David Pountney is a Digital VP at Digital McKinsey within McKinsey & Company. David has deep expertise in digital marketing, digital strategy, customer analytics, CRM, marketing automation and personalisation. David is passionate about the combined power of data, user experience design, technology and creativity in executing successful digital transformation programs.
Prior to joining McKinsey & Company, David was leading a digital marketing agency of over 200 multi disciplined digital professionals working across leading brands in retail, travel, financial services and automotive.

For over six years David has also held the role of Managing Partner at a marketing analytics consultancy developing and executing predictive models, segmentations, dashboards and CRM programs for a broad range of clients. This included conceiving and implementing a micro-segmentation framework across business and consumer customers for one of the largest banks in Australia.

David has been a regular speaker at marketing and technology conferences across Asia.

Ajay Bhatia is currently the Chief Product and Information Officer of Carsales.com LTD (ASX:CAR). In his current role, Ajay is responsible for all aspects of Product Management, Software Development, Infrastructure, Operations and various support functions at the Carsales.com Group. Additionally, Ajay is responsible for strategic oversight of the several non-cars businesses such as Boats, Bikes, Trucks, Caravans and more.

Ajay Bhatia has over 18 years of industry experience with 13 years in pure Digital Businesses. During this time he has held several technical and commercial leadership positions ranging from GM Commercial, Product Director, and Technology Director to CIO.

Ajay Bhatia holds a Bachelors degree in Engineering from University of Technology, Sydney and a Masters in Management from the same University.

“Ajay was awarded “ Australian CIO of the year for 2015 by CEO Magazine”.

Julian Delany is the chief digital officer for News Digital Networks Australia (News DNA) responsible for the business’ overall digital product development, commercial growth, digital partnerships and new digital assets, building high performing digital networks in the key categories of news and lifestyle. In this role he is also accountable for Australia’s number one news site, news.com.au and the country’s leading parenting site, Kidspot.com.au as managing director of the brands. Mr Delany has a strong track record of building brands, developing products that connect with consumers and using the latest technologies to deliver outstanding results. Under his leadership news.com.au has firmly established the position of Australia’s leading source of news and become an essential part of Australian’s daily lives, on whichever platform they choose to access it. Mr Delany joined news.com.au from Foxtel where he spent 10 years leading the growth of The Weather Channel. As general manager he was responsible for the strategy, delivery and operational management of The Weather Channel’s broadcast on Foxtel along with delivery of commercial, digital and interactive products.

Rebecca Reed is a Partner at the Odgers Berndtson Sydney office. Her focus is in our Sports, Gaming and Entertainment practice. She specialises in executive search for Directors, Senior Executives, C-level and Non-Executive Directors in the Sports, Gaming & Entertainment related industries.

For over 15 years Rebecca has held senior positions within a range of business, cultural and operating environments. Rebecca’s strong strategic and business acumen is always evident, however it’s her ability to balance business goals with the people insights that sets her apart. Rebecca truly ‘gets’ business and ‘gets’ people, which is the perfect combination for her role within Odgers Berndtson’s Australian team.

Rebecca has a track-record of working with Senior Executive and Company Directors to help align business objectives, drive strategy and appoint the best people to achieve the desired results.

Rebecca works closely with Odgers Berndtson global team, across 28 countries, to ensure success in both local and global searches, drawing upon her management experience, IQ and EQ to uniquely understand your objectives and identify the key people to drive success within your business.

Leisa Bacon has over 20 years’ experience working across marketing, communications and strategy roles. Throughout the last decade these have been at executive and director levels, in both government and large commercial businesses. She is passionate about both people and results, accustomed to working in highly competitive markets with a broad matrix of stakeholders and thrives on learning. Leisa has strong foundations in customer-first thinking, processes and commercial ROI from her early career in blue chip consumer goods marketing; more recently she has been working in organisations navigating major change agendas. Her current role as Audience & Marketing Director for the ABC focuses predominantly on building a strong understanding of audiences, stakeholder management, marketing, communications and change management. She leads a team of 130 with an underlying requirement to help pivot the ABC into a digital future.

Christina Fevre is the Digital Commercial Partnerships Manager for Endemol Shine Australia (ESA), joining the company in January 2015. She is responsible for the commercialisation, development, management and operation of ESA’s non-broadcast digital and digital product rights in relation to ESA’s television programs including MasterChef, Australian Survivor, Gogglebox, The Biggest Loser, Offspring as well as the ESA produced seasons of The Voice, The Bachelor and The Bachelorette.

Christina has 20 years’ experience managing consumer digital media on apps, mobile, online and social media and has advised executives including the CEOs of Sony Music Australia, Pacific Magazines and Authentic Entertainment.

She was the first Apple App Store Manager for Australia & New Zealand where she mentored and championed world renowned Australian app and game developers such as Half Brick and the EA owned Fire Monkeys and used the App Store as a platform to promote digital innovation from Australia.

Over the course of her career, she has managed strategic partnerships across a range of industries including FTA broadcasters, publishers, online portals, social media partners, major music labels, game developers, film and TV studios, sports rights owners, handset manufacturers and mobile operators.

Damon Rees is the NSW Government’s first Chief Information and Digital Officer. He was appointed to this newly created role in May 2016.
The Government Chief Information and Digital Officer (GCIDO) is the most senior technology role within the NSW Government, leading digital government and ICT across the NSW public sector.
As GCIDO, Mr Rees is responsible for building public sector digital capacity, defining the long-term vision for ICT and digital government, implementing the NSW Open Data Policy and improving integration across Government agencies. He also has oversight of major government ICT projects to ensure that they are delivered successfully to benefit customers and agencies.
Prior to this, Mr Rees was the Chief Digital Officer at Macquarie Bank, and earlier held senior leadership positions with Woolworths, and Westpac Banking Group. He also serves as Non-Executive Director with GP Synergy, a federally-funded general practice education and training provider.

Industry Analyst & Consultant across Digital transformation, Cloud, Big Data, Analytics, Internet of Things, Cyber Risk, Cyber Security & Smart Cities

A healthy track record across key industry sectors such as Federal & State Government, Defence, Banking & Finance, Health & Aged Care, Airports & Aviation, Transport, Telecommunications, Energy and Utilities, Mobile Digital Media & Advertising, and Cyber Security.

I’m passionate about driving outcomes for organisations by leveraging Digital Disruption, Digital Transformation, Cloud Computing, Big Data & Analytics, Machine Intelligence, Internet of Things, DevOps Integration, Automation & Orchestration, App Containerisation & Micro Services, Webscale Infrastructure, and High Performance Computing to clients for their enduring success.

Paul Shetler is a technologist and entrepreneur with over two decades’ experience in financial services and digital.

Paul is the former Chief Digital Officer of Australian Government’s Digital Transformation Agency.

He previously led the relatively new digital team at the Ministry of Justice that has been tasked with digitally transforming the way the public use government services, from booking a visit to a prison to filing a civil claim. The transformation initiative covers both internal systems and external end-user touch points.

He has managed and delivered some of the world’s largest IT integration programmes and organisational change programmes. This has involved introducing new technologies and software architecture which were later adopted across financial services and everyday life, such as service-oriented architecture (SOA), message brokering and cloud computing.

He has also built world-class international organisations within large global technology firms to define, implement, sell and market products and services based on networks, mobile technologies and very large-scale systems integration and modernisation.

Clive joined Seven West Media (ASX:SWM) in 2015 as the Chief Digital Officer for Seven West Media and as a non-Executive Director at Yahoo 7. He oversees and oversees all strategic and operational aspects of Seven West Media’s digital content and digital revenue activities.

Clive’s career to date has been a unique Digital/Broadcast media hybrid – never very far from Broadcast Content nor from a Digital team and boasts over 30 years’ experience, which has taken him from New York to Los Angeles, Mumbai to Johannesburg, Budapest to Berlin and London to now Australia. Clive’s first digital role was in 1995 with the multi award winning team at Capital Interactive part of then one of the largest Broadcasters in the UK.

Clive was also an advisor to the founders of the world leading mobile company Shazam used by more than 700 million people in over 60 countries and was recently valued at $1bn. Since Shazam, Clive has also advised a number of other successful digital start-ups, helping them achieve growth, maturity, IPO or exit.

In 2008 Clive co-founded Absolute Radio for the Times of India – the World’s largest English language newspaper publisher as COO. Absolute Radio has a world leading reputation for Digital, Social, Mobile innovation with more than 77% of its audience via a digital platform. Absolute Radio pioneered the new ‘In-Stream’ premium marketing platform. Clive was also a Founding Director of UK Radio Player Ltd, a joint venture between UK Broadcasters and the BBC that is used each month by 6m users to simplify discovery of live Broadcast Content.

In April 2013 he relocated from the UK to Australia to take the reigns as Director of Digital and Innovation at Southern Cross Austereo (SCA), overseeing strategic and operational aspects of the company’s diverse and multifaceted digital content and free-to-air television platform. During the 20 months Clive was at SCA, his digital team achieved a 700% increase in digital traffic, which in turn drove 50 % increase in digital revenue and EBITDA by over 90%.

Clive is one of the Founder Directors of Code Club – a not for profit after-school coding club for Australian primary school children funded in part by a grant from the Telstra Foundation.