Toby Walsh, Chief Scientist, UNSW AI Institute; Research Group Leader, CSIRO’s Data61
Toby is a world-renowned professor on artificial intelligence and is Scientia professor at the University of New South Wales and Digital Think-tank Data61. He was named by the media as a “rock star” of the digital revolution and included on the list of the 100 most important digital innovators in Australia. He is a fellow of the Australia Academy of Science and of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, a Humboldt award winner and recipient of the NSW Premier’s Prize for excellence in engineering and ICT. Toby is the author of the books ‘IT’S ALIVE’, ‘Android Dreams’, ‘Machines That Think’ and ‘2062: The Year that AI Made’. |
Joanna Gurry, Managing Director, Data & Analytics, ANZ
Joanna is a commercially focused technology executive with 25 years’ experience in banking, insurance and telecommunications. Building and leading large data and analytics teams at NBNCo, IAG, Commonwealth Bank and KPMG, Jo has led successful transformations of culture and capability in large, complex businesses.
Aiming always to strike the right balance between risk and compliance with strong commercial outcomes, Jo targets strategic relationships with great partners to propel an innovation agenda – driven by advanced analytics practices and underpinned by mature information management foundations.
Lee Hickin, Executive Director, Australian National AI Centre
Lee has over 30 years’ experience in the technology industry, having been in technical, sales and business development roles. Most recently he was the CTO for Microsoft ANZ and then lead the Asia region for Microsoft’s global Responsible AI team. Lee has worked across the UK, Asia, and Australia, before joining the Federal Government. In addition to his time at Microsoft, Lee led the Internet of Things team for Amazon Web Services in Asia Pacific, he was a CISSP security architect with RSA Security and worked at both Tivoli and IBM as a software engineer. During his time in industry, Lee has supported Governments around the world as an independent contributor; having been a member of the Singapore AI-Verify Board and a founding member of the NSW AI Assurance Committee.Today Lee leads the Australian National AI Centre (NAIC), with a mission to enable and support Australian Industry and society in its adoption of and acceleration through AI technology and services. He has a clear focus on the need for consistent and appropriate responsible safety mechanisms to support AI, balanced with the need to empower Australians with the confidence and trust in the positive and transformative potential of AI.Lee brings the importance of technical understanding combined with the need for clear and unambiguous language as we help shape a future where AI will be a powerful enabler of productivity, growth and society broadly.
David Walker, Group Chief Technology Officer, Westpac
Considered in a league of his own, David is a business technology force – a visionary leader behind some of the most ambitious digital transformations in global banking. Before joining Westpac, David played a crucial role in catapulting Singapore’s DBS Bank as the Best Bank in the World and Best Digital Bank in the World by Euromoney. His future-focused insights are regarded by C-level executives from cross industries as among the most sought-after in the Asia-Pacific region.
Toni Peggrem, Chief Executive Officer, AI Consortium
Toni Peggrem is CEO of the Queensland AI Hub (operating under the AI Consortium) and has over 30 years’ experience in strategic planning and organisational reform. She leads initiatives to build the AI ecosystem in Queensland, including workforce development, industry partnerships and enabling accessible AI.
Daniela Fernandez, Division Director, Cyber and Information Security Risk; CSO30 2024
With over 19 years’ experience in Information Technology, Daniela is a cyber security and analytics leader who values integrity, diversity of thought, continuous learning, sense of achievement and ensuring a healthy work/life integration. Currently Daniela is the Head of Information Security at PayPal Australia where she focuses on making security a business enabler, helping PayPal to achieve their mission to democratise financial services while ensuring that PayPal Australia delivers secure products to customers and meets local regulatory requirements. Before that, Daniela was Director of Cyber Risk and Strategy. Prior to Deloitte, Daniela worked in multiple roles at CBA, across protective services, intelligence team, fraud detection and cyber security. Her last role at CBA was Executive Manager, Business Information Security Officer. Daniela is a recent winner of the CSO30 Australia 2022 & 2023 awards recognising excellent in cyber security initiatives.
Anna Aquilina, Chief Information Security Officer, University of Technology Sydney
Anna has been working for over 25 years in a variety of roles, primarily with government and in national security/cyber security related areas. Her introduction to cybersecurity was in 2011 when she was in the Cyber Command in the Serious Organised Crime Agency (UK) as the UK started to take the cyber threat much more seriously. Those years were spent helping understand the cyber threat landscape more fully, engaging in disruption planning and activities and building up capability and capacity across the agencies.
She has spent a considerable amount of time in intelligence agencies, law enforcement and other various bits of government in the UK and Australia, and is really enjoying the Higher Education sector which she joined February 2021 when she joined UTS as CISO.
David Cowan, Chief Information Security Officer, First Sentier Investors; CSO30 2024
Information Security executive with 25 years experience working within the IT / Information Security industry. Dave has worked across all aspects of the Technology and Information Security spectrum globally with a detailed understanding of how to protect Information Assets and build cybersecurity resilience within organisations. Key strengths include managing complex control environments, stakeholder management, leading global teams, strategy development and execution, cybersecurity governance, crisis management, fraud prevention and a deep understanding of industry frameworks such as ISO27001, NIST, ASAE 3402 (GS007), CPS234, Essential 8, ITIL and ISO/IEC 20000. Dave’s greatest attribute is his ability to build relationships and work with stakeholders at all levels within an organisation.
Maria Paz, Chief Technology Officer, Epworth Health
Maria Paz is a seasoned leader with over two decades of experience driving transformative business and technology initiatives across diverse sectors. Driven by values of integrity, excellence, and collaboration, Maria is passionate about leveraging emerging technologies and data to drive business transformation. She excels in aligning business and technology strategies to maximize value delivery and is particularly adept at managing change and innovation to enhance social and community outcomes.
Maria’s accomplishments have earned her recognition, including being ranked in the top 25 of Australia’s CIO50 in 2022 and 2023. Her achievements include the development and deployment of a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform, delivering substantial cost savings, and driving significant improvements in governance, security, and data analytics capabilities. Maria’s leadership has also facilitated research partnerships to evaluate emerging technologies’ effectiveness in diverse care settings, securing substantial government funding in the process.
Angela Donohoe, Industry CIO and Advisory Council Member, Harvard Business Review
Angela is an independent non-executive director and adviser, currently holding roles on a range of boards and committees including Goodwin Aged Care Services, SDN Children’s Services, Australian Access Federation, Central Coast Local Health District and the Royal Australasian College of Physicians. With more than 30 years’ experience as a successful digital and technology executive (CIO), Angela has led the design, development and implementation of significant change and digital transformation across a range of highly regulated financial services, government and not-for-profit organisations. With deep expertise in payments, digital identity, cyber security and high transaction environments, Angela has been recognised as one of Australia’s leading CIOs. #CIO50#2020.
Previous executive roles held include NSW Dept of Enterprise, Investment & Trade, BPAY Group, Revenue NSW, Cuscal, Societe Generale, and Bank of New York. Angela is a graduate of the AICD, a Fellow of CPA Australia and Senior Fellow of FINSIA. With a passion for encouraging greater representation of women in technology, Angela is an active mentor and supporter through University of Technology Sydney and University of NSW student mentoring programs.
Leonie Valentine, Chair at AOMedia (former Chief AI Officer at Regional AI Network & former Managing Director Google Melbourne, former EGM Australia Post & former Director Marketing, Telstra)
Leonie is a distinguished executive with extensive experience in technology and telecommunications. She was previously with the Australian Regional AI Network and has held c-level executive leadership positions at Telstra, Google and Australia Post. A digital industry leader with 30 years’ experience in general management, sales, marketing and operations, including 20 years in digital technology and telecommunications. Over the years Leonie has been an active member of a number of boards including Not For Profits and ASX-listed Pro-Pac Packaging Ltd. She currently serves as a board member for Save the Children Australia.
Jason Murrell, Cybersecurity Leader, Government Advisor and Author
Jason is a strategic advisor and moderator with a unique blend of expertise across cybersecurity, digital transformation, public policy and enterprise innovation. As Chair of Dynamic Standards International (SMB1001), he works closely with government, large enterprise and critical infrastructure sectors to uplift national cyber maturity and support modernisation at scale. Through his work at Murfin Group, Jason advises technology vendors and procurement leaders on how to align innovation, compliance and stakeholder trust.