2025 Speakers

Mark Bouris AM

Mark Bouris AM is an Australian entrepreneur who has been innovating for years, challenging the business landscape with disruptive models that help Australians succeed. Having built his reputation as a finance specialist taking on Australia’s banks, his unique brand of charisma & curiosity sees his influence cut across multiple worlds.

From businesses large and small, to politics and sport, Mark pays forward his knowledge and experience, to help grow and nurture the next generation of Australian success stories.

Best known as the founder of ‘Wizard Home Loans’, Australia’s second largest non-bank mortgage lender, which he sold to General Electric in 2004. Mark is now the Executive Chairman of Yellow Brick Road, where he continues his mission to help Australians access their dream homes.

Appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in 2015 for his significant service to the finance industry, his sharp financial commentary and trademark “tell it straight” attitude resonates with everyday Australians and led to his foray into television.

The former host of the Nine Network’s The Apprentice and Celebrity Apprentice, as well as The Mentor on the Seven Network, Mark’s time on Australian screens cemented his reputation as a trusted voice in finance and business.

Through his platforms Mentored and Mentored+, Mark Bouris is transforming the way small business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs access support and guidance, anchored by a state-of-the-art studio in Sydney’s Darlinghurst.

His bestselling books, What It Takes and Rise, further cement his reputation as a leading authority in business and success. Mark’s podcasts, Straight Talk and The Mentor, consistently rank among Australia’s top-rated business shows, featuring high-profile guests from around the world and offering invaluable insights into leadership, strategy, and resilience.

Beyond business, Mark is a prominent advocate in the health and wellness space. His latest venture, Project 100, is a groundbreaking longevity-focused podcast and social initiative designed to equip Australians with actionable, science-backed takeaways for a healthier, longer life.

Dr Merriden Varrall

Partner | Geopolitics Australia Lead, KPMG

Dr Merriden Varrall is the Lead for Geopolitics at KPMG Australia. In this role she helps business understand and navigate the complex global geopolitical environment. Merriden provides business-relevant insights into global, regional and local geopolitical trends and works with clients to develop strategies and solutions to identify and mitigate risk, and maximise opportunities.

A former UN diplomat based in China, Merriden is a sought-after commentator on geopolitics, East Asia, China’s foreign policy, and Australia’s bilateral relationship with China.

From 2014-2018, Merriden was the Director of the Lowy Institute’s East Asia Program. She is currently a Non-Resident Fellow at Lowy. Before joining the Institute, Merriden was the Assistant Country Director and Senior Policy Advisor at United Nations Development Programme, China, where she worked on China’s role in the world, focusing on its international development cooperation policy. Prior to that she worked for the Australian Government Treasury and the Department of Family and Community Services.

Merriden spent almost eight years living and working in China, including lecturing in foreign policy at the China Foreign Affairs University and conducting fieldwork for her doctoral research.

Merriden has a PhD examining Chinese foreign policy from Macquarie University, Sydney, and the Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam. She has a Master’s Degree in International Affairs from the Australian National University, and completed her undergraduate studies in international studies at the University of Technology Sydney. Her analyses have appeared in academic journals, as well as publications such as The Quarterly, The New York Times, Nikkei Asian Review, Foreign Policy, The East Asia Forum, and the Lowy Interpreter, among others.

Jason Clarke

Since achieving the lowest Year 12 score in the history of his school in 1977, Jason Clarke has been an exhibition designer, a script writer, commercial event and film producer and for a while, Creative Director of Australia’s largest multi-media production company. He’s staged Shakespeare, grand opera, experimental avantgarde theatre and even designed a dolphin show for a major marine park.

He’s developed and taught courses in Logic, Problem Solving and Innovation for Melbourne Business School, Mt Eliza Business School, the Australian School of Entrepreneurship, the Stern Business School of New York and the Ben Gurion Business School of Israel.

But since 2000 he’s been a freelance thinker-for-hire, offering creative and lateral thinking services for organisations struggling to embrace innovation and change. His clients include just about every kind of enterprise, from plucky little start-ups to national and global corporations, from communities and not-for-profits to State and Local Governments. Today he’s a regular international speaker and one of the most sought-after creative minds in Australia.

But he’ll tell you he’s just a Plumber of the Mind, the guy you go to when your head gets clogged.

Stephen Scheeler

Stephen Scheeler is Australia’s most authoritative voice on A.I., technology, disruption and leadership.

He is the former Facebook CEO for Australia and New Zealand, where he guided Facebook’s rise from quirky start up to media and technology titan. Working with Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook’s Silicon Valley leaders, his tenure at Facebook saw the ANZ business – including Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp – become one of the most successful Facebook markets in the world.

Today, he is founder of The Digital CEO, Senior Advisor to McKinsey & Company, and Executive-in-Residence at the Australian Graduate School of Management. He is also co-founder and CEO of Omniscient – the world leader in using A.I. to decode the human brain. Omniscient is often called “the OpenAI of the brain”.

As a speaker, Stephen has appeared on the highest-profile keynote stages – including TEDx and SxSW Austin.

He has spoken to or advised the likes of Google, PwC, EY, Deloitte, Westpac, Macquarie Bank, Citibank, Mastercard, American Express, Toyota, Oracle, Telstra, Seek, Qantas and the Australian Government. He is a frequent media commentator on data, A.I., technology and the future of business & society, and a member of the Australian Prime Minister’s Knowledge Nation 100, top innovation leaders in Australia.

David Speers

David Speers is the host of “Insiders”, the ABC’s flagship political program, where he interviews leading political figures and explores the big issues each week with an expert panel.

David also writes political analysis each week for ABC news online, appears across TV and radio platforms and filed an inside account of the unfolding coronavirus economic crisis for Four Corners.

He joined the ABC in 2020 after 19 years as the Political Editor of Sky News Australia.

David has won two individual Walkley Awards for interviewing, along with a number of other Walkley, Logie and Kennedy Awards for his journalism. Last year he also won the Press Gallery Journalist of the Year Award.

David spent 20 years working from the Canberra Press Gallery, serving 3 years as Gallery President and 15 years on the board of the National Press Club.

Kenn Beer

Principal Engineer, Safe System Solutions

Kenn is a Registered Professional Engineer, accredited Senior Road Safety Auditor, transport planner, trainer and assessor. He has over 20 years’ experience in road safety engineering, planning, policy and strategy development.

Kenn is one of Australia’s most active Safe System practitioners and trainers, and has delivered many diverse projects, including: safety strategies for local and state government; business cases for TAC; Road Safety Audits and Safe System Assessments. Kenn was co-lead for the 2020 update to the Austroads Guide to Road Safety series.

Ken Beer will Australia’s pathway to Vision Zero – zero deaths, or serious injuries – on Australia’s roads by 2050.

Damon Ehlers

Chief Executive Officer, Novoplan

Damon is the co-founder and CEO of Novoplan, the provider of the market leading infrastructure contribution system for local governments across the country. He is a highly experienced infrastructure planning professional and a passionate advocate for the role that an efficiently functioning local government infrastructure delivery framework plays in the supply of housing and economic growth of our cities and regions.