Industry Leaders

Patty Akopiantz

James Alexander

Co-founder & General Partner, Galileo Ventures

Table Host

James Alexander is the Co-founder of Galileo and has supported over 200 Founders launch tech startups across various industries since 2012. Previously he founded INCUBATE, a leading university accelerator and worked in global software startups.

Ranya Alkadamani

Ranya is a communications strategist, with experience in working across media markets and for high profile people, including one of Australia’s leading philanthropists, Andrew Forrest and Australia’s then Foreign Minister and former Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd.

Ranya has personally been behind the global launches of the Walk Free Global Slavery Index, which reached more than 1 billion people.

Ranya is also a Non-Executive Director of Vulcan Energy Resources (ASX:VUL), Zero Carbon Lithium and AAP.

Roger Allen

Table Host

Roger helped pioneer the Australian technology industry through the Computer Power Group, one of the first Australian founded tech companies, to scale globally and subsequently IPO. Following its acquisition in 1995, Roger co-founded Allen and Buckeridge, the originally early stage venture capital firm, raising over $300 million to seed and support over 50 startups. After establishing two successor VC firms, Roger retired from the firm in 2007 to focus on his private investment portfolio and social venture projects, where he has been a major early stage investor and mentor.

Roger has served on two Prime Minister’s Science and Technology Councils, chaired State Government ICT Advisory boards, served as deputy Chairman of Austrade for 7 years and adjunct Professor at Swinburne University and INSEAD School of Entrepreneurship in Paris and Singapore. Along with many prestigious industry accolades in 2011, he was awarded the Order of Australia honour for services to IT, venture capital and in recognition of his support of the indigenous community and philanthropic sector.

Nicholas Bernhardt

Table Host

Prior to Informed 365, Nicholas held senior management positions at Nomura Securities, Standard Chartered Bank & Ameco Financial Services. He has extensive experience in private banking, asset management & investment banking in the financial centres of Zurich, Tokyo, London and Hong Kong.

Nicholas has an MBA from Zurich University (magna cum laude) and specialises in CSR / ESG, IT platforms, start-ups and collaboration.

Timothy Boyle

Table Host

Tim leads the development and implementation of ANSTO’s strategic initiatives working collaboratively with ANSTO stakeholders, industry, community partners and government. These initiatives include ANSTO’s Innovation Precinct and development of translational research centres aligned with ANSTO research and industry needs. Tim also coordinates ANSTO’s knowledge exchange and commercialisation activities. He is outcome focussed, always seeking to understand the client needs and ensure that ANSTO delivers value to exceed their expectations.

Tim has also worked in various knowledge exchange and technology development roles within higher education, information and pharmaceutical industry and throughout his career. Tim holds appointments as an Adjunct Professor with Swinburne University of Technology and Global Expert faculty with Singularity University.

Dr Natalie Curach

Dr Michelle Deaker

Dr Andrew Harris

Andrew is a non-executive Director of Hazer Group (ASX:HZR), a listed clean tech and serves on the board of the Australian Research Council Centre for Robotic Vision. He was recognised as one of Australia’s 50 most innovative engineers by peak body Engineers Australia in 2016.

Sophia Hamblin Wang

Table Host

Sophia is also a member of the ACT Climate Change Council, Curator of the Canberra Hub for the Global Shapers, and a Sessional Lecturer at University of Sydney, where she co-lectures and co-designed the undergraduate course International Business in Practice, now a cornerstone course for undergraduates in international business.

Prof Baohua Jia

Prof Jia’s research focuses on the fundamental light and nanomaterial interaction. In particular her work on laser manipulation of two-dimensional materials has led to the design and fabrication of functional nanostructures and nanomaterials for effective harnessing and storage of clean energy from sunlight, purifying water and air for clean environment and imaging and spectroscopy and nanofabrication using ultrafast laser towards fast-speed all-optical communications and intelligent manufacturing.

Cass Mao

Table Host

Most recently as founding Venture Partner at Tenacious Ventures, Cass supported the GPs to raise a $35 million fund focused on Australian agtech startups with climate impact. They invested in six companies in the first 12 months of investing, all with a deeptech component.

Cass is now looking to build a deeptech company as a founder, CEO, or CCO — commercialising research with a decarbonisation focus (energy, materials sciences, and food/ag).

Phil Morle

Session: Revolutionising the way things get done

Sarah Nolet

Table Host

Sarah is also the host of the AgTech…So What? Podcast, and Co-founder of Farmers2Founders, a national innovation program that supports Australian primary producers to commercialise inventions and new businesses, as well as gain early access to emerging technologies.

Sarah holds a Masters in System Design and Management from MIT, and a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and Human Factors Engineering from Tufts University.

Mark Pesce

Session: Revolutionising the way things get done

Mark Pesce is an inventor, writer, entrepreneur, educator and broadcaster.

In 1994, Mark co-invented VRML, a 3D interface to the World Wide Web. Pesce has written six books, including VRML: Browsing and Building Cyberspace and The Playful World: How Technology is Transforming Our Imagination, which used toys such as Furby and Sony’s PlayStation to explore our interactive future.

As an educator, Mark founded graduate programs in interactive media at both the University of Southern California’s world-famous Cinema School and the Australian Film, Radio and Television School. Mark currently holds appointments as Honorary Associate in the University of Sydney’s Digital Cultures Program, and Honorary Adjunct in the University of Technology, Sydney’s new Animal Logic Academy.

For seven years, Mark was a panelist and judge on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s hit series The New Inventors, celebrating Australia’s newest inventions and inventors.

In 2013, Mark was appointed as a columnist for the IT publication The Register, reaching a global audience with provocative articles on the dilemmas of the connected world.

Dr Megan Sebben

Her role is to help Australian startups and small SMEs access dollar-matched funding and facilitation to undertake a project with CSIRO. The Kick-Start program provides eligible companies with vouchers of up to $50k to perform research, development or testing of projects utilising CSIRO researchers, capabilities and facilities. The Kick-Start team connects the business to the best CSIRO research expertise, utilising their national CSIRO network of facilitators and contacts.

Megan has extensive experience in environmental research and consulting in both the public and private sectors. Her research interests lie in groundwater modelling, fractured rock hydrology and coastal hydrogeology. Megan joined CSIRO Education and Outreach in 2017, where she was the STEM Professionals in Schools Project Officer for Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania. Since joining SME Connect in 2019, Megan has been facilitating and supporting a variety of Kick-Start collaborations, as well as promoting the range of programs available through SME Connect.

David Spence

Table Host

Ninotschka Titchkosky

Aude Vignelles

Table Host

Previously, Aude held senior and executive roles within Foxtel, Austar, Telstra, and Technicolor.

Aude is a space and aeronautics engineer (graduating from ENSICA, Toulouse) who started her career at the European Space Agency in the Netherlands, where she became an expert in spacecraft Assembly Integration and Testing (AIT). Her 30 years of experience in delivering large and complex programs embrace the introduction of new technology in the telecommunication, space and media industries. Aude has been living in Australia for the past 20 years and has contributed to the Australian space capability through White Papers, events at conferences with the growing start-up community in Australia, and promotion for Women in Space and Engineering at universities.

Martijn Wilder

Martijn was head of Baker & McKenzie’s global climate law and finance practice and has played a key role with Australia’s clean energy finance institutions. He has been Chair of the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) and a former founding Director of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation. He helped establish and later Chair the Federal Government’s Low Carbon Australia finance body.

He is currently President of WWF-Australia and Chair of NSW Climate Change Council. He is Adjunct Professor of International Climate Change Law at Australian National University, and a Director of the Climate Council. Martijn was a Cambridge Commonwealth Trust Scholar and awarded an Australian Honour (AM) for his contribution to climate change law and the environment, and was winner of the 2018 Financial Times Asia Pacific Legal Innovator of the Year.

Sally-Ann Williams

Session: Healthier Lives

Sally-Ann has been involved in driving national engagement and change strategies in innovation & entrepreneurship, Computer Science and STEM education as a member of the COAG STEM Partnership Forum and contributed to the foundation of StartupAUS, a non-profit with a mission to transform Australia through technology entrepreneurship. She has led several cross-sector working groups to drive change both in policy & cultural transformation needed to grow a thriving technology-driven economy, and served on four University Industry Advisory Boards in the engineering and computer science departments.