Sarah Adam Gedge
Managing Director
Avanade Australia
As Managing Director of Avanade Australia, Sarah leads a consulting team dedicated to solving complex business issues for clients using the Microsoft ecosystem.
Sarah moved to Avanade from IBM where she held executive roles across countries spanning Asia Pacific, Middle East and Latin America, and at the highest levels of Country, Service-line and Industry leadership. Prior to IBM, Sarah was a Partner at PwC. She is passionate about people, and builds organisational capabilities from graduate programmes to leaders.
Sarah has a Bachelor of Business, is a Chartered Accountant and a graduate of AICD. She is a Non-Executive Director of Ovarian Cancer Australia.
Daryl Babus
Head of Digital Strategy and Planning
Westpac Group
As the Head of Digital Strategy and Planning, Daryl leads digital strategy development and digital investment planning for Westpac Group; including Westpac, St.George, Bank of Melbourne and BankSA. Daryl is a relentless customer advocate with an innate curiosity for new and innovative technologies.
In her role, Daryl steers Westpac Group to deliver seamless experiences for our customers that drive the right business outcomes.
Tiziana Bianco
Head of Innovation Lab
Commonwealth Bank
Tiziana Bianco heads up the global Innovation Lab network at the Commonwealth Bank. Her role is to best position the Group’s innovative capability, products and services for consumer, business and institutional clients. This includes the incubation of new ideas, the experimentation of different business models and technologies and the testing of new concepts through working with and alongside the innovation ecosystem.
In addition to helping drive business performance and solution innovation, Tiziana and her team work closely with the sales and product teams to embed core innovation capabilities and continue to build understanding of CommBank’s successful innovation story. This is done through the demonstration of our commitment to creating and embedding the capability required to have a strong innovative culture.
Since joining the Commonwealth Bank in 2008, Tiziana has held a variety of roles and has contributed to strategic initiatives, projects, product development and launches across the organisation.
Previously, Tiziana was a management consultant at Capgemini Australia, with primary expertise in large scale transformational programmes, from strategy through to implementation within the financial services, retail and telecommunication sectors. Prior to moving to Australia, Tiziana spent time at ING DIRECT, Canada with a predominate focus on customer experience initiatives.
Anastasia Cammaroto
Chief Information Officer
BT Financial Group
Ana was appointed Chief Information Officer at BT Financial Group in April 2014. Her team’s role is to provide the technology solutions to enable BT Financial Group to meet its strategic goals.
Since joining BT Financial Group in April 1998, Ana’s roles have included Head of Technology of Investment Management and Accounting, Head of Technology for the Advice and Private Wealth businesses and Head of Technology, Infrastructure and Support. Most recently, she was the IT Program Director/Head of Technology for the Panorama program which is designed to support the evolving needs of key customers including advisers, dealer groups and investors.
Prior to BT Financial Group, Ana worked for Dow Corning Australia, GEC Alstom and Cegelec Australia in various engineering design and delivery roles.
Ana has a Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical) degree and a Masters in Engineering Science both completed with UNSW.
Paul Cholakos
Executive General Manager, Technical Services
Oil Search
With more than 30 years’ experience in the international oil and gas and mining industries, Paul brings with him extensive commercial expertise, including business development, joint venture, unitisation and government negotiations, along with his production and project expertise.
Paul joined Oil Search in 2010, to assist in the execution of Oil Search's 2010 Strategic Review. In 2011, Paul was appointed Executive General Manager - Project Development where he oversaw the construction of the Oil Search operated elements of the US$19 billion PNG LNG Project. Paul played an integral role in the on-time and on-budget delivery of this world-class project, which has doubled the GDP of Papua New Guinea.
In early 2013, he was appointed Executive General Manager - PNG Operations and oversaw the start-up of gas production and export and condensate export.
In early 2015, Paul moved into his current role, Executive General Manager - Technical Services. Paul is now responsible for the ICT, Drilling, Subsurface, Facilities Engineering and HSES functions of Oil Search.
Hilda Clune
Chief Information Officer
PwC Australia
Hilda Clune is Chief Information Officer at PwC Australia.
A senior business leader with strong transformational, technology and digital experience, Hilda has been engaged in a range of sectors for the last three decades. With core knowledge and experience primarily in the professional services sector, Hilda has focused on business transformation enabled by digital and technology.
With a broad background that spans the telecommunications, investment management, property, retail and fashion industries, Hilda has undertaken a number of senior leadership positions at AAPT, Deloitte Australia and SingTel Optus.
A Member of PwC's Global Technology Strategy Council – a body responsible for directing a 158- country global technology transformation program across PwC’s international network – Hilda is also Vice-Chair of the Australian Maronite Professionals Council and a Director of PwC Services Pty Ltd.
Brenda Frisk
Head of Learning Technology
Open Universities Australia
Brenda Frisk has been working in the space of business digital transformation. She currently leads Learning Technology at Open Universities Australia. Her team focus is evolving Learning Ecosystems that aggregate insights learning analytics, mobility, predictive analytics and adaptive learning. Brenda has worked extensively with digital technologies in commercial, education and not-for-profit communities.
Brenda has worked with education communities around the world to support and enthuse design think and focus on customer experience. She has won several awards for innovative use of technology in education. Brenda has spearheaded transformation projects that have varied from the design of learning ecosystems to government 3D mobile applications.
Renee Gamble
Country Manager, Australia and New Zealand
Google for Work
Renee Gamble is the Country Manager of Google for Work, Australia & New Zealand. In this role she oversees the Google Apps for Work and Chrome OS business and works with some of the biggest companies in the region, including Woolworths, Flight Centre and PwC Australia. Renee is also the co-Lead of the Women@Google Employee Resource Group for Australia & New Zealand.
Renee has 20 years experience in the technology sector. Before joining Google she spent over 10 years at Microsoft across Asia-Pacific. Her most recent role was NSW State Director where she oversaw their commercial business in NSW. Prior to that that she ran the OEM division for Australia, led their licensing and compliance team and led business management under the President of Microsoft Asia-Pacific in Singapore.
In her earlier career, Renee was with International Data Corporation (IDC), leading the fixed line telecom research group in Asia/Pacific, working in Hong Kong, Beijing and Singapore. In Sydney she worked as a business analyst with an IP start-up Connect Interactive Business Services (now Datacom Connect) and previously for accounting software firm SunSystems. She also worked for the Australian Federal Government for a Cabinet Minister for five years.
Renee has a Bachelor of Arts (Social Science) from the University of Technology Sydney and a Masters of Commerce (Electronic Commerce) from Curtin University, Australia. Away from the office, Renee enjoys family life with her husband and two young daughters as well as running and escaping for short breaks to travel and explore.
Karin Geraghty
Chief Information Officer
Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources
Karin Geraghty became the CIO for the Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources in 2012 in order to try her hand at what she calls a “fascinating role.”
As CIO, Karin is responsible for areas as diverse as infrastructure, help desk assistance, information management and records management. She has also been involved in a number of innovative projects across government.
Her deep interest in using ICT and information management as a tool to further develop engagement with customers and citizens through online channels drives her passion for her job.
Angela Goodsir
Chief Technology and Systems Operations Officer
Multi Channel Network
Angela Goodsir is one of Australia’s leading media technologists and operations executives. Angela has led the successful implementation of local and world leading initiatives including the successful launch of Australia’s most advanced trading platform, Landmark, and the world’s first integrated programmatic private marketplace for TV. These initiatives have delivered huge operational efficiency, scalability and revenue opportunities for MCN and its partners.
In her role as Chief Technology and Systems Operations Officer, Angela is responsible for unifying and driving all of MCN’s technology infrastructure and systems, including development of our new technology architectures and solutions in a rapidly changing and technology landscape. Angela brings a broad perspective to her role, with more than 25 years’ experience in sales/marketing and research roles, Angela has also held senior positions with ACNielsen as Group Account Director (Media) and National Sales Manager (Retail).
Angela first joined MCN as a Senior Account Manager in sales in 1997. Then, after a hiatus, she returned in 2002 to take on her current role.
Carol-Ann Gough
Executive General Manager, Customer Technology
Suncorp Group
Carol-Ann was appointed Executive General Manager Customer Technology in Suncorp’s Technology, Data and Labs function in April 2016. In this role Carol-Ann is responsible for the end-to-end delivery of the Group’s digital customer strategy, project portfolio delivery and driving Agile and Lean practices across the Group.
Carol-Ann has over 25 years experience in leading major technology based functions and programs in private and public sector organisations. Since joining Suncorp in 1997 – including two years in private consulting – Carol-Ann has successfully undertaken a range of project and executive management roles and proven her ability to lead large diverse and distributed teams. She has also made significant contributions to business and technology strategy as a member of Suncorp’s General Insurance and Technology executive teams.
Carol-Ann is passionate about supporting women in the technology industry through her involvement with Women in Technology and as a sponsor of the Women in Leadership Program for technology in Suncorp. She is also an executive representative on the Suncorp Group Diversity Council and actively raises awareness of opportunities for women in technology in secondary schools and through the TechGirls organisation.
Carol-Ann holds a Master of Information Systems and Bachelor of Science, Computer Science, from the University of Queensland.
Rebecca Grant
Executive Director
icourts
Rebecca is the founder & CEO of iCourts and is a solicitor and a Notary Public in the State of NSW. Her expertise is in providing electronic evidence management and legal technology consulting services to courts, law firms, Commissions of Inquiry and Royal Commissions and she pioneered the development of electronic courtrooms in Australia. Rebecca also sits on the NSW Law Society’s Legal Technology Committee.
Claire Howlett
Chief Information Officer
Department of Environment
Claire Howlett has been the Chief Information Officer at the Australian Government Department of the Environment since November 2014. Claire is a non-technical CIO with over 15 years experience in the Environment Portfolio. She has brought a business-focussed, strategic transformation agenda to the role. Claire has worked across a broad range of policy development, program delivery, regulatory and corporate roles. Most recently, she was responsible for the development of biodiversity policy advice to government
Judy Hurditch
Managing Director
Intermedium
Since founding Intermedium in 2004, Judy has become a highly regarded specialist on the government marketplace. As an independent industry analyst, she has extensive knowledge about both federal and state jurisdictions, and a comprehensive knowledge of suppliers to governments.
Prior to her commercial sector experience, Judy spent almost twenty years in the public sector, predominantly in IT-related project management and business system roles. During this time, Judy managed major IT projects and procurements and was responsible for service delivery. These roles included senior executive service roles within the Australian Taxation Office as well as in a NSW government corporation, senior project roles at the precursor to Centrelink and senior project management roles at the Office of Asset Sales. Judy was a Deputy Commissioner of Taxation when she left the Australian Public Service.
Judy has an MBA from the Australian Graduate School of Management.
Surabhi Jain
Senior Data Governance Manager
HSBC Australia
Surabhi Jain is an experienced data management professional with over 13 years of experience across financial services, telecommunication, media and the airline industries.
She has extensive experience in data projects including database migrations, data warehousing, business intelligence, data quality assessments and improvement initiatives.
In her current role as the Senior Data Manager for HSBC Australia, she is responsible for establishing data management capability for the organisation. Key aspects of her responsibilities include data risk and incident management, defining and ensuring compliance for data governance standards and policies, conducting data quality assessments and audit, leading data improvement programs.
She works as a liaison between business and technology, building consensus amongst diverse stakeholders on all matters data, driving business opportunities by improving overall data quality.
Surabhi holds a Masters in Information Technology specialising in database development and design, and a Bachelors in Mathematics with honours. She is a certified Data Management professional (CDMP).
She is part of the Executive committee at the Sydney chapter of Data Management Association (DAMA)
Karen Lay-Brew
Vice President
Australian Business Software Industry Association
Karen is a Board Member and Corporate Advisor, and presently holds the position Vice President and Director on the Australian Business Software Industry Association (ABSIA) Board. She works closely with both Australian Government and the private sector. Karen previously worked at Microsoft HQ in the USA as VP for delivering global software launches coordinating Marketing, Sales, Partners and Customer Service, and established Women in IT. She also served as the VP of Six Sigma and CIO for BHP Billiton Base Metals division where she implemented a world-wide Six Sigma Operational Excellence programme. As the CIO for Honeywell Asia-Pacific, she has worked across different cultures and geographies to successfully integrate the disparate IT organisations serving 14 different countries. Karen has also consulted to various Government departments and SMEs. With over 35 years’ professional experience, Karen specialises in changing the culture of organisations and communities, and is an avid diversity champion on women’s challenges.
Kathleen Mackay
General Manager, IT Project Delivery
Boral
Kathleen is the General Manager for ICT Project Delivery at Boral Limited. Boral's is Australia's largest building and construction materials supplier and has an annual revenue of circa $5bn. Founded in Australia, Boral also has extensive operations in the USA and Asia.
Kathleen is a dynamic leader and skilled business and technology change professional. She has extensive experience in IT strategy, pipeline planning and project delivery.
Kelvin Mcgrath
Chief Information Officer
Asciano
Kelvin is currently the first ever CIO for Asciano, one of Australia’s largest companies, with over 10,000 employees, revenue of over $3 billion and a large infrastructure presence. Kelvin is also the chairman of 1-Stop Connections and is the founder of the startup company MeetingQuality.
Kelvin has enjoyed an IT career spanning the transport and construction industries in Australasia, and prior to Asciano, was the Chief Information Officer for Boral. He has Bachelor of Electrical Engineering, an MBA and is a GAICD.
Janelle McGuinness
Head of Digital & Emerging Channels
ING Direct
Janelle has over 15 years’ experience in financial services, 7 of those years in digital and is responsible for all digital and innovation within ING Direct, the world’s largest direct bank. This includes strategy and management of all websites (B2C and B2B), mobile and tablet apps, emerging channels and digital innovation. Her focus is on ensuring her team create sustainable business value by thinking, designing and executing customer-centred digital services and experiences.
Prior to this Janelle has had experience at other financial institutions and businesses within the telecommunications and travel industries in the areas of IT, consulting, project and program management both in Australia and overseas.
Maria Milosavljevic
Chief Information Officer, National Manager Innovation & Technology
AUSTRAC
Dr Maria Milosavljevic is the National Manager Innovation & Technology / Chief Information Officer (CIO) of AUSTRAC, and an Adjunct Professor at the University of Canberra. AUSTRAC is Australia’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) as well as the regulator of the AML/CTF Act 2006. Our mission is to make the Australian environment hostile to money laundering and terrorist financing.
Dr Milosavljevic’s remit includes establishing an innovation-centred approach across the agency, leading the technology arm of the organisation, and ensuring that information is well-managed from entry to exit. As a data scientist herself, she also oversees related organisational capability strategy including enterprise analytics. She is currently leading the delivery of the National Financial Intelligence Centre (NFIC) which will bring innovative financial intelligence capabilities to AUSTRAC and its public and private sector partners.
Prior to joining AUSTRAC, she was the Chief Information Officer at the Australian Crime Commission where she was the key driver in the establishment of the National Criminal Intelligence Fusion Capability. In 2015 the Fusion Program won several awards including an iAward and an Australian Computer Society (ACS) Digital Disrupter Award. Dr Milosavljevic was one of three finalists for the iTnews Government CIO of the year in 2014. She completed a PhD in Computer Science on a prestigious scholarship from the Microsoft Research Institute, and recently graduated from ANU with an Executive Masters of Public Administration from the Australia and New Zealand School of Government (ANZSOG).
Dr Milosavljevic has developed several world-first and award-winning solutions to difficult problems throughout her 25 year career. She has also published widely and has been a keynote speaker for a range of conferences.
Susan Monkley
Chief Information Officer
(and Chief Financial Officer, and Group Manager of the Finance, Parliamentary and Assurance Group)
Department of Education and Training
Susan Monkley is the Chief Finance Officer and Chief Information Officer of the Department of Education, and Group Manager of the department’s Finance, Parliamentary and Assurance Group. Susan is responsible for strategic leadership in departmental finance, ICT, businessplanning, risk management auditing, and parliamentary business.
Susan has more than 20 years’ experience in the Australian Public Service including a number of senior executive positions in the former Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, Department of Employment, Australian Taxation Office and Centrelink. Most recently Susan was the Deputy Chief Executive Officer and Chief Information Officer of the Shared Services Centre. The Shared Services Centre is a joint initiative between the partner departments of Education and Employment and is the first of its kind in the Australian Public Service. Susan played a critical role in its establishment.
Susan has a strong focus on business strategy and transformation, change leadership and in the delivery of professional, efficient and transparent services to customers. She holds a Bachelor of Commerce, a Masters of Tax and is an Executive Master of Public Administration.
In her current role Susan provides vision, leadership and directs strategic IT planning and the implementation of IT systems in support of business operations. Susan provides important financial leadership to the department and assists in determining policy, programme and outcome strategies through strategic financial and operational performance planning, reporting and analysis. Susan also directs business planning, risk management and the department’s audit programme ensuring the quality of planning, performance information and evaluation within the department.
Suzy Nicoletti
Head of Online Sales
Twitter Australia
Suzy Nicoletti is Twitter Australia’s Head of Online Sales, responsible for establishing the Mid-Market and SMB advertising business and operations. In market for almost two years,Twitter Australia’s MMS business has experienced strong growth under Suzy’s leadership. Australia is part of the fastest growing region in the world for Twitter, which has more than three-quarters of its users outside the United States.
Suzy is passionate about helping brands integrate new digital technologies to achieve their business objectives in innovative ways. Working with a range of clients across multiple industries, Suzy aims to help businesses of all sizes engage with and understand the value of Twitter.
A Silicon Valley native, Suzy has spent the last eight years in Australia. Prior to joining Twitter, Suzy had a distinguished eight and a half year career at Google. In her most recent role she was the Industry Manager for the Education team, responsible for sales strategy and commercialisation for Google’s product suite across Australia’s education institutions.
Suzy graduated from Claremont McKenna College in Los Angeles with a Bachelor’s in English.
A keen swimmer since the age of six, Suzy competes in the Australian open water series, and is a Surf Lifesaver for North Steyne SLSC.
Jayne Opperman
General Manager Business Integration, Group Technology
Westpac Group
Jayne has over 23 years of technology experience working across the financial sector with an aptitude for business transformation, analytical intelligence & motivational leadership of diverse teams. She is a responsible decision-maker with experience in managing large-scale transformational change, automation and risk management at a number of global financial services firms.
Jayne is currently the General Manager for Business Integration at Westpac, and has formerly held roles as Chief Information Officer across banks in Australia and the UK.
Beth Patterson
Chief Legal & Technology Services Officer
Allens
Beth is the Chief Legal & Technology Services Officer for Allens, an international law firm based in Australia with offices throughout the Asia Pacific region and an integrated alliance with global law firm Linklaters. She is an industry leader who combines strategic technical, project management, legal and commercial expertise to deliver innovative legal technology solutions in this age of big data. With more than two decades of experience and a large multidisciplinary team reporting to her, she and her team have worked on multinational and global litigation, regulatory and corporate matters, many of which were the largest in the Asia Pacific region.
Beth came to the legal industry through a non-traditional ICT path having started her career as a programmer with IBM in the USA and then working on artificial intelligence solutions in the banking and finance industries. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics, a Masters in Computer Science and a Graduate Diploma of Applied Finance & Investment. She is a regular presenter at local and international conferences and recently won the prestigious International Legal Technology Association 2015 Litigation Support Professional of the Year Distinguished Peer Award.
Fiona Rankin
Director - Information Management & Technology Services
University of Wollongong
Fiona Rankin is the Director of Information Management & Technology Services at the University of Wollongong (UOW), where she is responsible for development and delivery of key strategic initiatives, in addition to the operational and people management aspects of UOW’s core technology environment.
Fiona brings to this leadership role more than 25 years technology and executive management experience, and multiple Chief Information Officer (CIO) roles in both the public and private sectors. This is in addition to her Company Director qualifications and previous Board appointment to a subsidiary of a large international corporation.
Fiona has completed a Bachelor of Economics and Graduate Diploma in Financial Management (UNE) and a Masters in Business & IT Management (UTS). In addition she has also completed the Asia Link Leaders Program (Universities of Melbourne and Sydney and the Australian National University) and Leadership 3000 (University of Michigan, U.S.A.).
Fiona is a graduate and member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD), a member of ‘Women on Boards’, she was a 2008 NSW finalist for Telstra Business Women’s Awards, and in 2013 received the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS) Alumni Award for Excellence – Engineering and IT.
Anna Reed-Stephenson
Head of IT-Corporate and New Energy
AGL
Anna is the Head of IT for Corporate and New Energy at AGL. She has over 18 years of technology experience across multiple sectors and IT functions specializing in transforming IT teams to deliver exceptional services. Prior to moving to Australia, she worked in the US for both Deloitte and Plaut Consulting in various consulting roles. Over the past 10 years she has worked for Bluescope Steel and The GPT Group in senior IT positions and for SAP as the Head of Service Delivery for SAP Managed Services across Australia and New Zealand.
In her current role she is working with the organization to transform their Corporate and New Energy applications and IT services.
Mandy Ross
Chief Information Officer
Tatts Group
Mandy Ross was promoted to the role of Chief Information Officer (CIO) at Tatts Group in December 2014 following a year as Head of Technology Transformation and Process Improvement.
Mandy leads a team of more than 400 technology and operations staff at Tatts Group, Australia’s largest operator of gaming, lotteries and wagering products and services. She is charged with developing the longterm strategic and digital roadmaps for the company and preparing it for transformative growth.
Previous positions include CTO of start-up Literary Planet and CIO of online travel organisation the Wotif Group. During her nine years at the Wotif Group Mandy was responsible for the software development and technology operations, managing a team of more than 130 software development, architecture, operations and support staff across Australia and Asia.
In 2015 Mandy was awarded Boss Young Executive of the Year, and CEO Magazine runner-up CIO of the Year. She was also awarded CIO of the Year at the national iAwards in 2012.
Mandy has 15 years industry experience and holds a Masters of Business Administration from the Queensland University of Technology and Bachelor of Information Technology (Hons) from University of Queensland.
Alexis Rouch is a business and change leader with twenty-five years’ experience working in major organisations in Australia, UK, Europe and Asia leading the delivery of strategic business outcomes.
At AMP, Alexis holds the position of IT Director - Transformation, Advice, Bank and Corporate Super. In this role she is responsible for the IT strategy for business-critical, customer facing programs. Prior to working at AMP, Alexis held a number of senior leadership positions at a range of organisations, including - ANZ, Accenture, PwC and Vodafone. A key focus for Alexis is providing inspirational and consistent leadership, working with stakeholders and developing teams to ensure long-term sustainable change.
Angela Ryan
General Manager IT
Forever New Clothing
An Accountant by profession, Angela moved into Information Technology many years ago and has never looked back! Leveraging her commercial skills, Angela has built a career in IT and General Management that has seen her head up significant IT teams, lead large (successful) enterprise-wide change programs and contribute to a senior leadership teams of successful Australian companies.
Angela’s love of both technology and retail, has seen her build a career across some of Australia’s iconic retail brands, which has seen her in the box seat as the customers & technology have forced the retail industry to transform at a rapid rate. Currently, in a global role at Forever New Clothing, her team supports multi-channel operations stores in more than ten countries from their head office in Melbourne. Super A-Mart Furniture, Super Retail Group (Super Cheap Auto, BCF, Rays Outdoors, Rebel Sport, Amart Sports), Colorado Group Limited (Colorado, Jag, Dianna Ferrari, Williams The Shoeman, Mathers for Shoes) and Betta Electrical round out her retail experience; with earlier roles in Media & Pharmaceutical adding to her personal toolkit.
Mark Sheppard
Chief Digital Officer
GE Asia Pacific
Mark is the Chief Information Officer (CIO) for GE in Australia and New Zealand, as well as the CIO for GE Global Mining. Mark drives the strategy and vision for how technology supports the growth of GE’s Energy, Oil and Gas, Aviation, Healthcare and Financial Services businesses in one of the company’s largest and fastest growing regions.
Prior to joining GE, Mark lectured in Computer Science in the UK, after having completed his PhD studies in Artificial Intelligence, specializing in the use of Neural Networks in analysis of big industrial data and computational linguistics.
Elena Sitnikova
Critical Infrastructure Protection, Research Leader
Australian Centre for Cyber Security
Elena Sitnikova is an academic and researcher within the Australian Centre for Cyber Security (ACCS) at the University of NSW Canberra at the Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA).
Her main research interests are in critical infrastructure protection and cyber security, quality assurance and enterprise process capability improvement. Elena currently leads the Critical Infrastructure area, carrying out research projects in cyber security in SCADA and process control systems with industry, State and Federal Government partners in Australia. She works internationally researching cyber and natural threats including the new research direction of Extreme Solar Events and EMPs on SCADA systems. Elena also has IT industry experience working as a senior software engineer with the Motorola Australia Global Software Group.
Elena is among the first Australians to be certified in CSSLP - Certified Secure Software Lifecycle Professional. She is also an award winning academic, holding an Australian Federal Government Office for Learning and Teaching (OLT) Team Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning. Elena is an executive member of and a champion for the Australasian Association for Engineering Education (AAEE) and a key member of the Australian Council of Deans for Information and Communications Technology (ACDICT).
Leah Sparkes
Principal
Candeo Consulting
Originally from Newfoundland, Canada Leah spent 15 years working in the corporate environments of major IT vendors such as Lotus, Gartner and Citrix Systems in senior sales and marketing roles.
During an extended career break sailing in the Caribbean, she realized her biggest passion is people and performance. A new career track started with a focus in the talent management space helping executives flourish at work and in life. She blends the latest research from the fields of Neuroscience, positive psychology, and organizational development in her leadership and team development programs.
Over the last 8 years she has worked with executives and teams coaching them on and in their careers; supporting them in areas of career transition, leadership development, professional and personal growth. Leah has worked with executives from many organizations including Cisco, Shoretel, IBM, BHP, Websense, Sun, Attachmate, Colonial First State and Commonwealth Bank.
She currently runs her own business Candeo Consulting.
Leah’s philosophy is that we all have much untapped potential and executive coaching can be a powerful process that helps us uncover our strengths, deepen self-awareness and allow us to move forward so we can thrive in our professional and personal lives. Our work life should be a source of engagement, growth and inspiration. She is a member of the Neuroleadership Institute and the International Coaching Federation.
Joanne Stubbs
Chief Information Officer
Bakers Delight Holdings
Joanne Stubbs has worked in Information Technology for over 20 years with experience in a variety of industry sectors including that of retail, automotive financial services, banking and the airline industry. Joanne is currently the CIO of Bakers Delight Holdings and has held this role since August 2008.
Joanne's IT experience includes being CIO – Asia Pacific for GMAC, CIO for The Good Guys and was recruited to work for a variety of IT roles at Dubaiworld. Having worked overseas for 2 years Joanne returned to Australia to take up the role of CIO for Bakers Delight Holdings. She has worked closely with the business in every instance to align the IT strategy with that of the business strategy.
Her strengths include expertise in project management along with the establishment of robust policies and procedures to support IT objectives within the business. Joanne is motivated by assisting her staff to implement business enabling systems capable of delivering strategic advantage. With over 20 years of IT experience and a Masters in Technology Management, she brings substantial skills in structuring teams with a delivery mindset, managing change, implementing project management techniques and delivering business value.
Tim Thurman
Chief Information Officer
Australian Security Exchange
Highly accomplished, results-driven and strategic-thinking global IT Executive offering 27 years of experience. Specialising in strategic leadership, digital transformation, enterprise budgeting, application design and delivering of cost-effective, high-performance IT infrastructures, and enhancements to address complex business problems.
Mr Thurman currently holds the CIO position with the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) based in Sydney. As a member of the Group Executive team, reporting directly to the CEO of one of the largest exchanges in the world, Mr Thurman is responsible for the strategic direction of all technology across the entire organisation. This includes services across the vertical stack of products covering all assets classes. Mr Thurman also manages one of the most innovative data centres in Australia providing technical services to the majority of ASX clients.
Mr Thurman is considered a digital disruptor and change agent, always looking for new and innovative technologies – most recently by the introduction of blockchain with the goal to replace existing services and create new services outside the traditional business stack. A key component of Mr Thurman’s responsibility as CIO is ensuring 100% availability for all mission critical services and delivering an enhanced customer experience. Mr Thurman is also responsible for cyber and physical security having built a team from the ground up to ensure ASX and customer assets are safe-guarded.
Felicia Trewin
Head of Strategy and Business Optimisation
ANZ
Felicia is a technologist, strategist and globally-experienced leader with nearly two decades of experience working across an array of blue chip organisations. She joined ANZ in July 2014 as the Head of Technology for Corporate and Commercial Banking –one of the world’s top 15 banks and a top 5 bank in Asia –where she was responsible for delivering end-to-end technology services for over 450,000 Small Business, Business Banking, Regional Business Banking, Corporate Banking and ESANDA customers, and nearly 3,000 staff.
After a six month secondment as the General Manager of Technology Australia, Felicia was appointed Head of Strategy and Business Optimisation, a role which sees her leading the strategy, innovation, partnerships, business management and salesforce effectiveness functions of the Corporate and Commercial Bank in Australia whilst leveraging her significant experience and relationships across the technology industry.
Prior to joining ANZ, Felicia was a Director in Deloitte UK’s Financial Services Consulting practice where she focused on commercial restructuring of outsourcing, offshoring and divestment arrangements to deliver significant cost savings for her clients. In addition, she lead large, complex programs ranging from IT strategy development, through operating model and business process redesign, to shared services optimisation. Felicia complemented this with a portfolio of work in CSR, having lead Deloitte’s Consulting Community Investment program, and provided pro bono advisory and mentoring to charities such as Cancer Research UK and Help for Heroes.
Felicia’s early career was spent at Andersen Consulting where she cut code, ran change management programs, and developed corporate strategies in her home country of Australia and then the US. She later worked for Microsoft in both the US and UK as a key member of both the Global Outsourcing and Operations teams, where she lead the outsourcing, offshoring and management of technical support and development services, managed a $50m+ global supplier base, and received a patent award for co-developing the original Xbox supply chain system.
Felicia was the 2010 winner of the UK Women in the City’s “Future Leaders Award”, and sat on the Board of the UK National Outsourcing Association in 2011-2012. She has a keen interest in progressing the acceptance of flexible working practices, and developing and mentoring women within the technology, finance and consulting industries.
Twitter: @mstrewin
Renee Troughton
Founder and Director
Unbound DNA
Renee Troughton is one of the most experienced Enterprise Agile Transformation Coaches in the southern hemisphere with extensive experience working in small to large organisations across many sectors including finance, insurance, superannuation, government and telecommunications.
The author of both ‘Agile Forest‘ and co-author of ‘Who is Agile Australia and New Zealand‘, she also contributes heavily to her blog at Agile Forest, co-chairs one of the world’s leading Agile Podcasts and regularly presents at both national and international conferences on Agile. Renee specialises in enterprise transformations, Kanban, Scaled, Software Development and general knowledge work implementations of Agile.
Penny Webb-Smart
Executive Director, Service Reform
NSW Department of Finance, Services and Innovation
Penny Webb-Smart is Executive Director, Service Reform for the Department of Finance, Services and Innovation in the NSW Government. The Service Reform team was established in February 2015 to facilitate innovative cross-agency service design & delivery that puts customer at the heart of NSW government.
Penny has deep experience in digital transformation, marketing, service design and development, creating customer-centric cultures, and building strategic partnerships.
Prior to NSW Government, Penny spent twenty years in financial services, consulting and telecommunications in Australia and New Zealand.
Clive Whincup
Chief Information Officer
Woolworths
Gavin Wood
Chief Information Officer
Newcrest Mining
Gavin is CIO at Newcrest Mining. Prior to this role, Gavin has held senior positions at Aurizon, Coles Myer, and David Jones with responsibilities in IT strategy, IT procurement, project delivery, and line management.
He is an advocate for mobility, big data, cloud based services, and the use of managed services and has had success in delivering business benefits at Newcrest Mining in these areas, while removing cost from the IT portfolio.
Speaking opportunities are available!
Present your company, showcase your expertise and demonstrate how you can help by speaking to this senior gathering of ICT and technology professionals from across all sectors.
Use this unique forum to voice your opinions on the most important issues facing ICT today. Speakers will assert themselves as facilitators of the future success of technology professionals.
Contact Jon Treherne on +61 (0)2 8188 3576 or jont@questevents.com.au to find out how we can put you in front of a highly engaged and receptive audience.
You can also download a copy of the partnership prospectus here.