Conference Speakers - More to be announced
More speakers to be announced
Julia Gillard
The Hon Julia Gillard AC was sworn in as the 27th Prime Minister of Australia on 24 June 2010 and served in that office until June 2013.
As Prime Minister and in her previous role as Deputy Prime Minister, Ms Gillard was central to the successful management of Australia’s economy, the 12th biggest in the world, during the Global Financial Crisis and as Australia positioned to seize the benefits of Asia’s rise.
Ms Gillard developed Australia’s guiding policy paper, Australia in the Asian Century. She delivered nation-changing policies including reforming Australian education at every level from early childhood to university education, creating an emissions trading scheme, improving the provision and sustainability of health care, aged care and dental care, commencing the nation’s first ever national scheme to care for people with disabilities and restructuring the telecommunications sector as well as advancing a national broadband network.
In foreign policy, Ms Gillard strengthened Australia’s alliance with the United States, secured stronger architecture for the relationship with China, upgraded Australia’s ties with India, and deepened ties with Japan, Indonesia and South Korea. Ms Gillard has represented Australia at the G20, including winning Australia’s right to host the 2014 meeting, the East Asia Summit, APEC, NATO-ISAF and chaired CHOGM. Under Ms Gillard’s leadership, Australia was elected to serve on the United Nations Security Council.
Prime Minister Gillard in 2012 established the Royal Commission Into Institutional Responses To Child Sexual Abuse, which issued its landmark report on these crucial societal issues in November 2017.
She is the first woman to ever serve as Australia’s Prime Minister or Deputy Prime Minister. In October 2012, Ms Gillard received worldwide attention for her speech in Parliament on the treatment of women in professional and public life.
Ms Gillard is a non-resident Distinguished Senior Fellow with the Center for Universal Education at the Brookings Institution in Washington. In February 2014, Ms Gillard was appointed Chair of the Board of Directors of the Global Partnership for Education, the only multilateral organization dedicated to expanding access to quality education in developing countries.
She also serves as Patron of Camfed, the Campaign for Female Education, which tackles poverty and inequality by supporting girls to go to school and succeed, and empowering young women to step up as leaders of change.
In July 2017, Ms Gillard became Chair of the Board of Directors of Beyond Blue, which is committed to helping Australians understand and manage their mental health.
In April 2018, Ms Gillard was appointed Inaugural Chair of the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership at Kings College, London. Through research, practice and advocacy, the Institute will address women’s underrepresentation in leadership positions and the way gender negatively impacts the valuation of women leaders.
Ms Gillard also serves as an Honorary Professor at the University of Adelaide, and is Patron of the John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library in Perth, Western Australia. In recognition of her public service, Ms Gillard was awarded a Companion in the Order of Australia in January 2017.
Ms Gillard’s memoirs, My Story, were published by Random House in September 2014. The second edition of her book was published in July 2015.
The Hon Julia Gillard AC appears by arrangement with Michael Cassel Group, represented by Saxton Speakers Bureau.
Gus Balbontin
Raised in the Argentinean Patagonia, Gus knew from the age of eight that he was going to travel the world even though he did not know how to make that dream a reality.
Gus earned a travel scholarship at 17 that lead him to the other side of the world in Byron Bay over the course of a year. When he returned home he carried on his mission to travel. With only a small backpack and a youthful lust for adventure Gus journeyed 40,000kms through South America without spending a cent. Meeting other travellers along the way he discussed amazing journeys and travel guidebook improvements he would share with anyone that would listen.
Eventually, he returned to Australia and stumbled upon an opportunity for a travel company that he was fated to apply for. His lack of experience was no deterrent and against the odds he secured a designer role at Lonely Planet. As far as Gus was concerned, he had landed his dream job, but it was just the beginning.
Fast forward to 2014; Gus completed an MBA, spent countless hours on planes, progressed through a number of different roles within Lonely Planet and eventually lead the company globally. The company went from books dominating the world of travel information to the internet and a mobile revolution few saw coming.
Gus is a big thinker who doesn’t let ‘life’s hurdles’ get in the way of big solutions. He has a knowledge and expertise in transformation and digital innovation that is genuinely impressive, and teaches his audience how to navigate the struggles and successes that even great brands in the world experience.
Alexia Hilbertidou
Alexia is the founder and CEO of GirlBoss NZ - a 10,500 strong army of young women who are determined to achieve gender equality in their lifetimes.
Dismayed by the under representation of women in leadership roles Alexia founded GirlBoss when she was just 16. Encouraging young women to embrace STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths), leadership and entrepreneurship, GirlBoss is now New Zealand’s largest organisation for young women. It’s members are shaking off the statistics and preparing themselves to take their seats at the table - the boardroom table that is.
At 17, Alexia was the youngest person to lead a research project at the New Zealand Treasury - and at 18 - she was selected to seek new stars and planets on the NASA SOFIA mission.
She was named the most influential young leader under the age of 25 at the Westpac Women of Influence awards and is the youngest ever recipient of the Queen’s Young Leader medal for services to the commonwealth.
Alexia proves that you are never too young (or too short) to be an agitator for change.
John Nurthen
John Nurthen manages the team that delivers SIA’s international research content. He has over 25 years’ experience in the staffing industry, having previously worked in senior managerial roles for three of the world’s largest staffing companies: Select Appointments, Vedior and Randstad.
He played an active role in major equity offerings and mergers. Nurthen was a founder of the International Review of Employment, published in four languages, and DOVA, one of the largest global databases of online vacancies. He played a leading role in the development of common data standards with the creation of HR-XML SIDES.
He has held responsibility for internal and external communications, e-Business, technology matters, marketing, research, procurement and corporate social responsibility. Nurthen’s experience makes him an authority on global recruitment and contingent workforce issues.
Tom Scantlebury
Tom Scantlebury is a collector of experiences, but aren’t we all? The answer is yes, however Tom has created a business, Sky Blue CX Services, where the value of experiences is made clear so that they can be optimised to the benefit of profit and purpose.
With a career that pivoted from 5-star hotels to XM (experience management), Tom has spent his entire career either serving customers or building programs for others to best serve their customers. He is a passionate believer that a differentiated, emotionally engaging customer experience - regardless of the industry - delivers profitable and meaningful business outcomes. Exploring what these experiences should be and then designing, driving and measuring them is his specialty.
When he is not helping businesses get more connected with their customers he is searching for the best surf or snow conditions, wherever they are, and often dragging his family along with him (collecting experiences along the way)!
Bri Williams
Bri Williams is one of Australia's leading experts in behavioural influence - how to apply behavioural economics to decision-making to maximise every interaction. A CPA with a degree in Applied Psychology, Bri founded People Patterns in 2011, a specialist consultancy that helps businesses maximise their chances of influencing staff, clients and stakeholders. Prior to this she worked in finance, HR and product management for some of Australia's leading brands. (The hardest year of her life was working in corporate recruitment!)
A regular contributor to Smartcompany and MarketingMag, Bri has written five books including "Behavioural Economics for Business" and "The How of Habits: and appears regularly as a presenter, panellist and media commentator.
Alison Lalieu
Alison Lalieu is a brain-based NeuroCoach, who is deeply passionate about blending Emotional Intelligence (EQ), Conversational Intelligence (C-IQ) concepts into a holistic, transformational and life changing Executive coaching experience. As CEO of UBalancer Solutions, Alison is dedicated to super-charging thriving leadership across Australia and New Zealand; and leads an international team of skilled NeuroCoaches skilled in Emotional Intelligence coaching who share her vision. Alison brings the most up to date neuroscience to her coaching, helping her clients to better understand the key drivers of motivation, influence and performance.
As the only certified Six Seconds EQ Practitioner in Queensland, Alison is one of the most highly acclaimed content matter experts in the state and brings invaluable experience and wisdom to transform the leadership of her clients. She is passionate about developing emotionally intelligent leaders who are skilled in the art and neuroscience of conversation, who foster safe and trusting cultures in an innovative, creative and fun way. Alison draws on world tools and strategies to improve relationships, communication, confidence, influence, engagement and most importantly performance..
Alison is also a Flow and Performance Consultant with the global Entrepreneurs Institute, and skilled in helping leaders to grow trust and ‘flow’ with their teams, partners and customers.
Alison has worked internationally, facilitating workshops & training coaches in South Africa, India, UK, New Zealand, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates. She has been a speaker at the Six Seconds EQ summit in Dubai and delivered keynotes at the University of Queensland, Griffith University, (Australia), Amity University (United Arab Emirates) and been the keynote motivational speaker at the DEX Conference in Sydney (2018).