Alexia Bryant

Chief People Officer
IPG Mediabrands

Alexia is a seasoned HR leader with over a decade of experience driving organisational excellence through strategic people management. Currently serving as the Chief People Officer at IPG Mediabrands, Alexia has established herself as a dynamic force in shaping workplace cultures and fostering talent development.

Throughout her career, Alexia has navigated various industries and countries, consistently delivering impactful HR strategies tailored to organisational objectives.

Passionae about nurturing thriving workplace cultures and maximising organisational potential, Alexia brings a wealth of experience and insights. Her strategic vision, combined with hands-on experience positions her as a valuable resource navigating the evolving dynamics of the modern workplace.

Andrew Buckland

Associate Director, Workforce Strategy & Analytics
Eastern Health

With over a decade of experience in workforce strategy, capability, and leadership roles across diverse industries like Supply Chain Logistics, Technology, Education, and Public Healthcare, Andrew is well versed in building, aligning and optimizing organizational talent. Andrew has been successful in ensuring organisations have the right people in the right place with the right skills and capabilities using a variety of talent management solutions. Currently leading the Workforce Strategy and Analytics team at Eastern Health, Andrew has been focused on growing the workforce data literacy of the organisation and using this to build and deliver Strategic Workforce Plans in a critical industry.

Kristen Bugeja

Chief People Officer
Defence Bank

Kristen has 26 years’ experience in the financial services sector, and 17 years’ as an executive of Defence Bank, a member owned bank that serves the Australian Defence Force.

Kristen has extensive experience in cultural change and in developing the capability of frontline and support office teams. She has successfully enhanced the bank’s employee value proposition through the integration of reward and recognition, with strategic direction and talent and leadership programs.

Under her leadership, the Bank’s People team was named in the 2023 HR Director Australia’s Innovative HR Teams list and Defence Bank has been named an Excellence Awardee for both 2023 and 2024 in the categories of Employer of Choice (100-999 employees) and Best Reward and Recognition Program at the Australian HR Awards.

Daniel Cavedon

General Manager People & Culture
MYER

Daniel Cavedon is a senior People & Culture practitioner with over 25 years’ experience in the retail industry, including Coles, Officeworks and Kmart. He currently leads the People and Culture function at Myer, supporting a recent transformational people agenda which has focussed on putting the customer first by strengthening Myer’s ecommerce offer and loyalty functions, whilst simultaneously driving down the cost of doing business.  Importantly, over the past few year, the Myer People & Culture team lead by Daniel has driven capability and performance improvement by implementing rigorous performance and talent management systems and leadership programs with the aim of creating career pathways for all employees.

Jessica Cody

Director
Inner Rhythm

Jessica founded Inner Rhythm with a desire to share the herd wisdom of horses with collective cultures to create cohesive, psychologically safe environments for people to thrive in.

With over 15 years in the Education industry, to completing her Master’s degree with Honours in Equine Assisted Therapy in Germany, a public speaker and facilitator, Jess utilises Equine Assisted Coaching, working on improving cultures across a diverse range of sectors including schools, nursing homes, sporting teams and the corporate space.

Jessica advocates for the belief that to truly thrive we need to embrace our humanity, emphasising the importance of being, rather than merely doing, to truly embody the essence of human connection in any environment.

“Jessica is a highly intuitive leader whose inner confidence has always had her challenging the status quo and leading life on her terms.” – Augusti Vera, Europe Executive Coach

Meredith Crowe

Senior VP, Global People & Culture
Telix Pharmaceuticals

Meredith is a People & Culture executive specializing in organisation growth and culture, global operations, and organisation effectiveness.

As Senior VP, Global People & Culture at Telix Pharmaceuticals, she leads a global team with focus on talent acquisition and management, and building flexible and future-proofed People & Culture practises that can scale with a business. Telix is an ASX200, fast growing and highly innovative biopharmaceutical company with employees across APAC, EMEA and AMER.

Meredith has worked in Healthcare and BioTech for most of her career, and excels in high-stakes, purpose-driven environments. She have a keen curiosity for all things people, particularly in how the systems and networks in the workplace influence capacity for accountability, communication, empathy, and self-awareness.

Robert Goodwin

Chief Operating Officer
Employment Hero

Rob Goodwin is the Chief Operating Officer at Employment Hero, bringing over two decades of strategic leadership and operational expertise to the role. As COO, Rob is instrumental in driving organisational efficiency, fostering cross-functional collaboration, and executing high-impact initiatives that align with the company’s vision and goals. Rob’s commitment to innovation, continuous learning, and mentorship underscores his dedication to developing future leaders and cultivating a culture of excellence at Employment Hero.Before joining Employment Hero, Rob spent over five years with Xero in various Global Executive General Manager roles including Strategy Execution & Operations. Rob is also Chair of the Board of Directors of a for profit, for purpose tech start up, Oho.

Hanan El-Sheikh

Director of Human Resources
The Ritz-Carlton Melbourne

With over a decade of strategic HR leadership, Hanan is a trusted partner in driving organizational growth and transformation. Holding an MBA, CIPD, and Prosci certifications, Hanan has honed expertise in optimizing performance and cultivating inclusive workplace cultures across the hotel, corporate, and education sectors in 3 continents across the globe.

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.

Krista Hunt

General Manager, People & Culture
Carlisle Homes

Krista Hunt, known within the HR community for her boundless passion for people, performance, and growth.

Starting on racetrack as a jockey to now notching up 20 years in business, her career to date spans across Professional Services, Not for Profit, Vitamins and Minerals, and Construction.

Krista loves the challenge and potential of partnering with bold and ambitious founders, CEOs, and executive teams. She thrives on turning inspiring visions into reality through her simple approach of removing the unnecessary complexity, for people and businesses.

With formal qualifications in Human Resources, Project & Change Management, Positive Psychology, and most recently her MBA, Krista blends these learnings together with diverse life experiences and takes a holistic approach to fostering both personal and organisational success—believing that the true power of business and people emerges when you hear the ‘hum’.

Andrew Lafontaine

Consulting Services Leader ANZ
Mercer

Andrew is a Partner at Mercer working with clients across a range of workforce and transformation initiatives. Over the last 25 years, Andrew has held senior roles in both global technology and consulting firms as well as having held senior HR roles with some of Australia’s largest organisations.

Andrew has worked with large global and multinational organisations in various locations specialising in workforce transformation, HRIS strategy & implementation, assessment, capability building, culture, engagement and strategic workforce planning.

Andrew is passionate about working with organisations to affect real change in their organisation and workforce.

Jessica Lantieri

Chief People & Culture Officer
Judo Bank

Jess joined Judo in early 2022 with over 15 years’ experience in People and Culture (P&C) roles across diverse industries, including FMCG, global Information Technology, Foreign Direct Investment and Professional Services. Jess brings to Judo a global perspective on best practice People and Culture strategies, having spent much of her career working in the US and the UK, and in global P&C roles with accountability for teams in Asia, Europe, North America and New Zealand. Prior to Judo, Jess spent almost seven years in senior P&C leadership roles at ASXlisted Treasury Wine Estates in Australia and the US, working across HR business partnering, culture and engagement, organisational design and business transformation, capability development and talent acquisition. Prior to this, Jess worked in senior P&C Business Partnering roles at Fujitsu across Australia and the UK. Jess holds a double Bachelor’s degree in Commerce (International Business) and International Studies (Politics and Languages) from the University of Adelaide and Post Graduate Certification in Human Resources Management from Coventry University, UK.

Tamsin Lawrence

Senior Associate
Australian Business Lawyers & Advisors

Tamsin is a highly credentialled employment lawyer with Australian Business Lawyers and Advisors 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.

Jamila Malkoun

Talent Acquisition Lead
HESTA

Jamila is a seasoned HR and Talent Acquisition Leader with nearly 25 years of experience driving organisational growth and success through strategic people and talent initiatives.

Jamila’s experience spans beyond Talent Acquisition, she is an experienced Strategic HR Business Partner and HR Operations Manager, she has worked across many sectors including retail, infrastructure services, local government and now in Financial Services.

Jamila is currently the Talent Acquisition Lead at HESTA, an award-winning specialist Industry super fund, leading a high performing team of TA Partners to build, implement, lead and evolve the talent acquisition strategy to meet the current and future needs of the fund. Jamila grew and transformed the function to enable HESTA to more than double in size over the last few years going from 270 employees to an organisation of over 600 through innovative sourcing solutions and approaches. Jamila and her team were SEEK finalists in 2022 for ‘Talent Acquisition team of the year’ and very proud to be in the TOP 5 performing Talent Acquisition teams in the country.

Carina Parisella

Head of Technology Workforce
ANZ

Carina Parisella leads the Technology Workforce agenda at ANZ Bank. She is the Architect behind ANZ’s Tech Talent Marketplace, an internal mobility platform designed to mobilse talent to the most important work and is the co-founder of ANZ’s award winning Return to Work program – the first returnship program in the Australian financial services sector.

Carina’s team is focused on attracting, developing and retaining a diverse and highly capable global workforce through building early talent, internal mobility, learning and development, ways of working and workforce management.

A passionate diversity and inclusion advocate, Carina and her teams have been recognised globally for their work across various initiatives focused on leveraging untapped talent like the ANZ award-winning Return to Work program and the highly successful Spectrum program for autistic individuals.

Prior to her current role, Carina has held a number of leadership roles across banking, media, communications, innovation and partnerships and plays an advisory role in the innovation and start-up economy. She’s a regular in the Australian speaking circuit and passionate about increasing awareness of diversity in business and untapped talent. A relentless optimist and business creative, Carina loves working with people and technology to bring ideas and solutions to life.

Carl Phillips

Chief People Officer
Costa Group

Carl Phillips is Chief People Officer for Costa Group, a world leading, large scale horticultural company with growing and marketing operations in Australia and overseas, supplying fresh produce to millions of people.

Having led Costa’s people function since 2014, a key focus for Carl has been to ensure the function has delivered the necessary strategy, support, and practical outcomes for the organisation as it moved from being privately owned to a public company, while also exponentially expanding its domestic and existing international operations, including the establishment of new operations in China.

The Costa people function is required to deliver timely expert advice and support to our business leaders securing the best talent, and a workforce that can meet comprehensively the needs of a seasonal and at times volatile growing environment. Carl has been instrumental in developing and implementing key employment and workplace initiatives that deliver a positive experience for workers in order that they continually return and support the harvest, packing and movement of fresh produce through the various locations and seasons that Costa operates across.  He leads a talented team of HR and safety professionals to support Costa’s aspiration to grow and deliver premium fresh produce, underpinned by our core values and mission.

Carl has extensive experience across various industries including retail, mining, services, and horticulture.  His formative career experience was developed through his role with the Federated Iron Workers and as the national industrial officer of The Australian Workers’ Union.  This saw Carl deeply involved in many workplace negotiations and dispute resolutions across many different workplaces and industries, including aviation, aluminium, pastoral and general manufacturing industries.

Carl has formal qualifications from the University of Newcastle, focused on labour economics and industrial relations. He has always had a strong passion to help people develop into being best they can at all levels of their working and personal lives.  A passion for sport, in particular football, has seen Carl coach and support young players, helping them to develop both technical and game sense, while always seeking maximum enjoyment from competing.  He grew up in the lands of the Worimi people and respects those past and present who have and continue to guide and lead our society for a better future.

Hugh Ragg

Global Skills Program Director
Arcadis

Hugh is currently a Global Skills Director at Arcadis, leading a skills transformation program that utilizes AI to identify and match skills to work, creating better career and growth opportunities for their people. He has 15+ years’ experience working across various HR disciplines in multiple countries leading large scale, technology enabled human-centred change programs.