Damien Andreasen

Vice President, APJ
Hibob

For over a decade, Damien has founded and held C-level positions for several Australian tech companies in the B2B and HR space including LawPath, Spreets and Ento. Damien joined Hibob in 2021 to lead its growth and expansion in the APJ region. Hibob is one of the world’s fastest growing HR tech companies that was built for the way people work today: globally, remotely and collaboratively. 

David Bellas

Director, LinkedIn Talent Solutions
LinkedIn

David Bellas is a Director for LinkedIn’s Talent Solutions business for Australia and New Zealand. David and his team are responsible for helping organisation the way they plan, hire, and develop talent. This is possible through the disruptive technology and unique data and insights from LinkedIn’s 875+ million members and 57 million companies. 

He is passionate about investing in people, everything sales, turning business visions into reality and working with customers to meet their business objectives. 

Over the past 10 years at LinkedIn, David has had the opportunity to lead the growth and distribution efforts across all sectors at LinkedIn. When LinkedIn acquired Lynda.com in 2015, an online learning company, David was appointed as Head of Learning for Australia and New Zealand and helped oversee the successful transition to LinkedIn Learning. 

Over the past several years David has been recognised with awards such as Diversity and Inclusion Manager of the Year and LinkedIn Manager of the Year and has a reputation for inspiring, coaching and developing talent. 

Garth Byrne

Head of Learning and Development
Employment Hero

Garth holds over 20 years experience in Learning & Development, Talent Management, and Organisational Development with large multi-national organisations, responsible for learning strategy, stakeholder management, executive coaching, mentoring, performance management and cultural change initiatives. He is a strong team player with experience in people management and a solid understanding of emotional intelligence and human behaviour.

Simone Carroll

Executive Director, People & Culture
Alinta Energy

Simone joined the Alinta Energy executive team in 2023. A strategic executive general manager and advisor with a track record for building and leading high-performance teams towards market leadership and sustainable growth. With a career spanning more than 25 years in HR, she’s worked for companies such as Vicinity Centres, Wesfarmers, REA Group and Medibank and has successfully led major company change and multiple disciplines through critical stages of investment.

Simone’s ‘human-centric’ approach to business transformation puts customer success and Return on Capital at the centre of organisational design and delivery systems.

She holds a Bachelor of Business, Labor & Industrial Relations and is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD), a graduate of Harvard Business School’s Advance Management Program and a former HR Director of the year (HRD Australia). She is also a member of Chief Executive Women.

Matt Collier

Senior Industry Fellow
RMIT University, FORWARD

Matt Collier is a cross-sector leader with 15+ years of experience spanning financial services in APAC, innovation/strategy consulting globally, and the U.S. government. Throughout his career, Matt has been drawn to strategic initiatives and transformation mandates, building a depth and breadth of experience that inspires how he frames strategies, builds teams, and seeds systemic change.

Over nearly 5 years at Prudential plc, Matt initially joined the Singapore business unit and later took on a global remit to develop HR/people strategy and support the Group HR Director and the Board in establishing a customer-centric culture, leading the launch of a refreshed purpose and common values at the 170-year-old insurer. More recently, he served as Chief of Staff to the Asia CEO.

In the spirit of cross-sector leadership, Matt took a partial leave of absence to serve on the Biden-Harris Presidential Transition, where he led the review of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management’s IT portfolio, authored papers on the future of the federal workforce and surge hiring for the national Covid-19 response, and advised the government-wide Technology Strategy & Delivery team.

Previously, Matt served in the Obama Administration as an aide to the head of the civil service in the first term and later at the White House. Notably, he co-founded the award-winning Lab at OPM, spearheaded the President’s reforms to college recruiting and hiring, and contributed to the founding of tech initiatives such as the Presidential Innovation Fellows and the U.S. Digital Service.

After leaving the White House in 2015, Matt led the expansion into APAC and the Middle East for LUMA Institute, a design thinking education company.

Natasha Cuthbert

Chief People Officer
Viva Energy

Natasha is a seasoned HR Executive who has led various People and Culture functions focusing on key disciplines including business transformation and change, workforce planning, organisational development, talent management, and industrial relations.

As Chief People and Culture Officer, her focus is to create an environment conducive to delivering Viva Energy’s transformation agenda while sustaining high performance in core operations through highly engaged and capable people. Natasha is responsible for people strategy, operations and execution, as well as fostering the Viva Energy culture.

A HR career was not necessary the plan when Natasha completed her Science degree specialising in Zoology – however after building over 20 years of HR experience, Natasha’s true passion is delivering business results through great people.

Bianca Di Tullio

Talent and Culture Director, APAC
AKQA

Bianca is passionate about fostering a framework to attract, engage and grow world-class creative talent. Working across AKQA’s APAC studios including Australia, New Zealand, China, Japan and India, Bianca aims to create a seamless employee experience across the region, supporting an innovative, creative and inclusive environment where people can thrive and do the best work of their careers.

Jennifer Dobell

Executive Director Workforce Strategy and Wellbeing
Victorian Department of Health

Jennifer is a leader in future workforce and strategy. She has delivered workforce strategies in health, digital, data and customer service segments. Her ability to tackle such a complex challenge is the culmination of years of executive HR experience across the federal and state government leading a wide range of portfolios including workforce strategy, recruitment, business partnering and operations.

Jennifer has worked across public and private sector including: ATO, Premier and Cabinet, ANZ Bank and CCH. As she is an employee not a consultant, Jennifer has led the implementation and governance of all of these strategies

Jelena Dokic

Former world no. 4 tennis player, Channel Nine commentator, speaker, best-selling author

A former world number 4, popular tennis commentator and best-selling author of her autobiography ‘Unbreakable’, Jelena Dokic’s story of survival is nothing short of remarkable, both on and off the court.

Her rise in the ranks of tennis was meteoric, reaching the quarter finals at Wimbledon at the age of just 16. With a steely nerve, she fought off opponents with the same gutsy zeal Jelena Dokic used to fight off poverty and racism, bullying, discrimination, injury, depression – and the greatest fight of her life – the physical and emotional abuse she suffered for over 20 years at the hands of her tyrannical father and coach.

Jelena has penned the best-selling autobiography Unbreakable, a book which details her career and her life. In the book, she details the struggles of being a refugee, dealing with poverty, racism, bullying, and discrimination. She also talks about the physical and emotional abuse she suffered for over 20 years at the hands of her father which started when she was just six years old. She also talks about dealing with heavy depression and almost committing suicide.

Jelena courageous story has captured a massive worldwide following. Her raw honesty will leave you in awe. Her ability to free herself from the grips of darkness will astonish you. Most of all, Jelena Dokic’s will to survive will inspire you. She embodies hope and strength and perseverance and will leave any audience mesmerised.

Jelena now pours her efforts into commentary as one of the key voices for Nine.

Joshua van Gestel

Senior Manager, Strategic Education
Australian Retirement Trust

Joshua is responsible for developing and delivering ART’s education strategy to members, employers, advisers and representative bodies. In his role he oversees the development of bespoke multi-channel communication strategies for key clients and partners. Joshua is passionate about empowering individuals to achieve their retirement dreams through effective, tangible, and engaging experiences, while also bringing a desire to create stronger advocacy to improve the financial wellbeing of all Australians. Joshua has over 25 years’ extensive experience within Financial Services, Education and Media organisations, holding roles in management, content development and education delivery.

Dr. Marnie Gibson

Global Director People
T2 Tea

Marnie is the Global People Director at T2 Tea, an omnichannel operation across Singapore and ANZ. She has worked in generalist HR in industries such as professional services, FMCG, mining, financial services, retail and local government in APAC and MNC’s. She has also led OD in global organisations and in 2018 completed a doctorate researching leading and engaging remote employees, a relevant focus post Covid. She also lectures in HR and has written HR programs to drive more practical experience for the HR professionals of the future. Whilst Marnie takes her work very seriously, she seriously values FUN and is a passionate, curious practitioner driving best practice and research in HR.

Mike Hagan

Workplace Mental Health Advocate and Founder
Mike Hagan Consulting

Mike Hagan is a HR and Health, Safety & Wellbeing consultant with over twenty years’ experience in both public and private sectors, overseas and here in Australia.  

Drawing upon his diverse career journey as a Fitter & Turner, Union Rep, HSR, Plant Manager, Nuclear Safety Manager and a Senior Health and Safety and HR Executive, Mike is a personable, engaging and entertaining public speaker, and a natural storyteller with an ability to make lasting connections at all levels of an organisation. 

Mike’s personal and professional purpose is the removal of the stigma associated with mental illness in the workplace and broader society, one conversation at a time. 

When Mike is not striving to help every Australian workplace become the best version of itself, he enjoys reading, writing, sound engineering and making music with his band ‘Mike Hagan & the Distant Conspirators’.  

Alice Hanna

Head of People & Culture
Kapitol Group

Alice Hanna is the Head of People and Culture at construction company, Kapitol Group, who were named the Wrk+ #1 Best Place to Work in Australia in 2022. Alice has 20 years’ experience in Human Resources across mining, engineering, software development and construction. Alice is passionate about mental health, diversity and inclusion, leadership development and creating inspiring places to work. Alice works hard to make the construction industry and more safe and welcoming industry for all. Alice’s work in the industry was recognised by being awarded the HRD Australian HR Manager of the Year in 2022.

Caroline Henshaw

Head of People and Culture
Mantel Group

Caroline Henshaw is the Head of People and Culture with Mantel Group, an Australian-owned, technology-led consulting business founded in Melbourne in 2017.  

Caroline was charged with building the strongest culture and employee experience in Australia and New Zealand, to grow a highly engaged business of 1000 people in just over five years.  

Her innovative approach to individual employee experiences and creating a values based culture resulted in Mantel Group being recognised by Great Place to Work© as Best Place to Work in Australia in both 2021 and 2022. 

Caroline is an experienced People and Culture executive, having previously led people strategies and teams across consulting and public institutions. Her experience includes large scale culture transformation, driving sustainable change across businesses, engaging and building on employee potential. She is passionate about creating great workplaces where people genuinely want to work. 

Ilka Hoffmeister

Head Of Workforce Strategy & Transformation, Network Operations, ANZ
Ericsson

Ilka Hoffmeister is currently the Head of Workforce Strategy and Transformation, Network Operations at Ericsson, Australia & New Zealand. Ilka has over 25 years’ P&C experience gained across a variety of sectors, including IT&T, finance and insurance, not for profit, government, airline contact centre and FMCG. With qualifications in Arts (politics/philosophy) and Law, Ilka has a unique combination of skills and experience across both employee relations and organisational development, including P&C strategy, organisational change, talent and leadership, culture, engagement and DE&I. Prior to joining Ericsson, Ilka was the Executive Head of P&C at the Sexual Assault and Family Violence Centre. Ilka has led business partnering teams as a Head of People Technology for large ICT divisions in finance and government organisations and enjoyed a long career with Telstra, in a variety of senior P&C leadership roles. As a trusted Head of People, Ilka is passionate about leading data informed P&C strategy that drives business outcomes and delivers a great employee experience.

Helen Jackson

Chief People Officer
Australian Retirement Trust

Helen joined the Australian Retirement Trust in February 2022. Helen is a highly skilled senior executive with a strong commercial perspective and extensive experience in transformational culture change, organisational development and People/HR management. She has 35 years’ experience in both mature and start-up environments across diverse industry sectors and organisational cultures in Australia and globally. With much of her early career in industrial relations, Helen has held a range of senior consulting and permanent roles at organisations including Queensland Rail, Westpac, Ernst & Young and the NSW Government. Most recently, Helen worked with the engineering consulting business Advisian, a business line of Worley Group. In her four-year tenure, she developed and executed the People & Culture strategy for APAC and globally, including creating a comprehensive culture program, and supporting the integration of the Advisian business as part of the WorleyParsons and Jacobs ECR merger in 2019.

Helen holds an Executive MBA, Graduate Diploma Industrial Relations, Bachelor of Commerce and Bachelor of Economics. She is also a Graduate of the AICD as a Board Director. She is also a Graduate of the AICD as a Board Director.

Danielle Jacobson

Organisational Development Manager
99designs by Vista

Danielle has 20 years’ experience in leadership development and is passionate about supporting leaders to enable workplace cultures where people can bring their genuine selves and do their best work. She is an organisational development practitioner and uses a humanistic approach in her work.

Danielle holds a Master of Management and a Graduate Diploma in Psychology. She is fascinated in role of the leader in ways of working, and recently completed a research thesis on how mandated work from home during the pandemic impacted leader’s attitudes to workplace flexibility.

She is the President of Organisation Development (OD) Australia, a membership based not for profit that provides professional development opportunities for OD practitioners. 

Kelly Knowles

General Manager Human Resources
Boeing

Kelly is currently the HR Leader for Boeing’s Commercial Airplanes Division in Australia. With a background in workplace relations consulting, Kelly has previously worked in and around general aviation, manufacturing and printing and packaging sectors. Kelly has been with Boeing for 15 years, utilizing her skills in industrial and employee relations, change management and leadership capability to shape the business’s culture for productivity and growth. Kelly is a wife and mother of two young girls who she is bringing up to be ‘brave, smart and kind’.

Amber Kristof

Chief People Officer
Vocus Group

Amber Kristof is a human resources executive who holds 20+ years of experience with market-leading organisations in telecommunications, automotive, consumer products, and entertainment.

Amber’s visionary approach to strategy and her ability to lead expert teams enable her to improve operational performance and business culture, and develop innovative and cost-effective solutions for enhancing competitiveness and customer satisfaction.

Amber’s most recent roles include Human Resources Director, L’Oréal; Executive General Manager Human Resources, Melbourne IT; Human Resources Manager / Leadership Development Manager, Ford Motor Company; and Human Resources Manager, The Walt Disney Company.

Amber has been Chief People Officer at Vocus since September 2018, where she successfully led the people strategy that supported the company’s three-year turnaround strategy. She continues to drive innovative strategies that support recruitment, engagement and business growth.

Amber holds a Bachelor of Science (Honours), a Graduate Diploma, Industrial Relations & Human Resource Management, from the University of Melbourne.

Tamsin Lawrence

Senior Associate
ABLA

Tamsin is a highly credentialled employment lawyer with Australian Business Lawyers and Advisors (ABLA) in Melbourne, acting for a broad range of employers across both the public and private sector. She performs a mix of litigious and advisory work in workplace relations and is a regular author and presenter on a range of bargaining, employment, discrimination and work health and safety related topics. Tamsin was very closely involved in responding on behalf of employers to the National Inquiry into Sexual Harassment in Australia Workplaces and lead the Chambers’ response to the introduction of the Respect at Work Act including the new prohibition on sex-based harassment in the workplace and role as an associate employer representative member on the newly formed Federal Government Respect@Work Council. Tamsin takes a keen interest in and is often at the forefront of IR Changes, including providing feedback and advice to Government and employer groups on the implications of reforms.

Michelle Maugueret

Former Chief People Officer, Bank First and current Director & Co-Founder
The Growth Collective

Michelle is the Director & Co-founder of the Growth Collective and former Chief People Officer at Bank First.  She is an experienced Executive with a background spanning 25 years in both HR and Change Management disciplines across Australia and Asia.

Michelle has worked across multiple industries primarily in Financial Services and Education implementing strategic and operational programs to support organisational effectiveness, develop high-performing teams and engaged workplace cultures. She believes in partnering with businesses and individuals to understand where they are today to help them get to where they want to be tomorrow through connecting people to purpose, so they can deliver meaningful work.

Siobhan McCray

Regional VP Human Resources, APACSA
McCain Foods

Siobhan McCray is the Regional VP Human Resources, APACSA at McCain Foods. She is impactful, energetic and inspiring leader with over 15 years experience leading People and Operations teams within iconic food retail brands such as Nando’s, Yum (KFC & Pizza Hut) and McDonalds.

Siobhan is passionate about leading and developing teams to deliver outstanding results with the objective of optimising the customer experiences. She has experience in turnaround and realignment situations; global, national and regional markets; and franchise and company-owned operations.

She is a values-driven, purposeful, and strategic leader, with a strong executional focus.

Kiria McNamara

Director, People and Culture
Swisse Wellness

Kiria is a passionate P&C leader with experience living and working for global organisations in the UK, Hong Kong, China and Australia. She is a firm believer that ‘culture eats strategy for breakfast’ and how you treat your people during the tough times says more about your culture than anything else. She is a true generalist at heart but has a particular interest in DE&I and Leadership and Talent Development.

Louise Meadows

Chief People Officer
Great Western Water

Louise Meadows is an experienced executive who has been working with CEOs, Executive teams and Boards for over 25 years to deliver people strategies to support organisational goals. Louise joined the water industry in 2013 after 15 years in the banking sector. The water sector appealed to her immediately – the strong sense of care and purpose resonated with her personal values. Under her leadership, Greater Western Water is undertaking a significant organisational and cultural transformation with an orientation for high performance. In her role as Chief People Officer, Louise leads all aspects of human resources, organisational development, health safety & wellbeing, change, employee experience and communications. Her role involves developing and implementing strategy and initiatives that align our employees with broader business objectives and focuses on enduring cultural change. As a recognised and respected leader within the industry, Louise’s achievements were acknowledged when she became one of the inaugural winners of Top 50 Women in the Victorian Public Sector in 2017. 

Genaea O’Bryne

Senior Learning Business Partner APAC
Amazon

Genaea has strong experience within a diverse range of roles across manufacturing, mining, energy automotive and technology throughout Asia Pacific.  

Her background includes strategic and operational HR, business transformation, talent and capability, organisational effectiveness, learning and development, workforce design, project management and leadership.  

Currently she is focused on supporting operations by building leadership capability within Amazon leading delivery across APAC. Genaea is incredibly passionate about building the skills of the future and is excited to be speaking at the HR Summit Melbourne. 

Adam Oosterhoff

Chief People Officer, Enabling Units
NAB

Adam is an experienced HR professional with over 20 years in generalist, learning & development, and project roles, primarily in the Finance and Professional Services industries. He currently serves as the Chief People Officer for Enabling Units at NAB, where he has worked for the past 9 years. Adam holds an MBA and a Master of Management in Human Resource Management from Macquarie Graduate School of Management. He is passionate about driving business performance, customer value, and creating great workplaces.

Nerique Paterson

Head of Employer Growth
Australian Retirement Trust

Nerique joined ART in 2018 and is responsible for the sustainable growth of new members, penetration and net FUM flow nationally across our employer segments. She is a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries of Australia with 15 years’ financial services experience. Prior to joining ART, Nerique was a Senior Consultant at Rice Warner where she provided strategic advice and market insight to superannuation funds, fund managers and employers. Before moving to Australia in 2016, Nerique held senior roles in asset consulting and product development in South Africa.

Aaron Rau

Head of HR
Liven

As Head of People & Culture at Liven, he drives high-performance, alignment and inclusivity, overseeing the growth of the hospitality tech platform from 25 to 200+ employees across Australia, US, Singapore, India, UK and Indonesia.

Meredith Rowan

Vice President Applications ANZ
Oracle

Meredith Rowan is Oracle’s Vice President of Applications for ANZ. Meredith is an accomplished leader, with over 20 years’ experience in delivering technology solutions and supporting business transformation through the various enterprise roles she has held. Meredith is passionate about sharing best practices and frequently speaks with customers and partners about Oracle HR’s journey and the power of SaaS technology and its use to propel the growth of their own organizations. In addition, Meredith seeks to help women of all ages in business, technology, and innovation to become more successful and to be recognized for their contributions, bringing opportunities to showcase their accomplishments within the technology industry.

Kylie Speer

Host & Journalist
Key Media

Kylie Speer is a television host, media professional and author with international experience spanning more than 15 years. Since graduating from the Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Kylie’s career has seen her assume posts in Sydney, Melbourne, London, Dubai, Los Angeles and New York across numerous print, online and broadcast television media outlets including The Sunday Telegraph, nineMSN, the Nine Network Australia and Sky TV in the UK. 

Robert Tanti

Chief People Officer
Opal

Robert is currently the Chief People Officer of Opal. Opal are leaders in sustainable packaging in Australia and New Zealand. Opal turns over $2b per annum in revenue and employs more than 4000 people across its 60 sites. Previously he was the CPO of SPC in December 2020, where he led the mandatory vaccination program for SPC. This was an industry leadership position and collateral developed for SPC’s employees was white labeled, made available to the HR community and downloaded more than 24,000 times. He has lead HR functions and transformation programs across a diverse array of geographies and industries, including FMCG, Agribusiness, Energy, Professional Services and Transport. Working with some of Australia best known brands including Australia Post, StarTrack, Simplot, Masterfoods and Elders.

Robert is driven by the discovery, development, and delivery of pragmatic people, safety, and culture solutions, configured to help organisations and its people succeed.  He is passionate about fostering an inclusive organisation that provides more diverse opportunities for its people and authentically embraces individual agency.

When he is not working, he prefers to spend his time with his family, cooking, eating, and exercising.

Kylie Terrell

Director of Consultancy
Reward Gateway

Kylie Terrell has partnered with HR leaders across Australia & New Zealand for over 10 years to design and deliver strategic employee engagement programs that have employees at the heart. Responsible for helping organisations bring their purpose, mission and values to life across numerous best in class engagement programs, Kylie is driven to help businesses use Engagement as a core lever for success. 

Passionate about leveraging technology to build better connections, she is an advocate for peer led recognition as an engagement driver having seen the positive effects it can have on culture and engagement first hand. Her area of expertise lies in the delivery and analysis of surveys, facilitating focus groups and strategic program design, supporting leadership education and change and of course thoughtful, engaging marketing/communications strategy. 

Shontel Turner

Human Resources Director
General Mills

Shontel Turner is the Human Resources Director at leading global food manufacturer, General Mills. She has worked at General Mills for the past 11 years in a range of roles in including HR Manager for Manufacturing and Senior HR Business Partner for the ANZ Corporate business. She is passionate about people and fascinated by long-term strategies which increase productivity through improving workplace culture. Shontel was instrumental in developing General Mills’ global flexible work policy, Work with Heart, which is now being practiced by 35,000 employees worldwide. 

Julie Watkins

Chief People Officer
UniSuper

Julie joined UniSuper in 2018 with over 20 years’ experience in the HR field. This experience was gained in the financial services, healthcare, consumer goods and professional services sectors across Multinational, Asia Pacific and Australian roles. 

Amy Bell

General Manager, Workplace Relations and Wellbeing
Victorian Chamber of Commerce & Industry

Amy is a dual qualified solicitor and barrister with over 15 years’ experience in private legal practice specialising in litigation and employment law.  Amy has practised in England and represented clients in a variety of jurisdiction including Germany, Spain, the USA, and here in Australia.  After leaving private practice, Amy acted as in-house counsel advising on high-risk, high-profile cases at an international ASX20 listed company.  Amy joined the Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry as a Workplace Relations Consultant in 2015 and now has the pleasure of leading a team of 20 impressive workplace relations and wellbeing advisors and consultants. 

Melo Calarco

Mindfulness and High Performance Coach

As a certified mindfulness and performance coach, Melo has the unique ability to bring the best out of the people, and the companies, he works with. With over 25 years experience, his results-based work is grounded in neuroscience, mindfulness, human behaviour, leadership training and other unique tools to help his clients find self-awareness, clarity, focus and ultimately success.  

Melo learned to manage highly challenging and stressful situations, build mental endurance and rise above adversity from his life lessons on the road where he cycled, trekked and travelled over 30,000km’s around the planet on his mountain bike. He traversed Africa, Asia, India, Nepal, Europe and North America, along the way he had to overcome many obstacles and demanding encounters, including near-death experiences.  

He now shares that deep experience working with many global Fortune 500 companies, CEO’s, managers and directors, and corporate executives, as well as sporting professionals, actors, entrepreneurs, thought leaders and individuals that want to be the absolute best at their craft. Recently, Melo has had the unique opportunity to coach an Olympic athlete to reach their life-long goals.  

During the pandemic Melo has supported over 75,000 people globally in his seminars and coaching programs.  

His work has been described as ‘truly transformational’! 

James Della-Porta

Director Enterprise Sales APAC
Udemy Business

James has worked with technology and businesses for over 25 years. More recently partnering and collaborating with HR teams to improve their efficiency, and elevate the performance of their employees. Especially through the pandemic. He has a passion for leadership, and how anyone can and should be empowered to make a difference. Strongly believing that leadership is the key to unlocking the potential in individuals, teams and organisations; and the profound impact it can have.

Joining Udemy has felt like being where he is most needed. James is a self confessed ‘lifetime learner’ and is often looking for ways to get out of his comfort zone. Whether that be relocating to Singapore to take on a new challenging role, or taking up triathlons in his mid-forties.

Saloni Dikshit

Senior Consultant
Talogy

Saloni has over 8 years of experience in Consulting and Internal Organizational Development roles, having worked in India, UK, and Australia. She’s a master’s graduate in Business Psychology and holds accreditation as a Test User from the British Psychological Society. Saloni excels in designing, developing, and leading various development programs and workshops. She’s skilled in facilitating a wide range of programs, including personality and emotional intelligence workshops, psychometric training accreditations, and leadership development programs for leaders at all levels. Saloni has also conducted team exploration and trust-building workshops, helping teams understand their working styles and improve collaboration.

Ray Good

Mental Fitness and Peak Performance Mindfulness expert
The Good Place

As the founder of The Good Place, Ray is on a mission to create a more mindful world and help fight the global mental health crisis. Ray teaches mental fitness, high performance and mindfulness grounded in neuroscience and positive psychology to help individuals, teams and organisations fight stress, think better and perform at their peak.
 

Many of Australia’s biggest organisations have relied on Ray’s expertise, including Tourism Australia, the Victorian & A.C.T Governments, RACV, Mercy Health, Macquarie Bank, Torrens University, Tennis Australia, and Nova Entertainment, to name a few.  

Dr Ben Hamer

Futurist

Dr Ben Hamer is one of the leading voices on the future of work. He is a Doctor of Public Administration, which included time spent as a Visiting Scholar at Yale University, and is an Adjunct Fellow for Swinburne University’s Centre for the New Workforce. Ben leads the future of work market for PwC Australia and is on the Board of the Australian HR Institute (AHRI), where he was appointed as the youngest non-executive director in the history of the organisation. Ben is a media commentator, podcast host, keynote speaker, and author of The Kickass Career.

Jim Heeney

Vice President, Head of Australia and New Zealand
First Advantage

Jim is currently the Country Manager for Australia and New Zealand at First Advantage, a company that was awarded the Gold in the 2022 HRD Service Provider Awards. Since 2015, Jim has held several regional leadership positions before assuming his current role. Prior to joining First Advantage, he worked with Thomson Reuters and LexisNexis in different Asian markets, where he led teams deploying compliance, legal, and risk management solutions for top tier enterprises. Jim started his career as an attorney in the United States, where he focused on litigation and complex commercial transactions.

Sonya Law

Founder
SL Human Resources Consulting

 ‘Human-to-Human at work’

Sonya’s passion is Wellbeing and Human Resources, for her, they both go hand in hand.  By creating a Healthy Workplace where people can perform and reach their potential.  

Her professional career in HR spans 25 years. Some of her highlights are being part of a Senior Leadership Team for Hitachi in the Mining Industry, she completed her MBA at Monash in 2018, and working internationally across USA, Europe and Asia.   

What’s important to her now is chairing the HR Summit in Melbourne and Sydney each year, helping organisations in creating a high-performance team where people feel valued and supporting the leadership team. 

James McIlvena

Managing Director Australia and New Zealand
LHH

James is the MD of LHH Australia and New Zealand and the Executive Sponsor of LHH partnerships with large customers. James is passionate about helping build better careers, better leaders and better businesses. His strength is in developing solutions to complex problems and addressing these through mobilising and managing talented people. He is responsible for connecting local businesses with the best of globally available LHH solutions helping individuals and organisations reveal and harness their talent and providing tools to support a renewable workforce.  

Prior to LLH, he gained extensive experience of in-house recruitment and RPO models across a range of industries and ASX100 companies. James has a degree in Psychology/ Psychophysiology and a Post Graduate qualification in Human Resources and Industrial Relations. 

Michael Morgan

CEO
Herrmann Asia

After working closely with Ned Herrmann, Michael founded Herrmann International Asia in 1988 and remains its Chief Executive.

For over 30 years, the Whole Brain® Model has been his passion and he is one of the region’s leading experts on how the HBDI® can stimulate innovation and creativity in the workplace. Over three decades, Michael has worked with some of Australia and Asia Pacific’s largest industrial, pharmaceutical, technological, educational and financial organisations.

Through Whole Brain® Thinking, he has helped them develop and harnessthe true power and potential of their workforces. Using this powerful and scientific instrument, he has helped people at all levels develop a recognition and appreciation of their individual thinking styles. These transformative insights have enabled individuals to become more creative, intuitive, analytical, and productive. He has helped teams communicate and collaborate more effectively and better appreciate one another’s vital contribution to achieving their shared goals.

Michael’s approach is to apply the principles of the Whole Brain® Model to stimulate innovative and problem-solving thinking that will be relevant to the client’s business model and drive bottom-line results.

As well as delivering programs, Michael is a keynote speaker who has addressed professional audiences from a broad range of categories across Asia. He’s also the author of two seminal books – Making Innovation Happen and Creating Workforce Innovation.

When he’s not working, Michael likes to use all four quadrants of his brain in the relaxing but sometimes challenging past-time of sailing

Ben Palmer

CEO
Genos International

Ben has a PhD in psychology in which he developed the first Australian model and measure of emotional intelligence. He has an extensive publication list in the area, has been invited to contribute chapters to books and guest edit special issues of journals on the topic. 

Together with Swinburne University’s commercialisation arm, Ben founded Genos International in 2002 to bring his model and measure of emotional intelligence to the market. Genos, and the model and measure of emotional intelligence that forms its core business, is now a national and Australian export success story. Genos has operations in Australia and Europe and distribution partners servicing clients in the USA, India, China, South Africa, South East Asia, the UAE and New Zealand. 

Dr Ben Palmer holds a BAppSci (Hons), PhD, and is Chief Executive Officer of Genos International. 

Nithya Ramaswamy

Solutions Director
LHH

Nithya Ramaswamy is Solutions Director within the LHH Leadership Development practice, for Australia and New Zealand. Nithya brings over twenty years of experience in providing insights, consultancy, client engagement, leadership development design and delivery to leaders across a range of client organisations globally. Having led complex projects that span multiple levels of leadership and across various markets and functional areas, Nithya has a proven track record in partnering with stakeholders to co-create learning architectures and bring to life robust leadership development experiences. 

Having a career background as both industry leader and consultant, Nithya is a credible and commercial learning professional who brings insightful, practical and innovative approaches in her work. Nithya has diverse global and industry experience spanning banking and financial services, insurance, infrastructure, agribusiness, professional services, telecommunications, public sector, education, and pharmaceuticals. 

Simi Rayat

Executive Leadership Coach & Chartered Business Psychologist
Wellbeing Face

Simi is a sought after Business Psychologist and Executive Leadership Coach and has been passionately working with founders and leaders globally for the last 20years to elevate their leadership impact. She is the owner and founder of Wellbeing Face, a thriving Psychology Coaching and Consulting practice which focuses on partnering with growth organisations to drive organisational performance through inclusion, wellbeing and productivity. All her work is underpinned by psychological science and commercial nous. She is a Forbes contributor, speaker, facilitator and podcast host.

Oliver Sheer

Joint Managing Director
Be Challenged

Oliver is more than his qualifications, knowledge, and experience. Oliver is real, innovative, passionate, and playful. Oliver doesn’t believe in the term work, life balance, he believes there is no such thing… it’s just life! It’s this way of thinking that allows Oliver to consult and engage with clients to develop a range of programs that help people and teams of all walks of life to reach their full potential. 

Kylie Terrell

Director of Consultancy
Reward Gateway

Kylie Terrell has partnered with HR leaders across Australia & New Zealand for over 10 years to design and deliver strategic employee engagement programs that have employees at the heart. Responsible for helping organisations bring their purpose, mission and values to life across numerous best in class engagement programs, Kylie is driven to help businesses use Engagement as a core lever for success. 

Passionate about leveraging technology to build better connections, she is an advocate for peer led recognition as an engagement driver having seen the positive effects it can have on culture and engagement first hand. Her area of expertise lies in the delivery and analysis of surveys, facilitating focus groups and strategic program design, supporting leadership education and change and of course thoughtful, engaging marketing/communications strategy. 

Adam Walker

VP APAC
Avature

As VP for APAC based in Melbourne, Adam acts as a strategic advisor for customers throughout early exploration and engagement. He has over 20 years of experience in the Talent and HR industry across different roles and responsibilities, including consulting, managed services, vendors, multi-national end-users and cutting-edge HR technology start-ups. Having recently led the TA advisory practice in APAC for Deloitte’s Human Capital consulting arm, Adam delivers strong consulting with a customer focus to bring customer solutions to life.