Summit Speakers

Juanita Phillips

MC

Juanita Phillips is one of Australia’s best loved and experienced news presenters, and an accomplished MC and speaker.

For over two decades, she anchored the ABC’s flagship 7pm News in Sydney, making her the public broadcaster’s longest-serving prime-time female TV news presenter. Before this time, she anchored CNN’s morning news and business show in London for five years, and was one of the first Australians to present TV news on the BBC.

Ms Phillips has also worked for Channel Ten and Sky News, and has been a columnist and feature writer for The Bulletin magazine, News Corporation and Fairfax. She has written a series of children’s books, The Newspaper Kids, and is the author of a best-selling memoir about juggling work and motherhood, A Pressure Cooker Saved My Life.

Dr Kate Bower

Consumer and digital rights advocate

Dr. Kate Bower is a leading consumer and digital rights advocate dedicated to ensuring fair and safe AI and comprehensive privacy protections for Australian consumers. She currently champions these causes at Digital Rights Watch, a nonprofit organisation committed to upholding fairness, freedoms, and fundamental rights for all people in the digital world. As the founder of the consumer data team at CHOICE, Australia's largest advocacy organisation, Dr Bower spearheaded campaigns on privacy reform, facial recognition technology, and AI regulation. She also served as the inaugural HTI Fellow at the UTS Human Technology Institute.

With a PhD from the University of Technology, Sydney, and a Bachelor of Arts with Honours from the University of New South Wales, Dr Bower brings a wealth of knowledge and a unique perspective. She is an active member of the National AI Centre's Responsible AI Think Tank and the Standards Australia IT-043 AI Standards Committee.

John Brogden AM

Chair, AusPayNet

John Brogden is an experienced Chairman, Non-Executive Director, Executive and former Member of Parliament with more than 30 years’ experience in the public sector, financial services, professional associations, and not-for-profit organisations.

From 1996 to 2005, John was the Member for Pittwater in the NSW Parliament and was Leader of the Opposition for over three years – the youngest person ever to lead a major political party at a state of federal level. After Parliament, his executive roles have included CEO of Manchester Unity, the Financial Services Council, the Australian Institute of Company Directors, and Landcom. He has chaired Abacus Australian Mutuals (now COBA) and Landcom (prior to being appointed CEO).

John is a leading Australian and international suicide prevention advocate and campaigner for suicide decimalisation. He has been President of LifeLine International and Chair of Lifeline Australia.

He is currently the Chair of AusPayNet, a Director of CFS’ superannuation fund AIL, and the Chair of Advisory Board of the Urban Property Group.

He holds a Master of Public Affairs (MPA) from the University of Sydney, is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (FAICD) and is a Member of the Order of Australia (AM).

Lynne Cardwell

Executive Director, Banking and Financial Services, NSW Treasury

Lynne is a Banking and Financial Services leader with over 20 years experience in the Australian Banking Sector , with senior positions with Westpac and CBA in Finance, Payments and Transformation roles.

Since 2018 Lynne has been the Executive Director Banking and Financial Services within NSW Treasury.

Her role oversees the reform of Banking and Payments across NSW to deliver simpler, faster, safer payment options for the citizens business and suppliers of NSW Government.

She champions for and positions NSW to be an active participant in the future direction of the Australian payments system and supporter of innovation within the market.

Gina Cass-Gottlieb

Chair, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC)

Gina Cass-Gottlieb commenced her 5-year appointment as Chair of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) on 21 March 2022.

Before she joined the ACCC Gina was a senior and founding partner of Gilbert and Tobin’s competition and regulation team. Gina has over 25 years' experience advising on a large number of merger, competition and regulatory matters in Australia and New Zealand. She is widely recognised as one of Australia’s leading competition and regulatory experts.

Gina was appointed by the Commonwealth Treasurer to the Reserve Bank of Australia’s Payments System Board in 2013. She was re-appointed in 2018 and again in 2023 for a further 5 year term. The Payments System Board is the regulator of access to payment systems. Gina was appointed to the Financial Regulator Assessment Authority in September 2021. For 10 years Gina was a director on the board of the Sydney Children’s Hospitals Foundation.

Gina chairs the Digital Platforms Board and Financials Service Inquiry Board, and is a member of the Consumer Data Right Committee, Enforcement Committee, Infrastructure Committee and Communication Committee, Mergers Review Committee and the East Coast Gas Market Board, Electricity Markets Inquiry Board and Supermarkets Inquiry Board. Gina is also a member of the Bureau of the OECD Competition Committee.

Gina holds Bachelor of Economics and Laws degrees from the University of Sydney. Gina was a Fulbright Scholar at UC Berkeley from 1986 to 1987, obtaining a Master of Laws degree, majoring in US competition law, comparative constitutional law, financial institutions regulation and securities regulation.

Gina is the first female Chair of the ACCC since it was established as an independent statutory authority in 1995.

Ellis Connolly

Head of Payments Policy, Reserve Bank of Australia

Mr Ellis Connolly has been appointed to Head of Payments Policy Department at the Reserve Bank of Australia. Mr Connolly was selected from a list of internal and external candidates following the retirement of Dr Tony Richards. He will take up the position on 20 December 2021.

Prior to this role, Mr Connolly was Deputy Head, Financial Markets Infrastructure in Payments Policy Department. He was responsible for the supervision of systemically important clearing and settlement facilities and payment systems operating in Australia. He has been with the Bank for 20 years.

Mr Connolly will report to Ms Michele Bullock, Assistant Governor (Financial System). Ms Bullock said, ‘Ellis brings a wealth of experience in regulation, the operation of markets and economics. He is a strong leader with a high level of skill in analysis and strategic thinking. His experience will be important as we pursue strategic priorities in payments policy.’

The Bank's priorities in this area include: supporting the shift to digital payments; conducting research into innovations in the payments system, including central bank digital currencies; resolving competition and efficiency issues in the payments system; and continuing to promote the safety and resilience of financial market infrastructures and payment systems.

At the Bank, Mr Connolly previously held the positions of Deputy Secretary, Deputy Head of Domestic Markets Department and Deputy Head of Economic Analysis Department, among others.

Mr Connolly has a Bachelor of Economics (Hons) from the University of New South Wales, a Bachelor of Laws (Hons) from the University of Technology, Sydney and a Masters in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School.

Bill Doran

Head of Go To Market

Bill Doran was appointed SWIFT’s global Head of Go To Market in November 2021. In this role, he leads a team of product and market experts based in all major financial markets around the globe. His team build campaigns and strategies to drive the adoption of SWIFT’s products, as well as building customer and industry support / momentum for SWIFT’s overall strategy.

In his 19-year career at SWIFT, Mr Doran has built a wealth of knowledge of domestic and international payment / value-transfer systems. In 2014, he led SWIFT’s successful tender for Australia’s New Payments Platform. He was voted onto the Australian Payments Council in 2020 and held that seat until the council was disbanded in 2022.

Prior to his current role, Mr Doran had a joint responsibility as Head of the Oceania region and Head of the APAC Presales team, in addition to his responsibilities as general manager of the Sydney office. He held various technical (Presales) and relationship management roles during his early career at SWIFT. Prior to SWIFT, Mr Doran held various roles in the telecommunications, transport, sporting and finance industries.

Maha El Dimachki

Head of the Singapore Centre Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Innovation Hub

Ms El Dimachki is Head of the BIS Innovation Hub Singapore Centre. The centre develops public goods in the technology space to support central banks in how they discharge their roles in a digital economy and improve the financial system using novel ideas and emerging technologies.

Before her appointment to this position, Ms El Dimachki was Head of Department for Early and High Growth Oversight leading the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) response to the Kalifa review of Fintech. Previously, she served as Chief Payments Officer at Pay.UK on secondment from the FCA, responsible for running the payments operations of BACS, Faster Payments, Image Clearing Services, and related managed services.

Ms El Dimachki joined the FCA in 2017 to set up the first Payments Department and was responsible for crafting and implementing the FCA supervisory strategy for the UK Payments Sector. This included leading the implementation of the Second Payments Services Directive (PSD2) and Open Banking.

Ms El Dimachki has a keen interest in observing and participating in the many exciting changes that are unfolding in the financial services, innovation and fintech environment. She recently sat on the SteerCo developing the strategy and blueprint for the UK’s newly created Centre for Finance Innovation and Technology.

Ms El Dimachki is the author of Fintech Regulation in Practice, which provides a guide to the practical considerations that fintechs, banks adopting fintech and other key players in the fintech ecosystem need to take into account when embedding regulation.

Ms El Dimachki has a Degree in Commerce from Macquarie University and a Masters in Public Administration from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

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Sally Etherington

Assistant Secretary (a/g) Payments and Financial Innovation Branch Digital, Competition and Payments Division

Sally Etherington is currently the acting branch head of Treasury’s Payments and Financial Innovation Branch at the Treasury. Her branch is responsible for advising the Government on payments and digital asset policies. Key reforms underway include updating the Payment Systems Regulation Act, developing a payments licensing regime, progressing reforms to appropriately regulate Digital Asset Platforms, winding down Australia’s cheque and BECs payment systems, and supporting the RBA to assess the opportunities for a central bank digital currency. The branch is currently working on updating the Government’s Strategic Plan for Australia’s Payment System which they hope to be released early next year. 

Sally has worked in a variety of other policy roles across the Australian Treasury.  Most recently these positions have included heading the secretariat for the Financial Regulatory Assessment Authority and heading the Economic Recovery Unit in Treasury’s Covid-19 Taskforce. Prior positions have included working on macroprudential and fiscal policy frameworks, as well as advising Government on superannuation, tax and climate change policies.

David Gee

Advisor to Bain Advisor Network

David Gee retired in July 2024 and is building out his portfolio. He is an advisor to Bain Advisor Network, JS Careers and Emertel.

Mr Gee is a seasoned technology executive with over 25 years’ experience in CIO and CISO roles across different industries and countries. At Macquarie Group, he served as Global Head Technology, Cyber and Data Risk, and was previously CISO for HSBC Asia Pacific. His career as a CIO also includes roles at MetLife, Eli Lilly, and Credit Union Australia. In 2014, he was the winner of CIO of the Year at CUA, where he successfully completed a significant transformation of core banking, online and mobile banking systems.

Mr Gee is past Chairman for the FS-ISAC Strategy Committee and was awarded a Global Leaders Award in 2023 for his contributions to the cybersecurity industry. He is a regular conference keynote speaker, having written over 150 published articles for CIO Australia, Computerworld, ITNews and CSO. He now writes for Foundry, CIO.com and AICD.

Mr Gee’s book, The Aspiring CIO & CISO, was published in July 2024. He is currently writing his second book, A Day in the Life of a CISO, with a number of CISOs from around the world.

The Aspiring CIO & CISO

Shameela Gonzalez

Financial Services and Insurance Lead, CyberCX

The financial services and insurance lead for CyberCX with over 10 years of industry experience, Shameela Gonzalez leads the engagement company-wide for local and global banks, insurers, superannuation firms and the full spectrum of financial services.

Prior to joining CyberCX, Ms Gonzalez worked at Commonwealth Bank across a variety of technology roles and more recently was the Technology lead for a large-scale regulatory program focused on uplifting risk management and technology across CBA.

For three years as the Executive Advisor to the CISO, and then also to the Chief Security Officer, Ms Gonzalez led development for the cyber security strategy, operating model, owned regulatory and board reporting and advisory. As a leader, her team also ran CBA's cyber regulatory engagement, cyber education program, as well as outreach to customers and community.

In her role at CyberCX, Ms Gonzalez is advising Boards, C-suite executives, and Security leaders on strategic priorities on cyber maturity, the threat landscape and often in the front line of responding to cyber incidents affecting financial services.

Riaz Hussain

Head of Payments Technology, AusPayNet

Riaz Hussain is Head of Security Standards & Transformation at Australian Payments Network (AusPayNet). He is responsible for security standards, frameworks, and policies for payments, including sponsorship of industry-wide programmes.

Riaz has more than 30 years’ experience in technology leadership across financial services in the Asia Pacific, Europe, and United States. He holds an Masters Degree of Science from Sheffield Hallam University, UK.

Rajat Jain

Chief Strategy Officer, AusPayNet

Rajat has over 20 years of payments industry experience in strategy and transformation roles. He was a Partner at Deloitte before joining AusPayNet, and led their payments practice in Australia from 2017-22. Prior to that, he served at American Express in the US, Australia, and Singapore for over a decade, including as Head of Strategy for A/ NZ and as Head of Consulting and Business Transformation for APAC & Japan. Rajat is a merit-listed Chartered Accountant from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India.

Ian Jamieson

Strategic Marketing Professional

Ian Jamieson is a strategic marketing professional who specialises in helping organisations and businesses to succeed and grow. Based in Sydney, he has over 35 years’ experience in establishing and growing businesses, including corporate line management and strategy consulting assignments in Australia, Asia and North America.

In the early 90’s, Mr Jamieson co-founded one of Australia’s first specialist strategic marketing consultancies, Marketing Initiatives (MI). MI specialised in the application of marketing principles to business strategy. MI grew into The Initiatives Group, becoming a leader in its field in Australia and Asia, subsequently acquired in 2000 by Ogilvy Group.

In his consulting work, Mr Jamieson has provided communications and strategic marketing advice to CEO’s and senior management teams of clients in diverse industries, including financial services, IT & telecommunications, transport freight & logistics, consumer goods, pharmaceuticals, food/beverages and building products.

Mr Jamieson has extensive experience in the payments sector. This includes leading the communications workstream for the highly successful card payments industry transition from signature to chip & PIN authorisation, sometimes known as PIN@POS.

Brad Jones

Assistant Governor (Financial System) Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA)

Dr Brad Jones was appointed to the position of Assistant Governor (Financial System) at the RBA in 2022 and serves as Deputy Chair of the Payments System Board.

Dr Jones has oversight of the Bank's payments policy work, including on the future of money. He is also responsible for the Bank's work on financial stability and production of the twice-yearly Financial Stability Review. He represents the Bank as a member on the Council of Financial Regulators, and in international fora at the Financial Stability Board and the Basel Committee for Banking Supervision. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the Institute of Global Finance and a signatory to The Banking and Finance Oath.

Dr Jones joined the RBA in 2018 as the Head of International Department, before taking over as the Head of Economic Analysis Department.

Before joining the RBA, Dr Jones was at the International Monetary Fund in Washington DC for five years, where he served as senior advisor on the international financial system in the Monetary and Capital Markets Department. Prior to that, he held senior macroeconomic research and investment responsibilities for just under a decade at Deutsche Bank in London and Hong Kong.

Dr Jones holds a PhD in finance from Macquarie University, is a graduate member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, and served for five years as a Fellow at the University of Cambridge Judge Business School.

Hon Stephen Jones MP

Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services

Stephen Jones is the Federal Member for Whitlam and Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services.

Mr Jones was first elected to the Federal Parliament in 2010, representing the Southern Illawarra seat of Throsby. He was re-elected at the 2013 election and elected to the re-named seat of Whitlam in 2016.

Before entering the Federal Parliament, Mr Jones worked as a community worker for various front line disability services, youth and health services, and as a lawyer with the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), and as the Secretary of the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU).

Mr Jones holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Wollongong, and a Bachelor of Laws degree from Macquarie University.

Jackie Kallman

Head of Payments Industry and Engagement, ANZ Bank

Ms Kallman is Head of Payments Industry and Engagement, Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited. She was appointed as a director in April 2018.

James Kelly

Head of Treasury’s Digital, Competition and Payments Division

James Kelly is Head of Treasury’s Digital, Competition and Payments Division, with responsibility for matters relating to the payments system, digital assets, the Consumer Data Right and digital regulatory policy, as well as broader competition policy settings and oversight of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. 

Mr Kelly has worked in a variety of other areas in the Australian Treasury and the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. These positions have included heading the secretariat for the National Disability Insurance Review, Treasury’s Financial System Division, and leading Treasury’s engagement with the Financial Services Royal Commission and implementation of the Government’s response. He also held positions as Treasury’s representative in Europe, based at the Australian High Commission in London, and head of the Macroeconomic Policy Division.

Dr David Liebowitz

Principal Technologist, Penten

David Liebowitz has spent two decades in research, technical leadership and management roles. Following a DPhil in Computer Vision from Oxford University, he spent a year at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm as a guest researcher.

Dr Liebowitz moved to Canberra in 2000 to join ANU spinoff Seeing Machines, then went on to consult independently in Machine Learning.  He served as Engineering Director of General Dynamics Mediaware and worked at M5 Northrop-Grumman as a research and software manager.

Since joining Penten in 2016, Dr Liebowitz has worked on generative modelling for cyber deception applications such as honeyfiles and radio traffic mimicry, underwater acoustic machine learning and post-quantum cryptography. He holds an adjunct academic position at UNSW Sydney.

David Marsh

Principal Industry Consultant, Endava

David Marsh is the Principal Industry Consultant for Endava in Australia. With over 15 yeas of experience in payments, David has worked with the corporate, institutional and government clients of two of Australia’s major banks. He has also worked with AusPayNet on strategic innovation projects such as Digital identity. In his current role, David is leveraging Endava’s international experience engineering bespoke payment solutions to support Australia’s growing payments industry.

Alison O’Brien

Director of Customer Success, PayPal Australia

Alison O’Brien joined PayPal Australia in 2015 after eight years helping transform a disruptive payments start-up with a handful of employees, to a powerhouse enabling more than $8 billion in transactions per year.

Having performed almost every role supporting this explosive growth, Ms O’Brien has applied her diverse skills and experience to several roles at PayPal, including Business Development Manager, Channel Partnerships, Head of Marketplaces, and Head of Merchant Services.

Ms O’Brien now leads a multinational team responsible for optimising business customer engagement and outcomes, as Director of Customer Success.

Kate O'Rouke

ASIC Commissioner

Kate commenced as an ASIC Commissioner for a five-year term in September 2023.

She has more than 25 years’ experience in law and regulation across financial services, markets, and corporations.

Kate joined ASIC from Treasury, where she held senior leadership positions with responsibility for data and digital economic reforms, COVID economic policy responses, small business policy and regulatory frameworks governing market conduct.

Kate previously held senior executive roles at ASIC with responsibility for corporate transactions and governance, and practised in the Sydney and New York offices of the law firm Sullivan and Cromwell.

James Roberts

General Manager Fraud and Scams Strategy and Governance Group Fraud, Commonwealth Bank

James is currently the General Manager of Fraud and Scams Strategy and Governance at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia overseeing the Bank’s strategic approach to the prevention, detection and response to external fraud and scams. James also serves on the Board of the Australian Financial Crime Exchange.

He has worked in the financial services and fraud industry for over 20 years and has extensive experience in investigating and managing fraud and financial crimes. James was previously General Manager of CBA’s Group Investigations, Intelligence and Fraud Advisory division and holds a Bachelor of Science, majoring in Psychology.

Prior to emigrating to Australia in 2015, James was the Head of Group Financial Crime Control at Standard Bank in South Africa managing their prevention, detection and response to external and internal fraud. During this time, he was also a long standing member of the Commercial Crime Steering Committee at SABRIC.

Dianne Shay

Head of Payments Industry, National Australia Bank

Dianne Shay has over 30 years of experience in financial services as a champion of innovation that creates customer value and benefits all consumers and businesses. A self-confessed payments geek, Ms Shay is a former recipient of the Women in Payments Thought Leader award. She is acknowledged as an agent of change across the Australian payments industry, including the New Payments Platform, PayTo, digital identity, safer payments and future of payments frameworks programs. Dianne holds a variety of board and advisory roles including as a Director of AusPayNet.

Katrina Stuart

Executive sponsor, Australian Payments Plus

Katrina Stuart works at Australian Payments Plus as executive sponsor for the industry programme of work focusing on modernising Australia’s payments and migrating payments to the NPP. Prior to the formation of AP+, Ms Stuart was Head of Engagement at NPP Australia, working with financial institutions and fintechs to grow volumes and services on the NPP. Ms Stuart has also worked for American Express in Sydney, Singapore and London, where she was responsible for growing third-party issuing and acquiring volumes in markets across South-East Asia. Ms Stuart started her career with Booz Allen & Hamilton as a management consultant in their Financial Services Practice.

Dr Muhammad Usman

Head of Quantum Systems Team and Principal Staff Member, Data61, CSIRO

Dr Muhammad Usman is Head of Quantum Systems Team and Principal Staff Member at CSIRO’s Data61, the agency’s data and digital specialist arm. Dr Usman has over 15 years of research and teaching experience in the field of quantum computing, with a track record of over 100 research papers in high-impact international journals. At CSIRO, he is leading a team of researchers working at the forefront of quantum algorithms, quantum software engineering, and quantum security.

Dr Usman is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Physics and serves on the executive editorial boards of two international journals. He is a committee member of Standards Australia, to help in standardisation of quantum technologies, and has Associate Professor affiliations at the University of Melbourne and Monash University.

Dr Usman is a passionate quantum educator and has been promoting quantum education among school children as part of the CSIRO’s STEM Scientists in Schools program.

Andy White

Chief Executive Officer, AusPayNet

Andy White is the CEO of AusPayNet, the industry association and self-regulatory body for the Australian payments industry.

Mr White has over 25 years’ international experience. He joined AusPayNet in 2015 from the Australian Securities Exchange, where he was General Manager for Settlement Services and, prior to that, General Manager for Clearing Risk Management. Previously, he held leadership roles at LCH.Clearnet in London, after starting his career at the Bank of England.

Mr White is a graduate of Oxford University and the Australian Institute of Company Directors. He holds a variety of advisory and board roles, including with the Payment Card Industry and Australia’s National Anti-Scam Centre.

Steve Wiggins

Chief Executive, Payments NZ

As Chief Executive of Payments NZ and the Payments NZ API Centre®, Steve Wiggins is responsible for ensuring the New Zealand payments industry remains innovative, progressive, interoperable and self-governing.

He came to the role with extensive experience in senior executive roles through a career spanning more than three decades in industries as diverse as finance, energy, and consultancy services including leading large transformation across these sectors, bringing new innovation and technology to drive change that improve an industry in the long term.

Luke Wilson

Chief Operating Officer, AusPayNet

Luke Wilson has worked in the payments and financial services industries across Asia Pacific, with his experience in payments spanning more than 20 years.

He has held executive roles across various functions including operations, customer acquisition, program delivery, and relationship management.

In his current role as Chief Operating Officer of AusPayNet, a key area of Mr Wilson’s focus is on payments transformation.