortune 100 ICT firms. Career highlights include leading large ICT change programs across government...

Victoria has been working with payment and identity technologies for over 20 years. She has advised a range of organisations, from start-ups to major banks, on the business implications of emerging payment and identity technologies. She is currently the Chief Strategy Officer at Australian Payments ...

Amanda Robinson is the Head of Social Innovation at Australian Red Cross and has a keen interest in emerging technology particularly for helping to solve complex social problems and drive humanitarian outcomes at scale. Prior to Australian Red Cross Amanda has held senior roles developing and...

Rob is the Managing Director of OneTrust for Australia & New Zealand. OneTrust is the global leader in privacy management and marketing compliance software. More than 2,000 customers, including 200 of the Global 2,000, use OneTrust to comply with data privacy regulations across sectors and...

A 25-year veteran of communication technology, Timothy is the CEO and co-founder of Evernym and co-inventor of Sovrin, the world’s most advanced identity network. Prior to Evernym Timothy was the co-founder of Teleira, a pioneer in communications outage recovery, and a director at inContact, where...

Alex is the founding CEO of Stone & Chalk, Asia’s leading Fintech Innovation Hub located in Sydney and Melbourne. S&C supports more than 680 individual residents in over 140 high growth ventures to successfully commercialise and scale regionally and globally.Alex has also co-founded Spark...

Paul Shetler is a technologist and entrepreneur with over two decades’ experience working on large scale IT and organisational change projects – spanning the public and private sectors. He has co-founded two start-ups, worked in two others and also been in leadership roles at large suppliers like...

Mike SIbly is the Head of Engagement, Digital identity, Digital Transformation Agency (DTA).  This includes engagement around the GovPass Program and the Trusted Digital Identity Framework (TDIF).Mike has specific experience in digital policy, shaping strategic policy and service...

Eibhlis is the Founder and heads the technical group at MobileDigital.  Eibhlis has stand out design and logic skills, and is recognised as a savvy IT engineer. The idea, innovative design, build and implementation of the patented processes that support MobileDigitals' world leading SNIPER...

Barry Thomas' current role is Director, Open Banking Standards at the Australian Banking Association where he is intimately involved in the finer details of the upcoming Consumer Data Right regime. As the point of liaison between the banks, regulators and the data standards body Barry has been...

Stephen Wilson is a leading authority on digital identity and electronic authentication. For over 22 years he has helped organisations in government, healthcare and banking establish effective authentication systems and frameworks, providing high calibre advice on strategy, technology...

Dr Stefan Hajkowicz is a senior principal scientist working in the field of strategic foresight at CSIRO. Stefan leads the Data61 Insight Team which is a group of researchers and consultants helping organizations navigate digital disruption. Stefan’s research and consulting work helps...

Named in the top 20 CIOs in Australia in 2018, Rowan is an acknowledged thought leader, innovator and sought after advisor for founders through to Boards. Rowan’s current role sees him responsible for providing strategic leadership as well as the delivery of business-focused technology outcomes...

Karl Wood is a Senior IT Leader with 14 years of experience across software development, solution architecture and quality assurance within the Finance, Telecommunications, Consulting, Hospitality and Gaming domains. He has been a customer, supplier and consultant across multiple digital...