Speakers at the Australian Business Productivity and Innovation Summit
Robert Adams
Chief Executive Officer
The Transport and Logistics Industry Skills Council
Robert Adams has several areas of professional interest:
1) Increasing the capability and productivity of the Transport & Logistics workforce
2) Developing high quality, innovative VET strategies to meet emerging 21st century needs
3) Strategies which address the dual challenge of an aging workforce and highly competitive labour market
Robert was appointed CEO of TLISC in June 2011 but has been a board member from 2001 and was Chair from 2006 to March 2011. These roles mean that he has a very detailed understanding and knowledge of the current Vocational Education agenda.
Before joining TLISC Robert had extensive experience in the brewing, rail and road transport industries. Prior to commencing his role with TLISC he had over 11 years at TNT Australia including his last role as National People & Organisational Development Manager.
Sue Anderson
Director of Programs
Retail Institute
Sue has over 20 years experience working with leading Australian retail brands and property groups. Having held senior management roles within a number of organisations in Visual Merchandising, Operations, Buying and Marketing, and currently working broadly in the retail industry as a Consultant, Sue specialises in guiding retailers in the areas that impact on a customer’s perception. Sue is specifically skilled to develop strategy in Customer Experience encompassing Range Selection, Visual Execution, Marketing and Service Culture. With significant practical industry experience of both international and local markets, Sue adds value and currency to an expansive base of retail clients in facilitation of education and consulting. Sue specialises in the developing of learning platforms and resources specific for the retail industry.
Ralph Ashton
Founder and Director
Australian Futures Project
Ralph has a track record of conceiving, building, and leading non-partisan initiatives to tackle cross-sectoral challenges. He has spent the last decade leading international public policy initiatives, working closely on every continent with governments, intergovernmental agencies, business, academia, and the for-purpose sector. This has included coordinating WWF’s global response to the Indian Ocean earthquakes and tsunami, and convening and chairing the multi-disciplinary international Terrestrial Carbon Group. Ralph has held visiting positions at Columbia University and the Australian National University, and has a background in providing advice on mergers and acquisitions as both a lawyer and an investment banker.
Dr. Chris Baumann
Senior Lecturer, Marketing and Management
Macquarie University
Dr Chris Baumann is Senior Lecturer at Macquarie University, Sydney, researching competitiveness, education, East Asia and customer loyalty. Dr Baumann is author of over 50 refereed journal articles and conference papers with more than 320 citations. He has been awarded for his research and teaching, including from the Australian government for enthusiastic approach to education. The Academy of International Business (AIB) has awarded him the Best Reviewer. He is also Visiting Professor at Seoul National University (SNU) in Korea and at Aarhus University, Denmark. He introduced groundbreaking concepts: Competitive Productivity, Latecomer Brand, Premium Generic Brand (PGB) and the ‘country of origin of service staff (COSS)’ effect. He has a long-standing relationship with Simon Fraser University (SFU), Canada, as MBA Alumni and research collaborator. Baumann worked several years in the Swiss banking industry.
Caroline Boyce
Workforce Solutions Manager, Shared Services
National Australia Bank
With a background in communications, strategy, events and project management, Caroline honed her change management skills within the Property sector by managing large scale restacks and relocations for organisations such as Telstra, Suncorp and KPMG. Caroline currently leads the ongoing development of NAB's flexible working environments and is passionate about the evolution of the workplace and the opportunities ahead to enhance organisational culture.
Vinnie Dempsey
GM Digital Channels
Vodafone Australia
Vinnie Dempsey is the General Manager of Digital Channels at Vodafone Australia. Vinnie has worked with Telco for 17 years and has been with a major television network for 3 years, running their digital media division giving him experience in marketing, management, product development, and online content from both a strategic and a delivery point of view.
Bob Dick
Director
Action Research and Action Learning for Community and Organisational Change
Bob Dick is an independent scholar, an occasional academic, and a consultant in community and organisational change. He has been a practitioner and an academic for most of the past 40 years, enjoys both enormously, and continues to work in both fields. In both he uses concepts and processes from action research, action learning, action science and community and organisation development to help people (including himself), organisations and communities to improve their work, learning and life. He resides in Brisbane's leafy western suburbs with the love of his life, Camilla.
Gwilym Funnell
Director, Collaboration
Telstra
Christine Gilroy
Group General Manager - Innovation
Mirvac
Christine was appointed to the position of Group General Manager of Innovation in April 2014. She leads Mirvac’s innovation program, Hatch, assisted by a team of talented innovation champions and is passionate about great ideas, good strategy and inspiring people.
Starting her career as a Chartered Accountant at PwC, Christine then took up roles at Credit Suisse and JP Morgan in London, followed by Macquarie Bank in Sydney before joining Mirvac 8 years ago. Here, she has held a number of roles including Strategy, Mergers and Acquisitions and Funds Management before following her true passion in innovation.
Luke Gooden
Manager - Innovation/Analysis/Research
National Rugby League
The Australian sporting landscape is congested and competitive; maximizing the on field product is critical in improving and maintaining market share. In applying practical innovation through technology, game trends, data analysis and research Luke aims to keep the on-field Rugby League product safe, entertaining and competitive.
After completing a Master of Management (MM) through the University of Technology in 2010 and applying what he calls ‘practical Innovation’ Luke has used his skills to influence sport through objective information with subjective knowledge. With a background in Project Management Luke works under Todd Greenberg, the current Head of Football at the National Rugby League.
Phil Gray
Garage Director, AFS Transformation and Delivery
The Westpac Group
Phil Gray is the inaugural Director of ‘The Garage’ – Westpac’s innovation and delivery accelerator. Prior to starting in ‘The Garage’ he led the Change Management function for the Australian Financial Services arm of Westpac which supports the St. George, BT, Bank of Melbourne, Bank of South Australia, RAMS and Westpac brands.
Before re-joining the corporate world on his return to Australia from the UK in 2009, Phil’s was a passionate entrepreneur who launched a number of high profile ventures. The technology services business he co-founded in 1998 won the KPMG European Business Innovation Award in 2000. After the sale of this business he started a learning & change management consultancy supporting clients such as; BP, Tesco, NHS, PWC, Pfizer, the Ministry of Defence, Royal Mail, CSC, HBoS and Fujitsu on a range of large scale transformation projects before returning to Australia.
He has been a speaker numerous conferences in Sydney, London, Barcelona & Prague including WOLCE, Change Management Institute and Learning Technologies.
Brenton Harder
General Manager, Program Delivery, Group Strategic Initiatives
Commonwealth Bank of Australia
After serving ten years aboard aircraft carriers in the Western Pacific and Middle East as an F/A-18 fighter pilot in the US Marines, Brent landed in London as Head of Quality and Information Technology with General Electric Information Services. Several years later, he moved to New York with HSBC as Senior Vice President for Global Transaction Banking before relocating to Bangalore, India in 2005 with Fidelity Investments as Head of Service Integration. From 2008 through 2012, he served as Managing Director with Credit Suisse in Zurich, Switzerland as the Global Head of Operational Excellence.
He is currently General Manager CBA Group Strategic Initiatives based in Sydney. In this role, he leads a team of Productivity experts in building capability, driving behaviours, and delivering tangible efficiency benefits to the customers, employees and stakeholders of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
He holds an MBA in Finance and a MSc in Technology Management.
Bradley Heath
Chief Executive Officer
RACQ Insurance
Bradley Heath was appointed as Chief Executive Officer of RACQ Insurance in March 2007 having held the positions of General Manager Personal Insurance, Executive Manager CTP & Claims and Executive Manager Underwriting for RACQ Insurance Limited. Bradley has over 25 years experience in the insurance industry, gained primarily with RACQ Insurance Limited. As well as leading the RACQ Insurance Team, Bradley undertook the additional role of Programme Sponsor for the successful implementation of the new Group Enterprise System (GES) within the RACQ Group.
Paul Jeremaes
Director
HP Innovation Centers
Paul is the Director of the HP Innovation Centers. He has many years of industrial experience in both the Computing and Communications Industries. His current focus is on managing and developing the HP Innovation Centers and other innovation hubs worldwide. These facilities along with their business innovation teams deliver services to client organizations, specializing in the Retail, Manufacturing and Distribution Industries, Communications, Media & Entertainment, Public Sector, and Financial Services. With their high-profile executive and governmental clients, the Innovation Centers have received wide-spread recognition for success in promoting and developing breakthrough business ideas and the technology-enablers to create business advantage. www.hp.com/innovationcenters
Before pioneering the creation of the HP Innovation Centers, Paul was a research manager in the HP Research Laboratories. Prior to joining HP, Paul worked in the communications industry for British Telecom.
Sarah Kay
Workplace Designer
Woods Bagot
A principal at global architecture firm Woods Bagot, Sarah Kay has advised and designed for some of the world's largest and most successful tenant organisations, including Google, Bloomberg, HSBC, JPMorgan, Fujitsu and Macquarie Group Limited. Sarah leads the Workplace Sector in the Sydney studio following many years in Woods Bagot's Melbourne and London studios. She brings a global vision to her projects and her ability to understand business needs and provide a catalyst for business change means she is at the cutting edge of workplace innovation.
Glenn Keys
Managing Director
Aspen Medical Pty Ltd
Glenn Keys graduated from the Royal Military College, Duntroon as a Mechanical Engineer before being selected for aeronautical engineering and test flying training. After a 15 year career as an Army Officer, Glenn moved into a start-up which was a commercial flight test and aeronautical engineering company in Australia, before being acquired by Raytheon. In 2003 Glenn co-founded Aspen Medical which is now the largest provider of health services to the ADF; provides all the health services to our forces in the Solomon Islands and Timor; is the only company in the world to operate an Emergency Department in a public hospital and has removed multi-year surgical and dental waiting lists in the UK and Australia. Aspen was responsible for operating on President Ramos Horta after he was shot in Feb 08. Aspen was recognized as the fastest growing company in Australia in 2007, and Glenn, with Andrew Walker, was a co-winner of the Australian Entrepreneur of the Year Award (Services) in 2006. Aspen has also won awards for project management, IT and exports. Glenn is also heavily involved with a number of community groups, particularly the Down Syndrome Association and the Special Olympics.
Kerry London
Acting Deputy Pro Vice Chancellor Teaching and Learning and Professor of Construction Management
RMIT University
Professor London is the Professor of Construction Management in the School of Property, Construction and Project Management at RMIT University. She is Director of the Centre for Integrated Project Solutions and the Deputy Head of School Research. She entered academia full time in 2002. She has recently been invited to be a member of the Australian Research Council National College of Expert. She is the first academic to be invited in the history of the ARC from her discipline.
She received her PhD from University of Melbourne and is also a graduate of the University of Newcastle where she received three degrees MBld, BArch and BSc(Arch).
She has diverse industry experience having been employed by the Northern Territory Department of Infrastructure as Project Manager and Policy Manager, as a registered architect by EJE Architects and Suters Architects Snell as well as various Universities. She has always been well connected to industry – she was the immediate past President of the Chartered Institute of Building Australasia (CIOB), an international organisation of more than 50,000 members with a presence in more than 20 countries and 12 Regional Councils. She is a Fellow of the CIOB. She was invited by the Federal Minister to be a member of the Built Environment Industry Innovation Council and was also a member of the BEIIC National Working Party for Building Information Modelling Implementation. She was a member of the NSW Architects Registration Board. She initiated the Australian Housing Supply Chain Alliance; a group of leading stakeholders of the housing sector who seek to conduct research and development on projects that will ultimately will trigger transformation of the industry.
Alice Manners
Chief Executive Officer
IAB Australia
Alice is a senior digital and media specialist with more than 20 years' experience working across the Asia Pacific region. She has held a number of roles with WPP Asia Pacific including most recently, GroupM Asia Pacific COO of Interaction since 2005. Appointed CEO of IAB Australia in August 2013, Alice is responsible for the overall management of the IAB and achievement of the organisation's objectives, to represent and promote the interests of members, and to grow the interactive advertising industry. With the online industry undergoing a huge transformation and with more change ahead, Alice's key focus will be to steer IAB Australia's transition through this growth as an agent of change for both the IAB and the industry as a whole.
Alex Milne
Director Legal Services
Australian Productivity Council (APC)
As a director of the Australian Productivity Council, and founder of our legal services division, I am involved in management and strategy decisions. Specifically I am responsible for management of our new Legal Compliance and Risk Minimisation service. I am also currently involved with the Australian Productivity Council's strategic initiative to recover and continue Australian Automotive manufacturing, as well as projects in the industrial and agricultural machinery sectors.
In prior roles I have worked mainly in construction and commercial law. Using this experience matched with a background in productivity improvement I have developed programs which help businesses with compliance and risk avoidance, a major source of lost productivity.
My qualifications include a Bachelor of Arts/Law (Honours) from Monash University, and I have also spent time studying at National University of Singapore and the Leo Cussen Institute in Melbourne.
Aidan Mullan
Sustainability and Lean Manager
Interface
Aidan Mullan is Sustainability and Lean Manager for Interface Australia.
Aidan is responsible for driving Interface Australia’s sustainability and lean programs with a particular focus on waste and energy reduction driven by Interface’s MissionZero goal.
Using LCA tools, his work involves development of Environmental Product Declarations, and evaluation of raw material and manufacturing environmental impacts to assist the company in transitioning to more sustainable processes and products.
Prior to joining Interface Aidan worked in the Process Chemical and Pharmaceutical sector holding positions in process engineering, research and development and Technical and Operations Management. He holds a degree in Chemical Engineering from the Queen’s University of Belfast.
Barbara Pocock
Professor and Director, Centre for Work and Life
University of South Australia
Professor Barbara Pocock is Director of the Centre for Work + Life, at the University of South Australia.
Barbara has been researching work, employment and industrial relations now for over twenty-five years. She has worked in many jobs – advising politicians, on farms, in unions, for governments and as a mother.
Her main areas of study have been work, employment relations, unions, inequality and vocational education. She was initially trained as an economist.
She is widely published. Her books include
- Living low paid, The Dark Side of Prosperous Australia (with Helen Masterman-Smith) (2008)
- The Labour Market Ate my Babies: Work, Children and a Sustainable Future (2006)
- The Work/Life Collision (2003)
- Strife; Sex and Politics in Labour Unions (1997)
- Demanding Skill: Women and Technical Education in Australia (1988)
Claudelle Taylor
General Manager, Nexus Point Solutions
Leighton Holdings
An articulate, positive and hard-working professional with over 15 years in the construction industry. Adept at defining and implementing innovative technologies on major and complex projects worldwide. Superior communication and negotiation skills enable successful delivery of systems and processes for all key project stakeholders.
A manager to 50+ employees who inspires the team to consistently achieve excellence in product design, delivery and customer support.
A speaker and author who is enthusiastic about promoting the use of emerging collaborative technologies, including online project management applications and Building Information Models (BIM).
Julie Toth
Chief Economist
Australian Industry Group
Julie heads the Australian Industry Group’s economics research team, producing economics research, comment and policy for Ai Group and its members. This includes Ai Group’s highly regarded monthly performance of industry surveys, annual industry outlooks and more detailed, topical work. Julie is also a frequent speaker at Ai Group conferences and at other industry and economics events. Julie is based in Melbourne, but is frequently on the road, working with Ai Group’s members, businesses and industries across Australia.
Julie has over two decades of experience in Australian public policy and microeconomics research, working across the public and private sectors. Prior to joining the Australian Industry Group in 2012, Julie was a Senior Economist at the ANZ Banking Group, a Research Manager at the Productivity Commission and an Economist at other Federal Government research agencies, including the Industry Commission and the Bureau of Immigration and Population Research.
Julie holds a Master of Industrial Relations and Labour Economics (Monash University), a Bachelor of Economics (Honours) (University of Melbourne) and a Bachelor of Arts (University of Melbourne).
Khali Young
Lean and Agile Organisational Development Lead
Vodafone Digital
Khali Young works as an Agile and Lean organisational change agent with the digital team at Vodafone Australia. He started his career as a technologist learning what high functioning teams look like as an Agile software developer, business analyst, project manager, product manager, coach and consultant. This led to a passion building organisational learning cultures and processes that are highly productive and fun and rewarding to work in. Khali is a specialist in organisational learning, innovation, process excellence, authentic communication, coaching and strategic intervention.
Prof. Xiangyu Wang
Professor for Oil, Gas, and LNG Construction and Project Management, and Co-Director
Curtin-Woodside
Prof. Xiangyu Wang holds the position of Curtin-Woodside Chair Professor for Oil, Gas & LNG Construction and Project Management, and is the Co-Director of the Australasian Joint Research Centre for Building Information Modelling (BIM). Professor Wang is an internationally recognised leading researcher in the field of Construction IT, BIM, Lean, Visualisation Technologies, Project Management, and Training, having obtained over AUD $5 million in research funds and published over 300 peer-reviewed technical papers. He is the Chair of the Australian National Committee of the International Society in Computing in Civil and Building Engineering. He has presented over 20 keynote speeches at international and industrial conferences on BIM, construction and project management, VR and AR research and practice. He is Editor-in-Chief of Visualization in Engineering which is an international research journal hosted by Springer-Verlag. His work with Woodside Energy Ltd. and other industries wins numerous awards including Runner-Up of the 2012 Curtin Commercial Innovation Award.