Past Speakers

Bevan Slattery is one of Australia’s leading digital infrastructure entrepreneurs having founded a record 5 ASX companies spanning everything from metro fibre, subsea cables, data centres and elastic connectivity. PIPE Networks, NEXTDC, Megaport, Superloop, SubPartners, SUBCO and SODA are some of the companies that have were founded by Mr Slattery over the past 25 years.  Mr Slattery has deep knowledge on all aspects of building, financing and operating submarine cables systems as having conceived, built, owned and operated PPC-1 (Sydney to Guam), Indigo Central and West (Sydney to Perth and Perth to Singapore via consortium), the Oman Australia Cable and now SMAP (Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth) system currently in build.  Additionally, Mr Slattery is a major investor in sensing platform FiberSense and is the Founder and Patron of Biopixel Oceans Foundation which aims to build 1 million square metres of tolerant reefs.

Brendan joined Canva more than 11 years ago as a founding engineer, and has played a pivotal role in shaping the architectural foundations of Canva’s product and rapidly scaling its engineering organisation. Prior to Canva, Brendan has built software for companies large and small, across a wide range of industries including telecommunications, banking, and eCommerce. In 2003 he co-founded his own company which he later sold to Atlassian. At Canva, he leads a team of more than 2,300 engineers. Brendan’s passion is in setting up Engineering teams to be productive, happy and ambitious. He’s a firm believer in striving for pragmatic excellence, building from first principles, and practicing empathy in Engineering.

Matt Preswick is the Principal Solutions Engineer for Wiz in APJ, with experience in network, email and cloud security at leading security vendors in EMEA and APAC. Before joining Wiz, he lead operations at a Sydney based network analytics startup before returning to Cloud security with Wiz. 

Matt is passionate about developing scalable and actionable security practices within APJs largest organisations. 

An accomplished cybersecurity executive, Edwin brings a unique blend of visionary leadership, strategic acumen, and a people-centric approach. With a proven track record in steering organisations through complex cybersecurity landscapes, he excels in inspiring, motivating, and effectively communicating to foster a culture of innovation and resilience. Edwin has successfully led organisations through significant security uplifts to meet regulatory requirements. Notably, he played a pivotal role in enhancing the security posture of an organisation to successfully obtain a banking licence. Edwin has also presented at several events, including RSA, AISA, All Day DevOps, AppSec Day, DevSecOps Leadership Forums, OWASP, CISO Sydney and other executive conferences.

Nam Je Cho is an accomplished technology executive and thought leader with over 20 years of experience driving digital transformation and leveraging latest technologies deliver customer value.

He currently serves as the Director of Solutions Architecture at AWS where he has spent over a decade helping customers transform their business in the cloud. Throughout his career, Nam Je has honed his skills in presales, consulting, and systems integration underpinned by latest and emerging technologies.

He brings deep expertise in cloud computing, data analytics, artificial intelligence, enterprise applications, resilience, cybersecurity, and aligning digital solutions to business strategies that drive value. Outside of work, Nam Je is passionate about promoting STEM education to youths and career in technology.

Nam Je holds a Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Technology, Sydney.

Excellent record in national level roles in Pacific, with expertise in the field of Enterprise Software Sales, SaaS, edge IoT devices, Account management, Partner Management, Marketing, Presales, Strategic Pursuit of identified opportunities across Tier1/2 clients. Well versed in communication at all levels, CEO, Executives, Business unit manager and Technical Leaders. Customer driven with consistent sales growth and high customer satisfaction results attained through building, leading and managing high-performance teams including –Sales Presales, Projects, Engineering, Technical Support, and Customer Service groups with full P&L responsibility.

A collaborative leader with over 25 years working in the built environment and mission critical fields. From initial roles with the Ministry of Defence in the UK, now based in Sydney, where he specialises in the design and development of Data Centre facilities. Career highlights include working with major international organisations including NEXTDC, Global Switch, Equinix, IBM, Telstra, Metronode, Woolworths, ANZ and Amazon.

As the Head of Products at NEXTDC (ASX:NXT); Australia’s most innovative Data Centre as a Service Provider, I help build fantastic new products and innovate for our customers.

With over 18 years experience in Data Centres, my wife is surprised that I still get excited reading about them, driving past them and telling the kids “Do you know what that great looking building does?” for the thousandth time.

Directly helping customers meet their objectives with initiatives such as Australia’s only carbon neutral colocation solution keeps me striving for more each day.

Outside of NEXTDC, I’m a a Lego fanatic co-authoring a LEGO blog with my son Oscar (www.casadebricks.com), obstacle course racing, Formula 1 and honing my occasionally great dad jokes.

During my time at Vocus, I demonstrated a history of strong performance in the Data Centre industry successfully integrating 26 facilities onto a national unified platform. Leading a geographically diverse team, we delivered a Net Promoter Score of 50+ whilst successfully completing many M&A opportunities alongside the day to day BAU operations of the Data Centre business unit.

John Hopping is an accomplished technology leader with nearly 30 years of experience in the IT and telecommunications industry. As Director of Sales Engineering for Enterprise Wireless Solutions at Ericsson, he oversees technical strategy and solution design across the Asia Pacific region, helping enterprise clients unlock the power of advanced wireless networks.

John’s extensive career spans leadership and architectural roles across major global organisations. Serving as served as Principal Architect and CTO for APAC at Ericsson, he has led enterprise network transformation initiatives for nearly eight years. He has also held key technical positions at Optus, BT, Procter & Gamble, and Bristol-Myers Squibb, with a strong background in network design, architecture, and enterprise IT infrastructure across both ANZ and EMEA markets.

Matt is the APAC Field CTO at Apptio, an IBM Company, responsible for ensuring the success of customers across the region. Since joining Apptio in 2010, Matt has worked with a wide range of customers across APJ and the Americas, helping them adopt the disciplines and best practices of Technology Business Management. Additionally, Matt is responsible for providing product feedback into the Product Marketing and Product Management organizations based on unique customer requirements across the APJ region. Before joining Apptio, Matt was a Senior Consultant with Capgemini based out of Detroit, Michigan.

Wayne brings over 25 years of experience in serving banking, telecommunications, and government clients on a broad range of digital issues, including cloud services and security, analytics, data governance, core IT platform architecture, networking, and IT operating model/organisation design, including agile-at-scale.

James is the Lead Partner for Engineering Strategy & Architecture business, leading a team of 50 skilled technology strategists and consultants to advise Australia’s leading organisations on cloud enabled business transformation.

James has over 15 years’ experience in delivering technology transformation, with the past 8 years spent focused on helping clients unlock value from cloud.

James’ experience has seen him work with some of the Asia Pacific’s largest organisations and governments plan and execute cloud investment to achieve business outcomes and manage the financial maturity of their technology function to realise return on investment.

James’ engineering background is complemented by an MBA from Melbourne Business School.

Joana is an executive level advisor with a background in technology strategy and implementation. For more than two decades, she worked with the public sector helping to improve the effectiveness of fed and state government policy across a wide range of areas from border protection, taxation, health to social services. Joana specialises in technology-enabled transformation and has held senior roles as Consulting Leader for Digital Government and Consulting Leader for the Commonwealth of Australia Sector. 

In both public and private sectors, she has led engagements in technology strategy, sourcing, technology-enabled transformation, data driven policy, service delivery transformation, technology optimisation, infrastructure transformation, systems integration and application and IT management. 

Prior to holding Partner roles in Consulting Firms, Joana was a partner with IBM’s systems integration and consulting arm and a member of IBM’s senior executive leadership team, and Public Sector General Manager at CSC. 

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. 

Sid Govindu is a Global GTM Strategist at Splunk, where he leads the incubation of emerging capabilities into next-generation Observability solutions. 

With an engineering background and deep experience across APAC markets, Sid helps leading organisations take practical approaches to transform digital operations from traditional cost centres into value-generating business enablers.  

He is passionate about working at the intersection of AI, Observability, and emerging business models. 

Logan Fraser is a Principal Solutions Consultant in Asia Pacific for Apptio. 

He has a 7 year tenure with Apptio, helping his customers merge the worlds of Finance and IT operations through the Technology Business Management (TBM) and Cloud FinOps methodologies. 

He has been a speaker at various events around Australia and New Zealand, including hosting events on behalf of the TBM Council. 

Logan is a global subject matter expert in IBM’s Cloudability platform, and is passionate about ensuring his customers can make the most out of their technology investments. 

David Rajkovic is Managing Director for Australia and New Zealand at Rubrik. Based in Sydney, Rajkovic has nearly two decades of experience working across both vendor and partner sides of the technology channel, with a strong focus on driving growth and customer value.

Prior to Rubrik, David served as Area Vice President for Australia and New Zealand at Commvault and held multiple senior leadership roles during his three-year tenure at Oracle, including Senior Director of Enterprise Sales ANZ and Senior Director of Commercial Sales ANZ. David also spent 10 years at Citrix Systems in various roles, progressing from Sales Engineer to senior leadership positions, including the management of Sales Engineering and Professional Services across APJ, and ultimately leading the ANZ business. David’s extensive background is well-suited to Rubrik’s mission, given his track record of success in business transformation, enterprise solution delivery, and driving meaningful customer outcomes.

Danielle is Managing Director and practice lead for Data and AI Technology at Accenture, across Australia and New Zealand, home to a team full of lovely, energetic, and bright people solving key business opportunities, drawing from Data and AI services. She also leads the Financial Services sector for Data and AI, servicing ANZ clients to drive better outcomes for stakeholders. Danielle specialises in end-to-end Data and AI Transformation (planning, organising, executing, and managing the Data and AI environments to solve key business problems).

Ivan is the Head of Juniper’s Apstra driven DC business in ANZ, which includes Apstra’s Intent Based Networking and Intent Based Analytics solution portfolios. 

A seasoned industry veteran that worked his way up from a field engineer to principal TAC engineer at Bay Networks, then onto senior SE roles at Nortel and Cisco before moving to sales, sales management and GM roles. Ivan currently leads the DC sales division for Juniper in ANZ that has grown for seven straight quarters. 

Outside of work, Ivan is the proud father of two adult daughters that have also followed him into the ICT industry! 

Greg Yelas is a seasoned leader in Enterprise Sales within the IT industry, dedicated to driving transformation that benefits both customers and their clients. As the Regional Sales Director for Australia, he spearheads the sales go-to-market strategy, fostering an energized and passionate sales team.

With over a decade of experience at Cisco, Greg has held various roles, including Enterprise Account Manager and Territory Account Manager for Professional Services, where he consistently demonstrated his ability to build strong client relationships and deliver impactful solutions. His journey in sales began as a Sales BDM, and he has steadily progressed through roles that highlight his expertise in the technology sector.

Based in Sydney, New South Wales, Greg is committed to empowering teams and enhancing customer experiences through innovative technology.

Driving change by disrupting the traditional norms that have evolved over decades. My passion is focused on helping people lead a better quality of life integrated with digital services. Services that create enhanced experiences and competitive business models.
Innovation and creativity provides limitless opportunities for new business.
Empowering teams, I drive change to the traditional Business Process, Culture and Technology that spearheads organisations into the 21st century

Sudesh has developed his professional career with IBM, Hewlett Packard DXC and Commonwealth Bank of Australia. He is an astute results-oriented leader with a reputation for developing innovative business strategies and client focused services. Recognized for transforming business for sustainable growth by enabling new strategies delivering winning outcomes in the areas of “Sales, Delivery and Operations”. Experience with re-establishing client trust on billion dollar troubled accounts.

Broad experience developing profitable startup business lines, or turning around non-performing business. Mobilizes top-tier talent to create high performing cultures that consistently achieve results in volatile markets. Sudesh’ s strengths lie in leadership where he believes in mentorship with a strong focus on people development, creating high performance teams contributing to both personal & team success around him.

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.

Gabby’s primary role is managing ADAPT’s overall strategy for Data Analytics. He has extensive experience in using data to identify trends in technology that help shape Australian organisations. Utilising modern Data Science techniques, he provides ADAPT and their customers with confidence in the accuracy and validity of the information used for ADAPT’s Research, Advisory, and Events.​

With a passion for creating stories with data, Gabby is consistently rated as one of the top speakers at ADAPT Events. In round table discussions, he specialises in using statistics to initiate thought-provoking discussions. Gabby is effective in translating information into insights, enabling ADAPT’s customers to become more data-driven.​

Gabby’s primary areas of expertise are: ​

• Advanced AI and ML practices, including AI ethics.​
• Building models to benchmark and predict IT performance.​
• End-user behaviour and human-centred design.​
• Cross-functional team design and value, such as DevSecOps.​

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

Jim founded ADAPT 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.

Leading the development of ADAPTs agenda’s and content strategy whilst also advising executive leadership teams from global technology service providers, Jim is uniquely experienced to be the voice of the end-user, the customer and the vendor.

Bringing his deep knowledge of the local market, Jim regularly presents “Know your Customer” webinars and guides the world’s largest vendors with their G-T-M 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.