Cindy Taibi is the Chief Information Officer of The New York Times.

Cindy started at The Times in 1981 and has worked across the company in a variety of roles: initially as a developer in our core print News Systems group; overseeing I.T. for our regional media group in the mid-2000s, as the head of our print advertising and business systems teams; and recently, overseeing our internal infrastructure, including international locations.

As C.I.O, Cindy is responsible for applying technology to support our business, including: the infrastructure that supports the mission of The Times, productivity tools and critical applications that are the nervous system of our business, including our financial systems, our talent management systems and our legal and compliance systems.

Cindy is the first woman to hold the role at The New York Times.

Dr Clark is currently Head of the Australian Space Agency and a director of Rio Tinto, CSL Limited and CARE Australia. She is a member of the Australian advisory board of the Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Dr Clark recently chaired the Expert Working Group into the Review of Australia’s Space Industry Capability. She was Chief Executive of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) from 2009 to 2014.  Prior to CSIRO, she was a Director at NM Rothschild and Sons (Australia) and was Vice President Technology and subsequently Vice President Health, Safety and Environment at BHP Billiton from 2003 to 2008.

Dr Clark holds a BSc from the University of Western Australia and a PhD from Queen’s University, Canada and is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering, a Fellow of the AusIMM and a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.  In 2014, she was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia.

Dr. Eppanapally is a financial services professional, an entrepreneur and a philanthropist with a passion for healthcare, education and the environment. His lifelong mission has been to transform youth into responsible citizens and establish a peaceful society for harmonious living.

With over 30 years of diverse experience and as a financial services professional, Dr. Eppanapally has been involved in directing and managing major high visible global initiatives in the financial services industry. He is an entrepreneur and invested in several disruptive technology companies. He is a visionary, passionate about giving back to the society, founder of few NGOs and serves on several boards.

Bob Hennessy was appointed Group CIO of Lendlease in June 2015 and is based in Sydney, Australia.

Bob has over 40 years’ experience in technology across a range of industries, including steel manufacturing, transport, financial services, telecommunications and consulting.

Prior to joining Lendlease, Bob was CEO of Pactera’s Australian and NZ business having sold his privately-owned consulting firm to them in 2012. Pactera was a NASDAQ listed entity at the time of the sale.

Previous roles include at Westpac (1998-2002) leading the technology stream supporting the integration of BT, Rothschild and Westpac Financial Services, which saw him appointed CIO of the integrated company (BT FG). At TNT (1988-98) Bob was CIO of the Asia Pacific region driving the integration of the Australian business from 1996 to 1998 following the acquisition of TNT by the Dutch PTT.

As a consultant, Bob conducted reviews of transformation programs in telecommunications, health and retail fuel. He has sat on client steering committees for major transformation programs in banking, manufacturing & distribution and transport.

Bob’s experience as an executive in industrial sectors and volatile business conditions lends him a rare combination of experiences invaluable for companies on the cusp of significant change. His combination of client-side and sell-side roles, coupled with his entrepreneurial experience brings an appreciation of a range of business perspectives.

Mr Stephen Pearson commenced as Chief Information Officer (CIO) in February 2018.

A consistent, results-driven global CIO and IT executive, he has proven ability to deliver sustainable transformational change through positive influencing, the close collaboration of IT and business stakeholders, and effective leveraging of technology as a key business enabler.

As Defence CIO he is responsible for:

• ensuring Defence has a modern, dependable, secure and integrated single information environment which supports Defence’s business and military operations;

• providing strong leadership of the people and financial resources within the Group; and

• making a significant leadership contribution in relation to security, both for the Defence organisation and at a whole of government level.

Prior to joining the Australian Public Service, Stephen’s career encompassed diverse industry sectors including mining services, supply and logistics, retail, airlines, financial services, manufacturing, healthcare and professional services.

He has a strong record of success in developing and implementing IT strategies, operating models and technology solutions (digital, ERP) in complex global business environments. He is experienced with both centralised and distributed IT functions, and is an advocate of organisation change management to complement technology initiatives.

After spending a number of years successfully delivering major business change initiatives at Air Canada, Qantas, Coles and Newcrest Mining, he was the global CIO of Orica during a time of great change in the industry and the organisation. He has also been an independent advisor to Toll Group, Ausenco and Oil Search leadership, supporting their respective transformation programs. Prior to joining Defence, Stephen was CIO and Head of Transformation at Lattice Energy.

His vision for the future is for the successful delivery of effective, flexible, innovative and scalable ICT solutions and services to support our current and future integrated Defence capability to defend the country and its interests.

Stephen graduated from the University of Central Queensland with a Bachelor of Business Studies in 1977 and is a Chartered Accountant.

He is married with two children, a daughter and a son. He enjoys tennis, keeping fit, travelling, wine, music and watching most sports, particularly rugby union where he is a Foundation Member of the Melbourne Rebels.

John Cox has been the group CIO of Australia Post since August 2016.

Prior to his current position, John started his career with Accenture working in Australia, Germany and the UK on large IT transformations. Prior executive roles included divisional CIO for Banking and Wealth, and divisional CIO for Banking and Markets at the NAB. He has deep domain expertise in banking, capital markets and wealth management.

John holds a Bachelors of Arts and Bachelor of Science (Hons in Philosophy & Mathematics), Diploma of Modern Languages (German), and a Graduate Diploma in Applied Finance.

Rocky Scopelliti is a world-renowned futurologist. His pioneering research on the confluence of demographic change associated with Millennials, and digital technology, have influenced the way we think about our social, cultural, economic and technological future. His new book ‘Youthquake 4.0 – A Whole Generation and the New Industrial Revolution’ will be launched in September 2018.

As a media commentator, his unique insights have featured on SKY Business News, The Australian Financial Review, ABC Radio National, The Economist, Forbes and Bloomberg. As an international key note speaker, his presentations have captivated audiences across Asia Pacific, the USA and Europe including Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. As a thought-leader, over 150 boards and leadership teams, including Fortune 100 corporations, each year seek his advice on strategy.

A distinguished author, his 12 published thought-leadership research reports have become internationally recognised for their influence including the World Economic Forum’s Disruptive Innovation in Financial Services Program.

In an executive capacity, he is a member of the Optus Business Leadership team as the Director, Centre for Industry 4.0 where he leads the specialist team creating world class thought-leadership and innovation to guide enterprises on the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

In a non-executive capacity, he is director on the board of Community First Credit Union, a member of the REST Super Technology Advisory Panel and member of the Australian Payments Council.

Educated in Australia and trained in the USA at Sydney and Stanford Universities respectively, he has a Graduate Diploma in Corporate Management and an MBA. He is also a graduate and member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Sean Langton’s career started in Software Engineering, at a start up consultancy rolling out what we today call ‘agile’ software engineering methods to end user organisations; from there he moved into developing software for an Investment Bank before migrating to Australia. After a stint in the mining sector, Sean returned to Financial Services with Bankwest where he’s led the Software Engineering team for 4 years. Sean is passionate about the role Technology can and will play to improve Bankwest’s business and customer experiences, and more broadly the role it plays in improving society. Outside of work he sits on a couple of advisory boards to help grow and bring diversity to the tech community in Western Australia, and in his spare time keeps fit by running and exercising his dog.

Mike holds the role of Chief Customer Officer, Technology for Flight Centre Travel Group Limited’s (ASX:FLT) corporate brands in Australia and New Zealand overseeing customer experience, technology and data strategy.

A true travel technologist, Mike has become influential as a technology evangelist, customer experience and data guru with a clear understanding of the role technology plays in assisting people to make informed and interactive travel decisions and ultimately, allowing people to get on with their business. He is an excellent communicator and big picture thinker and has a track record of developing and leading innovative teams.

Mike has been working for FCTG for over 15 years and has been part of some truly inspirational and transformative projects and initiatives during his time.  He started his career as an accountant for FCTG’s New Zealand Corporate Division, later moving into business process re-engineering and project management.

He led a digital transformation of corporate travel brands in Australia, with the outcome of growth in customer product offering from 5 to over 40 products and being presented with the outstanding achievement award at the end of the journey. In May 2017 this year, Mike had shared his learning with other executives at Forrester CX conference to great success, having made it to Which-50 publication.

Two of the products Mike has responsibility for have contributed to FCTG being named one of the top 20 ASX most innovative companies. Firstly, Savi – recently launched Online Booking Platform for our corporate travellers underpinned by AI/machine learning and user-focused UX and secondly, Sam (Smart Assistant for Mobile), chatbot for travellers – a great blend of user experience and targeted user engagement.

His career also saw him diversify into the Marketing and Digital space by taking the combined role of Chief Information and Digital Officer with a privately-owned company engaging in start-up activity.

Mike holds a BCom in Accounting and Tax, GradDipCom and BCom (Hons) in Operations Management and Supply Chain and Masters in Management Accounting. He is a certified Chartered Practising Accountant (CPA Australia) and Chartered Management Accountant (CIMA, UK) and a member of both institutes.

A leader in transformation who has worked in large corporate organisations across Europe, the United States and Australia, William Payne has a successful track record of delivering effective change. From rapidly turning poor performing IT functions into truly customer-focused business capabilities, to leading global change programs across 20 countries or developing business-led strategic plans, William combines business and technical expertise with excellent facilitation and presentation skills. His extensive experience as both Chief Information Officer and Chief Strategy Officer combine to provide a unique skill set for the age of digital transformation.

Mark joined Fairfax Media in 2003 and in March 2015 was appointed Chief Technology Officer of Domain. In his role, he works with the executive leadership team to develop products and services and manages technology across the group. He is responsible for improving Domain’s technology and systems, driving agile delivery, cloud adoption and evolving microservice architectures.

Prior to this, Mark was General Manager of Product Solutions at Fairfax Media, where he headed up a team of approximately 200 with technical responsibility for Fairfax’s Australian and New Zealand digital product development, and ownership of shared products such as membership, digital subscription platforms and custom advertising solutions. Mark holds a BS (Computer Science and Applied Mathematics) from University of the Witwatersrand.

David Hackshall is the Chief Information Officer (CIO) at Cochlear Ltd, a leader in cochlea implant technology that supports over 450,000 people with hearing loss around the world. Since commencing his role in July 2015, David has overseen the organisation’s global IT capability with a focus on innovating technology to further improve the Cochlear recipient’s journey.

Based in Sydney, David operates in a global capacity with operations throughout Asia, Europe and the US. Under David’s supervision the Cochlear technology function has undertaken a material restructure whilst delivering a number of customer facing and internal cornerstone applications.

David was also recently selected by his peers to be included in the top 10 CIOs across Australia and New Zealand. David has over 20 years’ of experience in driving technological transformation spanning differing industry sectors. He has worked in some of Australia’s leading companies including logistics, financial services and now medical devices. David holds both a Master of Information Technology Management and MBA from Macquarie University.

John Sutherland is Chief Information Officer at Ramsay Health Care. Ramsay is an ASX50-listed company with revenue of $11.6 billion and employing more than 77,000 people across 11 countries. Operating c.480 hospitals, specialist clinics, primary care and pharmacy businesses, Ramsay is the market leader in Australia and Europe. As CIO, John works closely with the CEO and Board to establish the digital strategy focused on their clinicians’ connectedness, patients’ experience and employee performance while maintaining the highest standard of clinical care and quality outcomes for their customers. John is an advisor to the Board of the Australian Digital Health Agency, an Organising Committee member for Health Information and Management Systems Society Asia Pacific and is guest lecturer to post graduate students at Macquarie University.

Sarah Harland is Suncorp’s Chief Information Officer. She was appointed in September 2016 to lead Suncorp’s Group technology. Sarah is responsible for overseeing development of digital, data, insurance and banking platforms, core infrastructure, IT operations and the innovation labs function.

Sarah is recognised as a global leader in digital transformation, having successfully led large-scale complex technology projects for international organisations. Prior to joining Suncorp, Sarah held senior technology roles at Medibank Private, ANZ, the National Health Service in the UK and QWEST Communication in the US.

She has a strong background in financial services, having worked for Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein in London, Bloomberg and Standard & Poor’s. She is a graduate of the University College London and has an MBA from Henley Business School.

James Spenceley is an Australian VC investor, award-winning entrepreneur and company director. He is the Chairman of Airtasker and CEO and co-founder of MHOR asset management, a specialist small capital investment fund.

In 2007 James founded Vocus Communications and went on to become the youngest Australian to create and lead an ASX100 company. When he stepped down as CEO in February 2016, the company had annual revenue of $1.8billion, a market cap of $5billion and 1,500 staff. His achievements at Vocus saw him feature three times on the BRW young rich list and two-times as a EY Entrepreneur of the Year winner.

Following his success with Vocus, James has established himself as a leading Australian VC investor, mentor and philanthropist, and spent a number of years as co-owner and Chair of the Illawarra Hawks NBL team.

Alongside Airtasker, James holds a number of ASX-listed board positions including, Chairman of Silver Heritage Group and non-executive director of Indoor Sky Dive Australia Group.

In 2018 he was inducted into the CommsDay Edison Awards Hall of Fame and recently was announced as the first ambassador for the Women on Boards WOBSX program.

Mr. Mark Drasutis has been Chief Digital Officer at Insurance Australia Group Limited since October 2017.

Mr. Drasutis has a key leadership role within IAG’s Customer Labs to help build an organisation that is customer-led and data-driven across IAG and its brands including NRMA Insurance, CGU, SGIO, SGIC and WFI in Australia, as well as NZI and AMI in New Zealand. He has more than 20 years’ media and digital product experience.

He has led the digital product, platform, UXD, audience insights and innovation teams as Chief Product Officer of Digital at News Corp Australia.

He was Head of Innovation responsible for transforming News Corp Australia’s digital and innovation strategy and culture. He led a team at Yahoo! Europe, Middle East and Africa,  elivering engaging consumer experiences across a wide range of markets and platforms using data and customer insights to inform strategic business decisions.

Fiona Macgregor joined TAL in January 2014 as General Manager, Innovation Development, bringing with her a successful history of corporate innovation. She joined the Executive team in April 2015 with her promotion to Chief Customer and Innovation Officer and transitioned to Chief Information and Innovation Officer in July 2018, with responsibility across Technology and TAL’s Innovation Incubator and Accelerator programs. Prior to joining TAL, Fiona worked as an independent consultant, advising some of the UK’s largest service brands and high-tech companies on growth opportunities, customer experience design and how leaders can create the right climate for innovation. Fiona was previously Head of Innovation for a leading UK bank, where she was responsible for leading a team to design and launch a number of innovative products, services and brand innovations in the UK, US, Europe and Asia markets. This included uniting all retail bank operations around a set of customer charter commitments.

Stephen Haddad is an experienced CIO/CTO and Business Transformation Executive who has demonstrated his ability to drive strategic business growth over 20 years in Australia’s Media, Finance and Consulting organisations. Prior to this role, Stephen held CIO roles at Bauer Media, FujiFilm and senior roles within banking and telecommunications.

Stephen is responsible for all technology domains across SCA, including Business Systems, Corporate Networks and Infrastructure, Digital Design and Development, Audio Engineering Technology & Operations and Television Broadcast Engineering & Operations. Stephen also has management responsibility for the Project Management Office and Procurement functions.

Adrian is senior data scientist at Airtasker where he’s built their machine learning pipeline and is responsible for building their machine learning products. He’s worked in the startup scenes in Sydney and the UK and conducted research in mathematics and machine learning out of Warwick University, Australian National University and Charles Sturt University. His research has covered neural networks, time series algebra, matrix analysis, complexity theory, machine learning, statistics and data science.

Adrian is senior data scientist at Airtasker where he’s built their machine learning pipeline and is responsible for building their machine learning products. He’s worked in the startup scenes in Sydney and the UK and conducted research in mathematics and machine learning out of Warwick University, Australian National University and Charles Sturt University. His research has covered neural networks, time series algebra, matrix analysis, complexity theory, machine learning, statistics and data science.

Declan Boylan founded Seven Consulting in 2002.

Seven Consulting are currently running Programs or managing Program Management Offices for CBA, NAB, Optus, Telstra , NBN, Woolworths, Lend Lease and twenty other major organisations.  Seven Consulting run over $3.0 b of strategic programs for our 25 clients and every client is a reference site.

Seven Consulting have a  100% permanent resources, 99.1% client satisfaction for 2017 and 97.8% staff satisfaction.

Prior to that, he has successfully delivered some of the largest and most critical business transformation / IT programs in Australia. Some of the clients that have engaged him as Program Director for their most complex programs include CBA, Westpac, DXC, Vodafone Hutchison Australia, Fairfax, Woolworths, P&O Group, Stockland and Unisys.

Michael Bryant is one of Seven Consulting leading Program Directors. He has worked extensively on delivering large scale, complex programs of work, with multiple vendors and solutions.

In recent times, Michael has been working on the digital transformation program using Scaled Agile Delivery methodology. He has been the Program Manager of multi-disciplinary teams (150+ resources) across several technology platforms and business groups for the Implementation of a transformation Program, replacing current legacy systems with SAP’s Health Insurance package. The Program involved a transformation of their Digital channel for customer services using Agile delivery methodology.

Ian Gibson is the Chief Commercial Officer and an Executive Director for SuperChoice Services Pty Limited and as such has seen the impact technology has on work practices and talent management first hand. He played an instrumental role in transforming the technology at the core of SuperChoice, Australia’s leading cloud-based superannuation management, Single Touch Payroll and clearinghouse platform He is Chairman of the Gateway Operators’ association, GATE, a Non-executive director of the Australia Business Software Industry Association (ABSIA), and a Non-executive director of the Gateway Network Governance Body (GNGB) where he also chairs the Security Committee. He has also held several senior executive and CIO roles, co-founded a boutique consulting firm and worked with several technology start-ups. Ian was a Partner in Accenture’s Strategy practice where he focused on business and IT-enabled strategy and organisational design. Ian is a regular speaker and has appeared on Sky News. He has authored over 50 publications; been twice nominated for Thought Leadership awards; in 2014 received 2 iAwards for innovation; in 2016 received an Architecture Award for Excellence and was awarded Top 30 Global Business CIO; and in 2017 was a finalist for the iTnews Finance CIO of the Year, a finalist for the NSW iAward for innovation, received an ANZ & Asia Pacific Architecture Award for Excellence (SOA category), and was awarded Top 20 ANZ & Asia Pacific Business CIO.

Gareth James is the Managing Director of Seven Consulting. Seven Consulting are currently running Programs or managing Program Management Offices for CBA, NAB, Optus, Telstra , NBN, Woolworths, Lend Lease and twenty other major organisations.  Seven Consulting run over $3.0 b of strategic programs for our 25 clients and every client is a reference site. Seven Consulting have a  100% permanent resources, 99.1% client satisfaction for 2017 and 97.8% staff satisfaction.

Gareth has lead long lasting business transformation at scale with responsibility for budgets upwards of $500m and teams sizes of 1000+,  he has successfully delivered outcomes across 48 countries. He excels in developing and championing transformational change including the redesign of operating models, he has played a leading role delivering outcomes across business process improvement, improved performance management all underpinned by the delivery of new or remediated technologies. Gareth is particularly passionate about how customer insight can be leveraged to drive improvement in both transactional customer experience and the overarching experience.

Jane Livesey currently leads PwC Australia’s Technology Consulting practice, a team of 500 technology and cyber professionals who deliver technology advice and services for many of Australia’s largest organisations. Jane is a member of PwC’s CEO and Consulting leadership teams. She enjoys the challenge of evolving the technology group in response to market demand, and setting the Technology practice on the path for future growth. Jane’s passion is to provide the best place for her team to work, and help clients meet their business aspirations.
Prior to PwC, Jane was the Managing Director at a large system integrator for 12 years. In this role she developed and led large technology practices in Australia and Asia Pacific. She was also the overall Delivery Executive for programs including the National Broadband Network, Fuji Xerox, NSW Government Departments including human services agencies, Leighton and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.
Jane has also held senior industry positions including time in product marketing for a Silicon Valley software company. Her experience spans the Communications, Financial Services, Resources and Public Service sectors in locations such as the US, United Kingdom, France, Korea, Malaysia, Australia and New Zealand.

Matt leads PricewaterhouseCoopers Technology Strategy practice in Australia, with responsibility for helping clients understand the impact of technology on their business and navigating the journey and transition to a future technology state.

Matt’s background and experience is anchored in cloud computing, technology strategy and delivery of large transformation and systems integration projects. Originally from Australia, Matt has spent the majority of his career based in London working across UK and European clients.

Prior to joining PwC, Matt led the global Cloud practice for Accenture and was a Managing Director in Accenture’s Information Technology Strategy practice. He was also responsible for delivery and account leadership at a number of key clients in the United Kingdom.

Matthew has also worked for IBM and Arthur Andersen. Matthew holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computing and a Bachelor’s degree in Commerce (Accounting and Law) from the Federation University, Australia.