Geelong born and raised, Colleen was brought up in a hard-working business focused family, where there was always a job to do. After working in family businesses from as young as she could remember, Colleen had her first taste of retail at the age of 16. Unbeknownst to her at the time this summer job would be the start of a retail career spanning over 30 years.

Colleen is an award-winning CEO, has wealth of knowledge and a proven track record in building brands, creating a winning culture, building environments that allows people to be inspired and empowered. Colleen is now sharing not only the past 13 years experience as a CEO but the past 30 years of her retail career.
Colleen is an inspiration to women of all generations and wants to encourage women globally to have the confidence to believe in themselves, their ability, share their voice and find the superpower within. Colleen wants to inspire and empower women to lead in their own lives whether that be in boardrooms, organisations, communities or even the home. She wants them to believe in the power within and that it is possible to become the leader they always wanted to be in business and in life and together create a new era of leadership, one that leads with kindness, humility, self-awareness, on one that puts people at the heart of everything we do.

Colleen is a Leader By Design (the title of her book). In the early years of her career, she looked up to and admired people with titles, level of authority and positions of power, labelling them leaders. What she learnt over time is that it is not someone’s title, level of authority or position of power that automatically qualifies them for leadership. In fact, Colleen shares that you don’t even need a title to be a leader. We have the ability to lead every day, with every action, every reaction, every interaction and every decision.

Holly is a full time Non-Executive Director. She is currently a Non-Executive Director on the boards of the Woolworths Group, Fonterra Corporation (NZ), Abacus Property Group, The Ethics Centre and the GO (Goodes-O’Loughlin) Foundation. She is Chair of the mortgage broking fintech, Lendi.

Holly’s previous governance roles include the Boards of Australia Post (Deputy Chair), Nine Entertainment, AMP Limited, and Telstra Clear (NZ). Holly was also the recipient of the Sir Charles McGrath Award for a distinguished career in Marketing.

In her executive career, Ms Kramer was the CEO of apparel retailer Best & Less, with nearly 200 stores nationwide and over 4000 employees. She was responsible for turning around business performance and restoring B&L to profitability. Prior to that role, she had more than 20 years’ experience in general management, marketing and sales for customer-focused organisations. These included the positions of Group Managing Director, Product Management and Chief of Marketing at Telstra and executive management roles at Pacific Brands, eCorp and the Ford Motor Company (in both Australia and the US)

Ms Kramer grew up in Billings, Montana and completed a degree in economics and political science at Yale University (Hons) and an MBA at Georgetown University.BA, MBA

John is the former director of marketing for Scentre Group, owners and operators of Westfield in Australia and New Zealand. He has more than 22 years of experience in research, marketing and general management with bluechip companies including Lion Nathan, Kimberly Clark, PepsiCo Foods and The Wrigley Company. He has also been a member of the Australian Market & Social Research Society Client Advisory Board.
John has led marketing communications that have won a Cannes Lion award and an Australian Effective Awards. He is also a member of the Board of Governors for The Heart Research Institute.

John holds a Masters in Management degree from MGSM majoring in Human Resources, a Bachelor of Business degree from the University of Western Sydney majoring in Marketing and a Certificate in Digital Marketing from ADMA.

Shaden leads SilverChef’s Global CX team with Product, Marketing and Customer Success. She’s responsible for designing and delivering an integrated and hospitality-centric, end-to-end customer experience. The goal is to build impactful, long-standing, shared-value relationships with customers across Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

Shaden brings a wealth of experience and knowledge in marketing and customer experience. She joined the SilverChef Executive Leadership Team from The Travel Corporation (TTC) Australia, where she was Managing Director, Contact Centres and Direct Business.

Prior to joining TTC, Shaden was Associate Director, Lifestyle Insurance Group at Auto & General in Brisbane. She drove revenue growth across life and income protection, health, travel, roadside assistance, CTP and pet insurance.

Shaden previously held a number of roles at Expedia, including Senior Director and Head of Online Marketing where she led acquisition, retention and growth for the Wotif portfolio of brands.

Shaden has also held several sales and strategy roles with Google, where she leveraged consumer behaviour and media consumption trends to build revenue-generating strategies for her business clients.

Jee Moon is the Vice President of Marketing for American Express Global Merchant Services, responsible for the Asia-Pacific region. She is a seasoned marketer with over 20 years of management experience building and transforming brands and businesses across the US, Europe, Middle East and Asia Pacific.

Prior to joining American Express, Jee held chief marketing roles at organisations such as Luxottica (retail and healthcare), Best&Less (retail), Westpac (financial services), Vodafone, Dell and Canon. In her last two roles in retail, she was part of the Executive teams, responsible for the turnaround of the businesses, returning them to growth and profitability. Jee holds a BA in International Relations from Tufts University in Boston, MA, and an MBA from the University of Cambridge, UK. In 2016 she was named one of Australia’s top 50 CMO and in 2018 qualified to serve as Board Director.

Susan Coghill is a former ad agency devotee turned client. From her early days working on Apple at Chiat\Day in Los Angeles (where she once presented creative to Steve Jobs on the beach in Hawaii) to learning about young mens’ grooming and dating habits for Unilever’s Axe brand while at BBH in Asia, to having Kylie Minogue perform a love song from one country to another for Tourism Australia in the UK, Susan’s career has centred on a belief in the power of creativity to build brands, drive business, and shape culture.

As Tourism Australia’s Chief Marketing Officer, Susan is responsible for driving the organisation’s global brand and marketing strategy, ensuring that Australia’s tourism marketing efforts continue to cut through in the competitive domestic and international marketplace. Together with a team of passionate marketers across the globe, Susan is committed to helping Australian tourism bounce back as quickly as possible from the impact of COVID-19.

Tim is the CEO, Medical Indemnity at Avant Mutual. He has over 20 years+ of experience in the insurance industry with an extensive background across distribution, M&A, strategy, reinsurance, product, pricing, marketing, strategy and government relations.

In his previous role at AIA as the CEO of AIA Health Insurance, Tim grew the fund 10x in premium within 2 years and established AIA Health as top 5 for net growth. Prior to this, he successfully led the $3.8b acquisition and integration of the Commonwealth Bank’s life insurance businesses in Australia and New Zealand.

Tim also led the product, business development, pricing and marketing teams, as well as leading the global team to successfully launch the world’s leading health & wellness program Vitality in Australia, in his former role as Chief Marketing Officer at AIA.

Tim is the former Director of the Financial Services Council Life Insurance sub-committee and in 2015 was voted in the top 25 Chief Marketing Officers in Australia by CMO magazine, with his contribution to the industry being recognised in 2016 by being voted ‘Asia’s Best Marketer’ by CMO Asia.

Joe has domestic and international experience in the telecommunications, technology, media, marketing and sports industries. She has significant understanding of customer management, marketing, cultural transformation and digital disruption.

Joe was previously a Group Executive of Media and Marketing at Telstra, Chief Executive of Ninemsn and Publicis Mojo. During her 30-year executive career she has held various other leadership roles in sales, marketing, media, digital and content at PBL Media, Nike Inc and Mindshare.

Joe is now a senior advisor in customer management, technology and marketing communications to a diverse range of clients including: Optus, Minderoo Foundation, Tattarang, Business Council of Australia and Austrade.
Joe is a director elect of Endeavour Group, a non-executive director of Greencross Limited and RACAT UNO. She was a former director of Nine Entertainment Co Ltd, AMP Bank Ltd, Michelle Bridge’s 12WBT, I-Select, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and Australian Association of National Advertisers (AANA). She is also a member of Chief Executive Women and a member of the NSW chapter board.

Jenny O’Regan was appointed Chief Brand Officer in 2021, and is responsible for the Ampol brand as well as the strategic development and execution of marketing campaigns across the organisation. Jenny joined Ampol in February 2019 as Director Marketing Communications in the retail team, before being appointed General Manager of Marketing in August 2019.

Jenny has more than 16 years’ experience in marketing, holding a number of senior roles at leading consumer brands across the country. Before joining Ampol, Jenny held head of marketing positions at Big W and IGA, preceded by a long career with McDonald’s Australia in a range of marketing and brand roles.

Jenny holds a Bachelor of Business, Managing and Marketing from Western Sydney University.

Vanessa Lyons is the General Manager of ThinkNewsBrands. A three-time CMO Top 50 lister, she has held a range of senior marketing positions including General Manager, Marketing and Customer Experience at Wilson Parking, Group Head of Marketing, at insurance business AUB Group and stints at both Telstra and Philips.

Professor Shane Hearn is a respected and proud Noongar man, with a distinguished record ensuring First Nations people are centred, engaged and influential.

He brings extensive expertise across higher education and health, where his leadership across research, scholarship and management has delivered powerful positive outcomes for First Nations people.

He is a thought leader, accomplished speaker and published writer, whose insights on Aboriginal culture and engagement have shaped campaigns, academic programs and the way organisations engage with our country and its people.

Professor Hearn is Think HQ’s Head, First Nations Engagement and Communication. As a key member of the leadership team, he ensures Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are included in everything the agency does.

He provides insight into the diversity of Indigenous cultures across Australia and directly engages with communities to build and maintain strong relationships. That means Think HQ’s campaigns and communications respond to the needs to First Nations people, and benefit from a direct feedback loop with the community, allowing for rapid input and iteration.

Over his decorated career, Professor Hearn has worked to successfully improve outcomes for First Nations people through the development of policies, strategies and campaigns.

Prior to joining Think HQ, Professor Hearn was University of Adelaide’s Pro Vice-Chancellor Indigenous Engagement.
There, he developed Yangadlitya, the University’s first Reconciliation Action Plan, and the University’s first Marketing and Communication Strategy, and increased the retention and success rates of Indigenous students.

As the Director of CultureLink, he developed the NSW Health Aboriginal Strategic Framework for the prevention and management of chronic disease in Aboriginal communities across the State and co-authored the Youth Health Resource Kit.

As Practice Leader at Cox Inall Ridgeway, he designed and led the roll out of the Commonwealth Department of Health’s national Live Longer campaign, working in partnership with 36 Indigenous communities.

Professor Hearn holds a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) and a Masters in Public Policy from the University of Sydney and a Bachelor of Applied Science – Indigenous Community Health, from the Curtain University of Technology Western Australia.

Tyrone joined Rest in April 2019 and is responsible for the organisation’s member experience and engagement. His role includes design and delivery of digital experiences such as the Rest app and web site, member communications, brand and marketing, and data analytics.

Tyrone has nearly two decades’ experience in strategic marketing, digital, data, and insights roles, including senior leadership positions at Optus, Vodafone, and Westpac.

He holds a Master of Letters in Philosophy and a Bachelor of Arts (First Class Honours) in Philosophy & Computer Science from the University of Sydney.

Alexander is a customer-centric, innovation-driven and purpose-led Chief Marketing Officer, commercial enterprise leader and proud member of The Iconic executive team. He boasts of intercontinental leadership experience in global, regional and local business setups of different sizes alike including Hubrick, Vans and adidas.

While having a steady focus on bridging the intersection between brand, product and sales, Alex is all about driving human connectivity. It is all about people – employees, customers and partners alike.

Michael Barnes
VP, research director, Forrester
In his role as research director, Michael leads a team of Forrester analysts in Asia-Pacific focused on helping business and technology professionals embrace digital transformation to deliver increased business value. Michael’s coverage focuses on how firms can embrace innovation and adopt organizational structures, processes, and technology to improve customer experience and drive operational excellence.

Michael’s views on technology trends and digital disruption in Asia Pacific are commonly cited in prominent publications and broadcast media, and he is a highly sought-after speaker at industry events throughout the world.
Michael has over 20 years of research and consulting experience and joined Forrester through its acquisition of Springboard Research. Prior to Springboard, he led software infrastructure and application integration research in Asia-Pacific for Gartner, advising large organizations on strategies for sourcing, implementing, and managing enterprise applications and software technologies. He previously conducted software research and implementation at Meta Group, Hurwitz Group, and Prudential Insurance.

Julianne Parkinson is the founding CEO of the Global Centre for Modern Ageing (GCMA).

Launched in 2018 and headquartered in Adelaide, South Australia, the GCMA is a global agency bringing an enterprise approach using evidence-based insights to the Ageing Well industry. Our mission is to respond to people’s changing needs and wants in the second half of life through deep expertise in end-user experience and research.
Under Julianne’s stewardship, the GCMA launched an internationally accredited real-time test facility called Life Lab, allowing organisations to validate and test products and services in a simulated 'real-life’ environment. The Life Lab testing produces best-in-class research outcomes to help improve the lives of older people.

Through relationships forged with governments, organisations and research institutions, the GCMA has an enviable portfolio of international engagements informing the landscape of products and services that will enable older people to live their best lives.
As CEO of the GCMA, Julianne is championing ground-breaking initiatives to build a national codesign community of citizens to inform and respond to client engagements.

She has overseen the publishing of significant research papers sharing insights into the social and economic opportunities afforded by the growing community of older people, the demand and desire to age in place and the accelerated take-up of tech-enabled solutions such as telehealth services during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Julianne is frequently invited to speak at conferences in Australia and throughout the world and regularly serves on judging panels of prestigious awards, such as the Ageing Asia Eldercare Innovation Awards that recognise the game-changing entrepreneurial initiatives of modern ageing.

Julianne is a fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. She is an Advisory Board Member on the UniSA Post Graduate Advisory Board and Business School Advisory Board.

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.

Nigel Mendonca joined Smartsheet in January 2020 as Vice President, Asia Pacific, with responsibility for establishing and leading Smartsheet’s APAC business operations. He has over 20 years’ experience working in sales, channel and general management roles across high growth technology companies in Australia and Asia. He spent 6 years living in Hong Kong where he led the Asia operations for Xpedite Systems and Symantec’s SaaS business and more recently, he spent 5 years establishing and leading Tableau’s Australia & New Zealand business. Outside of work, Nigel keeps busy with his wife and two teenage children, is a passionate sports fan (and long suffering North Melbourne fan in the AFL), an avid traveller – when that’s allowed, and is also a strong advocate for social justice and equality in the world.

With vast digital and ecommerce experience across EMEA, APAC and now the US, Chris Skelton is the Chief Revenue Officer at Marketplacer, the world’s leading PaaS company for creating successful and scalable online marketplaces. With scaling SaaS and PaaS companies in his DNA; from his early days at Hewlett-Packard to Adobe and now Marketplacer, Chris knows what it takes to grow and scale businesses with rapid velocity. Chris thrives on working closely with partners to achieve what no one thought possible and unlocking that potential together. He is on a mission to double Marketplacer’s growth in the next 12 months so that more sellers than ever can grow on.

Bede Hackney has over 25 years of experience in the IT and security industries, working with high growth companies and large multinationals, focusing on software and hardware solutions for big data, networking, security, storage, server virtualisation, desktop and mobility across public, private and hybrid cloud.

In November 2019, Bede joined Databricks to bring his extensive expertise to help expand the company’s presence in Australia and New Zealand markets. He is acutely focused on driving data innovation forward and helping the success of Australian and New Zealand customers in their digital transformation efforts with data and AI.

Prior to joining Databricks, Bede held roles as Managing Director for Tenable and Nimble Storage in ANZ and Director of Product Sales at VMware. Bede also worked in several strategic management roles for multinational software company, Citrix and served as the ANZ Country Manager for Packeteer.

In addition to Bede’s cross-technology leadership experience, he comes from a strong technical background – focused mainly in the networking arena where he holds a CCIE and was awarded a US patent for management of network quality of service.