Our Speakers Include...

Dr Amantha Imber is an organisational psychologist and founder of the award-winning behaviour change consultancy Inventium. She has worked with companies such as Google, Apple, Disney, LEGO, Coca-Cola, and Microsoft to help boost productivity, innovation and wellbeing.

In 2021, Amantha was the first Australian to win the Thinkers50 Innovation Award (described by the Financial Times as the ‘Oscars for Management Thinking’).

In 2025, Amantha was recognised at the Australian AI Awards, where she won AI Consultant of the Year and the AI Excellence Award - the latter chosen from the highest-scoring individual winners across all categories to recognise the top performer of the year.

Amantha is also the host of the number one ranking business podcast How I Work, which has had over 6 million downloads, where she interviews some of the world’s most successful people about their habits, strategies, and rituals.

Amantha’s thoughts have appeared in Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, Forbes, and Fast Company and she is the author of four bestselling books, including international bestseller Time Wise and The Health Habit. Her latest book The Energy Game is out now.

Margaret has been part of IP Australia’s leadership team since early 2020 and is currently acting Director General of IP Australia. Her focus is on ensuring that IP Australia has the right capability to deliver on its strategic objectives, and on working collaboratively both domestically and internationally to support effective IP policy development.

Before joining IP Australia, Margaret was A/G First Assistant Secretary of Legal and Compliance in the former Department of Environment and Energy.

Margaret has extensive experience in providing legal and governance advice to government across a range of subject matters including education, industry,science, environment and energy.

Since 2008 she has held Senior Executive rolesin the Commonwealth Government.

She was General Counsel of the Department of Industry Science and Resources from 2012 to 2017 and General Counsel of the then Department of Environment and Energy from 2017 to 2019.

She has a Bachelor of Arts/Laws(Hons) and a Graduate Diploma of Legal Practice from the Australian National University. She is also a graduate of the Australia Institute of Company Directors.

Mark is a passionate, committed, and respected technology leader in government with over 25 years of experience leading policy, strategy, data, digital, and technology delivery functions across government.  

Mark currently serves as the Chief Information Officer and Chief Security Officer at the Australian Taxation Office. In this role, Mark provides leadership and strategic direction for the broad technology ecosystem, ensuring support for the agency’s tax, super and registry systems in a rapidly changing digital landscape.  He works in close partnership with senior business leaders to ensure that we are taking advantage of the most innovative trends in technology to best support taxpayers, tax agents, ATO staff, and the community. 

Prior to his current role, Mark was the First Assistant Secretary and Chief Information Officer at the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, preceded by previous senior executive leadership roles at the Department of Education, Australian Bureau of Statistics, ComSuper, and the Department of Immigration and Border Protection.

I have broad corporate experience and expertise and have led teams from different fields including ICT, emerging technology, strategic planning, training design and delivery and project management. I’m an experienced leader in digital transformation and technology strategy and want to contribute to organisations who champion technology to build responsible and sustainable systems for the future. My specialist area is data science and AI strategy, and digital strategy and implementation.  
 
With academic and practitioner experience, comprising humanities, strategy and computer science, I work effectivity across disciplines and with stakeholders to deliver outcomes. I enjoy finding solutions to complex problems and contributing to a range of sectors through entrepreneurship, mentoring and not-for-profit programs. 

Caroline Walsh is Head of Government Affairs for Australia, New Zealand and Korea for SAP, where she leads engagement on public policy, digital transformation, AI, and technology policy issues. A senior executive with more than 20 years’ experience spanning the Commonwealth and New South Wales public sectors, the not-for-profit sector and industry, Caroline has held leadership roles across policy, reform, regulation, governance and service delivery.

Prior to joining SAP, she was Chief Executive Officer of OzHelp and the Institute of Public Administration Australia. Earlier, she held senior positions in government, including Group Manager, Inclusion at the Australian Public Service Commission. Caroline holds qualifications in law, public administration and business, and began her career as an industrial advocate. She is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, serves on the board of Carers ACT, is a member of the Research Alliance for Enterprise AI, and chairs a policy advisory committee of the Australian Information Industry Association.

Jarrod Spiga is an Principal Solutions Architect in Advisory Services at Atlassian, helping enterprise organisations design robust cloud architectures and modernise their ways of working. He brings over two decades of technical leadership, including six years at AWS leading global technical learning initiatives and architecting mission-critical enterprise cloud solutions across APAC.

Maria Banks leads Atlassian’s Public Sector business across Australia and New Zealand, overseeing strategy, go‑to‑market execution, and customer engagement for government and public institutions in the region. In this role, she partners with public sector organizations to modernize digital service delivery, improve mission outcomes, and adopt secure, scalable collaboration platforms.

Prior to her current position, Maria led Atlassian’s U.S. Federal business for two years. She oversaw the go‑to‑market launch of Atlassian’s FedRAMP‑authorized offering and worked closely with federal agencies on mission transformation initiatives, including recruiting modernization, research and development programs, and citizen engagement. Her work focused on aligning secure cloud capabilities with complex regulatory requirements and high‑stakes public sector missions.

Before joining Atlassian’s public sector leadership, Maria led federal sales for a national security-focused startup unicorn, driving growth within defense and intelligence communities. She also served as a board member for AFCEA, contributing to industry-government collaboration and thought leadership across defense, intelligence, and cybersecurity domains.

Maria previously spent eight years at Microsoft working with military and intelligence customers. During this time, she led Microsoft’s first cloud partnership with an intelligence agency, advancing secure cloud adoption in highly classified environments. She also led a nationwide Internet of Things (IoT) (IoT) partnership focused on waterway improvement and maintenance, bringing together public and private stakeholders to apply emerging technology to critical infrastructure challenges.

Maria’s contributions to the technology and national security community have been recognized through her selection as a finalist for the Women in Technology Washington, D.C. “Under 30” award in 2016.

A seasoned IT and cybersecurity leader with a strong track record serving both government agencies and commercial organisations, Andrew has served as Federal Manager at CBR Cyber (a Brennan Company) since April 2025, collaborating closely with public sector clients to develop and deliver tailored cyber and IT services. Andrew’s deep expertise in network engineering, systems architecture, and vendor management coupled with his proven ability to translate complex technical requirements into robust solutions makes him a go-to partner for organisations seeking secure, scalable IT outcomes with precision and excellence.

A recognised authority on cyber risk and industrial security, Peter Soulsby helps Australian enterprises and public-sector agencies strengthen their defences in an era of digital transformation 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, operational technology, identity & access management, endpoint security, and IT convergence. He is known for emphasising the importance of aligning business priorities with security controls, for advocating that risk cannot simply be outsourced, and that accountability must be shared and embedded into contracts and operations.

Trevor Gauld is Deputy Commissioner at Jobs and Skills Australia (JSA), where he plays a key role in shaping national skills strategies to meet Australia’s current and future workforce needs. With deep expertise in workforce development, vocational education, and strategic policy, Trevor brings a strong commitment to building a future-ready, inclusive, and skilled economy.

Prior to joining JSA, Trevor served as the National Assistant Secretary of the Electrical Trades Union, where he championed the rights of workers and advocated for quality training and apprenticeship pathways. His career began in the electrical industry, working across power distribution, transmission, maintenance, and construction—giving him firsthand insight into the importance of practical skills and lifelong learning.

Trevor has held numerous board directorships and committee roles, providing strategic advice on skills development, worker entitlements, immigration, trade policy, and climate and clean energy initiatives. His collaborative approach has seen him work closely with government, industry, unions, and education providers to drive innovation and improve outcomes for learners and employers alike.

He is a passionate advocate for equity in education, employment and training, and his leadership continues to support JSA’s mission to enhance skills mobility, workforce capability, and economic participation across Australia.

Ramsey Beydoun leads AI governance, technical standards, and strategic engagement to enable responsible adoption of AI across the Australian government through his role at the Digital Transformation Agency (DTA). With over two decades of experience in the Australian Public Service (APS), Ramsey has played a pivotal role in many large digital transformation initiatives including the implementation of new AI platforms and emerging technology. Ramsey brings a strong practitioner lens to shaping the use of AI in government. 

Alex is an enterprise leader with a track record of building and integrating complex technology organisations. He’s spent the past two decades helping large enterprises navigate digital transformation, with particular focus on security, risk management, and organisational integration.

Currently, he leads the combined Armis and Veza businesses for ServiceNow. In this role, he’s focused on unifying asset intelligence and cyber risk management capabilities with identity and access security tools, giving organisations automated visibility into their assets, who has access to what, and how to remediate vulnerabilities. His mandate is to help government and enterprise organisations proactively manage cyber risk at scale.

Before joining ServiceNow, Alex built Armis from the ground up into a leading cyber asset intelligence platform. His approach to scaling an organisation emphasises cultural continuity and genuine partnerships with customers.

He works closely with CIOs and security leaders across government and large enterprises, and acts as an adviser to other organisations navigating complex growth and integration challenges. His experience spans new market entry, building partner ecosystems, and helping leadership teams balance innovation with operational stability and strong culture.

Alex believes that sustainable competitive advantage comes from strong people, clear mission, and a genuine commitment to solving customer problems. He brings three decades of pattern recognition on how organisations successfully implement change and build resilience.

I have the privilege of working as part of SAP’s ecosystem of over 24,000 government agencies and non-government organisations in more than 150 countries. I have a passion for the public sector and am proud to have built solutions to help Australians find jobs, to protect our borders, and to support our war veterans. Connect with me to discuss how SAP’s portfolio of solutions for public services can help the world run better and improve peoples’ lives. 

Shane Boulden is a Solution Architect at Red Hat, supporting Fortune 500 companies and government organisations across Australia and the region to adopt open source technologies. He is a frequent speaker at events including Everything Open, MilCIS and Red Hat Summit Connect. He has contributed to security-focused open source projects like ‘Compliance as Code’, StackRox, and Keycloak, and is a contributing author to the second edition of The Kubernetes Bible. His recent focus has been on applications of generative AI and security, and helping organisations close the vulnerability gap with Red Hat Lightwell.

Maka is a senior technology and public sector leader with more than 20 years’ experience helping organisations navigate complex digital transformation, technology, data and commercial challenges. As a trusted advisor to public sector leaders, he brings deep expertise in turning emerging technology and strategic thinking into practical, human-centred outcomes.

Maka is passionate about technology as a force for inclusion and social impact, with a particular focus on bridging the digital divide and creating greater access to opportunity for underserved communities. At Fujitsu’s Consulting arm, Uvance Wayfinders, he brings together strategic consulting, technology and community insight to help organisations navigate change with purpose—co-designing solutions that are inclusive, sustainable and create meaningful outcomes for people and communities.

Thomas is a senior technology and cyber security leader with more than two decades of experience shaping digital resilience across government, education, and critical infrastructure.

His career includes executive roles at Griffith University, Telstra, AusCERT and as the Chief Information Security Officer for the QLD Department of Education and the Arts supporting a large complex front lined department of over 100,000 staff and 580,000 students, where he led the development of the 2024-2028 cyber strategy, and drove major improvements in patching, identity, privacy, threat and detection capability, and strengthened whole-of-government security governance. His work has been recognised through numerous national awards including the AISA Information Security Professional of the Year. With deep expertise spanning strategy, governance, architecture, cyber, data and information management, Thomas brings a pragmatic, business-aligned perspective on how organisations can reduce risk, accelerate innovation and build secure, future-ready digital capabilities.

In his current role, Thomas leads teams of security architects supporting organisations across ANZ to uplift cyber maturity and reducing risk by working with customers in secure adoption of cloud, security of AI and AI for security as well as practical implementation of modern security concepts such as zero trust.

Andrew is a senior executive at Fujitsu with 20+ years’ experience leading complex public sector portfolios across business development, customer engagement, and service delivery. He’s a trusted advisor to government clients, with deep expertise in procurement, governance, and funding cycles—helping organisations confidently progress digital transformation.

He is known for customer-centric innovation, having sponsored initiatives like Melbourne’s mobile myki, delivering real-world, citizen-focused outcomes. At Fujitsu, he combines strategic sales leadership with industry insight to strengthen partnerships across government and healthcare, co-designing secure, people-centric solutions for Australia and New Zealand.

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.

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

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.