Former CIO Qantas and Telstra

Fiona Balfour has had a distinguished career in the Information Technology industry. Her experience covers all aspects of managing and delivering technology for real-time, operational businesses.

She commenced as a graduate in the public sector in 1980. Between 1985 & 1991 she worked in management consulting with WD Scott, Coopers and Lybrand and then the DMR Group.

Fiona joined Qantas as an executive in 1992 where she held a variety of portfolios before being appointed Chief Information Officer and a member of the Qantas Executive Committee in 2001. Her portfolio was expanded in 2004 to include IT, Procurement, Property, Transport and People Services managing $3.8 billion in costs and over two thousand staff.

Fiona joined Telstra Corporation as Chief Information Officer in April 2006 and resigned in February 2007. She is currently a non executive director and advisor with her work specialising in legacy systems renewal, IT governance and leveraging technology for competitive business performance.

Go to the Program Page

Graeme Wood, Founder & Executive Director, Wotif Group (www.wotifgroup.com) Background Graeme Wood revolutionised the travel industry in Australia when he created the concept for, and cofounded, Wotif.com in 2000. From his simple and innovative idea, Graeme pioneered the company's development into what is now the Wotif Group, which employs more than 400 people in offices spread across the globe.

During his seven years at the helm, Wotif Group became one of Australia's most successful and wellknown online businesses, with Graeme and the company winning awards and accolades along the way,including: - Overall Winner and Winner of Outstanding Achievement by an Organisation in the Services Sector
- Premier of Queensland's SMART Awards 2004
- Australian Institute of Management Medal for Management Innovation
- 2004 Management Excellence Awards
- National winner of the Technology, Communications,E-Commerce and Life Sciences category
- 2005 Ernst and Young, Entrepreneur of the Year awards
- Winner of the Inspiration iAward and the Tourism & Hospitality category
- AIIA iAwards 2006
- Winner of the Most significant contribution by a large business or corporate, at the Vero Excellence in Business Support Awards 2007
- Three consecutive annual awards from Hitwise Internet intelligence service, announcing Wotif.com as the #1 Travel Destinations and Accommodation website across Australia for 2004 to 2007
- 2008 Suncorp Queenslander of the Year - the state's highest citizenship honour, recognising individuals who have made a significant achievement in their chosen field and who have made a difference in their community.

Graeme also rates overseeing the company's listing on the Australian Securities Exchange in June 2006, as a major career highlight.

In October 2007, Graeme retired from his role as CEO and Managing Director, but continues to play a key strategic role in the company as an Executive Director and also maintains a significant financial interest. In his new position, Graeme is focused on developing new business concepts and the ongoing promotion of the Wotif Group.

Go to the Program Page

Glenn's ADL employs approx 600 researchers and developers across Australia, and is an integral part of IBM's worldwide research and development community. A recent article in the Australian IT section "Aussie lab stars in record IBM patent haul" covered an interview with Glenn, highlighting the role that the ADL played in IBM's record patent haul in 2008. Glenn is one of an elite group of IBM Chief Technologists, and was the first Australian to be given the title of Distinguished Engineer

Go to the Program Page

Dr Paul Scully-Power AM is an Honorary Member of ACS. He is Australia's first astronaut. He is Chairman of a number of companies in the Defence, technology, and Internet security arena.

Dr Scully-Power is the former Chairman of Australian Civil Aviation Safety Authority, former Chancellor of Bond University, and has extensive international experience in government, industry, and academia.

Go to the Program Page

Bianca Wirth is a Technologist who has been working in the IT industry for the past 11 years. She has a Bachelor of Environmental Science and is a certified Provisional Environmental Auditor (ISO 19011 Environmental Auditor Standard).

Bianca currently works for Microsoft as a Government Technologist, where she also provides Green IT advice and writes a Microsoft blog under the name Little Miss Enviro Geek.

She also maintains an informative IT Environmental Sustainability website www.GreenITStrategy.com, contributes as an Advisory Board Member to the non-profit organisation, Computers off Australia; and is the NSW State Lead for the Industry Green IT Taskforce.

Go to the Program Page

Julie Irwin is an excellent role model for women in IT - she is professional, pragmatic and passionate about the ICT industry in Australia.

Julie holds a bachelor degree in applied science with majors in computing, accounting and business studies from UniSA. She has been an active member of ACS since 1983 and was recently recognized for 25 years membership. Julie has extensive experience in the ICT industry, with a strong technical background in database administration. In 1997, she founded A-DB Group and drove the growth in the company over 11 years until it was sold to ASG Group in October 2008.

Julie has developed a keen interest in China and has visited the country a number of times, most notably, taking part in Brisbane's Lord Mayor Campbell Newman's trade mission to China in 2005 and visiting again in 2007 to attend the Oracle OpenWorld Asia Pacific Conference.

Go to the Program Page

Ben Walker is the IT Program Manager at Genworth Financial. Ben’s IT experience spans 18 years, with 12 years focussed in the Finance Industry in Senior Management roles. His industry expertise includes; Wealth Management (including Asset Management, Debt Desk, Financial Planning); Stock Broking (Institutional, Retail, Research); Merchant Banking (Funds Management, Treasury); Mortgage Broking, Credit Cards; Telecommunications and Defense. Within the Finance and Insurance Industry he has held Senior Management roles, contract and permanent with organisations such as CitiBank, NAB, MLC, BNP Paribas Equities, Schroders, Ord Minnett and Mortgage Choice.

Go to the Program Page

Neville is the Chairman of the Smart Services CRC and its predecessor Smart Internet Technology CRC. He retired as Chairman of Fujitsu Australia Limited in March, 2004, having been head of the Company from 1989 to 2000. He has had an extensive career in the IT&T industry, which began with IBM Australia from 1965 to 1980.

He has been an advisor to Fujitsu Limited in Japan and is a director of Fujitsu in the ASEAN region.

Mr Roach is a member of the AIIA, of which he was Chairman from 1994-1996. He is a Fellow of the ACS. He has also served on the NSW Government's Information Technology Advisory Board of and the Victorian Premier's Communications and Multimedia Task Force.

Mr Roach is a Director of OneSteel Limited, Chairman Emeritus of the Australia India Business Council and Chairman of Tata Consultancy Services Financial Solutions (TCS-FS), TCS Management and the Advisory Committee of the Centre of Excellence for Quantum Computing Technology. He also served as Chairman of TAFE Global and a member of the Board and New South Wales President of the Committee for the Economic Development of Australia (CEDA).

Mr Roach was a member of the Australian Government's Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) Committee from 1990 to 1999 and the inaugural Chairman of National ICT Australia Limited (NICTA - Australia's pre-eminent ICT Centre of Excellence).

Mr Roach was the Chairman of the National Multicultural Advisory Council from 1996 to 1999, and its successor the Council for Multicultural Australia (CMA), which reports to the Prime Minister, and the Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, from 1999 to 2002. He was also Chairman of the Business (Migration) Advisory Panel, (BAP), which advised the Minister on all aspects of business migration, from 1997 to 2002.

Mr Roach was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in 2000 for service to business especially the ICT industry and for his contribution to the development of Australian Multiculturalism. In January 2008 he received the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award (Overseas Indian Honour Award) from the President of India.

Go to the Program Page

Mark is a national ICT identity and thought leader. He continues to perform a wide range of ICT leadership roles within the Queensland State Government. He was the CIO for the Department of the Premier and Cabinet and the Department of Public Works and a Project Director for a range of successful and complex agency and whole-of-government initiatives. He is a winner of the Premier's Client Service Award.

Lloyd is the Chairman of the International Organising Committee, World Computer Congress, 2010, Brisbane Australia. He is an inaugural life member of Software Queensland, a Fellow of the ACS and a founder of the ICT Industry Workgroup. Lloyd initiated and led the national Technologists in the Public Interest initiative leading to a two volume publication to the Governments of Australia.

Go to the Program Page

Varun Kapur An engineer by qualification, Varun has more than 18 years of experience within the IT industry. In his journey at Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), he has held various positions ranging from Development Manager to a Senior Executive at TCS. Currently, he is heading the TCS operations in Australia and New Zealand. He has led the company to grow by over 65% within Australia.

Prior to coming to Australia, Varun was the head for the Energy & Utility sector at TCS UK for 7 years. His natural sales skills and thorough understanding of the business and its challenges transformed the vertical to becoming TCS UK’s largest revenue earner.

Varun will discuss the internationalisation of the ICT industry. He will also touch on the Career and professional development opportunities ICT offers in terms of working in different industry sectors and different areas of business.

Go to the Program Page

Michael Harte, Group Executive Enterprise Services, and Chief Information Officer, heads the Technology and Banking Operations teams for the Commonwealth Bank. In his role, he is responsible for driving world-class IT and Operational Excellence. For the first time these teams are putting Customer Service excellence at the centre of everything they do.

Michael joined the Group in April 2006 as CIO to lead the enterprise-wide technology function and implement a new IT strategy. The Group formed Enterprise Services in October 2008 to enable the Customer Service focus and to accelerate the delivery of technology and operations for superior customer service.

Michael is actively engaged in business development and transformation. He also has significant experience in global systems strategy and deployment, innovation and integration.

Prior to joining the Group, Michael was VP Systems at Citigroup and EVP and CIO for PNC Financial Services, at PFPC one of the world’s largest investment fund administrators.

Michael holds a Bachelor of Business degree and a Diploma in Business. His post-graduate studies include Economics and a Master of Science in Systems with distinction from New York University.

Go to the Program Page

Debbie has volunteered thousands of hours to organize events, workshops and networking sessions for young IT professionals in South Australia, to promote the IT profession at University open days, career expos and conferences. Debbie was responsible for organizing both the inaugural National ACS Bootcamp - held in Sydney 2004, and last year's International ACS Young ICT Professionals Conference - held in Adelaide. She is a founding member of the ACS Young IT Professional Committee and when the Committee was officially endorsed as a Board, she became Deputy Board Director.

In 2005, Debbie was awarded the Professions Australia Young Professional of the Year. The award was given in recognition of the achievements Debbie had demonstrated, her commitment to excellence and innovation in her profession and the work she had achieved to promoting the profession as a whole.

Go to the Program Page

Yohan is a member of various organisations and committees particularly involved in the promotion and development of the Australian ICT industry, both nationally and internationally.

He was the Director of the ACS Young IT Professionals Board in 2007 and 2008. Yohan is also the Australian representative to the SEARCC (South East Asia Regional Computer Confederation) Executive committee and the Vice Chairman of the Canberra Branch Executive. He was highly commended in the 2007 Young Professional of the Year Award from Professions Australia recognising his contribution to the Australian ICT industry.

Go to the Program Page

Christopher William Johnson is an Associate Professor (academic level D) at the Australian National University in Canberra, ACT, Australia. In 2009 He is an Associate Dean(Education) for the ANU College of Engineering and Computer Science.

He is a teaching and research faculty member of the School of Computer Science in the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology of the ANU College of Engineering and Computer Science at the Australian National University-ANU-one of Australia's leading Group of Eight research universities.

He was previously (Feb 2008-August 2008) Acting Deputy Dean (Education) of the College, and Head of the Department of Computer Science (1999-2003, 2004-2007).

Go to the Program Page

Cassandra Ashworth has been a major asset through her seven year tenure with EXCOM Education. Shortly after starting with EXCOM, Cassandra founded the nation’s leading IT career training programme, Express IT. This ground-breaking program has an unprecedented track record of placing 100% of all graduates into IT employment.

Currently holding the title of Chief Marketing Officer at EXCOM Education, Cassandra’s roots working in human resources and recruitment have always been evident. Cassandra passionately believes in mentoring and assisting our unemployed and the community's future workforce. To date her personal commitment and service has been recognised by hundreds of testimonials, letters of appreciation, success stories, and invitations to speak at key industry events.

Cassandra has been instrumental in the training and employment of over 4000 Australians, developing one of the most successful IT Career Programs, writing several professional development courses and mentoring hundreds of aspiring IT candidates.

Go to the Program Page

Jill Noble, careers and job seeking expert, speaker and facilitator, is the author of 3 published books. Jill also runs Pivotal HR, providing HR services to small to medium businesses (including a unique recruitment model) and career and job seeking services to professionals. Jill has a degree in English and postgraduate degrees in PR, communications and career development. Her extensive careers background began in training before moving into recruitment and then into careers guidance and resource management in the IT industry, before setting up her own business in 2005.

Jill is a sought after speaker and regularly speaks at many of Melbourne's educational institutions.

Jill is passionate about careers, job seeking and has a special interest in IT jobs and job seeking strategies for newcomers to Australia.

Go to the Program Page

Tom Worthington is an IT consultant and an Adjunct Senior Lecturer in the Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology at the Australian National University. He has been an expert witness in several court cases involving international patent, computer, web and Internet issues, as well as advising governments and companies on computer problems. Tom teaches the design of web sites, e-commerce and professional ethics.

He is the designer of the ACS's Green ICT e-learning course. In 1999 he was elected a Fellow of the Australian Computer Society for his contribution to the development of public Internet policy. Tom is a past president and Honorary Life Member of the Australian Computer Society, a voting member of the Association for Computing Machinery and a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

Go to the Program Page

Benjamin Patey is the Chief Information Officer - CSC Australia. Benjamin has extensive experience in IT having been involved in a number of roles over his 20 year career in Information Technology ranging from applications development through service delivery to operations and strategic management.

He has significant experience in the application of IT across the Manufacturing, Resources Industry Verticals and in services and outsourcing. Benjamin has a Bachelor of Business majoring in eCommerce from Charles Sturt University and a Diploma in Computing Studies from Newcastle University.

Go to the Program Page

Go to the Program Page

Go to the Program Page

Yasas is a young and energetic IT professional who holds an honours degree in Computer Science, an international award winner from the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (UK) for the up and coming business leader of the future in 2003 in London. He is also an author on Business IT related areas and has published a book on Business Information Technology (BIT) titled A bit of BIT.

With working experience in the USA, UK, Sri Lanka & Australia, Yasas has served clients such as British Telecom, Telstra and Siemens. His professional interests are in Project Management, Business Analysis and Consulting. Yasas is currently with Accenture, a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company. Prior to Accenture, Yasas has worked for Virtusa and the South Australian government.

Yasas is the Director of the Young IT Professionals Board of the Australian Computer Society (ACS) and is also a member of the ACS Victorian State Board. Prior to being appointed as an ACS Director and Congress member, Yasas has served the ACS in many capacities.

Yasas loves to serve the IT industry and the society at large and has demonstrated this through his actions in many engagements over the years. He continues to do voluntary career counseling, mainly focusing on young professionals and students.

Yasas maintains his blog at http://yasasva.blogspot.com

Go to the Program Page

Jason is a Senior Consultant for PricewaterhouseCoopers in their Advisory Division and specialises in assisting organisations realise their strategic objectives through the implementation of PMO's and Portfolio Management. He has worked for a number of large Australian and international organisations across various industries and has previously worked with IBM in their commercial software division. Jason holds a Bachelors Degree in Computer Science from the University of New South Wales and has been the recipient of an ACS Foundation Scholarship.

Jason is the NSW Young IT Committee Chair and NSW Representative on the National Young IT Professionals Board. He is responsible for the representation of developing and emerging ICT professionals (<35 yrs old) within the NSW Branch. Young IT is focused on the professional development of young people in ICT, whether in schools, tertiary institutions or within the ICT industry.

Go to the Program Page

Go to the Program Page