BESA DEDA

Chief Economist

Westpac Business Bank

GEORGE HAROS

Partner - Employment Law

Gadens

NICOLA MARTIN

Partner, Labour & Employment Practice Group

Squire Patton Boggs

REANNA BROWNE

Futurist & Director

Work Futures

Besa Deda is the Chief Economist of the Westpac Business Bank. She is also the Chief Economist of St.George Bank, Bank of Melbourne, and BankSA – which are regional banks within the Westpac Group.
Besa has been with the Group as a Chief Economist since 2009.

As the Bank’s economic spokesperson, Besa is responsible for research on the economy and financial markets.

She formulates views and forecasts on the outlook for the economy, interest rates, and currencies and manages a team of economists. Besa gives regular presentations and often appears in the media reporting on economic conditions.

George Haros is a leading employment and industrial relations lawyer.

He has significant experience advising clients concerning a range of employment and industrial relations matters, including Fair Work Commission (FWC) matters, Federal Court matters, equal opportunity, restraint of trade, bullying and harassment, discrimination, workplace investigations, and workers' compensation.

George offers industry-specific knowledge in areas including labour-hire, recruitment, and professional services.

 

Nicola Martin is a partner in the Labour & Employment Practice Group. She is a highly regarded lawyer with two decades’ experience advising clients on the full spectrum of employment relations, industrial relations and human resources matters.

Nicola’s focus is on how she can best support her clients in their strategic objectives, while navigating a heavily regulated environment. She is not only reactive to their issues, but also particularly enjoys rolling out proactive training to boards, management, HR teams and employees on employment issues. 

 

Reanna Browne is an academically trained and practicing futurist, organisational designer, strategic workforce planner, start-up co-founder and designer. 

She is the founder of strategic foresight consultancy, Work Futures, helping organisations to build foresight capability and get practical around the future of work/business. 

Reanna holds an MA in Strategic Foresight from Swinburne University, is a graduate of the Finland Futures Academy and sits on the AHRI Future of Work Advisory Panel. 

Reanna has also been recognised as one of the 'World's Top Female Futurists' by fellow practitioners. 

ASHLEY ROSE

Partner

Squire Patton Boggs

DUDLEY KNELLER

Partner (Technology, Cyber, Privacy)

Gadens

MIKE BEELEY

CEO

Lightbox Communications

PAUL MASTERS

Managing Partner

Sovereign Private

Ashley Rose is an experienced corporate lawyer specialising in public and private mergers and acquisitions, and equity capital markets. He advises a broad range of clients, including investment banks (institutional and boutique), intermediaries, brokers, underwriters, private equity and ASX-listed companies in a range of sectors, including energy and natural resources, finance and technology. 

He has been involved in a number of high-profile takeovers (hostile, unsolicited and friendly), takeover defences and schemes of arrangement.

Ashley also has significant expertise in initial public offerings, capital raisings and placements on the ASX, and corporate governance including dealing with regulators.

Prior to joining Squire Patton Boggs, Ashley worked at several large Australian and international law firms as well as acting as in-house counsel at JP Morgan, British Telecom and Colgate Palmolive

Dudley is a highly experienced lawyer with international and domestic experience, Dudley advises on commercial, regulatory, and technology matters with specialisations in financial technology, cyber risk, privacy, and strategic sourcing and supply projects.

Dudley has advised a variety of clients on major technology arrangements, and he has over 20 years experience practising across Australia, Europe, and the UK, and has worked on projects based in a range of countries, including the Philippines, India, and across South America.
In addition to commercial, regulatory, and specialised technology matters, Dudley advises a range of technology suppliers on the provision of managed services, hosting, maintenance and support and product and service supply solutions to medium and large Australian-based corporates and government clients.

Dudley publishes and presents extensively.
Since 2020, each year Dudley has been nominated and selected as a Best Lawyer in the area of Information Technology Law by Best Lawyers Australia. Dudley has also been recognised as a recommended lawyer in the Doyle’s Guide listing of Leading Technology, Media and Telecommunications Lawyers in Victoria since 2015.

Mike Beeley started his Recruitment Marketing career in 1985 in the UK, Mike moved to Australia in 1989 and has spent the last 30+ years helping global and local organisations uncover and understand their EVP, and market their employment proposition to their target audiences through traditional and emerging media channels and technologies.


Through his agency Lightbox Communications, he supports organisations in both the public and private sectors in building the resources to create talent pipelines through a strong employer brand and talent experience process. He is a regular speaker on how talent acquisition and retention can form the backbone of a strong workforce plan.

Established in 2014, Sovereign Private is a firm that specialises in the provision of taxation, accounting services and M&A to the recruitment industry.


Up until June 2014, Paul Masters was the Tax Leader and the National Leader of Clients & Markets at Deloitte Private. He was also the National Leader of the recruitment industry group.


Sovereign Private provides a one-stop shop for tax strategy; tax compliance; accounting services; and, M&A advisory and transaction support.

LAURA REGAN

Legal Counsel

Davidson

AARON MCINTOSH

Managing Director APAC

Bullhorn

MARTIN RICHARDSON

Founder

Ready Set Recruit Legal

LEE SHORTER

Practice Manager 

Aquent Australia

Laura Regan is Legal Counsel and Company Secretary at Davidson Group, a leading Australian national company that enhances workplace performance by offering specialist services in business advisory, search and recruitment and technology consulting.

Before joining Davidson at the end of 2017, Laura specialised in work health and safety and employment law, most recently as a Senior Associate in the national workplace team at Sparke Helmore Lawyers. She has also held industry-specific roles, including Director of Health and Safety for the Queensland Resources Council, the Qld industry association for the coal, metalliferous and gas industry, and in-house positions with state government departments in NSW and Victoria.

In addition, Laura has in-house and external experience defending regulatory prosecutions and employment claims on behalf of employers and advising on compliance with a range of WHS, employment, privacy, labour-hire licensing and other regulations. 

 

Aaron McIntosh is a seasoned professional with over 20 years of experience in the technology industry. As the Managing Director for Bullhorn APAC, he is responsible for driving growth and expanding the company's footprint in the region. Having worked in various roles within the technology industry, Aaron brings a wealth of experience to his current role.

He joined Bullhorn in 2013, working out of the London office before relocating back to Australia in 2015. During his tenure at Bullhorn, Aaron has helped numerous customers successfully transition to the platform.

Aaron is a passionate advocate of technology and its potential to solve business issues and drive growth within recruitment businesses. He believes that technology is key to unlocking the full potential of any organisation and is dedicated to helping Bullhorn's customers achieve their goals by leveraging the latest technologies and best practices.

Martin Richardson draws on his hands-on industry experience running the Adecco legal team to help agencies all over Australia.

He has plenty of war stories, and he's seen all the things that (should) keep you up at night. But he's also delivered real success and results to agencies everywhere because he goes beyond 'magic pills' and generic legal documents and advice, to get to what matters to agencies, and why. 

Lee Shorter is a Practice Manager at leading global work solutions company Aquent. He has 8 years experience in the Australian recruitment industry, predominantly hiring marketers and designers, coupled with 2.5 years experience working in advertising in the UK.

Lee built a high performing recruitment desk from scratch through a variety of outbound marketing and social selling techniques, going on to partner with some of Australia's leading corporate organisations and digital agencies. He now leads a team of consultants across the country, with a heavy focus on utilising content marketing and insights on LinkedIn and other platforms to build personal brand, trust and reputation, and foster an engaged community of candidates and clients to win work and fill roles.

Aquent in Australia were one of the very first recruitment agencies to use content and social media marketing as a means to develop business relationships. Lee is a huge advocate of this approach to recruitment as opposed to traditional methods like cold calling or jobs board advertising.

GARTH QUINN

Head of People Experience

Healius

BLARE SUTTON

Partner 

McGrathNicol

RHYS RYAN

CEO

Porter Novelli Australia

DOUG PENMAN

CMO + Executive Creative Director

The Foreign Office

With an extensive background in talent acquisition, Garth has recently moved into people experience being responsible for all aspects of the employee lifecycle with a broad range of strategic and operational responsibilities across key People and Culture areas.

Working across a variety of industries including mining, construction social services and healthcare, Garth has demonstrated success in delivering successful programs through strong stakeholder engagement and clear approaches to project and change management.

Working with in tight labour markets, Garth has amplified attraction campaigns by utilising the best practice marketing techniques available support by a technology stack driven to deliver an amazing candidate experience.

Blare is a Technology & Cyber professional who regularly manages highly sensitive engagements involving internal and external stakeholders, financial institutions and regulators.

Leading the Technology & Cyber practice in Melbourne for McGrathNicol, Blare has a passion for breaking through the hype and jargon of the technology industry to help his clients achieve their goals. He specialises in understanding business processes, risk and regulatory frameworks and jurisdictional requirements to provide practical solutions to business and technological issues. With a background in IT Advisory and Implementation, Blare has almost three decades of experience in Technology Advisory, Cyber Risk & Resilience and Crisis Management. 

 

Rhys is Chief Executive Officer of Porter Novelli Australia. He leads the firm’s work in helping brands evolve their corporate reputations, drawing on experience gained over more than 20 years in media and communications.

Following an early stint as a broadcast journalist, Rhys has focused on corporate positioning, reputation and crisis, working on more than 200 client engagements in the United States and Australia. 

In recent years, Rhys has led a specialist team within Porter Novelli with expertise in data breach and cyber security incidents, working across high-profile matters involving publicly listed companies, government organisations and sensitive subject material, beyond the firm’s work in crisis and issues management.  He also leads Porter Novelli’s work in helping to prepare organisations for cyber incidents, assessing response planning protocols and engaging in simulation exercises with executive teams and company boards.

Doug is a serial entrepreneur, CMO & creative with venture capital, marketing strategy & brand expertise – developed over 30 years in high-profile global ad agencies, founded startups, & consulting firms.

Since 2005 Doug has advised leading Silicon Valley VC & PE firms, helping portfolio company founders to scale and build valuation. Over his career he has worked on 1,000’s of assignments in 80+ countries – alongside extraordinary companies like Intel, NASA, Toyota, Astra Space, Volvo, Quantumscape, Sequoia Capital, Automation Anywhere, Microsoft, SanDisk, Damon Motors, Uniphore, Crowdstrike, National Grid Partners, First Round and March Capital.

Doug has deep domain expertise in Aerospace, New Energy, EV & Mobility, Li-Fi, Robotics, Generative AI, AR/VR, Automation and the Future of Work. He has founded companies with Richard Taylor & WETA, Roman Coppola, the US Department of Education, the CEOs of Leapfrog, Mattel, Lucasfilm, Sesame Street & Pokemon; and MC Hammer. Doug was also directly responsible for getting Stephen Hawking into space (Zero G).

 

 

Vinney Brown

General Manager 

ManpowerGroup

Meagan Jeffrey

Global Chief Information Officer

Talent International

David Turvey

First Assistant Secretary

Jobs and Skills Australia

Thyago Liberalli

Global Director of AI

SEEK

Vinney is currently the GM for Manpower in Australia and also the representative for innovation and part of MPG’s Global Innovation Lab.  He oversees the specialists brands for perm and temp as well as Key Accounts and also the Government team. 

Vinney joined ManpowerGroup at the start of 2021 having relocated to Australia with his wife and 3 children. Prior to this, Vinney was the VP of International Operations for 12 years for Robert Half where 50% of his role focussed on Business and Technology Transformation. He was regularly involved in Rec Tech assessments and looking for innovative methods to enhance operational recruitment performance.

Vinney is also a LUMA practitioner in Design Centred Thinking. Some of the relevant innovation highlights include: 

  • Designed global appraisal dashboard and automation with Workday HR system
  • Designed client development dashboard for target list management using integrations with DOMO analytics and Salesforce
  • Worked as part of global transformation team on behavioural AI and integrating 3rd party add-in’s such as Pitchbook
  • Part of a team looking at AI Matching Engines cross country
  • Rolled out Cloud Based Video Technology Globally – Vinney was the vendor assessor across Europe, APAC and part of the US
  • Part of a team looking at ChatGPT usage cases business wide
  • Rolled out Linked in Sales Navigator Lead Automation

Meagan joins Talent following an extensive career spanning more than 25 years in the technology sector. She has held roles in retail and investment banking, superannuation, insurance broking, energy, utilities, and federal and state government.

In recent roles she has advised and supported boards, CIOs and IT executives with strategic planning, digital transitioning, and sourcing of technology services.

Having worked in Australia, South Africa, and the UK (London), Meagan is cross-culturally sensitive and able to provide effective, hands-on leadership and motivation to teams with varied cultures, work ethics and social customs.

David is responsible for overseeing the operations of the organisation, including providing strategic advice on the work program, technical advice on analytical products, building relationships with partners and stakeholders and managing operational aspects such as budgeting, recruitment, technology and culture and people management.

Prior to his current role, David was First Assistant Secretary, National Skills Commission. David has held executive roles at the Department of Education Skills and Employment, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, Department of Industry, Innovation and Science, Australian Treasury, and the Department of Finance and Administration.

David also worked as an economist at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. David has worked in a range of policy areas including labour market policy, vocational education and training policy, industry policy, fiscal policy and public debt management.

His governance experience covers several Australian Government entity audit committee roles and as Treasurer of a not-for-profit community organisation in the ACT. David holds a Master of Economics from the Australian National University and is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors

Thyago Liberalli is the Global Director of AI at SEEK, overseeing AI teams in APAC, Brazil and Mexico.

With passage at Stanford GSB and over 20 years experience in the Data & AI space, he has a passion for applied machine learning and scalable digital platforms.

He passionately advocates for the power of AI to enhance and augments our lives, recognising it as a driving force behind our society's progress

Tariq Shaban

Senior Assessment Consultant (APAC)

HireVue

Tracy Thompson

Managing Director

Finite Group

  

Tariq Shaban is a highly experienced assessment consultant and psychometrician, having developed and delivered performance, assessment, and selection processes for more than fifteen years.

Tariq has two postgraduate degrees in the field, demonstrating his commitment to scientific rigour and lifelong learning. 

As an applied researcher in the fields of Industrial/Organisational Psychology and Artificial Intelligence, he believes that it is important to provide clients with sound advice based on scientific and ethical principles, tailoring products to their needs and goals without sacrificing rigour and best practice

Tracy founded Technology and Digital recruitment specialist Finite Recruitment in Sydney in 1998, and through a mix of organic growth and synergistic acquisitions, over the next two and a half decades she grew the company to include an international network of nine offices across Australia and New Zealand, and revenues of close to AU $0.5 billion.

In 2003, Tracy founded FinXL IT Professional Services on the back of growing customer demand to offer a broader suite of services including Technology Consulting, Project Services, Digital Transformation Solutions, Flexible Workforce, Advisory and Managed Services.

FinXL has over 1250 consultants engaged today. Today, the Group’s six brands; Finite, Finite920, FinXL IT Professional Services, XL Digital, Rowben Consulting and Southern Cross Computing (our leading specialist SAP consulting business) make up the Finite Group, with 2300 active consultants working on client engagements across Australia and New Zealand.

As Group Managing Director, Tracy has been a key driver behind the Finite Group's success, maintaining a hands-on leadership approach leading from the front as well as setting the business pace and direction. Tracy is also a long-term supporter of professional women's networking groups, and is a regular speaker at industry events and an active participant in women's forums. Tracy remains a strong advocate for ‘the glass always being half full’ and never shies from hard work and rolling up her sleeves and getting her hands dirty