CIO Day | Melbourne
Bridging Board Ambition with Technology Reality
Crown Promenade, Melbourne, Australia
Hosted by Factor
- 266 attendees
- 10 hours
Overview
In 2026, the disconnect between a Board’s vision for rapid AI transformation and the technical debt of legacy infrastructure has become the defining challenge for the modern CIO. While directors push for immediate ROI and market-disrupting innovation, IT leadership must navigate the complexities of data silos, cybersecurity risks, and talent shortages. This theme explores how CIOs can translate high-level business goals into a realistic technical roadmap, ensuring that board ambition doesn't outpace the organisation's foundational stability.
What we will cover
- Enterprise Support The latest strategies in enterprise support with cost optimisation in mind.
- Operational Productivity Investigating ways to streamline processes and optimise internal operations, reducing inefficiencies and improving overall output.
- Data Analytics Exploring how data-driven insights can guide strategic decisions and improve business outcomes across departments.
- Digital Acceleration Exploring how to accelerate digital transformation efforts to drive growth and adapt to new market demands.
- Cyber Priorities Emphasising proactive approaches to cybersecurity, integrating security measures into projects from inception to minimise risk.
- AI & Automation Examining how automation and AI are enhancing decision-making, reducing manual tasks, and improving business outcomes.
- Enterprise Agility Focusing on building agility and resilience into business operations to quickly respond to market shifts, disruptions, and emerging opportunities.
- ESG Goals Investigating how CIOs can support organisational sustainability efforts, aligning IT with environmental and social governance (ESG) metrics.
- Talent Development Addressing the challenge of upskilling IT teams and attracting digital talent, focusing on leadership in a tech-driven world.
- Executive Partnerships Exploring the evolving role of CIOs as strategic partners within the executive team, driving cross-functional collaboration and innovation.
- Security Investments Discussing the increasing need for investments in cybersecurity to protect against evolving threats and secure sensitive business data.
- Customer Experience Exploring strategies to elevate customer interactions, personalisation, and engagement, ensuring competitive differentiation and loyalty.
Agenda
- Networking Breakfast(CIO Day - Plenary) Informal arrival with open time for peer introductions. Sets the tone for a working day built on shared priorities and practical exchange.
- Opening Remarks: What Boards Now Expect(CIO Day - Plenary) Drawing on Factor’s latest CIO and board-level research, the VP Analysts outline how expectations of technology leaders have shifted in the past year. Covers what directors now look for in resilience reporting, IT cost transparency, and transformation outcomes, and how leading CIOs are adjusting their communication to match.
- CIOs at the Crossroads: Meeting Boards’ Evolving Expectations(CIO Day - Plenary) This session explores the current Australian enterprise landscape, marked by regulatory change, global pressures, constrained budgets, and the urgent need for measurable transformation. Drawing on the latest CIO and board-level research, we’ll examine how expectations of technology leaders have shifted, what boards now look for in resilience, cost transparency, and transformation outcomes, and how leading CIOs are adapting their strategies and communication to succeed in this changing environment.
- Modern CIO - How to be Successful in a Rapidly Changing Environment(CIO Day - Plenary) The role of the CIO has never been more complex or more critical. In a rapidly changing environment shaped by accelerating technology, evolving customer expectations, and constant disruption, success demands more than technical expertise. It requires a new leadership mindset. This session explores what it means to be a Modern CIO, anchored in five defining capabilities: curiosity to continually learn and adapt; collaboration to lead across business, product and technology boundaries; context to balance delivery, resilience and risk in decision-making; courage to challenge legacy thinking and lead through uncertainty; and customer centricity to ensure technology investment delivers tangible value. Together, these Five C’s form a practical framework for CIOs navigating complexity while driving sustainable, long-term outcome.
- The Intruder's Itinerary: Reconstructing the Ordinary Breach Behind Every Extraordinary Headline(CIO Day - Plenary) Australia's worst breaches were not masterpieces. Rebuild them hour by hour and the pattern is mundane: a credential that still worked, a device nobody was watching, movement that looked like routine traffic, and alarms that fired separately in systems that never compared notes. In this session, Hari, Chief Security Evangalist, ManageEngine walks the room through a composite 48-hour intrusion — assembled from the public record of recent Australian incidents — told from the attacker's side of the glass, asking at every step: which of your teams catches this, and would the other three ever know? Discussion Points: The Attacker Sees One Estate; You Operate Four: Access, devices, traffic and detection report to different teams, budgets and dashboards. Adversaries specialise in the seams — where accountability changes hands and telemetry doesn't follow. Hindsight Is Not a Detection Strategy: Post-incident reviews rarely find missing data; they find unjointed data. The 2026 question isn't "did we log it?" but "what connects our logs before an investigator does?" Resilience Is a Relay, Not Four Sprints: Regulators, customers and boards experience identity, endpoint, network and detection as one outcome. Teams that rehearse the hand offs turn a 48-hour crisis into a four-hour incident. Rehearse the Inquiry Before the Incident: Who got in, where did they land, how did they move, why didn't we see it — answer the four post-breach questions on a whiteboard now, and the slowest answer becomes your next budget line.
- Who Owns Transformation? Aligning the C-Suite on Risk, Capital and Execution(CIO Day - Plenary) This panel explores the shift from siloed transformation programs to a shared executive mandate, examining how organisations align strategy, data, applications, workflows and operations to deliver measurable business outcomes. As enterprises modernise increasingly complex technology estates, leaders must ensure systems and data are connected across the business, while balancing cyber, regulatory and operational risk with the need to move faster, unlock innovation and create lasting enterprise value. Discussion Points: Aligning Technology Investment with Business Outcomes How the C-suite ensures transformation initiatives deliver measurable enterprise value, not just isolated digital projects or disconnected platform upgrades. Connecting Data, Applications and Workflows Across the Enterprise Breaking down system and organisational silos to improve visibility, interoperability and decision-making across complex enterprise environments. Balancing Innovation with Enterprise Risk Navigating cyber, regulatory, operational and financial risk while enabling faster modernisation, automation and AI-readiness. Building True Cross-C-Suite Ownership of Transformation Creating shared accountability between technology, finance, operations and business units so transformation is governed as an enterprise-wide mandate
- Networking Break & Morning Tea(CIO Day - Plenary) Morning Team Strategy and Collaboration Session
- The Value Mandate: How CIOs Are Prioritising Work, Tracking Impact and Communicating Technology's Contribution in 2026(Roundtable 2)
- From AI Pilots to Real Business Value: What’s Actually Scaling?(Roundtable 3)
- The Realities of Modernisation: How Australian technology leaders are proving value in weeks, not months(Roundtable 1)
- Peer-Driven Debate(CIO Day - Plenary) A: Unified IT Department vs. Distributed Tech Capability In an era where technology is the business, should the CIO maintain a centralised IT function to ensure security and standards, or should technology capability be dissolved and distributed directly into business units? Discussion Prompts: When technology is embedded in every department, what is the role of the central CIO? How do organisations maintain unified governance and architecture with a distributed workforce? Does distributing talent improve business alignment or institutionalise technical fragmentation? B: Innovation Budget vs. Modernisation Reality Should IT budgets prioritise high-impact Agentic AI growth initiatives to stay competitive, or should the focus be on modernisation over novelty to fix legacy complexity and avoid bill shock from inefficient cloud scaling? Discussion Prompts: How do CIOs justify re-platforming existing infrastructure when the board only wants to discuss AI? Is technical debt always a liability, or is it sometimes a strategic asset for stability? At what point does the cost of cloud flexibility outweigh the benefit of architectural agility? C: Centralised Data Governance vs. Federated Data Products Should CIOs centralise data assets into unified environments to eliminate operational blind spots, or empower domain experts through federated data products to accelerate AI adoption across business units? Discussion Prompts: At what point does centralised data governance become a bottleneck for business-led innovation? How do you maintain data quality and compliance standards in a fully federated Data Mesh? Is the biggest barrier to AI scale technical capability or fragmented data control? D: Autonomous Agents vs. Human Oversight Is it time to hand over real-time operational decisions to Agentic AI systems to match the velocity of AI-driven cyberattacks, or must we maintain human-in-the-loop governance even if it creates a near-zero response window? Discussion Prompts: If cyber-threats move at machine speed, is human oversight actually an operational risk? Where is the red line for autonomous decision-making in highly regulated Australian sectors like finance or healthcare? Does removing the human from the loop accelerate efficiency or create black box liability? E: Ecosystem Partnership vs. Vendor Lock-In Should CIOs pursue deep, single-stack partnerships with primary platform vendors to maximise integration, or maintain a multi-vendor strategy to prevent hyperscaler power shifts? Discussion Prompts: Are Australian enterprises becoming tenants in ecosystems where they have zero negotiation leverage? Does the complexity of multi-cloud management negate the benefits of vendor choice? What defines a strategic partner vs. a high-risk third-party dependency in 2026? F: Sovereign Cloud vs. Global Hyperscale Should Australian organisations repatriate critical workloads to Sovereign-by-Design Architectures to ensure compliance with the SOCI Act and data residency, or double down on the innovation speed of global hyperscalers like Microsoft, AWS, and Google? Discussion Prompts: At what point does Cloud-First become a national security or compliance liability under Australian law? Can local sovereign cloud providers truly compete with the R&D velocity of global hyperscalers? How do CIOs balance board demands for cutting-edge AI with legal requirements for data residency?
- The Great Technology Skills Reset: Engineering a High-Performance Culture(CIO Day - Plenary) Before technology can drive transformation, it must first earn the trust of the business. Drawing on leadership experience as CIO, Australia at Sonic Healthcare, David Hackshall explores how CIOs can use data, accountability and cultural alignment to build high-performing technology teams that deliver measurable outcomes. Discover how establishing the right foundations enables IT to move beyond operational support and be the strategic partner in shaping business priorities, driving value and leading enterprise-wide change. Discussion Points: Building the Foundations for Strategic Influence: Why technology leaders must focus on operational excellence, accountability and trust before they can secure a meaningful seat at the strategic decision-making table. What Gets Measured Gets Managed: How stakeholder-focused metrics, performance visibility and data-driven decision-making can improve productivity, strengthen accountability and reshape perceptions of the technology function. Creating a High-Performance Culture at Scale: Lessons from leading large, geographically dispersed teams, including how communication, clear expectations and shared objectives can align people around a common vision for success.
- Speed vs Stability: The CIO’s Constant Trade-Off(CIO Day - Plenary) In today’s highly regulated enterprise environment, the ability to move quickly without compromising long-term stability has become a defining capability for CIOs. In this keynote, Peter Meliniotis, Group CIO at The Star Entertainment Group, will share how leaders deliver critical outcomes at pace while balancing resilience needs, navigate complexity across people, processes, and technology, and make clear, confident decisions when short-term pressure and long-term strategy collide. Discussion Points: Balancing Urgency with Long-Term Resilience: How to deliver critical business and compliance outcomes under pressure whilst managing future technical debt or systemic fragility. Managing Complexity Across People, Processes, and Technology: Lessons from navigating multi-vendor systems, regulatory constraints, and organisational culture to maintain stability while moving fast. Practical Decision-Making in High-Stakes Environments: Approaches for prioritising initiatives, trade-offs, and team alignment when short-term imperatives and long-term strategy collide.
- The Death of the 20-Year Platform: Architecting for the Disposable Era(CIO Day - Plenary) For decades, a tech executive’s success was measured by the monument, the core system built to last 20 years. In 2026, these monuments have become anchors. As AI cycles compress from years to weeks, the permanent system is no longer an asset; it is a legacy liability. In this session, Jacqui Lennon shares a raw, under the hood look at how one of the world’s leading insurers is moving away from the era of the fixed estate and toward a model of continuous reinvention. Drawing on her current work rebuilding core insurance processes with Agentic AI, Jacqui will challenge the traditional technology mentality that leads to stale tech and wasted investment. Discussion Points: The Velocity Trap: Why treating AI like a traditional 5-year project leads to stale tech. From Ownership to Democratisation: Moving core processes out of the tech domain and into the business landscape. Building for Trust, Not Just Tech: Using Behavioural Economics to solve Algorithm Aversion. If the architecture isn't transparent, the most swappable system in the world won't get used. The Cost of Wasted Effort: Navigating the friction of 15+ failed pilots. How to pivot from building things that stay on the shelf to high-velocity, Agentic AI that actually lands.
- How Observability Drives Business Outcomes During Rapid Technological Change(Roundtable 5)
- Securing the Enterprise in the Age of Frontier AI Model-Delivered Attacks(Roundtable 6)
- The Good, The Bad and The Ugly: What Real World AI Initiatives Are Actually Teaching Us(Roundtable 4)
- Lunch Break & Peer Connect(CIO Day - Plenary) An hour to continue conversations, meet solution providers and explore potential partnerships.
- CIO Exchange(CIO Day - Plenary) An interactive session where tech leaders connect one-on-one with peers to share candid stories about decisions they’ve made, what worked, and what they learned along the way. Expect honest reflections, practical insights, and engaging peer-to-peer conversations in an open, informal format.
- Cyber Risk Is Now Business Continuity Risk(CIO Day - Plenary) As organisations become increasingly digital and interconnected, cyber incidents are no longer isolated security events but enterprise-wide challenges. Today’s resilience is shaped by dynamic data flows, shared digital ecosystems, and the rapid adoption of AI. This session explores how risk and cybersecurity leaders unite to define realistic risk appetites, build robust partner ecosystems, and ensure the business remains operational through the complexities of a connected world. Discussion Points: When Cyber Becomes Operational Downtime: How cyber incidents impact revenue, logistics, and customer experience, and why risk and resilience leadership must treat cyber as a core business continuity priority. Defining Acceptable Risk: Lessons from the boardroom, finding the balance between maximum security and operational necessity. CRO + CISO: Two Sides of the Same Risk Ecosystem: How business risk leadership works alongside cyber operations to manage continuity, third-party dependencies, and disaster recovery. Identifying what’s next: Managing data, vendors, and external dependencies, and how risk leadership ensures the organisation can operate safely when disruptions originate beyond the organisation.
- The Debt and Duty Dilemma: Prioritising AI, Resilience and Growth in 2026(CIO Day - Plenary) As budgets tighten and expectations rise, CIOs are under pressure to balance operational resilience, regulatory responsibility, and the need to invest in future growth. This session explores how leaders are making difficult decisions around legacy systems, AI prioritisation, and workforce transformation, while ensuring innovation delivers real customer value, not just efficiency gains. From shutting down low-value platforms to embedding AI across the enterprise, the challenge is no longer whether to transform, but where to focus first. Discussion Points: The Consolidation Phase: Moving beyond endless pilots and fragmented AI experimentation to prioritise the initiatives that deliver the greatest business and customer value. Innovation Inside the Guardrails: Balancing speed, experimentation, and AI adoption within highly regulated environments where governance and customer trust are non-negotiable. The Talent Middle Management Vacuum: Addressing capability gaps, lifting AI literacy across the enterprise, and solving the growing middle-management vacuum created as automation replaces entry-level tasks ensuring organisations can still develop the next generation of senior architects, strategic thinkers, and technology leaders. Resilience Beyond Uptime: Why operational resilience now means graceful degradation, proactive service models, and ensuring the business can continue serving customers even when systems are under pressure.
- The Sovereign Ledger: Technology and the National Interest(CIO Day - Plenary) In 2026, the line between a corporation’s data and a nation’s security has effectively vanished. As CIOs face the dual pressures of global AI dominance and a volatile geopolitical climate, the borderless digital world of the past decade is being replaced by a new, harder reality: Digital Sovereignty. In this landmark session, the Hon. John Howard OM AC applies his principled pragmatism to the technology agenda. He will argue that Australia cannot afford to be a passive consumer of global innovation. Drawing on his legacy of balancing Australia’s security alliances with economic independence, Mr. Howard will outline why the CIO must now act as a strategic custodian ensuring that the systems powering Australian life remain under Australian control. Discussion Points: The Price of Dependency: Mr. Howard will provide a blunt assessment of the risks inherent in blind reliance on global tech monopolies. He will discuss the necessity of a Sovereign-First architecture, ensuring that Australia’s critical data and decision-making capabilities aren't outsourced to jurisdictions that don't share our national priorities. The Alliance vs. The Asset: Navigating the AUKUS era of technology. Howard will explore the delicate balance of leveraging the best of global innovation while maintaining a distinctly Australian control over the algorithms and data that influence our society and economy. Trust as a National Asset: Howard will challenge CIOs to lead the quiet achievement of building systems that are not just fast, but transparent and reliable restoring the public’s faith that technology serves the Australian people, rather than managing them.
- Wrap and Roadmap: CIO Priorities for 2027(CIO Day - Plenary) A structured 90-, 180-, and 360-day roadmap built from Factor’s benchmark data. Covers core modernisation, resilience, AI delivery, and capability uplift. CIOs can scan the QR code to access a personalised benchmarking tool and download an action plan tailored to their organisation.
- End of Day | Networking Drinks(CIO Day - Plenary)
Speakers
Monique Dignan-smith · VP Analyst, Factor Monique Dignan-Smith is Editor – Research & Content at Factor and a versatile host and presenter with more than a decade of experience across corporate, sports, lifestyle, travel, health and automotive sectors. With a strong background in journalism, content creation and social media marketing, Monique brings a sharp editorial lens and audience-first mindset to every conversation she leads. She has delivered across live events, advertorial, interviews, UGC and digital platforms including TikTok Live, combining professionalism with an energetic, engaging on-stage presence.
The hon. john Howard · Former Prime Minister, Australia The Hon. John Howard OM AC served as Australia’s 25th Prime Minister from 1996 to 2007, leading one of the country’s longest-serving governments. A transformative figure in modern Australian politics, he oversaw a period of sustained economic growth, major tax reform including the introduction of the GST, strengthened national security, and landmark gun law reform following the Port Arthur tragedy. His leadership helped shape Australia’s role on the global stage through strong alliances and active participation in international affairs. Before his prime ministership, Mr Howard held key portfolios including Treasurer in the Fraser Government and represented the Sydney electorate of Bennelong for over three decades. Widely regarded for his steady leadership and pragmatic approach to governance, he remains an influential voice in public affairs and a respected commentator on leadership, policy, and Australia’s place in a changing world.
Miranda Ratajski · Chief Information Officer, Group Business Units, Westpac Miranda is the CIO of Group Business Units for Westpac. She is a leader of large-scale and complex technological and digital transformations. Miranda has developed strategic and tactical direction, built high-performing teams, and enabled service to uplift customer experiences. Her leadership, focus, and business direction result in improved engagement and productivity through enhanced employee experience, delivering significantly engaged teams who have more time to delight customers. Driving excellence in product delivery is key to having systems that provide the right experience—Miranda has 25 years of global experience and is a master of this craft. Her experience spans Federal Government, Telecommunications, and Financial Services sectors across Europe, Asia, and Australia. Miranda is passionate about diversity and promoting women in technology. Community is a strong anchor for Miranda, and she is also a volunteer yoga teacher. Miranda’s recent awards and nominations include: WiBF Award for Inclusive Leadership Ranked #37 in the Top 100 Women in Finance Technology (Globally) Recognised #9 on the Power List
Deniz Molokov · Group Chief Information Officer / Chief Information Security Officer, Downer Deniz Molokov is the Acting Group Chief Information Officer and Chief Information Security Officer at Downer Group, where he leads both the organisation’s technology strategy and cybersecurity programs. In this dual role, he is responsible for driving enterprise IT transformation, modernising legacy systems, implementing scalable digital platforms, and safeguarding the business against emerging cyber threats across Downer’s diverse infrastructure and services operations. With over two decades of experience in technology leadership, Deniz has deep expertise in aligning IT strategy with business outcomes, managing risk, and delivering digital solutions in complex, asset‑intensive environments. He is recognised for fostering innovation, operational resilience, and a data-driven culture that balances technological advancement with security, governance, and measurable business impact.
Peter Meliniotis · Group Chief Information Officer, The Star Entertainment Group Peter Meliniotis is the Group Chief Information Officer at The Star Entertainment Group, where he leads the organisation’s technology strategy and transformation agenda across its integrated resort, hospitality, and gaming operations. With over two decades of experience in technology advisory, implementation, and enterprise transformation, Peter has built a career at the intersection of innovation, governance, and business enablement. Since joining The Star in 2025, he has been instrumental in driving digital modernisation and strengthening the organisation’s information management and systems architecture to support operational excellence and regulatory integrity. Holding both an MBA and a Master of Information Technology, Peter combines commercial acumen with deep technical expertise; passionate about leveraging technology to deliver secure, efficient, and customer-centric business outcomes.
David Hackshall · Chief Information Officer (CIO), Sonic Healthcare David Hackshall is the Chief Information Officer (Australia) at Sonic Healthcare, where he leads the organisation’s technology strategy, digital transformation, and enterprise IT initiatives across one of the world’s largest medical diagnostics and healthcare services companies. He is responsible for modernising legacy systems, implementing scalable digital platforms, and leveraging data to drive operational efficiency and improved patient outcomes. With extensive experience in technology leadership across regulated and complex environments, David has held senior roles including Global CIO at Cochlear Limited. He is recognised for aligning IT strategy with business objectives, delivering large-scale transformation programs, and fostering a data-driven culture that enables innovation, accountability, and measurable business impact.
Jacqui Lennon · Chief Technology and Transformation Officer, Zurich Insurance Australia Jacqui Lennon is Chief Technology and Transformation Officer at Zurich Insurance Group (Australia and New Zealand), where she leads enterprise technology, digital transformation, and operating model change. She is responsible for driving Zurich’s technology strategy, modernising core insurance platforms, and embedding agile, data-driven ways of working to enhance customer experience and business performance across the organisation. With over 20 years of experience in financial services, Jacqui has held senior leadership roles across product, digital, and customer transformation at organisations including Macquarie Group, IRESS, and Allianz Retire+. She is recognised for her expertise in insurance innovation, digital strategy, and large-scale transformation, with a strong focus on aligning technology, product, and customer outcomes to deliver sustainable business impact.
Richard Exton · Group Chief Technology and Data Officer, Aware Super Richard Exton is the Group Executive, Chief Technology and Data Officer at Aware Super, one of Australia’s largest superannuation funds. He leads the organisation’s enterprise technology, data, and AI strategy, overseeing platform modernisation, digital capability, and cybersecurity to support better member outcomes for more than one million Australians. With over 30 years of experience in financial services and technology, Richard has held senior leadership roles across organisations including Macquarie Group, ANZ, and Commonwealth Bank of Australia. He is recognised for leading large-scale digital transformations, including cloud and platform modernisation and the insourcing of critical technology capabilities, and for driving the adoption of data and AI to improve efficiency, personalisation, and customer experience.
Rachael Phelan · Chief Operating Officer NAB Business and Private, NAB Rachael Phelan is Chief Operating Officer at National Australia Bank, where she leads enterprise operations across one of Australia’s largest financial institutions. She is responsible for driving operational excellence, resilience, and large-scale transformation across core banking services and customer-facing platforms. A key member of the executive team, Rachael focuses on simplifying and modernising operations to improve customer outcomes, strengthen performance, and ensure the organisation can scale efficiently in a rapidly changing financial and technology landscape.
Carly Richards · Chief Risk Officer (CRO), Woolworths Group Carly Richard is Chief Risk Officer at Woolworths Group, where she oversees enterprise risk, resilience, and governance across one of Australia and New Zealand’s largest retail and supply chain networks. She plays a critical role in protecting operational continuity across complex logistics, digital, and customer-facing environments. Working closely with executive leadership, Carly ensures risk is embedded into strategic decision-making, enabling the business to grow and transform while maintaining trust, resilience, and regulatory confidence at scale.
Mark Brown · Chief Information Officer (CIO), Dyson Group of Companies Mark Brown is the Chief Information Officer at Dyson Group, where he leads the organisation’s technology strategy, digital transformation, and enterprise systems across its large-scale transport and logistics operations. In this role, he is responsible for modernising core platforms, improving operational efficiency, and ensuring technology enables safe, reliable, and data-driven transport services across the business. With extensive experience in IT leadership within complex, operationally intensive environments, Mark brings a strong focus on aligning technology with frontline business needs. He has a track record of delivering practical innovation across infrastructure, systems integration, and service optimisation, with an emphasis on improving performance, resilience, and customer outcomes in the transport sector.
Ed Falconer · Chief Data Officer, Bupa Ed Falconer is Chief Data Officer at Bupa, where he leads the organisation’s enterprise data, analytics, and AI strategy. He is responsible for transforming Bupa into a data-driven healthcare business, building advanced data platforms and deploying AI to enable more proactive, personalised care. His work focuses on using data to move beyond retrospective insights toward predictive and preventative health outcomes at scale. With a background spanning senior roles at Accenture and Coles Group, Ed brings deep experience in data transformation, commercialisation, and customer strategy. He has led large, multidisciplinary teams and complex transformation programs, and is recognised for driving the practical application of AI and analytics to deliver measurable business and customer impact.
Jean-Baptiste Bres · CISO, AMP Jean-Baptiste Bres is Chief Information Security Officer at AMP, where he leads the organisation’s cyber security, information security, and technology risk functions. He is responsible for protecting critical systems and customer data, strengthening cyber resilience, and embedding robust security frameworks across a highly regulated financial services environment. With more than 20 years of global experience, Jean-Baptiste has held senior security leadership roles across banking, fintech, and wealth management, including serving as CISO for HSBC Australia and Australasia. He is recognised for his expertise in zero-trust architecture, cyber risk management, and leading large-scale security transformations, as well as his commitment to building high-performing teams and advancing industry capability in cyber security.
Callum Nelson · CISO, EBOS Group Limited Callum Nelson is Chief Information Security Officer at EBOS Group, where he leads the organisation’s cybersecurity, information security, and technology risk functions. He is responsible for safeguarding critical systems, protecting sensitive data, and strengthening cyber resilience across one of Australasia’s largest healthcare and pharmaceutical distribution businesses, operating in a highly regulated and operationally complex environment. With over two decades of experience in technology and security leadership, Callum brings deep expertise in cyber risk management, security transformation, and protecting large-scale, distributed operations. He is focused on embedding security as a core business capability, enabling EBOS to maintain trust, resilience, and continuity across its essential healthcare supply chain.
Louiza Nutt · Group General Manager Network, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure, JB Hi-Fi Louiza Nutt is a senior technology executive at JB Hi-Fi, where she serves as Group General Manager for Network, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure. With a career spanning software development through to executive leadership, she brings deep expertise across cybersecurity, cloud, infrastructure, and enterprise operations. Louiza is responsible for ensuring the resilience, security, and scalability of core technology platforms, enabling the business to deliver reliable, customer-focused outcomes while navigating an increasingly complex risk landscape. An advocate for practical, outcome-driven innovation, Louiza is passionate about leveraging AI and emerging technologies to enhance both customer and employee experiences. Known for her strategic vision and high-performing leadership style, she combines strong technical depth with a pragmatic approach to transformation, focused on what it takes to operationalise change at scale. She is also a committed supporter of diversity in technology, serving as a board member for Women 4 STEM and championing initiatives that inspire the next generation of women in tech.
David Irecki · Chief Technology Officer, Boomi David Irecki is the Chief Technical Officer (CTO) for Asia Pacific / Japan (APJ) at Boomi, a category-leading, global software as a service (SaaS) company with more than 20,000 global customers and a worldwide network of 800 partners. As CTO, David leads the region’s efforts in advocating and evangelizing the future of artificial intelligence (AI) in business with intelligent integration and automation. He is instrumental in helping organizations across the APJ region thrive in the digital age and on their AI journeys. David leads a team of pre-sales professionals across APJ. Under his leadership, his team helps customers transform their business by solving integration and data management challenges. David is an IT veteran with over 20 years of experience in the enterprise integration and embedded computing markets. David joined Boomi in June 2015 as the first Solutions Consultant in APJ. Prior to Boomi, David worked for MuleSoft, where he led the APJ Solutions Consulting team. David is a graduate of New Zealand’s Massey University, majoring in Information Engineering.
Partners
- Versent · Gold
- Cato Networks · Bronze Cato provides the world’s leading single-vendor SASE platform. Cato creates a seamless and elegant customer experience that effortlessly enables threat prevention, data protection, and timely incident detection and response. Using Cato, businesses easily replace costly and rigid legacy infrastructure with a modern, zero-trust SASE architecture based on SD-WAN, a purpose-built global cloud network, and an embedded cloud-native security stack to secure and optimize their global hybrid workforce and mission-critical applications and data on premises and in the cloud. With Cato, any organization can reap the full benefits of digital transformation and move at the speed of business. CatoNetworks.com @CatoNetworks.
Boomi · Gold Boomi, the leader in AI-driven automation, enables organizations worldwide to connect everything, automate processes, and accelerate outcomes. The Boomi Enterprise Platform — including Boomi Agentstudio — unifies integration and automation along with data, API, and AI agent management, in a single, comprehensive solution. Trusted by over 23,000 customers and supported by a network of 800+ partners, Boomi is driving agentic transformation — helping enterprises of all sizes achieve agility, efficiency, and innovation at scale. Discover more at boomi.com .- Equal Experts · Gold We are honoured to have been named the 2nd best place to work in the UK by Glassdoor! Our team of 3,000 consultants across five continents help create leading digital products and services. We decide with data, design for users, deliver at pace and scale sustainably. Bringing undiluted expertise We only engage senior consultants. In years of experience, our people have twice the industry average. Low-ego and curious, they share knowledge with your teams and across our network. Keeping you innovating We take the time to understand where you are now. We get excited about where you want to be. Building momentum with many small changes, we embed innovation into your every day. Easy to work with Valuing context, we never offer cookie-cutter solutions. Treating each other and our customers as equals, we solve problems with you. Infusing our culture and skills into your organisation, we build long-lasting value. Experienced consultants know what they’re doing – we free them to do what they do best. Find out what it’s like to work with us, get in touch.
Apptio, an IBM Company · Gold Apptio, an IBM company, is the leading technology spend and value management software provider. Apptio’s AI-powered data insights empower leaders to make smarter financial and operational decisions across Information Technology (IT), multi-cloud FinOps, and digital product development. Apptio's mission is to deliver business value with every technology investment. Powered by Apptio’s cloud platform, Apptio’s SaaS applications translate technology spend into clear business outcomes and financial ROI. As a pioneer and category leader in Technology Business Management (TBM) and FinOps, Apptio works with thousands of customers, partners, and community members worldwide. For more information, please visit www.apptio.com.- Macquarie Telecom · Official Sovereign Partner We get our customers talking, emailing and connecting. But we do it in an #SoUnTelco way. We take care of data, voice, mobile and SDWAN. But we also take care of you. We work hard to be better.
- ManageEngine · Platinum As the IT management division of Zoho Corporation, ManageEngine prioritizes flexible solutions that work for all businesses, regardless of size or budget. ManageEngine crafts comprehensive IT management software with a focus on making your job easier. Our 120+ award-winning products and free tools cover everything your IT needs. From network and device management to security and service desk software, we're bringing IT together for an integrated, overarching approach to optimize your IT.
Equinix · Silver Equinix (Nasdaq: EQIX) is the world’s digital infrastructure company®. Digital leaders harness Equinix’s trusted platform to bring together and interconnect foundational infrastructure at software speed. Equinix enables organizations to access all the right places, partners and possibilities to scale with agility, speed the launch of digital services, deliver world-class experiences and multiply their value, while supporting their sustainability goals.- Nexon · Silver Nexon Asia Pacific (Nexon) is an award-winning digital consulting and managed services partner for mid-market, enterprise, and government organisations across Australia. We have a uniquely broad suite of solutions to service clients who require end-to-end capabilities coupled with specialist expertise in security, cloud and digital solutions. As a certified and accredited local and state government provider, CREST and ISO-certified, Nexon partners with world-class technology vendors to deliver innovative and integrated solutions. Pointedly structured and culturally driven to deliver the highest standards of responsiveness, competency and transparency, our integrated solutions and close client relationships help propel organisations forward. For expertise, delivered with care, clients can look to the future with Nexon.
- Silverfort · Gold
- New Relic · Gold As a leader in observability, New Relic empowers engineers with a data-driven approach to planning, building, deploying, and running great software. New Relic delivers the only unified data platform that empowers engineers with all telemetry—metrics, events, logs, and traces—paired with powerful full-stack analysis tools to help engineers do their best work with data, not opinion. Delivered through the industry’s first usage-based consumption pricing that’s intuitive and predictable, New Relic gives engineers more value for the money by helping improve planning cycle times, change failure rates, release frequency, and mean time to resolution. This helps the world’s leading brands including adidas Runtastic, American Red Cross, Australia Post, Banco Inter, Chegg, GoTo Group, Signify Health, Topgolf, and World Fuel Services improve uptime, reliability, and operational efficiency to deliver exceptional customer experiences that fuel innovation and growth. Empower your engineers with the data they need to measure, improve, and grow your digital business. www.newrelic.com .
- Vodafone Business · Gold
- Chainguard · Bronze Chainguard is the trusted source for open source. By delivering hardened, secure, and production-ready builds of all the open source software engineers and AI agents rely on, Chainguard helps organizations build faster, stay compliant, and eliminate risk. Its customers include Fortune 500 enterprises and global industry leaders, including Anduril, Canva, Fortinet, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, OpenAI, Snap Inc., and Snowflake. Chainguard is venture-backed by leading investors, including Amplify, IVP, Kleiner Perkins, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Mantis VC, Redpoint Ventures, Sequoia Capital, and Spark Capital. For more information, visit: https://www.chainguard.dev/
- Exabeam · Gold Exabeam is the leader in behavior intelligence for the agentic enterprise. As organizations deploy digital workers and confront machine-speed adversaries, Exabeam applies agent-powered analytics to understand and govern the behavior of both human and non-human insiders. With integrated Exabeam Nova cybersecurity agents, Exabeam delivers flexible, industry-proven solutions for insider threat coverage of humans and agents and faster, more accurate threat detection, investigation, and response (TDIR). As the pioneer of user and entity behavior analytics (UEBA) and the innovator behind Agent Behavior Analytics (ABA), Exabeam is trusted by more than 3,000 enterprises worldwide to reduce risk, secure the digital workforce, and accelerate security operations. Learn more at www.exabeam.com. Exabeam: Real Intelligence. Real Security. Real Fast.
- NRI · Bronze
- Factor Leading market research in APAC.
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