Our Speakers

As Chair of CISR at the MIT Sloan School of Management in Boston, Peter’s work centres on the role, value, and governance of digitisation in enterprises. Peter works with several of Australia’s and the world’s leading CIOs, ExCos and Boards and is a senior advisor to the New York VC firm Insight Partners.

Peter was nominated for the 2023 Thinkers-50 based on his new book, Future Ready, and was ranked by Ziff Davis as the 24th most influential person in IT and the highest ranking academic. MIT CISR undertakes practical research on how firms generate business value from digital.

Charles McHardie leads the largest technology group in the Australian government. Charles oversees the technical and digital infrastructure that delivers government services and support to millions of Australians.

In his role as CIDO Charles is responsible for driving digital and technology transformation within Services Australia and delivering whole-of-government transformation programs. He oversees significant investment in programs for Centrelink, Medicare, Child Support and myGov, and has led the delivery of major transformation programs such as Enhanced myGov. Charles led the delivery of technology and business solutions that positioned the Australian government to be able to respond rapidly to the global pandemic.

With over 30 years of experience in the public service and the military, I have core competencies in operational planning, command, intelligence analysis, and strategic studies. I am a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for my distinguished service and leadership in the navy and the public sector. My mission is to leverage my expertise in systems engineering and digital transformation to deliver innovative, efficient, and customer-centric solutions that improve the lives of Australians as Chief Information and Digital Officer (CIDO) for Services Australia.

Deepika is a technology, operations and strategy executive with over 25 years of global experience with BHP Group Limited, General Electric (GE), McKinsey & Co., Infosys Technologies, Uptake Technologies, Corning Inc. and Dover Corporation where she has held global Digital/IT Leadership roles.

Deepika was recognized as one of the top 100 CIOs in the Middle East. She also serves on the board of Safer Foundation, is a Forte fellow, and advocates for working mothers in technology leadership.

She is also a technology enthusiast. She co-founded and advises Exposition Ventures, a Chicago-based B2B Industry 4.0-focused venture capital fund.

Deepika lives with her husband and three children. She also volunteers with various organizations focused on helping young adults in tough circumstances start a career in technology. She also serves on the board of Safer Foundation. She is a Forte fellow and an advocate for working mothers in technology leadership.

Assoc Prof Lynden Roberts is the Chief Medical Information Officer at Monash Health where he has worked for 12 years. Lynden completed his MBBS in 1994 at University of Melbourne, his PhD at Walter & Eliza Hall Institute and his RACP Fellowship in Rheumatology & General Medicine. During his career he was worked at several Australian hospitals in a variety of medical leadership roles.

Lynden has had a long-standing research interest in health system innovation and is captivated by the potential of the various forms of ‘AI’ and analytics to transform healthcare. In 2025, he spent six months with the Australian Digital Health Research Centre (CSIRO) exploring this in depth. Lynden is driven to help ensure the significant benefits of digital technologies in healthcare are realised to improve the experience and outcomes for patients, carers, families, and staff.

Stephen Bovis is responsible for Oracle’s overall business in Australia and New Zealand and ensuring it delivers on its values of trust, customer success, innovation, and equality for its customers, partners, and communities across the region.

Stephen has more than 30 years of experience in the IT industry across a wide range of roles, functions, and marketing segments. Most recently, he was at Hewlett Packard Enterprise, where he was vice president and managing director of the South Pacific region.

Simon joined Transurban as Group Executive, Customer and Technology in October 2020. Prior to joining Transurban, Simon was the Executive General Manager Future Business & Technology and Chief Information Officer at AGL. He has 25 years’ experience in technology, innovation and transformation gained across roles held in Australia, the US, Europe and Asia Pacific.

Prior to AGL, Simon held several CIO and executive roles in companies including the Commonwealth Bank and GE. Simon has an extensive background in information analytics, customer engagement and mergers and acquisitions.

As Executive of Industry Value Creation, Sebastien Mock is a senior telecommunications and technology leader with over 20 years of global experience spanning networks, cloud, and major digital transformation programs. In his role as Telstra’s Executive of Industry Value Creation, he drives cross‑functional alignment to accelerate the Network as a Product (NaaP) roadmap and deliver innovative, customer‑centred network capabilities.

Chris is a senior cybersecurity leader at Telstra, with extensive experience spanning security strategy, threat intelligence, security controls, and incident response.

With a career focused on helping organisations navigate both the technical and human dimensions of cybersecurity, Chris brings a pragmatic approach to managing risk, strengthening resilience, and embedding effective security practices across the business.

He is equally comfortable working on the front line of cyber incidents and engaging with executives and boards, translating complex security challenges into practical, business relevant outcomes. Chris is passionate about making security accessible, effective, and aligned to the needs of the organisation.

Felix is the Head of Observability for Australia and New Zealand at Splunk. He helps organisations improve their operational resilience and engineering effectiveness through data-driven practices.

With over 5 years at Splunk focused on DevOps and Observability and previous experience at Puppet supporting teams with automation at scale, Felix has worked closely with some of the region’s largest enterprises to shape and drive modernisation initiatives.

Specialties: Driving intense focus and results with methodology and teamwork based on Personal, People, and Results Focused Leadership.

Shan Moorthy is the Chief Technology Officer for APAC at Workday. Shan has led technology and data functions as a senior IT executive, CTO and CDO with grand success in key enterprises across ANZ and APAC, achieving digital revolutions within the media, retail, banking, and telecommunications industries by retiring sprawling, monolithic ERP, HCM, CRM, and data systems and replacing them with modern, cloud platforms. Based in Melbourne, Australia, Shan loves combining deep technical knowledge of Software Engineering, Data and AI, with business strategy and commercial acumen. Outside of work, he enjoys time with his family and is a mechanic, tinkerer, and hacker on classic cars, home automation, hydroponics, and other electronics which are in a constant state of iterative improvement. 

Mr. Locandro serves as EVP & Global CIO. In this role, he is responsible for leading Rimini Street’s global, mission-critical IT business applications and operations team and establishing strategic plans for the company’s current and future capabilities of IT. 

Mr. Locandro is a seasoned business technology and transformation leader with over 25 years in senior IT executive roles including CTO, CIO, CDO and Chief Transformation Officer, a career spanning a range of complex industries from airlines, utilities, and manufacturing to building and construction. His extensive background includes working for many global organizations along with providing his expertise to advisory boards for governments, universities, and statutory authorities. 

Nick Sone joined Brennan as Chief Customer Officer in 2020, bringing a people-first leadership approach and a strong focus on delivering exceptional outcomes for customers. 

His career spans customer operations, systems integration and technology services leadership, giving him a deep empathy for the challenges organisations face when technology, service and business goals intersect. 

Prior to joining Brennan, Nick was Optus’ NSW State Director, where he was accountable for the NSW Enterprise, Government and Mid-Market business, with overall responsibility for the effective growth of the company’s market share and profitability within the state. 

As part of Brennan’s leadership team, Nick drives the alignment of technology strategy, service delivery and business value, ensuring that customer experience remains a core differentiator. 

His focus is on delivering exceptional outcomes for Brennan’s customers and their users, blending the priorities of business, experience and secure technology. 

A recognised authority on cyberrisk and industrial security, Peter Soulsby helps Australian enterprises and public-sector agencies strengthen their defences in an era of digitaltransformation and AI-enabled threats. Peteris the Director of Cybersecurity at Brennan, where he leads a broad cybersecurity portfolio including consulting, strategy, engineering, and 24/7/365 Security Operations Centre services. He oversees a team responsible for protecting clients’ critical infrastructure, ensuring system resilience, and helping organisations manage risk in a complex threat landscape, including cyberthreats. With more than 20 years of IT experience, Soulsby has built deep expertise working across sectors including security operations, operationaltechnology, identity & access management, endpoint security, and IT convergence. He is known for emphasising the importance of aligning business priorities with security controls, for advocating thatrisk cannot simply be outsourced, and that accountability must be shared and embedded into contracts and operations. 

Across 25+ years leading cloud, data and AI teams across APJ and ANZ, Rachel has built practices, scaled consulting capabilities and partnered with both global vendors and specialist firms.  Rachel specialise in turning complex capability into repeatable services — accelerators, structured delivery models and operating frameworks that allow organisations to adopt new technology without increasing operational risk - working with executive and technology leadership teams who need AI to deliver measurable outcomes rather than proofs-of-concept.

Focus areas:

- AI operationalisation
- Governance & risk integration
- Delivery operating models
- Practice build & scale
- Partner ecosystem leadership
- Data & AI transformation

Martin leads the solution advisory team in ANZ for Business Data Cloud and is a recognised voice on next‑generation enterprise data platforms and the SAP Open Data Ecosystem. With more than 25 years of experience across cloud architecture, data engineering, and digital transformation, Martin has designed and operationalised scalable data and AI solutions for large, complex organisations in energy, resources, transport, and public sector. 

Prior to SAP, Martin held senior architecture roles at Databricks, AWS, Origin Energy, and Queensland government agencies, where he built petabyte‑scale data lakes, AI/ML platforms, and governed data fabrics that underpin critical business and operational decisions.  He specialises in harmonising SAP and non‑SAP data into a unified, business‑context‑rich foundation for analytics and AI, leveraging SAP Datasphere, SAP Business Data Cloud, and open integrations with platforms such as Databricks and AWS. 

Ian Christie leads AI and Data for Fujitsu Oceania, partnering with industry’s top CIOs to turn ambition into measurable outcomes. Finance-trained and delivery-first, he helps organisations build adaptive digital foundations that scale with AI while staying transparent to the board and CFO.  

With two decades of experience, Ian connects strategy, architecture, and change into clear roadmaps, practical ROI, and governance that builds trust and resilience. Combining Fujitsu’s global strength with local expertise, he aligns technology to business purpose and sustainable value.  

At this Fujitsu & Dynatrace roundtable, Ian will lead a pragmatic discussion on secure, modular architectures; value realisation and ROI tracking; and governed growth that balances agility, ethics, and fiscal discipline. Approachable and candid, he’s a must‑meet partner for leaders seeking actionable next steps to prove AI’s impact. 

At Uvance Wayfinders, Ashok is based in Melbourne, working with clients across the Financial Services, Retail, and Government sectors. He specialises in guiding organisations through complex transformation, combining innovation with operational discipline to deliver sustainable results. With over 20 years of consulting and leadership experience, Ashok has advised leading banks, insurers, retailers, and government agencies on strategy, technology, and operations. 

Previously a Partner at Deloitte and APAC Lead at ISG, he has overseen multi-billion-dollar outsourcing programs, established global capability centers, and led large-scale change across the Asia-Pacific. Known for his grounded, collaborative approach, Ashok draws on expertise in AI, automation, and organisational strategy to help clients solve real-world challenges and thrive in a fast-changing economy.

Richard Blundell leads Cognizant’s business consulting practice across Australia and New Zealand, advising large organisations on navigating technology-driven disruption, opportunity and uncertainty. Under Richard’s leadership, Cognizant’s ANZ consulting practice has grown to more than 350 consultants, challenging traditional incumbents and drawing on Cognizant’s global network of engineers, architects, designers and product managers to help build tomorrow’s leading businesses. Richard served as a judge at the 2026 Australian Financial Review AI Awards, presented by Cognizant. 

Sheena Peeters is a passionate thought leader who helps organisations to achieve ambitious business goals through strategic, innovative technology with focus-persistence towards a delivered architecture and high performing teams.

Currently, she is the General Manager of Technology at HESTA and oversees the modernisation of technology, scalable digital services and robust infrastructure to deliver on strategic business objectives for employee and customer outcomes. Peeters has built a start-up and previously held technology leadership roles at National Australia Bank, Australia Post and UniSuper.Peeters drives organisation wide change by inspiring individuals and teams, through exploring and adapting how teams and organisations work, educating and empowering executives and boards in the role technology can play through Cloud, Automation, Data, Security, Service Management & Operations to have that competitive edge.

Peeters believes that in order to create real solutions that improve the lives of people requires us to challenge the status quo, be innovative and fervently embrace the art of the hustle to harness what’s possible.

Mona is a senior technology and commercial leader with more than 25 years of experience driving growth, digital transformation, and customer-led innovation across the Asia-Pacific region. She has led go-to-market strategy, regional expansion, and cross-functional teams across enterprise, mid-market, and SMB segments, helping organisations translate global strategy into measurable business outcomes.

With extensive experience advising technology leaders on platform growth, customer experience, and ecosystem development, Mona brings a practical perspective on how CIOs can accelerate innovation while delivering sustainable value. She is also an active board advisor, global speaker, and mentor, with a passion for developing inclusive leadership and fostering the next generation of technology talent.

Michael Coates is a Senior Solutions Consultant at Apptio, bringing extensive experience across enterprise technology, solution architecture, and technology consulting.

He specialises in helping organisations connect technology strategy with business outcomes, combining deep technical expertise with a strong understanding of enterprise architecture and transformation. Michael has worked across complex technology environments, supporting organisations to evaluate, optimise, and adopt solutions that improve business value.

His experience spans solution consulting, architecture, professional services, and customer engagement, giving him a practical perspective on how technology leaders can make better informed investment and transformation decisions.

Adam Hartwig is an Account Executive at ThreatLocker, leveraging a strong background in the Medical Device sector. His work with clinicians and regulated healthcare organisations gives him a solid understanding of security, compliance, and operational risk. With experience supporting mission‑critical technologies, Adam offers practical insight into zero trust and endpoint protection. At ThreatLocker, he applies this expertise to help organisations strengthen security, protect sensitive data, and enhance operational resilience. 

Gavin is the VP, Data and AI Lead for Australia at Publicis Sapient, he helps organisations to harness the power of AI and data to transform customer experience, create new revenue streams and drive operational excellence.

Before joining Publicis Sapient, Gavin served as EY’s inaugural Asia-Pacific Consulting Leader for AI and Analytics. During this time, he built one of the largest AI teams in the region, helping to shape and execute the AI and data strategies of large financial institutions, government departments, resources companies and retailers. Gavin joined EY through the acquisition of C3, an award-winning data and analytics firm, where he was the Head of Analytics.

Prior to joining C3, Gavin was Program Director at a major systems integrator, where he specialised in data-driven business transformation. In this role he managed a global portfolio of major programs. His global experience included leading multidisciplined engineering, product and strategy teams.

Most recently Gavin led the successful launch of Advaise, an AI-powered startup that provides professional services automation solutions.

Gavin earned degrees in Banking and Finance from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and Electronic Engineering from the University of Southampton.

Dayle Stevens OAM is an Australian technology executive and board director whose practitioner-led approach to artificial intelligence has made her a recognised voice on how organisations adopt, govern, and realise value from AI at enterprise scale. Over more than 30 years, she has led major technology, data, and AI transformations across telecommunications, financial services, energy, and technology consulting.

Dayle is the Founder and Executive Lead of Telstra’s AI Engagement & Advancement Centre of Excellence, helping connect real-world AI deployment experience with industry, government, and societal discussions on AI adoption, trust, and value creation. She previously led Telstra’s Data & AI function and now represents Telstra on the UNESCO Business Council for the Ethics of AI, the GSMA AI for Impact Taskforce, and the TM Forum Trustworthy AI & Data Mission Leadership Team.

Dayle also serves as a Director of Beyond Blue and chairs its Digital Subcommittee. She was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for services to technology and to women.

David Walker was appointed Westpac Group’s Chief Technology Officer in August 2019. Since then, he is leading Westpac through its technology transformation - simplifying and merging the bank, building 4th gen cloud-native applications, establishing and operating evergreen platforms, leading Westpac’s AI technology, and building a culture of passionate and forward-thinking tech and emerging talent.

David began his technology career in 1987 as a software engineer, focusing on coding complex systems. After a decade of evolving his software engineering craft, David founded a data science consulting. Over the following decade, it became the number one expert data insights company in Australia and Southeast Asia.

For the last 15 years, David has held executive roles in large, complex organisations across the APAC region. Prior to joining Westpac, David was part of the leadership team of Singaporean bank, DBS. In his ten years there, David helped transform DBS from a traditional bricks and mortar bank with little brand presence or recognition outside Singapore, to being recognised as the ‘Best Bank in the World’ and the ‘Best Digital Bank in the World’ by leading global financial publication Euromoney.

Jim is known for exceeding expectations in execution.His entire career has been spent connecting the right people at the right time in roles across Europe and Asia Pac. ​
​
He founded ADAPT to deliver quality outcomes with integrity - with a vision to help Australia thrive commercially, now and for the future.To enable that, Jim leads ADAPT’s mission to connect, inform and equip our local business and tech leaders. ​
​
At the centre of agenda creation and strategic partner management for two decades, Jim is uniquely experienced to be the voice of the end-user, the customer and the vendor. ​
​
He satisfies C-suite attendees with all agendas across ADAPT Edge events. He also regularly presents “Know your Customer” webinars and guides the world’s largest vendors with their GTM and content strategies.​
​
Through entrepreneurial product development and a servant leader mentality with his team and clients, ADAPT grows annually with clearly differentiated value for all stakeholders.

Joey leads ADAPT’s Strategy & Growth function, working closely with business and technology leaders to help build more agile, innovative and resilient organisations.

Joey has led key client engagements including:

• Kyndryl, Executive Dinner: AI & Global Resiliency with CIOs & Chief Data Officers, co-hosted with Kyndryl CEO Martin Schroeter
• ServiceNow Vivid Experience: AI Enabled Customer & Employee Experience with Heads of Strategy & Customer Experience - customer and VP interview and panel
• AWS, Redhat & Apptio Executive Lunch: Controlling Cloud Costs, Enabling Efficiency & Unlocking AI with Heads of Cloud & Infrastructure - event moderation
• Led Roundtables for: Rimini Street, Octopus Deploy, LivePerson, Redactive, Netskope, MicroStrategy, Diligent, Akamai and more.

Prior to ADAPT, Joey led strategic and technology implementation initiatives at Accenture, focused on financial services clients and Generative AI. 7 years in strategy, research and product roles at Gartner Australia and the UK and held business service analysis roles at Bain & Co.

Currently studying a Masters of Business Analytics at Deakin University, Gabby works closely with the Analyst team to identify trends in technology and business that help shape Australia. 

With a passion for statistics and data visualisation, he enables ADAPT to present the right insights at the right time to the right people. Using modern analytics techniques, Gabby provides ADAPT and their customers with confidence in the accuracy and validity of the information used for ADAPT’s Research, Advisory and Events. 

Gabby expertise extends to: 

- Descriptive and inferential statistica
- Regression techniques and forecasting
- Data Visualisation and customisation through PowerBI and Tableau  

As Director of Strategic Research at ADAPT Matt Boon, is responsible for directing and developing ADAPTs research content and positions. In his role at ADAPT Boon advises C-Suite executives across the end-user and technology provider landscape. Boon is also responsible for bringing together groups of C-Suite leaders to discuss and prepare for the myriad of challenges and opportunities they face.

ADAPT host’s numerous industry leading IT focused events annually and Boon is responsible for hosting, chairing and delivering ADAPT independent content and positions to help attendees make informed IT decisions.

Peter Hind has spent the last 25 years as an analyst and commentator on the ICT industry. He says his primary areas of interest are the potential of technology to transform the way organisations operate, the change management obstacles executives encounter in realising this potential and the tactics and techniques leaders have deployed to overcome these difficulties.

Peter now takes on multiple roles within ADAPT including the moderation of private events and roundtables, interviewing business executives about the strategies they are pursuing and assisting with the structuring of our delegate surveys and the interrogation and analysis of ADAPT’s treasure trove of end-user and C-level data

Executive transformation leader who brings clarity to complex environments and converts strategy into delivery momentum. Experience spans enterprise technology leadership (Microsoft, T-Mobile, public sector) and consulting across Australia / Asia Pac, the US, EU and LATAM. I work with senior leaders to frame decisions, align business and technology priorities, and shape modernisation pathways that are practical, sequenced and measurable. Known for clear thinking, executive facilitation, and translating between commercial intent, technical reality and operational constraint to keep teams aligned and outcomes moving.

Focus areas:

- Business and technology transformation
- Executive facilitation and decision support
- Data and modernisation strategy
- Customer and employee experience uplift
- Cross-functional leadership and coaching
- Turning complexity into clear choices