Katja is an Australian pioneer in the field of experience design and all of its components – research, emerging technology as well as service design, customer experience (CX) and user experience (UX).

She is the Managing Director of Designit, Australia & New Zealand, a strategic design firm who work with ambitious brands to create high-impact products, services, systems and spaces – that people love. Katja is proud to be an International Director on the Global Board of the Interaction Design Association (IxDA).

Back in 2014, Katja founded syfte, a specialist business in research and experience design. In late 2018, her business was acquired by the international firm Wipro, and she was announced as ‘Managing Director of Australia & New Zealand’ for Designit, Wipro’s strategic design arm. Katja was also a co-founding member of IxDA Sydney. Together with Joe Ortenzi, she has built a community of over 2000 designers in Sydney, providing them with learning opportunities via lecture based meetups that draw a crowd of 150 people each time, a mentoring program and workshops.

One of Katja’s personal motivations is to inspire other women, especially in her industry, to reach toward their definition of professional success. She is a sought-after keynote speaker for various organisations and associations including Interaction Latin America, Design Up (Bangalore). Women In Design, Leaders in Heels, Women In Commerce, Code like a Girl (Melbourne Knowledge week), Inaugural CMO Conference 2017, Telstra and Macquarie Bank. Katja was recognised as one of the Top 10 Australian Women Entrepreneurs 2018 by My Entrepreneur Magazine and named one of the 100 Women of Influence by Westpac and the Australian Financial Review in 2016.

Katja is also a published contributing author, and regular national media commentator for her industry. Having overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles, Katja’s vision and determination has seen her become an exceptional thought leader and inspiration to countless women across the world.

Glen is an experienced senior executive with an extensive background in delivering business and digital change on a global scale. He has a strong strategic orientation; having held several senior business and IT executive roles with the likes of Meridian Energy, BP, and Contact Energy.

Glen says he flourishes in changing environments, with his commercial acumen and pragmatic approach to business and IT problems honed in large European and Asian environments as well as across Australia and New Zealand.

Rebecca Thomas is CIO at PwC New Zealand. She and her team are in the midst of a multi-year programme to drive ICT innovation across PwC NZ. This multi-year programme includes the rollout of hardware and software solutions that will allow PwC staff to become more mobile, increase productivity, and improve collaboration. This new way of working is now fully in place at the new PwC Centre on Wellington’s waterfront. Thomas joined PwC as business portfolio manager in January 2017 and stepped up to the CIO role seven months later. She has also held executive and consultancy roles in Tonkin & Taylor, SunCorp-Vero in New Zealand and Shell.

Dominic has extensive leadership roles in Marketing, Innovation, Digital and Data Analytics. Dominic started his career in UK and has worked in Australia and NZ over the last 25 years working in various industries including packaged goods, retail and leisure & entertainment.

Dominic is currently heading up digital transformation for Fonterra covering digital and data strategies, digital technology ecosystem and capability development and running the centres of excellence – digital, data analytics and agile. Prior to this Dominic was the Director Global Marketing Services – delivering Fonterra’s unified ‘way of marketing’, strategic insights & intelligence, digital customer experiences and shopper and retail optimisation.

Having worked in senior roles in the tech sector globally for more than 30 years, David currently leads Jade’s sales and marketing team. A strategic thinker in the field of innovation, David is passionate about the opportunities presented by the humanisation of technology through AI and working with customers to realise this.

David contributes to a number of technology societies and business groups, and sits on boards relating to cultural diversity as well as sport & recreation.

Divina Paredes is the editor of CIO New Zealand and www.cio.co.nz, the premium resource for information and communications technology (ICT) executives and members of the CXO suite. She also organises and moderates CIO community events such as the CIO roundtable discussions and CIO leaders’ luncheons.

Nadia is a respected and award-winning industry Journalist and Editor with 17 years’ experience and is the Publisher and Editor of CMO from IDG.

Throughout her career, she has maintained a focus on technology and business, working for titles such as CIO, Computerworld, PC World, Australian Reseller News (ARN), Exhibition News, Business Asia, and now CMO. From 2010 to 2012, Nadia was Managing Editor of business publications for the UK live events industry, and created FaceTime Magazine for event marketers. She’s also responsible for launching and transforming key industry events, such as the annual ARN Industry Awards and Exhibition News Awards.

Nadia rejoined IDG Australia in 2013 to create CMO, a dedicated title for the modern marketing chief. In 2015, CMO launched the CMO50 program, now recognised as the country’s premiere list for modern marketing excellence, supported by a highly prestigious annual event.

Claire has worked in technology and marketing for over 15 years, across Australasia and the UK. She brings a view that is both strategic and technical with a focus on delivering a more compelling experience and story.

A natural communicator and facilitator, Claire works with organisations on their digital products and with the people who use their services to understand what we know, what we don’t know, spot opportunity and find the best way to effect meaningful change. This often leads to creating something new or changing something old and hopefully delivering a better experience for people.

Claire is currently Digital Experience Business Manager at Cucumber, a technology company and Sitecore partner based in the Bay Of Plenty.