ACS Victoria presents 'Driving inclusion and diversity in the ICT sector' breakfast

Chris leads the Consumer Digital Technology Enterprise Domain that is responsible for the strategy, customer experience, project delivery, roadmaps and support of ANZ’s global consumer digital assets across Mobile, Content, Multi-Channel, Internet Banking and Digital Marketing for 38 countries.

Chris has been working in IT for 25 years working in Global roles in USA, Singapore, Hong Kong, Germany, Malaysia and Australia.

Chris has experience in IT strategy and consulting having worked for Accenture and Deloitte. He has also worked for Software vendors like Oracle and Siebel running their software delivery practices.

He has also run his own Digital Agency/Ecommerce start up that focused on ecommerce and B2B solutions for small to medium organisations. With over 10 years’ experience in the Financial sector across Operations, Retail and Commercial banking, Chris has extensive knowledge of the banking sector and software delivery and transformation within large enterprise organisations.

Chris keeps his hands on the technology and jointly owns and runs 2 ecommerce organisations Nite-Rays and Sambellina PTY LTD where he is accountable for all the technology and operations and development.

He is also on the Board of Advisors to Melbourne University school of engineering.

In all his spare time when he is not doing that he has a Black Belt in Taekwondo, Races Cars, considers programming a hobby and loves teaching his 2 children to code.

Mr Tim Fawcett is the Director of Corporate and Government Affairs for Cisco Systems Australia and New Zealand where he is responsible for implementing Cisco’s National Engagement Strategies.

Tim co-chairs Cisco’s Working @ Cisco initiative which aims to help Cisco become an employer of choice through a focus on diversity, inclusion and workplace flexibility. 

Tim is also a Director of the Diversity Council Australia and the Victorian Government’s start up initiative, LaunchVic.  He is also a Director of the children’s charity, Make a Difference (MAD) Foundation and an Advisory Board Member of the Melbourne Networked Society Institute at University of Melbourne. 

Tim is also an Ambassador for cancer research not-for-profit the Snowdome Foundation.  He holds a Master of Public Policy from the Australian National University and a Bachelor of Arts with Honours from La Trobe University.

Françoise Russo was appointed to the role of Chief Information Officer for Toll Group in August 2016.

Françoise has studied Psychology at University, followed by a Masters in Information Systems and an MBA.

Françoise started her career working for Procter & Gamble for a number of years, in predominantly global and regional roles. During this time, she worked on a number of Sales and Business Planning Solutions as well as various Interactive Marketing initiatives for the P&G Haircare New Business Development Division, when Digital Solutions were emerging as a tool for customer connection and engagement.

Following that, Françoise worked for Diageo PLC for several years, in a number of IT and Business roles. These included an eTransformation change programme, Sales and Commercial IT including Field Force Automation, the IT Director of Diageo Great Britain (Diageo’s second largest market), various Marketing IT roles including Digital Marketing Director and leader of an HR Transformation programme.

Prior to joining Toll, she worked at British American Tobacco joining them in 2008 in a variety of senior IT Leadership roles covering Sales, Marketing, Innovation, Manufacturing, Leaf, Supply Chain and R&D. As part of BAT’s Global IT Leadership team, she then moved to a role as BAT’s Regional CIO first covering Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa, then also taking on Western and Central Europe. All senior roles have involved team leadership and talent development, strategy development and execution, business engagement, delivery of major transformation projects and often, restructuring and building talent to develop a future fit IT team.

Françoise is also a champion of increasing the Diversity in IT and was the Group IT sponsor for this in BAT, during which period the number of women in IT significantly increased.

Françoise is passionate about IT and how it can support and enable transformation and key business outcomes.

As the Founder of Professional Women’s Lunches (PWL), I meet amazing and talented women from across the world. PWL is all about helping women value themselves and enabling them to be successful in their work and home life. I focus on connecting people and I love watching the professional relationships develop from my introductions.

This is why I started the lunches. I am passionate about helping women progress their careers. Over a nice meal and many conversations fruitful relationships form. These relationships lead to additional strategic introductions and connections and also act as a great sounding board or accountability ‘buddy’.