Speakers
Business leaders who bring deep, real-world experience to the stage. Focused on practical insights over theory, they share case studies, lessons learned, and candid reflections from inside today’s most ambitious companies. You’ll hear directly from those shaping and executing strategy at scale, with a sharp focus on what works, what doesn’t, and what’s next.
Yash Sodhi
Chief Strategy Officer
Medibank
Yash is Chief Strategy Officer at Medibank, where he leads group strategy, corporate development and strategy execution. Across a career spanning healthcare, insurance, funds management, investment and advisory, he has helped organisations drive performance and growth, renew portfolios, expand internationally and establish strategic partnerships. Before joining Medibank, Yash held senior finance, strategy and M&A roles at Challenger Limited. He began his career advising Australian and global organisations on M&A, equity and debt capital markets transactions at Lazard and Nomura. Yash is also a director of East Sydney Private Hospital and The Infants’ Home, a registered charity supporting children and families through integrated education, early intervention and allied health services. In 2022, Yash was named AFR BOSS Young Executive of the Year.
Kylie Barlin
Chief Strategy Officer
Isuzu
Kylie Barlin is Chief of Strategy at Isuzu Australia Limited, where she leadsenterprise strategy, transformation, innovation and national marketing for Australia's leading truck manufacturer. She also serves as a Non-Executive Director of Isuzu Financial Services Australia and is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. Drawing on leadership experience across financial services and the automotive industry, Kylie has helped organisations respond to disruption, develop new business models, launch customer-focused innovations and turn strategy into practical, measurable outcomes.
Shiva Storer
Chief Strategy Officer
Allianz
Shiva is Chief Strategy Officer at Allianz, where he leads enterprise strategy and strategic transformation across the organisation. An experienced financial services executive, he brings a strong track record of driving growth, performance, and complex change across insurance, banking, and wealth management.
Prior to Allianz, Shiva held senior leadership roles spanning corporate strategy, data, M&A, corporate venture capital, P&L and balance sheet management, risk, and large-scale transformation. He has led complex portfolios at enterprise scale, aligning long-term direction with disciplined execution.
Pamela Bishop
Chief Strategy & Innovation Officer
Blooms The Chemist
Pamela is Chief Strategy & Innovation Officer at Blooms The Chemist, where she leads enterprise strategy, innovation and ESG across one of Australia’s largest community pharmacy networks. With over 25 years’ experience across retail, pharmacy and health, Pamela is known for driving purpose-led growth and transformation. She is also a Non-Executive Director of Birth Trauma Australia and a recipient of multiple awards for purpose-driven leadership and executive performance. Pamela believes business can be a force for good, using responsible business practices and purpose-led initiatives as her compass for corporate strategy - delivering positive outcomes for customers, communities and the environment.
Cassandra Allars
Director, Enterprise Enablement
News Corp
Cassandra Allars is a high-performing strategic leader with over 20 years of experience in the digital media industry, specialising in driving large-scale digital delivery and operational change. She is currently serving as the General Manager, Strategic Planning for Technology, Digital & Data (TDD) at News Corp Australia, where she is responsible for the oversight and execution of strategic program scoping, the Vendor Management Office (VMO), enterprise analytics, and the strategic planning function. Her career is defined by the ability to combine strategic vision and commercial focus with practical, collaborative execution, positioning organisations for scalable and sustainable growth in disruptive markets.
Avantha Seresinghe
Chief Financial Officer
Belong by Telstra
Avantha is Chief Financial Officer at Belong, a fully owned subsidiary of Telstra, where he leads the finance, commercial, strategy, risk, planning, delivery, PMO, vendor management, and employee/workplace operations portfolios. Based in Melbourne, he brings a broad, enterprise-wide perspective to driving performance and operational effectiveness.​
Michael Bill
Head of Strategy & Operations
Google
Michael is the Head of GTM Strategy & Operations for Google Cloud AUNZ. In this role he is responsible for shaping the strategic direction of the business, translating strategy into a go-to-market execution to deliver core business objectives and he drives cross functional leadership alignment across the AUNZ Cloud business.
Prior to leading the Strategy function at Google Cloud AUNZ, Michael performed various roles at NTT Data Ltd, including Deal Commercial Manager, National Field Sales Operations Manager, and Commercial Finance Manager. Michael has breadth of experience from GTM Strategy & Operational Leadership, to complex deal pursuits and negotiations along with a strong foundational experience in business finance. Earlier in Michael's career he held Management Accounting based roles across ASG, Macquarie Bank and AMP and is a qualified Chartered Accountant
_edited.jpg)
Sudhir Mishra
Interim Chief Technology, Data and AI Advisor
Community First Bank
Sudhit is a senior technology, digital, data and AI leader with more than 15 years’ experience leading enterprise transformation across banking, financial services, insurance, government and consulting. He has advised Boards, CEOs and executive teams on turning technology and AI strategy into measurable enterprise value, with experience spanning operating model transformation, data and AI governance, cloud, customer platforms and large-scale change. His leadership experience includes portfolios exceeding $200 million and transformation impacting more than 11 million customers
​
​
​
Arabella Vescio
GM, Strategy
Australian Retirement Trust
Arabella is General Manager of Strategy at Australian Retirement Trust, with over 13 years’ experience across financial services and banking in strategy and transformation roles. She has led strategic planning processes for major ASX-listed organisations, developing customer-centric, innovative, and commercially disciplined strategies. Arabella is also highly experienced in strategy execution, overseeing enterprise investment portfolios and evaluating transformation, divestment, and acquisition opportunities, and is passionate about building and leading high-performing teams.
Skye Nicholls
GM, Customer Services & Operations
Canon
Skye is General Manager of Transformation & Operations at Canon, where he leads strategic planning, process design, operations, and supply chain governance. An experienced business executive with a strong ethical foundation, he focuses on driving continuous improvement through process optimisation, technology adoption, and M&A activity. Skye brings a proven ability to operate across diverse cultures and complex business environments, and is known for fostering initiative, collaboration, and high performance.
Akansha Sahu
Head of Strategy
GrainCorp
Akansha is Head of Strategy at GrainCorp, a results-oriented strategy and operations leader with a strong people-focused approach. She brings deep expertise in driving digital transformation, growth, and operational efficiency across industries in the APAC region. Akansha has a proven track record executing complex strategies, delivering multi-million-dollar growth initiatives, and building strategic partnerships globally. She works closely with C-suite executives and boards to enable industry-leading strategic design and execution. She is passionate about creating high performance environments where teams and individuals realise their potential whilst delivering meaningful impact.
Rachna Gandhi
Chief Strategy Officer
Ryman Healthcare
Dr Rachna Gandhi is a purpose-driven executive, non-executive director and transformation leader with experience across healthcare, government and financial services. She is recognised for bringing together strategic clarity, disciplined execution and cultural renewal to lead enterprise-wide change in complex, regulated environments. Rachna is currently Chief Enterprise Strategy, Systems and Governance Officer at Ryman Healthcare, leading enterprise strategy, the OneRyman transformation, future operating-model design, and the organisation’s digital, data and AI agenda. Previously, she held a group executive role at Ramsay Health Care, leading strategy and transformation.
Prior to this, Rachna held senior executive roles at Westpac Group, Suncorp and AMP. Her leadership experience also extends to the public sector: as CEO of Service NSW, she led a major reshaping of government service delivery, establishing a recognised model for customer-centric service and digital transformation. Service NSW was ranked 24th in the AFR Top 50 Most Innovative Companies list in 2017.
​
Andrew Ko
Head of Strategy
Aware Super
Andrew Ko is a strategy and finance executive with over 25 years of experience across Australia and South East Asia, including an established career in investment banking focusing on M&A advisory and capital raising transactions for companies in the financial services and telecommunications, media and technology (TMT) sectors.
As the Head of Strategy at Aware Super, Andrew is responsible for the 2030 enterprise strategy of one of Australia’s largest superannuation funds (~$200B in funds under management and 1.1 million members). In his role, Andrew leads the development and execution of corporate strategy at the fund and works closely with the Board and management to provide strategic thought leadership and analysis to inform critical decision-making.
Bernard Leung
Head of Enterprise Architecture
Great Southern Bank
Bernard is Head of Enterprise Architecture at Great Southern Bank, with previous experience at Westpac. He specialises in enterprise architecture, technology transformation and helping organisations rethink how business and technology work together. His focus is on moving technology functions beyond the traditional “order taker” model to become more agile business partners, enabling faster delivery, reduced complexity and better responses to digital disruption.
Laura Cohalan
GM, Strategy & Transformation
PetSure
Laura is currently the Head of Strategy at PetSure Australia, and in this role she is responsible for shaping and driving the long-term strategic direction of the business, solving the businesses complex problems and operationalising strategic and growth initiatives to drive sustainable growth and commercial outcomes.
Prior to leading the strategy team at PetSure, Laura performed various roles at The a2 Milk Company in Australia and the US including the Director of Business Development role
Laura began her career as an Auditor at KPMG (and is a qualified Chartered Accountant), before moving to Bain and Company in Sydney and London. Laura holds a Bachelor of Business (Finance) from Queensland University of Technology.
Charlie Newark-French
Chief Executive Officer
Cascade
Charlie Newark-French is a seasoned enterprise software CEO with a track record of scaling and transforming high-growth companies, including Sharpen, Hyperscience, and Fuze. He specializes in building, selling, and deploying next-generation technology—particularly AI-powered solutions—for large and mid-sized enterprises.
Charlie brings deep expertise across both SaaS and on-premise models, with a customer-centric leadership style and a strong command of go-to-market strategy, operational scaling, and enterprise adoption.
He began his career in strategy consulting with McKinsey & Company in London and holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA in Economics and Management from the University of Oxford.
.jpg)
Rahul Verma
Head of Strategy & Architecture
Teachers Mutual Bank
Rahul Verma is a senior strategy and technology executive with over 28 years of experience leading business transformation, technology modernisation, and enterprise-wide change across the financial services, insurance, high-tech, and utilities sectors. As a Strategy leader, Rahul has a proven track record in shaping and executing business and technology strategies, enterprise architecture, digital transformation, cost optimisation, mergers and acquisitions integration, and workforce transformation. He is passionate about helping organisations leverage emerging technologies, including AI, to deliver sustainable business outcomes and exceptional customer experiences.
Throughout his career, Rahul has led large-scale strategic initiatives across leading organisations including Westpac, National Australia Bank, UBank, Pepper Money, Teachers Mutual Bank, and other major enterprises. His industry experience spans banking, payments, mortgages, credit risk, core banking modernisation, insurance, digital platforms, customer engagement, supply chain, ERP, manufacturing systems, and product lifecycle management. Rahul is recognised for his ability to bridge business strategy and technology execution, enabling organisations to navigate complexity and accelerate transformation.
Trevor Lowder
Head of Transformation
Primo Foods
Trevor leads enterprise-wide change programs that unite strategy, culture, and execution. With a career spanning marketing, innovation, and Transformation, Trevor has built a reputation for turning complex strategic ambitions into clear, human-centred transformation roadmaps that teams can actually deliver. Beyond his corporate work, Trevor is also the founder of Craft Beer Coopery, a social enterprise that uses beer as a catalyst for conversations around men’s mental health — a project that has informed his belief that meaningful transformation is always driven by people, not processes.
Trevor brings a unique blend of strategic clarity, empathy, and practical leadership, helping organisations navigate ambiguity while building cultures capable of sustained change. He speaks regularly on transformation, behavioural adoption, and the intersection of purpose and performance
Philippa Spark
Head of Transformation, Strategy & Planning
Transurban
Philippa Spark is a seasoned strategy and transformation leader with extensive experience shaping enterprise-wide change and future-focused growth. As Head of Transformation, Strategy & Planning at Transurban, she leads strategic direction and planning for a multi-year transformation program, aligning operations and investments with evolving customer needs and long-term business objectives.
Philippa’s career spans corporate strategy, commercial leadership, and asset acquisitions and integrations across complex, regulated industries. She has played a pivotal role in designing strategic planning frameworks and driving organisational alignment during periods of significant change. Her work increasingly focuses on the future of mobility and transport, exploring how emerging technologies, shifting customer expectations, and new business models are redefining the customer landscape and creating opportunities for sustainable growth.
Wilson Applegrath
Director, Commercial Strategy
Warner Bros.
Wilson is Director of Commercial Strategy, ANZ Content Licensing at Warner Bros. Discovery. He leads commercial strategy, business planning and analysis, new business development, and research and reporting across the Content Licensing division in ANZ, supporting growth and long-term value creation across the portfolio.
Kastoori Hingorani
GM, Commercial & Operations
ForHealth Group
Kastoori (Kas) Hingorani is General Manager, Commercial & Ops - Growth at the ForHealth Group, one of Australia's largest primary care networks and a BGH portfolio business. Kas is a strategy and growth operator with deep experience in executing strategy into measurable outcomes - driving P&L performance, leading complex transformations and M&A integrations. She has specific experience in PE where she believes, getting in the practical detail of operations with a commercial lens is the key to unlocking sustainable results aligning people, purpose and pace. Previously, she was a consultant at L.E.K. Consulting, advising private equity and corporate clients on transactions and value creation. With a PhD, she brings a first-principles approach and deep problem-solving capability.
Chris Petzoldt
Founder & Partner
Pretian Squared
Chris is the founder of Pretian Squared and a global leader in monetization strategy, growth consulting, and go-to-market execution. An expert in portfolio design, pricing, and the application and monetization of AI, he has spent 25 years enabling clients across sectors, sizes, and more than 20 countries to achieve exponential growth. In 2010, he moved to Australia establishing the office of a global consultancy and growing it into a successful practice. Today, Chris is also a Venture Partner with an Australian VC firm and an angel investor. Educated in Germany, Sweden, he is in addition a Harvard Business School and IE alumnus. Chris is regularly featured in The Australian Financial Review and other leading business publications, as well as a sought-after keynote speaker at major conferences in Australia and internationally.
Janelle Milodragovich
Vice President, AI Market Strategy
Smartsheet
Janelle Milodragovich leads AI GTM Strategy at Smartsheet, where her team helps customers turn AI capability into strategic advantage. Before Smartsheet, she founded a startup building the data foundations AI agents run on, giving her firsthand understanding in both the architecture of the agentic era and what it takes for organizations to actually adopt it.
​
Josh Benjamin
Co-Founder
325 Consulting
Josh joined 325 Consulting in 2026 as Director and Head of Industry, focusing on senior appointments across industry and financial services. Upon graduating from Aston University with a bachelor's degree in Languages and Political Science, he began his career in London, spending five years with a leading multinational recruitment firm before relocating to Sydney in 2019. Since then, Josh has worked across both large global firms and established boutiques, focusing on senior mandates spanning a range of sectors. With over a decade of recruitment experience, he brings a measured, considered approach to senior search and focuses on ensuring the right fit for clients and candidates alike.
​
Jess Tayel
Global Transformation Executive
Transformation Leadership Institute,
Olympics Committee
Dr. Jess Tayel is a global transformation leader with 25 years of experience driving complex change in more than 15 counties for giants like Apple, Airbus, World Cup, Emirates, and others. As Founder of the Transformation Leadership Institute (TLI), she specializes in bridging the "Strategy-to-Impact" gap, transforming high-level vision into tangible organizational reality through an authentic, no-nonsense approach.
Recognized as a Top 10 Global Thought Leader in Transformation leadership (Thinkers360, 2025) and a LinkedIn Top Voice, Jess’s leadership has earned her the Executive of the Year award in 2025, the 2025 Noble Business Award, a golden award for Coach of the year in 2024. Holding a Doctorate in Business Transformation, she uniquely blends academic rigor with deep field experience to solve the "messy middle" of strategy execution.
​
​
Richard Kelly
Director & Founder
Team Strategic Thinking
Richard Kelly helps organisations across the Asia Pacific strengthen profitability and performance by building strategic leadership and business acumen. He specialises in using business simulations to embed value-creating behaviours that align strategy and culture, enabling leaders to drive transformation. With experience spanning industries from finance and insurance to energy, manufacturing and telecommunications, Richard is recognised as a thought leader in strategic leadership and culture alignment. He is associate faculty with Melbourne Business School and Duke Corporate Education, and lectures in strategy on the University of Sydney MBA program.
Vered Keisar
Chief Transformation & People Officer
ResMed
Vered Keisar was appointed ResMed Chief People Officer in March 2021, responsible for driving the
company’s global culture and People strategy. She previously served as vice president and General
Counsel for ResMed’s Asia and Latin America regions.
Vered has over 25 years of broad industry experience ranging from healthcare and pharmaceuticals
to defense and insurance. Before joining ResMed in 2012, she worked in leading law firms in the UK,
Australia, Japan, and Israel. Vered is qualified to practice law in England and Wales, Australia, and Israel. She has an MBA from
the Sydney Graduate School of Management, a Diploma of Laws in European Competition Law from
King’s College in London, and a Bachelor of Laws from the College of Management Academic
Studies in Israel.
Karan Anand
Global Chief Strategy Officer
Hnry
Karan Anand is the Global Chief Strategy Officer and Managing Director for Australia at Hnry. In his dual role, Karan shares responsibility for the company’s global strategy and P&L while leading Hnry’s growth, brand and operations in the Australian market.
Hnry is a post–Series C digital accountancy focussed on the self-employed operating across Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Founded in New Zealand only eight years ago, the company has raised close to $100 million in venture capital. Today, around 0.5 percent of New Zealand’s GDP flows through the platform.
Karan joined Hnry in 2021 as its first Australian hire after almost a decade at Monitor Deloitte, where he served as a Strategy Consulting Director advising boards, CEOs and regulators on strategy, growth and transformation across financial services and technology. He was named Innovator of the Year at Commbank’s Young Hero Awards in 2023 and selected as a member of Asialink's Asian Australian 40 Under 40 in 2024.
Tanya Maruzza
GM, Strategy & Operations
Mirvac
Tanya Maruzza is General Manager, Strategy & Operations for Mirvac’s Asset Management division,
where she shapes and executes enterprise strategy across the integrated asset management platform.
As a senior executive, Tanya drives strategy, business operations, valuations, transformation, and
governance, delivering performance across a complex, multi-asset portfolio.
With over 20 years in real estate, M&A, consulting, and professional services, Tanya takes a pragmatic and commercially grounded approach to strategy. Before joining Mirvac in 2011, Tanya built deep expertise at KPMG in financial strategy, acquisitions, structuring, governance, and risk.
Jamie Wiebe
Group EGM, Crown PlaySafe Strategy
Crown Resorts
Jamie is currently the Group Executive General Manager of the Crown PlaySafe Strategy Team at Crown Resorts. During her at Crown, Jamie has led the way for Crown Resorts’ safer gambling transformation, initiating and leading world-first gambling reforms such as technologically led solutions for assessing and preventing gambling harm, investment in neuroscience and behavioural staff training and implementation of robust guardrails for marketing activity across the group. Jamie’s commitment to best practise sees her working collaboratively with industry experts and community stakeholders, recognising safeguards are needed across the industry for the collective prevention of gambling related harms.
James Butler
Head of Strategy & Strategic Delivery
Ausgrid
James oversees the development and execution of Ausgrid's strategy, covering a range of opportunities from delivering better services for customers and connecting new loads to innovations in batteries, EVs and energy sharing. He is also responsible for leading Ausgrid's involvement in the NSW Distribution System Plan, an innovative collaboration with Endeavour and Essential to improve long term planning to make better use of distribution networks and maximise benefits to the people of NSW.
He has over 20 years of experience driving significant strategy, transformation and operational outcomes with several Australian icons including Lend Lease, Qantas, Woolworths, Australia Post and QBE, as well as with a range of smaller start-up and scale up businesses. He started his career with Bain & Company, working with clients across the UK, Europe and Australia. He holds a Master of Engineering degree from the University of Cambridge.
Nitin Ahuja
General Manager, Transformation Office
Australia Post
Nitin leads the enterprise-wide transformation required to deliver the Post30 strategy and strengthen how the organisation prioritises, governs and delivers change. With more than 20 years’ experience across logistics, technology, banking, insurance, telecommunications and aviation, Nitin brings a practical, outcomes-focused approach to complex transformation. His career has included senior transformation, delivery and governance roles with organisations including Amazon, NAB, CBA, QBE and Optus, as well as founding an assistive-technology startup supporting NDIS participants.
Nitin is recognised for bringing structure, discipline, and commercial judgement to complex change. He works closely with senior leaders, Boards and government stakeholders to improve delivery confidence, investment discipline, and enterprise performance.
Tom Wright
Chief Product Officer & Co-Founder
Cascade
Tom Wright is the Founder and Chief Product Officer of Cascade. He founded the company in 2014 with a clear conviction: strategy should be something organizations run every day, not something they present once a quarter. Over the past decade, Tom has led Cascade from an early-stage startup in Sydney to a global software company supporting thousands of leaders across industries. He was an early pioneer in the field of AI and LLMs, leading Cascade to deploy a dedicated strategy LLM in 2017, one of the first ever built. Today, as CPO, he works closely with customers, product, and engineering teams to build technology that turns strategic intent into coordinated, measurable action powered by AI.
​
Before founding Cascade, Tom held senior roles at HSBC, Bank of America, and Marks & Spencer, where he managed billion-dollar lending portfolios and led large product and strategy teams across Asia Pacific and Australia. Those experiences shaped his view of the gap between executive ambition and operational reality.
Vanessa Stephens
Head of Strategy & Governance
Volans
Vanessa is Head of Strategy & Governance at Volans, a specialist financial services firm providing portfolio-backed lending solutions against global investment assets. She leads enterprise strategy and governance, aligning growth ambition with disciplined execution in a regulated environment.
With over 20 years’ experience, she has led high-impact transformation programs and helped organisations unlock growth and deliver measurable performance improvement. Previously, she was Head of Corporate Strategy at SBS Australia and held senior roles at KPMG and Accenture. She is known for turning complexity into clear, actionable strategy and for influencing effectively at executive and board level.
Elaine Zhuang
GM, Strategy, Transformation & Value Delivery
nbn
Elaine Zhuang is the General Manager, Strategy, Transformation & Value Delivery in the Chief Data Office at nbn. Recognised as a transformation architect and change catalyst, Elaine helps organisations and people expand what they believe is possible — and build the strategy and capability to make it real.
With 18 years of experience across consulting and corporates in Australia, APAC, and the US, Elaine believes transformation is not just strategic — it’s human. She integrates data, technology, process, and people into cohesive, value‑generating engines that improve efficiency, accelerate growth, and unlock new business models. She is a Chief Executive Women (CEW) Ruby Scholar 2025 and a Dr John Yu Fellow.
Emma Sherlock
Head of Strategy & Transformation
Country Road Group
Emma Sherlock is the Head of Strategy & Transformation at Country Road Group, leading enterprise strategy and a group‑wide transformation across its five brands - Country Road, Witchery, Mimco, Trenery & Politix. She brings senior strategy experience from Bupa and has expertise across both strategy and implementation consulting from her time with L.E.K. Consulting and Partners in Performance. She is passionate about transforming complex organisations, elevating customer value, and building teams that deliver meaningful, sustained impact.
Joshua Carless
GM, Strategy,
QBE
Joshua Carless is a seasoned finance and strategy executive with global experience across QBE Limited, Credit Suisse AG, Westpac, and Lloyds Banking Group. He has led enterprise-wide strategic reviews and multi-year transformation initiatives, delivering measurable improvements in performance, alignment, and long-term impact. His strategic work spans both domestic and international contexts, including the development and execution of country-level plans and value creation strategies. With a focus on unlocking growth and operational efficiency, his approach combines analytical rigor with practical leadership across complex environments. Joshua holds an Executive MBA from HEC Paris and is a Chartered Accountant. He is also an Industry Fellow at the University of Technology Sydney Business School
Sita Brown
Head of Strategy
Siemens
Currently Head of Strategy for Siemens ANZ, Sita is a results‑driven executive with over 20 years’ experience across technology, engineering, transport, infrastructure, and the not‑for‑profit sector. She has held senior executive roles spanning strategy development and execution, business development and partnerships, marketing and communications, complex program and bid management, and the leadership of cross‑functional, multinational teams.
Throughout her career, she has been focused on driving business growth, elevating organisational performance, and delivering large‑scale strategic transformation. Sita is known for seeing opportunity where others see obstruction; being an innovative problem solver; opportunity creator; and clear, influential communicator.
.png)
Stephen Cummins
Head of Corporate Planning and Strategy Execution
Capricorn Society
Stephen Cummins GAICD AFCHSM is Head of Corporate Planning and Strategy Execution at Capricorn Society, one of Australasia's largest member-owned organisations, serving more than 31,000 Members across Australia and New Zealand. He leads corporate planning, strategic portfolio management and governance, helping translate strategic ambition into practical delivery and measurable business outcomes. Prior to Capricorn, Stephen spent more than 15 years in the health and human services sectors and held consulting roles with Deloitte Access Economics and ACIL Allen. He also serves as Deputy Chair of HOPE Community Services.
​
Enrique Ugarte
Co-Founder & Director
Headway Group
Enrique Ugarte is a co-founder and director of Headway Group and a specialist in Outcome Management for Strategy Execution — the discipline focused on ensuring strategic initiatives are investment-ready before major delivery expenditure is committed.
Over the past 20 years, Enrique has worked across some of Australia’s most complex transformation initiatives spanning Government, Defence, Finance, Engineering, Transport, Utilities, Technology and Higher Education. His work focuses on reducing strategic ambiguity before execution commences — strengthening executive decision-making, improving strategic alignment, and reducing downstream delivery rework, delivery risk, and value leakage. Enrique is a leading advocate for Outcome Management as the missing discipline in modern strategy execution. Through Headway’s advisory practice and Strategy Execution Platform, he helps organisations establish the governance, clarity, accountability, and measurable outcome structures required to execute strategysuccessfully at scale.
.jpg)
Erin Keen
Partner
Lilyfield Partners
Erin is a Partner at Lilyfield Partners, where she works with executive teams to navigate complexity and deliver strategic change. Her work focuses on helping organisations translate strategy into action through effective execution, operating model design, organisational performance and transformation. Working across higher education, infrastructure, utilities and not-for-profit sectors, Erin partners with leaders to align people, processes and governance around shared strategic priorities. She is particularly interested in why some organisations consistently turn strategy into results while others struggle to move beyond planning, and how leaders can create the clarity, alignment and momentum needed to deliver
lasting impact.
Greg Evans
Partner
Lilyfield Partners
As a Partner at Lilyfield Partners, Greg works with executive teams to cut through complexity and align strategy, operating models, and execution so that critical initiatives deliver tangible, measurable value. With over 20 years’ experience in operational excellence, process improvement, and large-scale transformation across telecommunications, banking, higher education, mining services, and logistics, Greg has led programs ranging from the redesign of critical university processes to a $400M supply chain transformation.
Known for his calm, collaborative style, Greg combines design thinking, process excellence, and disciplined execution to translate strategic intent into lasting value.
He has held leadership roles at Accenture and Caterpillar, where he built high- performing teams and improved strategy execution and operational performance in complex, global environments. Today, he partners with senior leaders who want to build organisations that are not only more efficient, but also more adaptable and engaging places to work.
Debs Majumdar
Manager, Strategy, Policy & Gov Relations
Cyber Security NSW
Debs is an executive leader specialising in strategy development and transformation across the public and private sectors. With expertise spanning commercial, people, and organisational strategy, Debs has driven initiatives that deliver lasting impact, resilience, and cultural change. Known for translating complex challenges into clear, actionable strategies, Debs reimagines workplace experiences and fosters strong stakeholder relationships that align with the evolving future of work. Drawing on a career that spans corporate leadership, government, advocacy, and media, he brings fresh perspectives and practical solutions to strategy, innovation, and transformation.
Paul Hawkins
Founder
Crazy Might Work
PAUL founded Crazy Might Work in Antarctica in 2015, on a mission to bring leadership and innovation learnings from frontiers like space to the workplace. Prior to that, he worked in over 20 countries, on everything from mergers and acquisitions to global shared services and product innovation. Today, Crazy Might Work is the leading provider of the Four-Dimensional Leadership program used by NASA, receiving recognition for this in the Australian Space Industry Awards in 2025. Crazy Might Work is the strategic innovation partner to peak bodies like Ageing Australia and the Global Innovation Management Institute, and it consults to governments, agencies and multinationals around the world. Outside of Crazy Might Work, Paul chairs the Board of a Community Services not-for-profit and is a sought-after speaker on the topics of leadership and innovation, where his PhD explores breakthrough innovation in strategy. Paul chairs the APAC Chief Strategy Officers’ Summit and the Strategy Circle, which is a monthly meeting of Australia’s top corporate strategists.
.jpeg)
Peter Au
Enterprise Work Management Specialist,
Monday.com
Peter Au brings over a decade of enterprise technology experience to one goal: helping organisations connect strategy, systems, and culture to deliver lasting impact. At monday.com, he partners with executives and PMOs to transform how work is orchestrated at scale, embedding adaptability, visibility, and accountability into the rhythm of operations. His background at Salesforce, Anaplan, and AppDynamics reflects a consistent focus on turning complexity into clarity through data and design. Peter’s philosophy is that progress depends on alignment, when teams connect through shared insight, intelligent systems, and transparent collaboration, they build the visibility and trust needed to drive transformation at scale. His work represents the next evolution of how enterprises drive transformation from the inside out.
Peter Chew
Chief Operating Officer
Eight Inc
Peter stands at the forefront of innovation as the Chief Operating Officer of Eight Inc., globally lauded as “Apple’s best-kept secret” and recognised by The Economist as “One of the most progressive design firms of our time.” He is the Chief Growth Officer for 8 Digital, the innovative technology subsidiary he co-founded within Eight Inc., dedicated to harmonising customer experiences across both physical and digital realms.
Gerald Marion
Chief Executive Officer
Eight Inc
With over 28 years of experience in strategy, customer innovation, digital and data
transformation, private equity and boards, Gerald is a seasoned leader who brings
a strategic growth mindset, a customer obsession and a drive to achieve set
outcomes.
Naresh Nehvin
Enterprise Strategy Advisor
AlphaSense
As an Enterprise Strategy Advisor at AlphaSense, Naresh Nehvin partners with Corporate Strategy, M&A, and Investor Relations executives across the APAC TMT landscape. Based in Singapore, he helps research and deal teams cut through noise to accelerate evidence-based decision-making. Naresh brings a deep regional perspective to helping organizations leverage market intelligence for competitive advantage.
