Adam Spencer, Drawcard MC
A math genius, radio and television presenter, author and TEDx speaker whose talk attracted over two million views, Adam has interviewed bestselling authors, astronauts, CEOs, and CIOs of some of the world’s largest companies, winners of Nobel Prizes, and every Prime Minister on-stage since Gough Whitlam, among others.
Adam Spencer has been a breakfast radio announcer on Triple J and ABC Sydney, TV personality on everything from comedies Good News Week and The Glasshouse to weekly sports wrap The Back Page, and is a member of the Sleek Geeks Science Team with Dr Karl Kruszelnicki.
David Walker, Group Chief Technology Officer, Westpac Group
David Walker joined as Westpac Group’s Chief Technology Officer in 2019. David commenced his technology career in 1987 as an engineer, coding systems for various Australian based companies. After a decade of evolving his software engineering craft, David founded a consultancy specialising in the use of data, in what is now known as data science. For the last 15 years, David has been in large, complex organisations. He worked in ANZ across a number of executive roles, in both Australia and Singapore. It was in Singapore where David subsequently joined DBS, which transformed from a traditional bricks and mortar bank to be recognised as the Best Bank in the World and the Best Digital Bank in the World by Euromoney.
Leonie Valentine, Chair, AOMedia (Former Chief AI Officer at Regional AI Network & MD at leading companies including Google, Australia Post & Telstra
Leonie Valentine is a distinguished executive with extensive experience in technology and telecommunications and is the Chair of AO Media a computer vision and AI enabled digital media company. She was previously with the Australian Regional AI Network and has held c-level executive leadership positions at Telstra, Google and Australia Post. Leonie is 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.
Tim Hogarth, Chief Technology Officer, ANZ
Tim oversees the bank’s technology vision, strategy, and execution, with a focus on delivering customer-centric, secure, and scalable solutions. With more than 25 years of experience in the financial services industry, leading teams of architects, engineers, and developers across multiple domains and platforms. Tim’s core competencies include enterprise architecture, solution architecture, IT strategy, engineering standards, and innovation with strong track record of driving pragmatic, value-added IT initiatives that align with the bank’s business goals and regulatory requirements. Tim has a deep understanding of current and emerging technologies, such as cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and how they can create competitive advantages and new opportunities for the bank and its stakeholders.
Nirvana Luckraj, Chief Medical Officer, Healthdirect Australia
Dr. Nirvana brings a wealth of international healthcare experience to her role as Chief Medical Officer (CMO) at Healthdirect Australia. As a Fellow of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) and with more than 30 years’ experience across four continents, Nirvana has held leadership positions in digital health, clinical artificial intelligence, medical service provision and general practice, overseeing clinical governance, quality assurance, and service delivery. Nirvana’s career has also encompassed managing medical teams across Australia, Singapore, Japan, and South Korea while overseeing major government and private healthcare contracts. As CMO at Healthdirect Australia, Nirvana has executive accountability for strategic clinical leadership across the organisation to support effective clinical governance, clinical innovation and partnerships in the delivery of Healthdirect’s services. She leverages her vast experience to drive innovation in the delivery of accessible, high quality and safe digital and virtual healthcare services for all Australians.
Jeremy Hubbard, Chief Data and Technology Officer, Rest
Jeremy is responsible for charting and executing Rest’s technology, delivery and data insights strategy. His remit includes leading Rest’s functional areas of data, insights and analytics, digital architecture, software engineering, information security and strategic delivery. Jeremy has more than two decades of experience in innovation and technology roles across corporate, SME and consulting organisations. He joined the digital UBank in 2008 and was part of the bank’s executive team from 2015 to 2019. Before joining Rest he was UBank’s General Manager, Digital & Innovation. Jeremy was previously Head of IT for fintech start-up Once Australia, and worked in consultancy roles for Capgemini, Morse and Oracle Corporation. He has been the Director of two small consultancies between 2007 and 2018.
Brett Wilson, Chief Information Officer, Australian Red Cross
Brett was recognised in the CIO50 in 2022, 2021, 2020 and 2019 for innovation and leadership. As CIO of the Australian Red Cross, Brett has the organisation through a significant digital transformation that covered finance, CRM, marketing automation, core HRIS, an enterprise risk platform and enterprise data platform. The not-for-profit organisation has spent the past 18 months consolidating its infrastructure into six core systems, as well as achieving new data maturity and governance models. Brett focuses on adding value to the organisation with continuous improvement to create a competitive advantage by linking business process improvements to technology and innovation.
Angela Shi, Founder & CEO, Empathetic AI
Angela is an Australian entrepreneur and AI specialist, recognized as a LinkedIn Top Voice in AI. She is the founder and CEO of Empathetic AI, a pioneering startup that introduced Australia’s first AI Tax Copilot, Luna. Luna is designed to assist tax professionals by analyzing complex tax scenarios, providing instant answers with reasoning, offering real-time updates on Australian Taxation Office (ATO) cases and private rulings, and conducting automatic reference checks.
Christina Igasto, Chief Digital Officer, Service NSW
Christina Igasto is a Digital and ICT professional with over 25 years of experience in Digital Business Transformation. Throughout her career, Christina led significant leading-edge transformation journeys to meet consumer expectations and address complex business requirements. Her expertise includes transforming customer services, governance, culture, business processes, technology, and strategic and operational management. Christina joined Service NSW in July 2024. Under her leadership, the teams collaborate with the public and private sectors to design and execute a digital and data vision that advances digital capabilities, enhances customer experience and insights and delivers innovative digital products for partner agencies, the people and businesses in NSW. As the Chief Digital Officer, Christina is responsible for the effective and agile development, implementation, and delivery of strategic digital programs, digital transformation and easy, accessible, trusted and integrated NSW digital government services.
Joanna Gurry, Executive Data Platforms, National Australia Bank
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.
Patricia Haueiss, CEO, Reality Labs; Advisor, Australian Metaverse Advisory Council
Patricia is a strategic consultant at the forefront of the metaverse, web3, and Artificial Intelligence. Recognized as one of Australia’s Top 100 Innovators, she has 10+ years of experience in augmented reality (AR), spatial computing, and the broader metaverse. With this knowledge, Patricia guides brands to become metaverse-ready and aids businesses in navigating these emerging ecosystems. Her clientele ranges from major automotive giants to Hollywood’s top studios. A thought leader in her field, Patricia has authored comprehensive reports on topics such as “Metaverse Fashion”, NFT Marketing, and the immersive worlds of AR & VR, attracting thousands of readers. Beyond consultancy.
Professor Hind Benbya, Dean of the School of Business, Western Sydney University; former Founding Director of the Centre for AI and the Future of Business, Deakin University
Hind commenced as Dean, School of Business at Western Sydney University in March 2025. She was previously Founding Director of the Centre for AI and the Future of Business at Deakin University, where she served as the Head of School of Information Systems and Business Analytics. Hind has over 20 years’ leadership experience in different countries including France, Italy and the USA. Her research interests include digital innovation, IT-enabled transformation and Artificial Intelligence. Her work has appeared in MIS Quarterly, the Journal of Management Information Systems, MIT Sloan Management Review, MISQ Executive, among others.
Pooyan Asgari, Chief Data Officer, Domain
Pooyan oversees Domain’s data, analytics, business intelligence, and AI strategies. Pooyan’s team is dedicated to providing seamless access to data and analytics across the business and supports teams to solve their complex problems with the help of data. His team also actively provides cutting edge AI and BI solutions to internal and external stakeholders. Before joining Domain in 2015, Pooyan was Director of Analytics Products for HLA Global, working with a number of high-profile healthcare organisations such as Cancer Council of Australia and centre of disease control (CDC) in the United States to provide cutting edge AI solutions for the medical sector.
Álvaro Colon, Chief Innovation Officer, Wisr
Álvaro has led Wisr’s technology and product teams across design, engineering, development and IT since February 2025. He has over 20 years of experience across strategy, experience, design, product and marketing. Álvaro has previously held senior roles both overseas and locally at Accenture and Citi.
Dr Sue Keay, Director, UNSW AI Institute
Dr Sue Keay is an expert in robotics, AI and automation. She is the Director of the UNSW AI Institute and founded Robotics Australia Group the peak body for the robotics industry. Sue is a fellow of the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering (ATSE), a member of the Kingston AI Group and Chief Executive Women, and is on the board of computer vision start-up, Visionary Machines. Sue has an MBA from UQ Business School, PhD in Earth Sciences from ANU and is a Graduate of the Australian Institute for Company Directors.
Bijal Sejpal, Chief Operating Officer, Technology, Bupa Asia Pacific
Bijal is a strategic transformation leader and accomplished change architect. She has been instrumental in accelerating organisational response to the opportunities surfaced by rapidly evolving technology and data. Bijal’s strong foundation in driving innovation and sustainable change within the public and private sectors has enabled organisations to fast-track their transformation agendas and realise positive business outcomes through bimodal and modular architecture. Her expertise in AI transformation and fostering data-driven risk cultures has fuelled the execution of generative AI and data analytics initiatives that propel performance and optimisation. She is deeply passionate about bringing people together and challenging the status quo while effecting inspired change, growth and progress.
Imma Chippendale, Senior Strategic Advisor, Data, ACCC
Imma Chippendale is an experienced data and strategy professional with experience across public, private, and non-profit sectors. She is currently the Senior Strategic Advisor on Data at the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. She was Chief Data Officer at the Department of Regional NSW, where she promoted the use of data and analytics across government for the benefit of regional communities. She previously created and led the data and analytics team at the ACCC. She also has over a decade of experience in commercial strategy consulting.