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.

Tim Golsby-Smith

Tim Golsby- Smith is the CEO and Co-founder of myLot, a company revolutionizing regulatory services through AI-powered solutions to address the housing crisis.

With over 20 years of experience spanning from animation direction to strategic consulting leadership at Accenture, Tim brings a unique perspective to the intersection of technology and regulatory transformation. His entrepreneurial journey includes building Second Road, a strategic innovation firm, to a successful acquisition by Accenture. Today, he leads myLot's vision of democratizing access to planning services, while personally driving their prompt engineering capability to transform how regulatory services are delivered.

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.

Adam Halliwell

Public Skills Australia

Adam Halliwell is Public Skills Australia’s Director of Workforce Strategy and Insights. A highly accomplished professional with more than 10 years’ experience in the Victorian Public Service, Adam has shown a commitment to undertaking evidence-based research and communicating complex data to a variety of audiences.

In his role overseeing the Workforce Planning and Industry Stewardship functions for Public Skills Australia, Adam works closely with key stakeholders to identify and mitigate workforce challenges for the Public Safety and Government industry sectors. Ahead of the launch of our 2025 Workforce Insight Reports, Adam and his team have been thoroughly consulting with Local Government stakeholders to ensure that the industry’s labour market, skills and training needs are addressed.

Prior to joining Public Skills Australia, Adam had separate stints managing the Innovation and Research and Policy and Projects teams for the Australia New Zealand Policing Advisory Agency (ANZPAA). He has also worked in Engagement and Data Analytics roles for Victoria’s Crime Statistics Agency.

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.

Kieran Power

Senior Principal, Nation Partners

Kieran is a Senior Principal with Nation Partners who is passionate about building the capacity of governments and businesses to support climate resilient communities, infrastructure, and natural systems.

An environmental and social scientist by training, Kieran’s work has focused on climate change, communities and infrastructure at a wide range of scales. At a national level, highlights include playing a central role in designing the methodology for Australia’s first National Climate Risk Assessments, advising the UK Government on effective urban adaptation, and supporting to DCCEEW to develop the Commonwealth Climate Risk and Opportunity Management Program.

Kieran is also passionate about the power of local governments to drive locally relevant action on climate change. He has delivered climate risk, adaptation, and community resilience planning processes for over 20 councils, supported eight global cities to develop urban resilience strategies as part of the 100 Resilient Cities (100RC) initiative, and led engagement with coastal and alpine communities on climate adaptation pathways and the low emissions transition.

Lord Mayor Anna Reynolds

City of Hobart

Councillor Anna Reynolds was elected Lord Mayor of Hobart in November 2018, the third woman to be elected into the role. First elected as an Alderman to the City of Hobart in 2014, she was Chairperson of the Parks and Recreation Committee during her first term.

Anna began her career establishing a community legal centre in North Queensland, after completing her degree at the Australian National University. She has held senior roles in advocacy, policy development and management, including:

Managing the Australian Conservation Foundation's Parliament Liaison Office
Deputy Director of WWF International's Global Climate Change Program
Chief Executive Officer of the Multicultural Council of Tasmania

As Lord Mayor, Anna is focused on a range of issues including affordable housing, climate change, active transport, and protecting Hobart's heritage.

Lord Mayor Kon Vatskalis

City of Darwin

Kon and his family came to Darwin in 1994, where he worked with the Department of Health before joining the Indigenous Health Service, Danila Dilba. During that time, he completed a Graduate Certificate in Public Service Management through Flinders University.

In 2001 Kon was elected to the NT Legislative Assembly as the Member for Casuarina, and he was immediately elevated to Minister. He served as a Minister from 2001-2012 in the Territory Labour Government, in a variety of portfolios including Health, Mining and Primary Industries, Tourism, Sport, Infrastructure and Planning and Children and Families.

He resigned from the NT Legislative Assembly in 2014 and in 2015 started work for the Leukaemia Foundation. In 2014 he was awarded the title “Honourable” for life from HM the Queen for his services to politics in the NT.

In 2017 Kon was elected Lord Mayor of Darwin.

Amanda Pugh

Group Manager Community and Regional Prosperity, Lockyer Valley Regional Council

Amanda is a passionate and experienced leader, who leads a multidisciplinary team of exceptional humans in the delivery of Council’s external facing business functions.

As a result of the 2022 flooding event experienced in South East Queensland, Amanda lead Council’s response to the Voluntary Home Buy Back Scheme (VHBB) which saw Lockyer Valley Regional Council purchase 24 properties that were highly susceptible to extreme flood risk. Amanda is also managing the design and delivery of a flood mitigation solution for Laidley.

Amanda is driven by a commitment to continuous improvement and innovation and the outcomes, large or small, that can be achieved by asking “why” and removing bureaucratic red tape. As a teacher and strategic town planner, Amanda is committed to meaning engagement and conversations with the community to ensure that the growth and development of the Lockyer Valley is consistent with the aspirations and vision of the community.

Paul Kubik

Executive, Incident Operations, Telstra

Paul leads Telstra’s Incident Management and Global Operations Centre (GOC), responsible for the 24x7 restoration of customer incidents across network and IT systems. The team is responsible for incident, problem and change management including the coordinated response to mass disruptions such as cyclones, floods and bushfires. Telstra is bringing together the best of ITIL, DevOps delivery methods to drive faster restoration of customer issues. Paul was previously the engineering executive for Telstra’s voice and video networks; responsible for consumer calling, enterprise collaboration, contact centre solutions, and emergency calling including Triple Zero.

Paul completed his Bachelor of Electrical Engineering (Hons) at UQ (University of Queensland), a Masters of Business Adminsitration (eMBA), and a Masters of Marketing from RMIT (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology). Paul has also been the past IEEE Victorian Chair (2010-11), Australian Council Secretary (2009) and Treasurer (2010-11). IEEE is a professional, academic and student community that fosters technological innovation and provides services to benefit members.