Simon is listed in FinTech Asia’s top 100 leaders as well as FST media’s top 10 AsiaPac leaders to watch. In 2015 he was one of a handful of global leaders to be interviewed by Ginni Rometty, President and CEO of IBM, for his views on data and digital disruption and innovation.
He has significant experience in delivering digital solutions that bridge customer and commercial outcomes and enable organisation wide transformation. This includes commercial, cultural and customer change. He has also brokered world-class strategic partnerships and has brought entrepreneurial capability and execution into corporate environments. All resulting in the ability to execute faster transformation and in-year ROI.

He is considered a thought leader in customer engagement strategy and has been recognised by commentators such as the Corporate Executive Board and Mckinsey & Co as global best practice.

Simon was responsible for developing and implementing Westpac’s digital which have won a number of NZ and international awards, including in 2015 and 2016 Westpac New Zealand being awarded Asian Banker Best Retail Bank of the year, Canstar Online Bank of the year and the Direct Marketing Associations ‘Organisation of the year’.

Previous leadership of Air New Zealand’s customer loyalty strategy played a key role the airline winning multiple awards, including Airline Of The Year in 2012.

Simon lives in Auckland, New Zealand with his wife Suzanna and three children.

Brett Barber was appointed to the newly-created role of Chief Digital Officer to commence the ongoing strategic digital transformation of the organisation, encompassing IT-driven innovation to fulfill substantial customer value. Brett has over 20 years’ combined Digital Transformation, IT, Marketing and Business Development experience, having previously worked with AMP, SingTel Optus, Suncorp-Metway, Allianz, Credit Union Australia, Dingu Blue and LGIAsuper. Brett specialises in digital customer solutions, software development, social media, core banking, telecommunications and digital transformation projects.

Brett has a passion for delivering exceptional customer experiences and technology that plays an ever increasing role across the combination of the technology and marketing landscapes within every organisation to achieve operational efficiency, customer satisfaction and engagement.

An internationally recognised Chief Information Officer & Digital leader with an exceptional record of accomplishment in managing and developing technology in large-scale, multi-region organisations within the financial services, telecommunications, retail and aviation sectors as well as start-up environments such as the NBN. A strategic thought-leader, motivated to design & implement innovative solutions and products in rapidly changing and dynamic environments.

An extremely effect change agent and creative, skilled in assembling and leading multi-disciplined teams, planning and administering multi-billion dollar budgets as well as designing and delivering leading edge digital/technology solutions.

Dr Maria Milosavljevic is the Chief Innovation Officer (CIO) of AUSTRAC and an Adjunct Professor at the University of Canberra. AUSTRAC is Australia’s Financial Intelligence Unit as well as the regulator of anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing. Our vision is a financial system free from criminal abuse. Dr Milosavljevic’s remit includes being the champion for an innovation-centred approach across the agency, leading capability improvement programs, and ensuring that we manage, protect, nurture and exploit our data to derive useful information and insight. As a data scientist herself, she also oversees related organisational capability strategy including enterprise analytics. Prior to joining AUSTRAC, Dr Milosavljevic was the Chief Information Officer at the Australian Crime Commission where she was the key driver in the establishment of the National Criminal Intelligence Fusion Capability. In 2015 the Fusion Program won several awards including an iAward and an Australian Computer Society (ACS) Digital Disrupter Award. Dr Milosavljevic was one of three finalists for the iTnews Government CIO of the year in 2014. She completed a PhD in Computer Science on a prestigious scholarship from the Microsoft Research Institute, and graduated from ANU with an Executive Masters of Public Administration from the Australia and New Zealand School of Government (ANZSOG). Dr Milosavljevic has developed several world-first and award-winning solutions to difficult problems throughout her 25 year career. She has also published widely and has been a keynote speaker for a range of conferences.

Nick Smith is the Managing Director, Australia and New Zealand at Informatica. In this role, he is responsible for all business operations for the Informatica business within the ANZ region. Nick is a thought leader who is passionate about helping businesses maximise the opportunities created by the digital, consumer centric, and always on world. Nick has over 20 years of experience transforming and leading technology companies across four continents.

Prior to joining Informatica, Nick held a variety of senior leadership positions at Pitney Bowes, Gartner, Thunderhead and Citrix across ANZ where he was instrumental in driving sales excellence and business transformation. He holds an MBA from Melbourne Business School and a BA (Hons) and MSc from Brunel University, London.

Chris currently leads the very talented User Experience & Design team for Telstra Digital – advocating the roles of design, usability and the customer at every opportunity. The team deliver innovative, user-centred designs for customers and for Telstra’s own digital capability – co-designing concepts with field technicians, retail sales teams, contact centre teams and account executives. These include web, mobile, social and device applications. Over the past 5 years, the team have redesigned the consumer and business digital service experiences (now representing more than 50% of Telstra’s service transactions), designed and testing the 24×7 suite of applications (with more than 5 million downloads), and delivered 2 complete redesigns of Telstra.com – our biggest customer channel. Chris has worked in design roles for 11 years now at Telstra – including lead design roles in projects including the Telstra Signature mobile device program, the industrial design of the first EasyTouch mobile phone (a handset designed specifically for older customers) and the Telstra T-Box. Outside of work, he’s passionate about design, music, psychology and of course his partner, Michelle and their two young boys. Chris holds a Bachelor of Business & Electronic Commerce from Monash University majoring in Computer Science and Psychology.

Larissa is a Design Leader with a strong track record in design strategy, cross-channel experience management, Lean UX methodologies and Digital Experimentation. She has led large-scale cross-platform (desktop and mobile) and cross-channel (digital, retail and call centres) programs across a range of industries driving delight to customers and concrete and measurable outcomes to businesses.

In her current role at CBA as Executive Digital Experience Manager, Larissa’s is responsible for creating holistic products and services that meaningfully impact people’s financial decision making, improving their lives and generating value for CommBank’s customers, staff and shareholders.

Larissa has a double degree in Communication and Interactive Design, as well as a Master in Interactive Media (UTS).

Ian has over 20 years’ experience in the ICT sector and, has led organisations with more than 300 people, delivering products and outcomes that have impacted hundreds of millions of people globally. He has held senior management roles in Europe and Australia as Director for Radio Access Performance at Nokia, Global Head of Sales Partnering (network software) at Nokia Siemens Networks, and then Divisional Chief and Flagship Director at CSIRO. Ian is considered a thought leader in the area of the Digital Economy and is a regular speaker on “Big Data”, broadband enabled services and the impact of technology on society. He has contributed to 6 books and co-authored more than 120 papers which have been cited more than 3200 times. Ian has an MBA from the University of London and a Doctor of Philosophy in Mobile Telecommunications from Sydney University. Ian is a Fellow of the Institute of Engineers Australia, a Fellow of the IEEE, a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, a Senior Member of the Australian Computer Society, and a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Rod joined Digital McKinsey within McKinsey & Company’s Sydney office as Digital VP, leading the Design practice for Australia and New Zealand. He is a recognised thought-leader in human-centred design and design-led innovation, with extensive experience building digital capabilities across multiple sectors.
Rod has worked extensively with private and public sector companies to deliver digital transformation projects and build customer experience and design capabilities.
Prior to joining McKinsey & Company, Rod held APAC and ANZ Executive roles at one of the world’s leading digital agencies leading design, customer experience and end-to-end digital strategy.

Rod holds a PhD (Human-Computer Interaction) from University of Melbourne, Masters (Sociology) from Lyon III, and Bachelors of Arts and Science (Hons) from University of Melbourne.