Our Speakers

An accomplished, commercial leader with experience in delivering strong people performance in large, complex businesses. With a background in law, she has moved into leadership roles with iconic Australian businesses with a focus on building great, safe workplaces with talented teams delivering strategic outcomes for the customer.

Karen is PwC Australia’s Chief People Officer and a member of the Management Leadership Team.

Karen is a seasoned enterprise leader with specialist skills in people, culture and transformation, as well as broader experience in customer advocacy, corporate affairs and government relations, reporting to CEOs and boards of major Australian companies.

Karen’s work spans the professional services, real estate, retail and transportation sectors in Australia, Asia, the USA, Europe and Africa. She is passionate about enhancing culture, leadership, employee engagement and performance while positioning organizations for growth and helping them navigate complexity and disruption.

Outside of her business life Karen loves to travel, particularly with her family, and she is a prolific consumer of podcasts across a range of genres.

Consultants are at the bleeding edge of AI … by Jim Berry

Consultants are at the bleeding edge of AI and Agentic impacting their operations - so she has lots of lessons learned to share.

Dom Price is a Work Futurist, team obsessive, and Partner at Be Luminous and someone who has lived the chaos of scaling a business from the inside out. Joining Atlassian as employee #600, Dom stayed for 12 years as their resident Work Futurist, helping grow the company to over 16,000 people globally. That’s not theory - that’s scar tissue.

Dom operates at the intersection of tech and humans, and his mission is simple: upgrade the human operating system of how we work. Because as he’ll tell you, “a fool with a tool is still a fool… you’ve just made them faster.” In a world drunk on AI and the next shiny solution, Dom is the pragmatic voice asking whether your people are actually set up to use it well - driving change that’s sustainable, not just spectacular.

As a keynote speaker, Dom doesn’t trade in polished frameworks or borrowed wisdom. He shares real, lived experience the messy, hard-won kind which is exactly why he’s in demand. Less thought leader, more battle-tested practitioner.

Co-creator of the Atlassian Team Playbook, TED speaker, and advisor to C-suite leaders globally. Dom believes that work and life should be about thriving, not just surviving. A keen traveller and veteran of 53+ countries, he calls Australia home. Manchester made him. The rest? Still very much in progress.

Dr Ida Asadi Someh is an Associate Professor at the University of Queensland Business School, where her research helps organizations and senior executives lead effectively with data and artificial intelligence. Her work focuses on how organizations build enterprise‑wide capabilities around data and AI, including data democracy, AI governance, and value creation at scale. She provides executives with practical, research‑grounded guidance on how to design organizational structures, processes, and decision rights that enable data and AI to improve performance without creating hidden risk. A core focus of her work is close scrutiny of how data and AI systems can quietly generate risk and injustice, and how organizations can design governance, oversight, and control mechanisms that keep humans meaningfully in charge as these systems scale.

A defining feature of her profile is direct translation for executives. Over the past decade, Dr Asadi Someh has maintained a close research collaboration with the MIT Sloan Center for Information Systems Research, producing a large body of executive‑focused research outputs grounded in in‑depth case studies of real organizations implementing data and AI at scale. Her empirical work spans more than 60 cases across the public and private sectors, including organizations such as Microsoft, GE, Cemex, BBVA, Johnson & Johnson, Siemens, SAP, the Australian Taxation Office, and major public‑sector agencies. These cases examine how organizations actually govern data and AI in practice, how they build explanation capability, scale enterprise AI, redesign work, and manage

Blake is AI Transformation Lead on Affinda’s Deployment team, helping executives find where AI actually moves the numbers that matter: cost to serve, cycle time, revenue per head, risk. Rather than starting with the technology, he starts with the business case. He works with leadership to build the roadmap, sequence and operating model to get there, and stays accountable for the result. Blake draws on 15+ years of transformation experience across management consulting and executive leadership, working at the intersection of business, technology and design.

Ian McCreery is a Senior Principal of AI Strategic Engagement at Workday, where he works with Workday’s largest customers in APJ on their AI transformation with Workday.Ian joined Workday with the acquisition of Paradox, a Workday company, which specialises in AI for candidate care and engagement. Prior to joining Workday, he was Head of GTM for APAC for Paradox. Ian served as Head of Talent Acquisition at Optus, part of the Singtel Group, for 7 years. Ian brings over a decade of hands-on experience in transforming HR organisations through process and technology.Bringing you the latest global insights fresh from Workday Rising alongside real-world customer perspectives, his session unpacks the Workday product roadmap to show you how AI can handle manual data-shuffling and eliminate administrative friction. You will walk away with a clear, actionable set of guiding principles to navigate AI transformation, empower your workforce, and confidently lead your organization into the next generation of work.

Paul is a workforce transformation and AI specialist focused on helping leaders design and execute strategies that enable their people and organisations to adapt to a changing world. As Regional Director, AI & Workforce Transformation at Cornerstone, he works with organisations to transform how they approach skills, talent and workforce strategy through data and AI. With nearly 15 years’ experience across technology and recruitment, including roles at SkyHive and IBM, Paul brings a strong understanding of the intersection between people, technology and the future of work.

Dr Juliette Tobias-Webb is one of Australia’s leading behavioural scientists, helping organisations understand and shape human decision-making in a rapidly changing world.

With a PhD in Experimental Psychology from the University of Cambridge, she works at the intersection of behavioural science, AI, and emerging technology.

Dr Juliette is an Adjunct Professor at the AI and Cyber Futures Centre and the founder of a behavioural science consultancy working with organisations including Mastercard, Google, Publicis Groupe, Citibank and Atlassian. She has previously held senior behavioural science roles at the Commonwealth Bank and Ogilvy Australia.

Her research is published in leading psychology and neuroscience journals, and her expertise is frequently featured in media such as Triple J Hack, ABC, and The Australian Financial Review.

Dr Juliette has been recognised as one of Australia’s Superstars of STEM and was selected among 100 women in STEM to take part in an Antarctic leadership expedition.

Marissa Alley is Chief People Officer at CPA Australia and co-sponsor of the organisation’s enterprise AI Strategy. With more than 25 years’ experience leading workforce transformation, culture and organisational change across ASX-listed, multinational and consumer-facing organisations, she brings a practical perspective on the intersection of people, leadership and technology. She has played a key role in shaping CPA Australia’s approach to AI governance, workforce capability and responsible adoption. Passionate about the human dimensions of AI, Marissa believes organisations create the greatest value when AI is approached not simply as a technology initiative, but as a human-centred transformation of how people work, lead and create value.

Kate is Workforce Psychologist at Affinda, helping leaders turn AI investment into lasting business value by changing how work gets done. Rather than treating AI as a technology rollout, she treats it as a people and capability challenge. She works with leaders and teams to redesign roles, build capability and embed new ways of working, so AI’s time savings become real outcomes. Kate draws on more than 15 years of experience in people and culture transformation, including senior roles at Bupa and Nous Group, combining the psychology of change with a practical understanding of how organisations run.

Laura is Director of AI Accelerator at Affinda, helping teams confidently adopt and apply AI in ways that genuinely sticks. She led Australia’s first ChatGPT Enterprise rollout, at Coles Group, giving her deep, hands-on experience in what it takes to implement AI at scale. Laura designs and facilitates highly practical workshops and learning experiences focused on real tools, real workflows and clear starting points for teams at every stage of their AI journey. Driven by a strong belief that AI only delivers value when people feel confident, capable and supported to use it in their day-to-day work, Laura brings that belief to every stage she speaks on.

David began his career in 1987 coding enterprise software for ten years. He then founded an ASEAN data science firm and exited after ten years to then spend the next 20 years as an IT executive at ANZ Bank, DBS Bank in Singapore — which became the world’s best bank — and most recently he was the CTO of Westpac Bank. Now he’s the founder of Activate, an organisation helping organisations become future-ready, an adjunct at UNSW where he chairs the AI Institute External Advisory, and an independent director and advisor to start-ups and multinationals.

Dan launched the Moveworks APAC business from zero, partnering with enterprise customers across ANZ and Southeast Asia to build repeatable plays around HR and employee experience transformation. He has spent five years building APAC go-to-market for enterprise SaaS and is now scaling his impact and team across the APAC region as part of ServiceNow. He works with CHROs and IT leaders redesigning operating models to shift HR from processing to strategy - helping them understand what’s possible when you stop treating AI as a project and make it the front door to all your systems.

As the Director of the People Function for Australia and New Zealand, Gemma is passionate about driving organisational renewal and transformation. She is dedicated to nurturing talent, building strong capabilities, and fostering deep workforce engagement across the organisation. 

Drawing on her extensive background in People & Organisational Performance, she brings a wealth of experience working alongside clients where she cocreated programs by piloting and testing new ideas, building ownership, and helping them successfully scale and transform performance, capabilities, and workforce engagement. 

Gemma’s work has included leading capability programs across private- and public-sector organisations, including designing the learning objectives and content, as well as the change management and roll-out plans. She has also developed workforce strategies, including analysing current labour market shortages, understanding current and future workforce needs and existing interventions, and designing the future strategy 

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.

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

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

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.

Joey leads ADAPT’s Strategy 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.