Our Speakers

William MacMillan is the Chief Product Officer at Andesite. Prior to this position, he was Senior Vice President for Information Security at Salesforce.

Prior to his retirement from the federal government, William served as the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), where he led a sweeping transformation of the CIA’s cybersecurity strategy and organization.Prior to serving as CISO, William held multiple senior leadership positions at CIA dealing with various aspects of intelligence, counterintelligence, and cyber operations. During his career, he focused significant attention on insider threat, supply chain risk, and incident response issues, as well as the development of CIA’s Cybersecurity Operations Center (CSOC). Prior to joining CIA, William served as an officer and a pilot in the United States Air Force’s Combat Rescue and Special Operations communities.

William graduated from the United States Air Force Academy with a BS in Biology. He also holds an MA in International Relations from Salve Regina University and an MS in cybersecurity from George Mason University.William, his wife, and their three children reside in the Pacific Northwest.

Darren is an accomplished executive with close to 20 years of international cyber risk/security experience and served as the Group Chief Information Security Risk Officer at Standard Chartered bank. He was recently appointed as Ambassador for the Global Cyber Alliance in recognition of his collaborative work advising small businesses in a voluntary capacity and is the Co-Founder/ Chairman of Cyber Leadership Institute.

Darren has a wealth of real-world hands-on leadership experience to impart; he was the former Group Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) at Qantas Airlines and, before coming to live in Australia, the former Chief Information Security Officer at IHS Markit, a global FinTech headquartered in the UK, and also held various senior international cyber security leadership roles at Symantec and IBM.

In 2016, Darren was featured on the front cover of SC Magazine (an award-winning cybersecurity media publication) then, in 2017 and 2022, was named in the top 100 Chief Information Security Officers globally, and, in 2018, was listed in the top 100 IT security influencers globally. Darren is adept at using real-world stories to demonstrate the critical importance of striving for cyber resilience.

Kylie Watson is an experienced executive in the Information Technology Infrastructure, Apps, and Services Industry. Driven by a strong client focus, she supports large-scale business and technical transformation, leveraging her expertise in change management and behavioural economics. Kylie excels in leading large sales and delivery teams across multiple disciplines and regions, driving the adoption and embrace of new technologies. She is adept at growing capabilities and skills to meet market demand across Australia, New Zealand, and Asia, and at building partnerships and alliances to solve client challenges.

Kylie has extensive experience working across all industries and is well-connected with key C-suite stakeholders in federal, state, and local government, as well as in retail, mining, oil and gas, utilities, distribution, health, and financial services. She has a proven track record of driving cultural change and embracing diversity and inclusion, earning awards in coaching, mentoring, and innovation.

With over 25 years of executive leadership experience in technology and consulting, spanning multiple industries, international geographies, and platforms, Kylie is well-versed in Google, AWS, IBM Cloud, and Azure. Her solution experience and qualifications include cybersecurity, data, AI, cloud, and change management. Additionally, she is an AI ethicist with some quantum computing capability.

Kylie is also a media spokesperson, keynote speaker, and author on technology topics, and serves as an advisor to universities and government agencies on cyber, technology research, and education.

A seasoned Enterprise Sales Director adept at working with board members, c-suite and executive leadership roles globally to deliver SaaS solutions at the forefront of business operations.

Currently delivering modern governance to organizations in the banking, financial services, insurance and telecommunication sectors with Diligent’s unique SaaS solutions suite for Governance, Risk and Compliance professionals.

Diligent is the global leader in modern governance, providing SaaS solutions across governance, risk, compliance, audit and ESG. Empowering more than 1 million users and 700,000 board members and leaders with a holistic view of their organization’s GRC practices so they can make better decisions, faster. No matter the challenge.

Learn more at diligent.com.

Andrea encourages people to be ‘future fit’ for their careers – through writing, speaking, and delivering high-impact leadership programs.

She founded Future Fit Learning in 2012 – a small business that builds leaders who drive innovation, growth and cultural change by accelerating the ‘real skills’ needed to lead with impact. Through her programs, Andrea and her team have helped major businesses and global organisations (Rio Tinto, NBN, THALES, Orora & Austrade) develop leaders at all levels.

Prior to her move into learning, Andrea was a career television news reporter based in Washington D.C., covering major breaking news for major media outlets including Reuters, the Seven Network and Al Jazeera English. While in the US, she also worked across human rights; firstly helping to generate grants to rebuild Iraq, Afghanistan, Jordan & Georgia with funding from USAID & the US State Department. And secondly; leading the communications team when the ‘Save Darfur’ advocacy movement lobbied the Obama administration to appoint a US Special Envoy to end the genocide in Darfur, which was achieved at the UN General Assembly in New York in 2009.

One year before the pandemic, Andrea released her first award-winning book, Future Fit: How to Stay Relevant and Competitive in the Future of Work’ – winner of the Australian Business Book of the Year 2019 and finalist in the UK Business Book Awards 2020. Andrea has been a member of the Australian HR Institute’s Future of Work Advisory Panel and is currently working on her second book, to be released in March 2025.

In addition to his present work at AustCyber, he provides professional counsel and assistance to the Australian ecosystem on all elements of cyber security. Jason is very involved in Australia’s cyber security start-up ecosystem. He was there from the beginning, first with Cyber Aware in 2017, then with 6clicks, and ultimately with Cyber Hive, and has played an important role in assisting these firms to grow and scale.

Jason’s experience with start-ups has given him a unique insight of the issues that new cyber security organisations face and how to overcome them. He is enthusiastic about assisting businesses in protecting their data and assets against attacks, and he takes satisfaction in offering solutions that are suited to the unique demands of the Australian market.

Jason has extensive experience in sectors other than cyber security. He was a founding stakeholder of Starward Whisky, which was purchased by Diego’s Distill Ventures in 2015, and a co-founder of Altius Mining Ltd (ASX: AYM), which went public in 2011. Jason offers a broad range of experience to his job at AustCyber, providing a well-rounded approach to tackling the industry’s issues and potential.

Catherine is an accomplished senior executive with extensive expertise in cyber security, risk management, technology, law, and governance. She has a proven track record of leading cyber security operations and transformation initiatives, specialising in protecting businesses from evolving cyber threats and implementing effective risk management strategies.

As a trusted advisor to senior leaders, Catherine works closely with executives, boards and regulators to drive strong customer and business risk outcomes.

Most recently, she served as the Global CISO for QBE Insurance Group. Prior to that, she held senior leadership roles in the finance industry, where she led the delivery and transformation of enterprise-wide critical cyber security controls, as well as programs of work to uplift non-financial risk governance across board and senior executive teams.

Catherine began her career as a lawyer, spending 15 years in both private practice and in-house roles, advising major corporations and government entities on technology, cyber security, outsourcing and compliance.

Her unique blend of legal, technical, and strategic expertise positions her as a dynamic and influential leader in the ever-evolving cyber security landscape.

Daisey Stampfer is the Group Executive for Business & Wholesale, responsible for Enterprise, Wholesale, and Smart Communities at Superloop. Daisey has more than 15 years’ experience in technical and non-technical leadership roles in tier 1 organisations such as Bosch, Thales, Telstra and more recently NBN Co where she was the GM of Sales Enablement and Client Services for business service delivery.

Leveraging her education in Robotics Engineering, Computer Science, and Law, Daisey’s passion lies in solving business challenges with Superloop’s modern day solutions, enabling customers to succeed in their pursuits.

I deliver business outcomes using technology.

I do this by assessing where a product/project is at, where it needs to be and implementing a crawl/walk/run strategy that covers people, process and technology improvement by building solid teams and using the “always be shipping” methodology with a strong focus on end customer outcomes.

Worked in/for banks, insurance, utilities, e-commerce, state/federal government, telco’s, etc…

I like a good challenge

Fabio is a technology and security executive with over 25 years of international experience spanning private enterprises and large multinationals, across leadership, technical, and advisory roles.

Fabio currently serves as Vice President and Field Chief Technology Officer, World Wide at CrowdStrike. In this global role, he leads the Field CTO function and a team of Technology Strategists across all markets, driving strategic direction, accelerating growth, and shaping technology innovation and partnerships. Fabio was promoted to this position after serving as Field CTO for International and, prior to that, Chief Technology Officer for APJ, where he developed and executed regional technology strategies and supported customers in aligning cyber defence programs with their risk posture and business goals.

Before joining CrowdStrike, Fabio had a long-standing career in financial services, holding leadership roles at Insurance Australia Group, HP Australia, Westpac Banking Corporation, UBS Group, and Banca Intesa Sanpaolo in both Australia and Italy. He also contributed to the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Centre (FS-ISAC) APJ Strategic Committee, helping shape regional priorities and coordinating sector-wide threat research initiatives.

Fabio is a frequent speaker at global conferences and industry events and actively contributes to government and industry efforts focused on advancing cybersecurity. He holds a Master of Management in Information Technology and several certifications, including CISSP, SABSA, CRISC, and CPDSE.

Specialties:
• Recognised expert in strategy development, transformation leadership, and operational excellence
• Passionate people leader committed to culture, mentoring, and growing future talent
• Deep business and technical expertise in advancing technologies, controls, and capabilities
• Proven track record leading large, geographically distributed functions across technology, security, risk, and compliance

Brett Winterford is the APJ CSO at Okta advising policy makers, business leaders and fellow security professionals on evolving threats and opportunities to improve their security posture. Prior to Okta, Brett held senior leadership roles in the security teams at Symantec and Commonwealth Bank. Yet, he’s best known for his work as a security journalist. In 2020, he was the founding editor of the Srsly Risky Biz newsletter, a companion to the Risky Business podcast, providing the cybersecurity, policy, defence and intelligence communities with a weekly brief of the news that shapes cyber policy.

Prior to working as a security practitioner, Brett was the editor-in-chief of ITnews Australia and has contributed extensively to ZDNet, the Australian Financial Review and the Sydney Morning Herald.

Jim is well known in the local market for delivering on his promise and his entire career has been spent connecting the right people at the right time in roles across Europe, China and Australia.

He founded ADAPT to deliver quality outcomes with integrity and since 2011, growth has been consistent. Jim is still positioned across sales and account management where he delivers innovative results and programs and leads by example.

He also runs entrepreneurial product development and the evolution and clear differentiated value of ADAPT’s offerings. As well as a NSW Small Business Excellence nomination, ADAPT were 55th in BRW’s 2014 Top 100 Start Ups – Jim’s 3rd time there – previously as Founder of Strategic Path, an award-winning ICT publisher, he steered the company to make the list in both 2009 and 2010.

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.​