Past Speakers

Peter Weill’s work centers on the role, value, and governance of digitization in enterprises. Weill joined the MIT Sloan faculty in 2000 to become director of MIT Sloan’s Center for Information Systems Research (CISR).

MIT CISR is funded by approximately 100 corporate sponsors and patrons, and undertakes practical research on how firms generate business value from Information Technology (IT). As chair, Weill focuses on globalizing the center’s research and delivery. In 2008, Ziff Davis recognized Weill as #24 of The Top 100 Most Influential People in IT, the highest-ranked academic. In Dec 2019, his 2015 MIT SMR article Thriving in an Increasingly Digital Era was recognized as one of The Best 10 SMR Articles in the 2010s.

Peter has worked on digitization issues with the Executive Committees and Boards of more than 40 companies globally. He conducts workshops for key conferences, including the CEO Summits for Microsoft, IBM, and SAP, and the International Monetary Conference.

Katie McDermott, leads a diverse group of teams responsible for end-to-end digital customer experiences, including check-in and voucher programs which required unprecedented speed to production.

Katie will outline what they have done differently to now serve quick customer centric services, feedback loops, new team constructs and a digital manifesto.

I am passionate about enabling organisations to innovate through ideas, people and technology. My authentic outcomes-oriented leadership style inspires and empowers people to “keep calm a do useful things better” – delivering successful outcomes and award-worthy results year-on-year.

In executive roles I have a successful track record of leading teams to execute transformative and sustainable change in complex situations and at large scale. In strategy and advisory roles I am acknowledged by my peers to be a creative, quietly powerful, thought leader and an inspirational public speaker.

I joined Victoria Police as its Chief Digital Officer in April. Previously I was the CIO of Victoria’s health and human services departments from 2014-2022.

My digital transformation work in health and human services delivered compelling outcomes year-on-year and uniquely received recognition in the top 10 of the Australian CIO50 each year for 5 years – culminating in a CIO50 Hall of Fame award in 2022. I am a Fellow of IPAA Victoria, was the Champion of the Australian TechDiversity Awards in 2018 and was the ITNews State & Local Government CIO of the Year in the 2017.

I am proud to have led my teams to awardable outcomes and am proactive about ensuring that my people are recognised for their achievements. Two of my leadership team members were awarded Public Service Medals in the Queen’s Birthday Honours and others have won a range of industry awards – including State Government project of the year in the 2019 IT News Benchmark Awards, a National AIIA iAward in 2019, an IPAA Victoria Top50 Women award and winner of the Service Delivery category in the 2016 IPAA Public Sector Leadership Awards.

Before DHHS I was global Chief Analyst Public Sector for the UK research and advisory firm Ovum for 8 years. Prior to this I was the Director eGovernment Strategy & Policy and Deputy CIO of the Victorian State government in Melbourne for 4 years.

In earlier times I founded and sold an e-commerce company, movinghome.com.au, and worked in a range of executive and consulting roles in the government and utility sectors in Europe and Australasia.

I am a graduate of the ANZSOG Executive Fellows program and the AICD Company Directors course and have a doctorate in Management Studies from the University of Oxford and a 1st class honours degree in Commerce from the University of Otago in New Zealand.

In my 20s I worked as a search & rescue mountaineer at Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park in New Zealand.

A highly energised and engaging executive leader, with a mission to drive transformation at scale which has resulted in efficient growth, improved productivity and culture, whilst maintaining highest levels of safety and quality.

Throughout my career, I have built a reputation for being a dynamic leader with a strong track record of delivering results in the most complication environments, with agility and with sustainable results. A diverse background in finance, strategy, transformation, digital, infrastructure, executive leadership, consulting as well as operations.

I am known in industry for my ability to inspire, to execute, and to motivate teams to achieve their full potential. A mentor to many, with a commitment to building collaborative outcome focused relationships with stakeholders at all levels, and to ensure I am available to colleagues to iterate and engage.

I am driven by a deep sense of purpose and a desire to make a positive impact on the world. I see my role as not only delivering results for my organisation, but also contributing to the broader social and economic landscape.

Kip is responsible for implementing VMware Tanzu’s Application Platform go-to-market program around the world.  

In the age of data-driven and machine-learning applications, an organization’s software portfolio forms part of its critical infrastructure. 

Managing both the risks and tremendous opportunities dependent on the application platform becomes an imperative for all enterprises.

In response to these risks and opportunities, VMware Tanzu has introduced its Tanzu Application Platform with a focus on delivering faster,  more secure software supply chains for public and private enterprises.

Kip’s role is to define the global market and customer requirements for application platforms; work with customers and partners to promote best practises for their implementation; consult with governments and agencies to support regulatory and legislative efforts to secure software supply chains and to encourage their adoption around the world.

Kip was previously VP VMware Tanzu EMEA and VP VMware Tanzu APJ.  Prior to VMware, Kip led the global GTM for SAP’s eCommerce Business.  He is an avid Open-Source software contributor.  Kip is based in Singapore having also lived and worked in Australia, Japan, China, USA, and Europe.

Glenn Carmichael is responsible for the Design strategy at Telstra Purple, a tech consultancy that delivers digital transformation for Australian and global businesses. He is an optimistic futurist who is passionate about understanding how technology will impact people’s work and lives, and how we can play a role in shaping, building and helping them to adopt it.

Glenn believes designing with a human-centered approach creates technology solutions that deliver better outcomes. Creating tools that people want to use, that make the cutting edge natural to engage with, and helping all people embrace and adopt these tools by designing with accessibility and inclusion in mind from the outset.

He’s passionate and invested in the next generation of designers, teaching at General Assembly for the past 5 years and regularly guest speaking at UTS and RMIT to interaction design students.

With 10+ years’ success in senior sales, general management and executive leadership roles, Clarence has shown a core strength in transitioning a legacy business into a responsive enterprise that meets changing market needs.

He has played a leading role in driving the change from a general CRM company to a mobile and cloud-based solutions provider. Meeting the challenges of an evolving industry, technology disruption, and a fractured global economy head on, his value as a leader is in providing clear thinking and driving robust execution.

James Larmer is a global leader in advanced data and analytics and AI. He helps drive the expansion of Bain & Company’s Advanced Analytics capabilities in Australia and Asia Pacific, taking Bain’s strategic investments in digital transformation, intelligent automation, analytics and AI to the next level.

James is a leading analytics and AI expert with over 25 years’ experience in building and leading advanced data and analytics teams and delivering tech-enabled digital transformation business initiatives for Fortune 100 enterprises in the US, Europe, Asia and Australia. James has spent his career helping clients rapidly identify and capture value and actionable insights from disparate and fragmented data.

Prior to joining Bain, James helped PwC grow their data and analytics capabilities globally, most recently, as PwC’s US AI Leader and Southeast Asia Data & Analytics Leader. Prior to that he helped grow Visa Advisory Services and Visa Analytics out of San Francisco.

James has spent his career helping clients rapidly identify and capture value and actionable insights from disparate and fragmented data. His clients span financial services, telecommunications, technology, mining, healthcare and retail and consumer sectors.

A graduate of University of Sydney (Economics and Law), James completed his Masters at Columbia University in New York.

Linda has over 30 years of local and international experience as a Digital Disruptor and Enterprise Transformation Architect, Chief Operations Officer, Chief Information Officer, Program Director and various specialist levels across a range of industries including defence, finance and government.

Linda combines her extensive experience in technology transformation, program management and executive positions to architect change and lead organisations in enterprise digital transformation by creating progressive end-to-end ecosystems for delivery in the digital economy.

In addition, Linda holds a number of board positions and is undertaking a PhD and research projects with UNISA, researching leadership in the digital economy. An energetic outcome focused leader, Linda has a high degree of enthusiasm and performance drive. She is passionate about bringing about operational excellence and improving all stakeholders’ experiences.

Finbar is an Futurethinker an Imagineer, Inventor, Entrepreneur and Coac with over 30 + years experience in creating and commercialising innovations in the technology, media and arts sector.

As an Imagineer and SME he helps others understand human capabilities, particularly when they relate to future thinking, creativity and innovation
As an inventor he has been granted 16 Patents in relation to cutting edge technologies covering Music, Video, Blockchain, Cybersecurity and AI (Children’s Learning and Entertainment).

As an Entrepreneur has started and run many businesses one being acquired and listed on the ASX called Linius.

As a musician he has toured globally and recorded and played with members of bands such as Limp Bizkit and the Cure, Scored music for film and Television and released a number of instrumental albums.

Finbar is the APAC president of GInI, the Global Innovation institute (USA), a Certified Innovation Professional and Certified Chief Innovation Officer.

Finbar is the Australian subject Matter Expert for Creativity, part of Capability.co.

He works across Australia delivering programs aimed at uplifting Hi (Human Intelligence) so it can effectively harness the power of Ai (Artificial Intelligence).

Fifteen years ago, Simon was one of the founding members of Rio Tinto Iron’s internal scenario planning team. The team was tasked with developing long-range scenarios to help key decision-makers understand global iron ore demand over a 10+ year time horizon. This information was used to guide billion-dollar investment decisions, including the construction of new mines, railroads, and port facilities.

Over the last decade, Simon has applied his extensive real-world experience in scenario planning and futures thinking to help countless business leaders make better big decisions.

Now, with so many organisations facing unprecedented levels of uncertainty, Simon has shifted his focus to supporting key decision-makers to develop the mindsets, tools, and techniques that futurists use to think their way through uncertainty.

Simon also recently published his third book, ‘The Scenario Planning Guide: How Scenario Planning Can Be Used to Align Thinking, Stimulate Ideas, and Overcome the Inertia of Uncertainty’.

Lucy is the Co-Founder and CEO of NOBL, a culture change organizational design firm. She believes in building legendary cultures and helps her clients operationalize their wildest ambitions. She embodies a bias-to-action, using her experience in operations, human resources, and organizational strategy to drive meaningful and lasting change. Previously, she was a VP at the fashion house Rag & Bone, an advisor to the global digital studio ustwo, and partner at Undercurrent, a leading digital consultancy.

Liz is an Associate Principle at NOBL, a global organisational design firm born in the US with a new office in Sydney. She’ll break down what leaders can do to create and retain a high-performing team, drawing on her experience in operations, human resources, and organisational strategy to drive meaningful and lasting change.

Dereks help organisations adapt for the future of work, he speaks about tech trends and the success of our customers.

Derek has held a broad range of roles in my 25-year technology career from startup developer, product manager, consultant, offshore development leader, solutions engineer and product marketing executive.

He spent 15 years at Salesforce, working with the Salesforce ecosystem and the local technology industry exploring digital and customer experience. 9 years leading product marketing teams and programs. 6 years in presales. 8 years developing and implementing software.

Slack and Salesforce is one of Australia’s Best Places to Work and recognised by Forbes as one of the world’s most innovative companies.

Raj is a pioneer and thought leader in the digital adoption space leading growth initiatives across the Asia-Pacific region.Based in Singapore, he is responsible for accelerating go-to-market initiatives in APAC, designed with a ‘customer-first’ approach. Raj has firsthand experience in building a DAP hyper-growth business leading to an IPO with a focus on customer value realisation strategies.He is the author of the multi-award-winning book ‘The DAP Strategy’, which has been described as “the ultimate playbook for success in a digital transformation program.”

I am an internationally experienced B2B Integration and software business executive with proven ability to deliver growth, improved staff performance and customer satisfaction levels. Suited to companies that need business transformation or sales growth in disruptive software services. A Results orientated mindset influenced by an analytical approach combined with strong commercial B2B sales experience.

Steve Dillon is an identity security expert who has worked with many of Australia’s leading public and private sector businesses during the past 15 years to support their cyber resilience and effective posture against an ever increasing array of threat vectors.

As Head of APAC Architecture for Ping Identity, Steve is responsible for working with

organisations to underpin their security infrastructure in support of issues ranging from CDR compliance and achieving Zero Trust to providing personalised, streamlined user experiences that allow customers and employees to access critical applications anytime, anywhere. Curious and creative, he is a trailblazer in enabling organisations to support complex security requirements while providing the seamless user experience required of businesses today.

Steve previously worked at Telstra for more than three years in several roles including as Product Owner – Enterprise Identity where he provided foundational IAM capability underpinning the T22 digitisation program. Prior, he was a Managing Consultant at O2 Networks during. Both these organisations armed Steve with a winning combination of critical technical and business skills which today are key in achieving customer success right from the start in any identity security program.

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.