Michael Fraccaro is the chief human resources officer of Mastercard. In this role, he is responsible for all human resources (HR) functions globally, including driving cultural transformation, building leadership capability and creating a company that is “most valued to work for.” He is a member of the company’s management committee.

From 2012 until assuming his current role, Michael served as executive vice president of human resources, Global Products and Solutions. In this role, he supported the company’s growth in key businesses and markets and optimized talent programs in a competitive environment. He also was responsible for leading the global HR integration of new acquisitions and joint ventures.

Prior to joining Mastercard, Michael was a core member of the HR leadership team at HSBC Group for nearly 12 years, based in Hong Kong. Earlier, he held senior HR positions in banking and financial services in Australia and the Middle East, working extensively across different cultures.

Michael holds a Masters of Applied Science, Communication Management from the University of Technology, Sydney, and a Bachelor of Education from the Australian Catholic University. He also has accreditation in change management from the Australian Graduate School of Management and attended leadership programs at Duke Fuqua and INSEAD.

Lyra Schramm has a wealth of global experience at various senior leadership levels in corporate and nonprofit organizations in human capital management, organizational effectiveness, change management, executive coaching, leadership development and talent acquisition. Her experience ranges from managing integrated HR strategies across Africa, Europe, China, India and the Middle East for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to a global leadership role within People Operations at Google. She is passionate about transforming organizations by aligning people strategies with business objectives. Lyra lives in Palo Alto California with her husband and daughter and is actively involved in community organizations supporting women and girls. She enjoys running in her free time.

Elise is currently In Charge of HR and Talent Acquisition for EVELOZCITY – a US based EV start-up with a mission to design, develop and deliver competitive, capable and connected electric vehicle, developed for urban needs. Elise is an HR Executive with 12 years experience across engineering, and retail industries, and industry associations across Asia Pacific, and the US. She is also an advisory board member for Gladeo – a non-profit dedicated to helping bridge the gap between school and work for underserved children. Prior to EVELOZCITY, Elise worked across all generalist HR fields, executive search and employment law. Elise is recognized for her ability to adapt HR operations to the individual in a scalable, and innovative way.

Lorraine Murphy has global experience in Human Resources (HR) and brings deep expertise across all HR dimensions including CEO and Executive Team Coaching; Organization Effectiveness, Culture & Engagement; Leadership Development; Talent & Succession Management; Mergers & Acquisitions; Change Management; Global Comp & Benefits Strategies; Diversity & Inclusion and Business Partnering. Lorraine joined National Australia Bank (NAB) as Group Executive, People in March 2016 and is responsible for end-to-end HR solutions for the 35,000 global workforce across Australia, New Zealand, Asia, US and the UK. NAB is one of the four pillars of Australia’s financial system, the big four, and is one of the world’s safest banks, and one of only 11 banks globally to hold a AA credit rating post the GFC. NAB is an ASX top 100 listed company, with a strong capital position (Group Common Tier Equity Tier 1 is 10.1% versus a target of 8.75%-9.25%) and $3.29bn Cash Earnings for HY2017. In her previous role, Lorraine was Chief People Officer at Air New Zealand for three years. Prior to this she was Vice President of Human Resources – International for Campbell Soup Company in the USA. Her extensive international career in human resource leadership also includes senior human resources roles with Lion Nathan Australia, the Australian Gas Light Company, and global chemical company ICI. Lorraine holds a Bachelor of Education degree from LaTrobe University in Melbourne and an MBA from Monash University in Melbourne. Lorraine is passionate about supporting and developing women in business and is member of the International Women’s Foundation.

Recognised as a leader in the field, Jordan has worked in People Analytics for around a decade, as both a consultant working with leading organisations all over the world, and now in-house at Nestlé.

Jordan has specialized in the practice of Workforce Analytics and Strategic Workforce Planning since 2008, first joining Infohrm in Australia, and working cross country and industry, before moving to the United Kingdom as the practice leader for the SuccessFactors Workforce Analytics and Planning modules for Europe the Middle East and Africa. Most recently Jordan has led the Talent Analytics consulting offering of IBM in Europe, working globally, and leading engagements focused on analytics, planning and the emerging area of cognitive HR, a means of addressing business need through the application of cognitive applications, to digest, contextualize, act and recommend next best actions based on both structured and unstructured data.

Leading the global function at Nestlé, Jordan leads in end-to-end strategic workforce planning programs and has developed expertise to roll out new functions inside organisations and exploit trends in workforce metrics that lead to positive business outcomes.

Winner of the LinkedIn Conscious Business Leadership Award 2016 – Management Maestro category – Ashley Winnett is not your typical HR Director. Ashley has had three equally rewarding careers – stacking shelves in numerous departments at Coles but never made it to a register, realising he didn’t enjoy law but became a partner anyway because that’s what you’re supposed to do when your parents decide you should study law whilst you are overseas enjoying your schoolies break and finally rebuilding an iconic Australian business whilst simultaneously dismantling it so as to ensure that his peers, friends and team mates have all the support necessary to help them forge careers both within and beyond Holden. Having joined Holden in 2005, initially as part of the legal team it wasn’t long before he was enticed to get his hands dirty. In 2007 Ashley joined the HR team as HR Manager Assembly Operations based in Adelaide. In 2009 at the height of the Global Financial Crisis Ashley was appointed to the role of Director – Manufacturing & Labour Relations where he negotiated the One Shift Two Crew Half pay arrangement which sustained the operations at a time when export production was cancelled overnight. In 2012 Ashley returned to Melbourne to the position of Executive Director Human Resources. In 2013 Ashley led a small team who successfully negotiated the landmark variation to the Holden Enterprise Agreement before having to inform the same workforce that their efforts had been unsuccessful. In 2014 Ashley was appointed to the Holden Board. Ashley is now Executive Director – People, Performance and Culture where he has been an active and vocal positive disruptor across the business and believes that supporting flexibility increases inclusion, supports diversity and improves overall engagement and teamwork whilst empowers people to be their best. Prior to joining Holden Ashley was a Partner at Norton Rose Fulbright in their Workplace Relations Practice. Ashley holds a Bachelor of Law and Arts (Hons).

Jane Kelly joined Super Retail Group in July 2016 as Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) from BT Financial Group, where she served as Human Resources and Corporate Affairs Director. Previously, she served in a number of senior roles in large, complex organisations, including Head of Reward for St. George Bank and Head of HR Australian Financial Services at Westpac. Jane holds a Masters of Commerce and Employee Relations with honours from the University of Melbourne, and a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of New South Wales. As CHRO, Jane is responsible for advancing Super Retail Group’s strong focus on team engagement, culture and capability development.

Chief Operating Officer leads the ATO Corporate and Enabling Services functions.  These functions include Strategic Planning, Governance, Finance, Corporate, Risk Management, People, Integrity, Change Management and Design for the organisation.  In this role, Jacqui is a member of the ATO Executive of seven (7) members, responsible for shaping and setting strategic direction and oversight implementation.

The COO position gives greater strength and integration to our corporate positioning, and ensures we are well positioned for Australian Public Service (APS)-wide reforms of corporate and shared services, and that our planning, governance and risk management is strategic and sensible. The COO brings together an integrated picture of our people and resource management and ensure we have the right capability and culture to meet our strategic intent.

This position has a role in managing the relationship with key stakeholders like our scrutineers.

All of these underpin our ability to deliver on a better client and staff experience.

Prior to the COO role, Jacqui joined the ATO in September 2013 as Deputy Commissioner ATO People and was responsible for delivering an enterprise-wide human resource management service which supports ATO employees in providing a sustainable, open and accountable workplace.  Jacqui was also responsible for leading the Reinvention Program Management Office and the change management driving this key reform.

Before joining the ATO, Jacqui was General Manager of the People Capability Division with the Department of Human Services, where she led the department’s leadership and change, people development, workforce planning and research functions. Jacqui has also worked for the Australian Public Service Commission, where she was responsible for delivering integrated people development, SES and APS-wide leadership and talent, change management, strategic recruitment, communications, and learning and development. She also has extensive international experience.

Jacqui holds an Executive Masters in Public Administration from the Australian National University and is a Fellow of Australian Human Resource Institute.

James Spenceley is an Australian investor, award-winning entrepreneur and company director. He is the Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of MHOR asset management. He is also the Chairman of Airtasker and Silver Heritage Group.

James is most widely known as the founder and former Chief Executive Officer of Australia’s 4th largest fixed line telecommunications company Vocus Communications. He started Vocus in September 2007 and sold his house to initially fund the business. The company listed on the Australian Stock Exchange in 2010. When he stepped down as Chief Executive Officer in March 2016 the company had a market capitalisation of $5 billion.

In 2018 he was inducted into the CommsDay Edison Awards Hall of Fame.

In 2016 Spenceley was listed at number 51 of Financial Review Rich List of 100 wealthiest Australian’s under 40 with a net worth of $51 million.

He is an active Venture Capital investor, with investments in the marketplace business Airtasker where he is now Chairman of the board, Silver Heritage Group where he is also non-executive chairman and director, Spaceship Financial Services, meal kit delivery service Marley Spoon, Integrated Green Energy Solutions which uses patented technology to turn unwanted plastics into road ready fuel and indoor vertical farming startup Sustenir.

In 2017 and 2018 he was a national judge for the Australian Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award.

Senior executive and people leader focused on areas where her unique skills to align multiple stakeholders to challenging, transformative, and ‘tough’ decisions across leading influential organisations (public and Private).

Heidi has deep strategy, transformation, and organisational design experience and broad application of general management in both corporate functions and business roles (with P&L responsibility.)

Deeply passionate about creating high performing, diverse, and truly inclusive teams, Heidi is committed to improving leading organisations’ capabilities to embed change and realise their potential through supportive, inclusive, and non-hierarchical leadership.

Functional specialties: organisation design, strategy and transformation, commercial negotiations (public and private sector), customer insights/analytics, and performance management

Significant industry expertise (who consults occasionally) in travel, transport (aviation, rail) and logistics industries across Australia and North America (with dual US-Australian citizenship).

Merryl commenced with Tabcorp in October 1990 and has held numerous positions across a range of discipline areas including human resources, training and development, communications and sales.

She became Executive General Manager – Human Resources in June 2011 following the implementation of the Tabcorp demerger, and then Executive General Manager – People, Culture & Communications in March 2016, prior to becoming Chief People Officer in December 2017 following the Tabcorp-Tatts combination.

Merryl holds a Masters of Business Administration (Executive) and a Bachelor of Arts, and has attended the Senior Executive Program at the London Business School. She is a Member of AICD.

Anish brings a unique set of skills as a HR Leader who creates institutionalized mechanism for driving business performance, wears business & HR hat together, energizes employee engagement and mentors/develops leaders across functions.

He has had the opportunity to work with CPG & Financial Sector in various roles ranging from Global to Regional, Country Lead, setting up new businesses, Lead large scale Change Management Programs, People Development, Employer Branding, Recruitment, Performance Management, Sales HRBP, Industrial Relations etc.

Unilever has given him the opening to work on Big & Complexed roles like HR Director-SEAA, Leadership Development Director–Global Markets and at the same time, he had the opportunity to set up new business units globally likes of Unilever Water business & now Unilever International.

Through his journey, he has successfully led small or big teams (ranging from 3 to 55 HR Team members to service 100 to 10000+ employees) driven HR agenda with linkage to business and inspired team commitment.

Rebecca’s HR career started in an organisation where she worked with long term unemployed people. She then moved to a large labour hire firm and ran the labour hire onsite at Steggles. Rebecca’s next role was with a large charity, Samaritan Foundation and offered an opportunity as acting HR Manager. A role then came up at Australian Wine Selectors as the first HR resource. At that point, turnover was 50% in the call centre and she was able to get turnover to 20%.

She moved into a role at Gilbarco as the HR Director for Australia and NZ, Rebecca was able to partner with the Managing Director to develop and implement positive HR strategies.

KONE was her next opportunity to move from a business that was 500 – 1500 people. She took the team to a modern HR function that partnered with the business, during the time that they were between Managing Directors.

Rebecca is proud of her work around how people and culture in the NRL can impact during a time of change, do in her current position at NRL

Lucinda Gemmell joined Virgin Australia in October 2017 as Group Executive People for the Virgin Australia Group. In this role, Lucinda is responsible for the Group’s people and culture strategy, talent, leadership development, organisational effectiveness, group remuneration and benefits and staff travel. Lucinda has more than 20 years of progressive HR and commercial leadership experience in Australia and Asia Pacific. Her experience includes HR leadership (Australia and Asia Pacific), Strategy Management and Business Management.

Prior to this, Lucinda Gemmell was the General Manager People with Endeavour Drinks Group, Woolworths Ltd managing brands including Dan Murphy’s, BWS, Pinnacle Drinks, Cellarmasters, Langtons and Summergate in China. She provided leadership for Talent and Organisational Development, Leadership and Culture, Organisational Effectiveness, Learning and Development and Employment Relations.

Lucinda previously held the roles of HR Director, Australia and Asia Pacific Supply based in Singapore with Diageo. In her role as HR Director in Australia, she led Diageo’s HR function to deliver the Australian business strategy. This role delivered significant growth in the business with a focus on talent, engagement and organisational effectiveness. Prior she held HR leadership, strategy and business management roles in Fairfax.

Lucinda was a finalist Young Australian of the Year (1998) in the Career Achievement category recognising achievements in executing complex change in organisations. Lucinda was awarded 2014 Australian HR Director of the Year at the Australian HR Awards.

She holds a Master of Business Administration and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology.

As Vice President HR, Corry is currently responsible for defining HR strategy initiatives that drive and support the success of Thales, a global technology leader employing over 3,500 people in 35 sites across ANZ. An experienced human resources professional, Corry has a successful track record in driving cultural and organisational change and developing leadership and people programmes for a wide range of global companies. Prior to Thales, Corry was Senior HR Manager for Microsoft in Australia, developing and implementing people strategies and programs to support business initiatives and build capability across APAC and an active member of the Institute for Sustainable Leadership in Sydney.

Chris Lokum was appointed Vice President HR, Fuels Asia Pacific & Air BP on 1 January, 2015.  Her responsibilities now include being a member of the HR Segment Leadership Team where she represents Air BP and Asia Pacific and continuing her role as HR Director for BP Australia & New Zealand

In 2008 Chris was appointed HR Director for BP in Australia and New Zealand. In this role she manages a team of 60 people, servicing some 10,000 employees.

Chris has held a number of senior HR positions both in the UK and New Zealand and has undergraduate and post-graduate qualifications in HR, Economics, Management and Psychology. She has also completed executive education programmes at Michigan and Cornell Universities in the USA and is a member of Melbourne’s International HR Director Forum and a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD).  Chris is a board member of Australian Terminal Operations Management Pty Ltd (ATOM).

As HR Director for Australia and New Zealand Chris is responsible for promoting a merit-based, diverse and inclusive work environment that respects and leverages difference; this includes agile working, gender diversity, creating an age-friendly work place and indigenous inclusion. Another focus area is strengthening the talent pipeline through integrated people solutions and focused development opportunities.

Karen Lonergan is the Chief People Officer, David Jones and Country Road Group (Woolworths Holdings Asia Pacific). She is a member of the Woolworths Holdings Regional Executive Committee and is responsible for all aspects of the People and Culture strategy. Karen is a People and Transformation leader with over 25 years’ of experience strengthening; culture, capability and performance in the; Transportation, FMCG, and Retail sectors across; Australia, Asia, USA and Europe. She enjoys a strong reputation for supporting ASX Listed Boards, CEOs and Executive teams with: • People and culture strategy, • Selecting and aligning World Class executive teams, • Strengthening cultures in order to drive team and customer advocacy, • Leading transformation, operating model redesign and cost reduction in order to navigate disruption, • Supporting growth in new and developing markets • Leading World Class People Function teams who are valued as business partners She has typically worked in complex, competitive, highly scrutinised and disrupted environments. Prior to her current role Karen held a range of senior People roles at Woolworths Australia. She is best known for her role in leading the People and Culture aspects of the well documented transformation of Qantas International. Karen has been married for over 20 years and has two wonderful teenage children.

Rebecca is the Director of People and Performance for Australia and Asia at Xero, a global cloud-based platform that connects small businesses to advisors, products and each other. Great people and teams are not just important at Xero, they are a key strategic priority. With a firm focus on enabling people to do the best work of their lives, Rebecca leads a team that develops Xero’s leaders, and grows and supports highly effective teams that collaborate at pace and scale. With a background in management consulting, Rebecca has developed a deep interest and passion for everything people and culture related. She strives to push the dial on the people experience that we provide both employees and customers.

Nicolle a creative, emotionally intelligent and commercial HR Leader with a passion for gaining competitive advantage through Talent has been in her current role at The ICONIC for the past 2 years. She has 20 years industry experience across the full breadth of Human Resources capability. Experience and achievements span across leadership coaching & growth, strategic workforce planning, merger & acquisitions, industrial relations, systems implementation, culture & change management, reward and talent acquisition, offshoring and large-scale distribution business general HR management. She is passionate about creating and driving talent solutions that transform the customer and employee experience to gain competitive advantage.

Ben is the Co-Head of HR and General Manager Performance, Reward & HR Operations at Mirvac, he has been in this role for the past 2 years. Prior to this he was Head of Performance, Executive Compensation and Global Projects for Lend Lease. Ben has previously been a consultant with PwC, Deloitte and Hay Group. While at Hay Group, Ben was the Practice Leader for Executive Reward for the Pacific region and led the NSW Consulting business.

Ben is a Chartered Accountant, a Solicitor and a Chartered Company Secretary. In addition to his professional experience, Ben is an experienced lecturer and has taught accounting and law subjects at UNSW and UTS including lecturing in the MBA program at UTS. Ben is also a published author of “Accounting for Dollars; Thinking with Sense – Accounting explained in plain English” (published by LexisNexis).

Steve joined Downer in March 2012 as the Executive General Manager, Human Resources for the
Rail division. In September 2013, Steve’s role was broadened and he was appointed Group General
Manager People, Safety, and Culture for Downer’s Rail division, a role which incorporated all Zero
Harm responsibilities for the Rail business.
In December 2014, Steve was appointed Group Head of Human Resources and Industrial Relations,
leading the HR and IR function for the Downer Group. With the recent acquisition of the Spotless
business, annual revenues exceed $12B and we engage in excess of 56,000 employees.
His former roles include GGM Human Resources for Komatsu Australia Pty Ltd; HR Director with
Goodman Fielder; HR Director, Schindler Australia; and he previously held the role of General
Manager, Industrial Relations at Qantas.
Prior to Qantas, Steve was the Assistant Director Resource Planning for the Royal Australian Navy and
prior to this worked in NSW abattoirs resolving industrial disputes for AQIS.
Steve is married with 5 sons.
Steve has an MBA from MGSM, has been a Board Director with Foodbank NSW since 2011 and is also
a Justice of the Peace in NSW.

Scott is a senior leader with more than 20 years experience in human resources operations, strategy, shared services and industrial relations. Scott has been with Rio Tinto for 15 years and has worked in a number of generalist, projects and specialist HR roles in Australia and the US. Prior to joining Rio Tinto, Scott is currently the Head of People Services at Rio Tinto which he has held since December 2017. In this role Scott is responsible for the delivery of essential Human Resources services to the business, with teams covering HR advisory, people analytics, global mobility, talent acquisition and recruitment, employee relations, employee remuneration and performance. The People Services team also provides services that enable the HR function through the provision of HR technology, vendor management, HR and project planning and knowledge management.

Cedric Brossette has been involved in the Retail industry for the last 20 years as an HRIS and HR professional. In France where he started his career in HRIS Consulting, he worked with various multinationals implementing payroll, Time Management, and Talent Management ERPs. He has also worked with some of the biggest retailers there, such as the Casino Group to redesign sales incentives for the franchisee network, and implemented the HR centre of expertise for the supermarkets. He then joined Nestle Nespresso headquarters in 2012 in Lausanne, Switzerland, and launched global initiatives around sales incentives for the customer-facing staff and workforce planning management. In Australia since 2014, Cedric is now the Nespresso Head of HR & Training for Oceania (Australia and New Zealand) In a very competitive coffee market, he aims at providing the company with the vision and tools to support the human aspects of the customer experience transformation, linking Nespresso ‘s People and customer strategies. Last year for instance, Virtual Reality was used as a part of the training mix to educate retail staff on one of Nespresso’s most innovative machines launches, Vertuo. Google DayDream technology was used to create a 360 learning environment that brought to life the product story, everything from coffee bean to cup. Using Virtual Reality in the training mix has completely changed the way Nespresso look at learning and development programs. The experience has given its employees the tools to deepen product and brand knowledge and convey emotion in a completely immersive way.

Anna Livingston is the Chief Diversity and People Officer at Tennis Australia, where Anna is responsible for ensuring the sport of Tennis, Tennis Australia and the Australian Open reflect the diverse country we live in. With over 65% of Australians identifying from ‘under represented’ population groups, Anna’s challenge is to ensure the sport of Tennis, the Event and its Business is welcoming and inclusive to all. Before joining the sporting sector, Anna refined her strategic human resource skills with experience across automotive manufacturing, property development and FMCG industries. With qualifications in HRM and Industrial Law, coupled with her passion for community welfare and health, Anna has enjoyed implementing a range of creative and inclusive human resource initiatives during her time at Tennis.

Sally Kincaid is the Global Head of HR Performance and Delivery at QBE. QBE is transforming its Human Resources purpose and function to contribute to the future success of QBE. In this role, Sally is responsible for the design and delivery of global programs and their ongoing evaluation to help the function create value, change and future improvements. Previously Sally was the CHRO for the Australia and New Zealand operations where she led the culture change to equip QBE to have a modern and diverse workforce and workplace. During this time, QBE was recognised as an Employer of Choice at the Australian HR Awards and set new industry benchmarks for Diversity & Inclusion through increasing female representation and addressing pay equity.

Tanja Van Heerden was appointed Executive General Manager People and Culture in December 2017. Tanja is responsible for Culture, Leadership, Talent, Capability, Industrial Relations and HR Shared Services for all NRMA businesses. Before appointed as the EGM P&C, Tanja held the role of GM Culture, Leadership and Talent, and Head of Business Partnering roles at the NRMA. Before joining the NRMA, Tanja held the role of HR Program Manager, at Westpac and BT Financial Group Australia. Before this, Tanja was Head of People and Culture at Cuscal. In her time at Cuscal, Tanja was awarded by the HR Leadership Awards: Winner – Best Employment Brand Strategy and Finalist – HR Leader of the Year. By the Australian Human Resources Institute: Finalist – Most Effective HR Department. Prior to immigrating, Tanja held various HR roles at the Amalgamated Banks of South Africa. Tanja holds a Bachelor of Arts in Industrial Psychology from the University of South Africa and an Executive MBA in Change Management from the Australian Graduate School Management.

Rebecca Heredia is the Head of Human Resources for Comcast NBCUniversal in Australia and New Zealand, a company that is driven to create and deliver content so compelling it entertains, informs and shapes our world. Rebecca is currently leading the company’s digital transformation people strategy designed to upskill and retain talent in a competitive and rapidly changing marketplace. As a young adult, having observed less than acceptable treatment of people in various companies (sometimes by HR people!), she developed a passion for helping people win, both professionally and personally. In her HR roles she has been an employee advocate and business champion who has developed and delivered HR strategy in alignment with business strategy with the aim of achieving harmony between company and employee purpose. Before working in Media and Entertainment, she worked within large IT organisations such as Microsoft, Oracle and BMC Software and has lead and managed people and programs designed to deliver positive impact, strengthen the employer-employee relationship, cultivate collaborative working relationships, create corporate governance and manage effective recruitment, selection and onboarding strategies leading to an effective and engaged employee community. Rebecca has a Master of Commerce in Human Resources Management and Business Strategy from UNSW and an online business that represents a knowledge marketplace for consumers.

Joining QSuper in December 2010, Paul Landy is currently the Chief of People and Transformation. He is responsible for providing both strategic and operational advice across a broad spectrum of human resource management and internal communications activities, as well as managing all QSuper Group change activities. Paul and his team design business aligned people and internal communication strategies to support the QSuper strategic direction and ensure future capability needs are met. With 15 years of experience in human resources and people management, Paul provides advice and support to the Board, executives and management across the QSuper Group of companies. Paul holds a Bachelor of Business from QUT, a post Graduate Certificate in Marketing from Monash University and is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. Paul is also a graduate of the Program for Leadership Development from Harvard Business School. Prior to QSuper Paul worked throughout Australia and Europe for a number of companies including, National Australia Bank, Suncorp, Accenture and QIC.

Anna has had an interesting and untraditional career. She started her career in banking, as a graduate banker in NAB before moving to investment banking at Chase Manhattan and corporate finance at Ernst & Young and CBA. These roles provided Anna with a strong foundation of business and commercial acumen, which she leveraged throughout her career. At CBA, Anna held a number of in-house roles including Investment and Projects reviews, internal M&A for CBA’s International Division, and Chief of Staff to then CEO Ralph Norris. For the last decade or so, Anna has focused her energy within HR; driving outcomes in Strategy, Business Transformation, Culture and Change Management. These roles have included cultural change for the CBA Enterprise Services division, moving their focus from process to innovation; negotiations with the FSU on behalf of the CBA; the transition of 6,000 staff to Activity Based Working in Commonwealth Bank Place. Anna then took a sea-change, moving to Byron Bay for a year where Anna and her partner built a successful fruit farm business on a 100 acres in the hinterland. Anna returned to Sydney and the corporate world to run the HR function for BT Financial Group. She is currently the Chief People Officer for Gilbert + Tobin, one of Australia’s most innovative law firms. Anna loves challenge and change, she loves to scuba dive, read, cook, garden and drink good wine.

Melissa is the General Manager of People & Culture at Medibank, whose remit has included culture, employee engagement, capability, leadership development, learning, diversity and employee communications.

Mel is passionate about creating exceptional experiences for employees, customers and communities; supporting people to feel engaged, purpose-driven and able to bring their whole selves to work. A strong advocate for the role of leadership in shaping experience and culture, Mel has devoted a large part of her career to the design and implementation of leadership initiatives across a range of organisations.

Prior to joining Medibank, Mel was part of the HR team at NAB, led the Professional Services consulting team at SHL (now CEB) and has a background in Organisational Psychology.

Dana’s experience spans across the US, Australia and the UK working for many years in consulting, where he focused on advisory services, project management and execution for HR service delivery, process design, technology delivery, alignment of human resource strategy and organisation design. He has experience working alongside organisations of all sizes and across multiple industries, focusing on solving complex HR and people related issues. At Bupa, Dana is accountable for the strategy and delivery of People Analytics & Reporting, HR technology and People Support. He is passionate about and leads agile delivery teams, focused on iterative design, continuous delivery and what’s possible when teams work beyond an organisational hierarchy. Prior to joining Bupa he had the opportunity to help build a start-up professional services business. In that stop he learned deep lessons about business, relationships and life. Most importantly in that process, he found a love of ‘owning’ a challenge from strategy to execution, which he carries every day.

As Executive GM, People & Performance, Rose holds a global leadership role across the Empired Group overseeing all aspects of the human resource function including talent acquisition, learning and development, remuneration, culture, leadership development and performance. Rose has over twenty-five years’ experience in senior human resource leadership roles in organisations including ACNielson, PwC, Microsoft and Westpac where she is known for building and maintaining strong multi-stakeholder relationships, and providing leadership and direction through execution of people strategies that impact bottom line results. Rose has a particular passion around organisational culture transition, leadership development, talent management, and building high performing HR teams. Rose is a certified Fellow of the Australia Human Resource Institute, a chartered member of the Institute of Personnel and Development (UK), a graduate of Harvard’s Strategic Human Resource Management program, and holds a Bachelor of Social Science from Waikato University, NZ. Rose joined the Empired Group in 2017. Rose is a previous “Australian HR Director of the Year” via the Human Capital Awards, and “HR Leader of the Year” from the Australian Human Resource Institute Awards.

Experienced Executive with a demonstrated history of thriving in diverse and complex environments, with a focus on creating value for customers, employees and shareholders alike.

Commercial & progressive HR leader, leading international HR teams driving transformational change across the business. On the Board of Directors.

Michelle is a result driven professional, with over 18 years’ human resources experience. She has been in her current role at Westpac for just over a year, her role gives her the opportunity to ensuring that all 40,000+ employees are supported, and the changes are well embedded prior to BAU handover. She is passionate about delivering business strategy through high impact people experience programs and an expert at designing innovative people experience programs that deliver business objectives and financial results. Michelle is a certified PROSCI change professional and has a proven track record in creating high performing and highly engaged workplaces.

Rebekah is an experienced HR Leader who enjoys working collaboratively and as a trusted advisor to develop and implement successful people and culture strategies as well as large scale change management and transformation. Throughout her career Rebekah has developed a broad range of HR generalist capabilities with specialist expertise in employee relations and change. As well as senior HR roles in Media, Health, Finance and Transport, Rebekah has worked as an in-house solicitor specialising in Employment and Safety.