Speakers

Henrik has over 17 years experience in global financial markets, with almost a decade on Wall Street.

Henrik has extensive experience across three continents as a quantitative analyst, senior research analyst and in institutional equity sales. Henrik holds a Master of Science in Engineering Physics from the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) and a Master of Science in Business Administration and Economics from Stockholm University. He is a CFA charterholder. Apollo Capital is an actively managed crypto fund based in Australia.

Fabian is currently the Vice President of Asia Pacifc & International business at LodgIQ overlooking all aspects and operations within the region and also supports OTA Insight and Travel Tripper in their Asia Pacific specific regional requirements. Previously Fabian was the Director of Global Revenue Generation at Tune Hotels Group encompassing Sales, Distribution, Business Analytics, Revenue Management and the Central Reservations Office.

Having lived and worked across 4 continents, Fabian has a rich history in hospitality and a thorough understanding of the global revenue optimization landscape. He initially kick-started his career in operations from where he switched to revenue management when it was still in its infancy. Since then Fabian has held various area and regional roles in revenue management for global hospitality companies. Prior to joining the Tune Hotels Group, Fabian headed up the Consulting Division in South East Asia for IDeaS – A SAS Company deepening his understanding in price optimization, visual analytics and total revenue management.

Fabian has successfully turned around revenue performance in many companies by providing strategic consulting services as well developing powerful revenue analytics solutions that empower the business to maximize its revenue potential. Fabian has been on the Board of Directors for HSMAI South East Asia and currently sits on the HSMAI Advisory Board.

Balazs Bodo is a research scientist, and the founding director of the Blockchain and Society Policy Research Lab, and the Institute for information Law, University of Amsterdam. He is a two times Fulbright Scholar (2006-7, Standford University; 2012 Harvard University), and a former Marie Sklodowska-Curie fellow (2013-15). Balazs has a strong interdisciplinary background, having a degree in Economics (MSc, Corvinus University, 1999), and a PhD in Media Studies (ELTE, 2011).

In recent years he has been working on copyright piracy, especially the illicit circulation of learning materials online through shawdows libraries, and algorithmic information personalisazion, focusing on the user and newsroom sides of news personalisation.

He is the co-authored of the Dutch National Blockchain Research Agenda.

Thanh Le comes in as a NEM Australia leader based out of Sydney.

Having 10 years of experience in education and a solid background in business development and insurance. With his education experience, Thanh provides monthly workshops and meetups in Sydney to those wanting to learn more about cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology.

Thanh’s long-term vision is to help every business from SME to globally recognised brands reduce cost and dramatically increase day to day efficiency and productivity with the implementation of blockchain technology.

Nothing brings Thanh more satisfaction than seeing the success of businesses skyrocket and successful partnerships formed within the cryptosphere space.

Bláthnaid Byrne is the Group Treasurer at AGL Energy, responsible for managing financial risk, debt and investments. Blathnaid is also a Governor at the WWF and the Treasurer for the Australian Committee of the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Previously, Bláthnaid headed up the Asia Pacific treasury functions for Orbitz Worldwide and Hudson Global Resources in Sydney. She began her career with the European treasury team at Baxter Healthcare in Dublin.

Bláthnaid holds a Degree in International Business with Languages from Dublin City University, the AMCT Diploma qualification from the Association of Corporate Treasurers and an Advanced Diploma from the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants.

Simon Cant is Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Reinventure. Founded in 2013, Reinventure is a corporate venture fund with $150m under management bringing together the best of independent venture capital and corporate venturing with Westpac as the primary investor. To date, the portfolio has 20+ ventures which are focused on Fintech and adjacent areas. 

Simon also founded and was inaugural President of FinTech Australia, the industry’s peak representative body, where he remains a board member and is a member of the Australian Treasurer’s FinTech Advisory Group.

Simon has built his career in venture and innovation including advising leadership and innovation teams at Westpac, NAB, Suncorp, Fairfax, News, APN and Tennis Australia as well as being a founding team member at Social Ventures Australia, Tinshed Angel Group, ninemsn and Austlii.  Simon began his career as a solicitor with Allens.

Mr. Terry Chan has over 20 years of e-Commerce/New Retail Supply Chain experience in marketplace and 3PL, e-commerce supply chain entrepreneur, postal expert, columnist, advisor, consultant, mentor, University Lecturer and keynote speakers over 70+ conferences across Asia Pacific and Europe.

He is the founder and Chairman of Hong Kong eCommerce Supply Chain Association (HKeCSC) – The first & only one in Hong Kong. He is the founder & CEO of eC-Post Worldwide Co Ltd – an eCommerce Supply Chain Accelerator, focus on eCommerce supply chain solution China from/to South East Asia and Europe, former GM, 3PL of Lazada – the leading B2C eCommerce Marketplace in South East Asia (Alibaba Group of Companies), and he held senior management positions in multinational companies such as, FedEx, DHL eCommerce, Swedish & Danish Post, S.F. Express, Yamato…etc.

He acts as e-Commerce Supply Chain advisor/mentor to governmental authority and professional organizations such as, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC), GS1, Chartered Institute of Logistics & Transport (CILT), Asia Pacific Postal Union (APPU), Hong Kong Federation of Youth Group (HKFYG), World Economic Forum, various chambers (i.e. British Chamber of Commerce), universities (i.e. City University of Hong Kong, Lingnan University of Hong Kong, Hang Seng Management College, HKU SPACE) and eCommerce/retail/supply chain event organizers (i.e. UBM, Terrapinn).

He held the role of chairman, keynote speaker, moderator and panelist for 70+ conferences in Asia Pacific & Europe about eCommerce/New Retail/Supply Chain/Blockchain for HKTDC, APICS, Global Supply Chain Council, KPMG, World Bank, GS1, Union Postal Union (UPU), Asian Pacific Postal Union (APPU), government authority (i.e. Hong Kong, Singapore, Vietnam), various Universities and Chamber of Commerce, ASEAN Embassy.
He acts as advisory/steering committee for professional organizations such as, Chartered Member & Logistics Policy Committee & e-Commerce Focus Group committee of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport in Hong Kong (CILTHK), GS1 HK Summit 2017, and various key conferences such as, Retail Asia Expo 2018...etc.
He acts as judges for competitions such as, the 2017 top 10 e-Commerce website awards by GS1, for the E Hub, a tripartite project 2018 of the Qianhai Authority, the Shenzhen Youth Federation and the HKFYG, Hong Kong B2B eCommerce Youth Festival organized by Alibaba.
He acts as columnist for e-Commerce/Supply Chain/Logistics magazine such as, Forbes (Vietnam), SIDES (Hong Kong), Logistics Transport Manager Magazine (Poland), Terrapinn (Singapore)... etc.
He held the position of Adjunct Lecturer at the University of Hong Kong, Institute of China Business, to teach eCommerce / New Retail Supply Chain for the postgraduate students across China. 
He held a Bachelor Degree in Applied Sciences in Hong Kong, a Master of Science in Environmental Sciences from the University of Manchester, a Master of Business Administration from the University of London, and a Postgraduate Diploma in Doing Business in China from the Fudan University, China. 

Bryan leads the Australian Chamber’s International Chamber of Commerce Policy Unit. This Unit has primary carriage of our policy development and advocacy for free trade along with the responsibilities of managing our responsibilities as a National Committee of the International Chamber of Commerce in Australia.
Bryan is also our primary contact with other international organisations the Australian chamber holds the unique national membership for including the International Chamber of Commerce and the Confederation of Asia Pacific Chambers of Commerce and Industry (CACCI).

Bryan has over 25 years experience in international policy development and a demonstrated record of achievement in industry advocacy, particularly in international trade, agriculture and climate change. Bryan is frequently invited to speak at national and international events regarding free trade and rules of origin.
His previous roles include as a Director of Kealey Clark Pty Ltd; Manager of Industry Development at the Grain Growers' Association; CEO of the Murrumbidgee Horticulture Council; CEO of Nuffield Australia; CEO of the Riverina Food Group; Deputy Director of the Ricegrowers’ Association of Australia and previous involvement in family farming operations near Griffith in NSW.

Positions held:

• Member – International Trade Remedies Forum – Anti Dumping Commission
• Member – National Committee on Trade Facilitation - Department of Immigration and Border Protection
• Facilitator of the Indonesia – Australia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreements Business Partnership Group (IA-CEPA BPG)
• Former Chairman of the Indian Ocean Rim Associations’ Business Forum (IORBF)
• Member – International Chamber of Commerce World Council
• Member – World Certificate of Origin Council – World Chambers Forum
• Member of the Trade Facilitation Committee – Confederation of Asia Pacific Chambers of Commerce and Industry
• Vice Chairman of the Australia – ASEAN Business Council
• Member - Standards Australia's International Policy Advisory Committee

Nick Cliff is the Emerging Technology Lead, Payments Direction, Australian Payments Network. His role is to monitor and interpret developments in payments both globally and nationally. Mr Cliff also plays an important role in shaping the industry initiatives that the Australian Payments Council delivers.

Prior to joining the Australian Payments Network, he held roles at the Reserve Bank of Australia, Westpac and the Commonwealth Bank.

A software engineer by trade, Mr Cliff is passionate about the role of emerging technologies. His current focus includes APIs, mobile payments, and digital identity.

The Australian Payments Network is the self-regulatory body set up by the payments industry to improve the safety, reliability, equity, convenience and efficiency of the Australian payments system.

Alfred "Bubba" Cook has spent a lifetime on the ocean and the last 15 years working in fisheries conservation and management.  At age 18, he joined the United States Navy's Nuclear Power Programme, which took him around the world and sparked an interest in global affairs and, especially, international fisheries.

Troubled by fishery declines he observed at home and abroad, he sought out an education focused on fisheries policy and law.  In 2000, he received a B.S. degree in Fisheries and Aquaculture from Texas A&M University followed in 2003 by a J.D. with a certificate in Natural Resource Policy and Environmental Law from Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon, making him well suited to take on complex policy initiatives in large-scale fisheries.

After law school, he was hired by the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service in Alaska where he led a dedicated team in the implementation of one of the world’s most complex and effective fishery management programmes for the North Pacific crab fishery made famous by the TV show "Deadliest Catch."

He later joined the World Wide Fund for Nature’s (WWF's) Arctic Programme to support fisheries conservation and management efforts across the Bering Sea from the Russian Far East to Alaska's remote indigenous communities.  In 2010, he joined the U.S. Peace Corps and served in Wailevu Village in Vanua Levu, Fiji, where he supported several grassroots marine conservation projects over two years.

Since 2012, Bubba has worked as the Western and Central Pacific Tuna Programme Manager for WWF out of Suva, Fiji and Wellington, New Zealand, where he focuses on improving tuna fisheries management at a national and regional level in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean through policy improvements, market tools, and technological innovation.  Through his role with WWF, Bubba has enthusiastically supported the development of technology solutions for difficult fisheries challenges, including the use of blockchain for traceability of seafood.

I've been active in the application of leading edge technology since the early 90's - the digitisation of telco infrastructure as an engineer; an IT / web project manager in New Zealand government organisations, Fonterra and BNZ.

In 1999, I co-founded one of the worlds earliest SMS marketing businesses - Run The Red. Run The Red started as a text marketing business, teaching New Zealanders how to text. We became a market leader integrating text messaging with core business applications, providing solutions in New Zealand and the South Pacific to clients such as Westpac, Vodafone, Sky TV, Facebook and The Department of Internal Affairs. Run The Red was bought by Pushpay (pushpay.com) in 2014, who on-sold it to Modica in 2016.

I've been a Way of Nature student since 1996 completing Guide Training, including a 28 day personal solo retreat in the Colorado Mountains in 2015. I host programmes encouraging people to include a conscious relationship with Nature in their personal and professional lives. A key question we ask is "How might I partner with Nature in my Work and in the process of leading?"

My involvement in blockchain started early 2017 and I'm currently providing business guidance to several blockchain founders. I am the business strategist for TrustaBit.io, a USA start-up applying blockchain to automate the issuing of vouchers when your flight is delayed. I am a business advisor to The Formary, a world leader in developing solutions to recycle and repurpose the world's tsumani of textile waste. The Formary have recently partnered with Australia's BlockTEXX, and together they are applying blockchain technology in the textile re-use supply chain.

I (amongst many) believe we need to transform the commercial eco-system and for this a paradigm shift is required. We need to have a feel for what this paradigm shift is BEFORE we create our solutions. We have a responsibility to ensure a diversity of input and we need to include Nature in the dialogue. Only then can blockchain and other technology be leveraged in a way that serves humanity, the environment and all Beings of Nature.

As a creative alchemist, I make connections, facilitate diverse conversations and contribute as one of many stewards to generate this paradigm shift so that our grandchildren’s grandchildren have the future we wish for them.

Lucas is a full stack software and solidity developer, previously working for startups and banks has a background in mathematics. He first heard about bitcoin in 2011, started mining soon after that, and has been talking about bitcoin to whoever will listen ever since.
He runs his own software development company, developing software for bitcoin and blockchain projects. Lucas also runs blockchain class room training. He runs the Bitcoin Brisbane meetup, is a board member of Blockchain Australian and is the Australian Coloured Coin Ambassador. He is also developing a decentralised bitcoin poker protocol called BitPoker.io

Nigel Dobson is Banking Services Business Domain Lead at ANZ. The Banking Services Domain delivers common end-to-end platform-based services to drive our business outcomes towards delivering innovative, customer focussed solutions. Banking Services is responsible for developing and implementing the groups Payments platform strategy that will support the enterprise and our partners. The domain portfolio will also include additional enterprise services such as Fraud monitoring, Transaction Screening, Digital Identity, Credit and Risk Monitoring and Decisioning.

Nigel leads the bank’s Blockchain strategy and associated activities, including fostering partnerships and industry pilots. Nigel is currently a Director of the New Payments Platform (NPPA) in Australia and a Director of the Australian Payments Council (APC).

Katrina is the Co-Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Civic Ledger – a civic focused blockchain Australian company. "We work with governments globally on the use of blockchain technologies to solve specific business problems where blockchain is advantaged over traditional legacy technologies."
Through her early years as a sociologist through to her interest in entrepreneurialism, she has extensive experience in public policy and early stage commercialisation.  For more than 20 years, Katrina has worked in both public and not for profit sectors with a specific focus on business development, project delivery and revenue diversification with the view to building resilient and sustainable organisations. 
In Australia, she organises the Brisbane Women in Blockchain Meetup and regularly speaks on the topic of why cities and governments should be exploring blockchain technologies.  Katrina's interest in blockchain technologies is driven by her curiousity of its potential to replace government legacy systems to deliver efficiencies, stimulate innovation and build digital societies.
In mid-April 2018, Katrina was appointed to the Australian Digital Commerce Association Board.

Introducing Civic Ledger

Founded in late September 2016, Civic Ledger is an Australian civic-focused blockchain company with a purpose to help governments globally to solve complex business processes by digitalising operations and services using blockchain technologies where advantaged over traditional legacy systems.  
At Civic Ledger, we are a team of public and financial sector experts, software engineers, and venture know-how inspired to solve business process challenges faced by public sector markets. We also have strong business backgrounds, which have firsthand experience in bringing companies to life.  This diversity in backgrounds and skill sets allows us to see the potential of blockchain technologies and smart contracts to enable citizens and organisations to self-manage the speed, convenience, and control over their transactions within digitalised societies.  

Our mission is to make people’s interactions with governments globally easier, faster, more secure and transparent.  It is Civic Ledger’s vision is to have its blockchain based applications used by some of the world’s largest governments to underpin its transactions with citizens and organisations to improve the customer experience in a digitalised society.
Civic Ledger’s business focuses on four main blockchain-based platforms: issuance of entitlements, registries, trading platforms and exchanges.

Craig was appointed chair of Stone and Chalk, Sydney’s Fintech Hub, in March 2015.  Craig also chairs the Australian Government’s Fintech Advisory Group and the International Standards Committee for Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technologies. He is a director of Jobs for NSW and a member of the NSW Government’s Quantum Computing Fund Advisory Panel.

Craig is also a non-executive director of Westpac Banking Corporation, Telstra Corporation Limited, a member of ASIC’s External Advisory Panel and chair of The Australian Ballet.

Craig has over 25 years’ experience in the financial services sector and was CEO of AMP Limited for six years from 2008 to 2013. Prior to this, Craig was Managing Director, AMP Financial Services for five years and held a number of other senior roles at AMP, including Managing Director of AMP Bank.

Before joining AMP, he was CEO of a Malaysian insurance company, a joint venture of Colonial Limited. Craig also lived and worked in Europe and elsewhere in Asia with KPMG.

He is a former chair of the Financial Services Council and a member of the Financial Services Advisory Committee to the Federal Treasurer, Australian Financial Centre Forum (Johnson Report), Australian Government’s Financial Literacy Board and, most recently, the Financial System Inquiry (or Murray Inquiry).

Craig holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Melbourne and is a Fellow of The Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia.

Lachlan is the co-founder of Labrys and is leading the technology development of Labrys

He has been involved in the development of DLT since its origins working as the Senior Technology Officer at Civic Ledger; focussed on building blockchain solutions for public sector markets.

Full-Stack Developer and Entrepreneur

Leila’s business career spans more than 20 years working in consulting, investment banking, retail banking & capital markets. Her diverse experience has been acquired in some of South Africa’s leading companies in these fields, including Accenture, Standard Bank & the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.

Through the course of her career, Leila has held senior executive positions & directorships of global portfolios, local boards & US boards. Her board roles have included that of non executive director, executive director & managing director. Leila has also served in the capacity as chairman of the board.

Over the course of her career, Leila has gained experience in turnarounds; set up of two new Greenfields organisations; established new global and local divisions within a multi-national organisation; launched new products; established and closed down joint ventures; advocated on national policy matters; and maintained existing revenue producing and support functions. Leila holds a Ph.D in Economic & Financial Sciences.

Paul Fox is the Managing Director of Blockchain Pacific Caiptal.  Paul has held technology investment roles at AGL Energy, Southern Cross Ventures, the California Clean Energy Fund and Flex. He worked in Silicon Valley for 12 years as an executive, start-up CEO and venture capitalist.  He was a strategy consultant during the deregulation of the energy industry in the 1990s.

His initial interest in blockchain was for securitisation of renewable energy projects. He later ran two blockchain peer-to-peer projects at AGL Energy Limited.

Paul holds an MBA and a Bachelor of Engineering. He is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

I am responsible for Experimentation in the Innovation Lab, where we test new ideas and emerging technologies in order to drive commercial outcomes. We believe experimentation fuels innovation. We aim to uncover insights and knowledge to create customer value.

We have a portfolio of blockchain and embodied AI (social robotics) projects underway, where we use customer centric design and an agile approach to experiment, incubate and commercialise technology-driven solutions.

My international investment banking experience includes advising, originating and executing capital raising transactions driven by client's core funding needs, acquisitions or new business initiatives across a broad product set including vanilla debt capital markets products, securitisation and structured finance transactions, and a range of domestic and international markets.

I have a demonstrated capability for identification and execution of new business opportunities, managing high performance teams, taking a collaborative approach and balancing the needs of diverse stakeholders to deliver the optimal outcome.

Vincent Gramoli is the Head of the Concurrent Systems Research Group at the University of Sydney and a Senior Researcher at Data61-CSIRO.

He is the Chair of the Blockchain Technical Committee at the Australian Computer Society.

His field of expertise is distributed computing and he was affiliated with INRIA, Cornell University and EPFL. Vincent received his PhD from Université de Rennes and his Habilitation from UPMC Sorbonne University.

His group published the Balance Attack against proof-of-work blockchains that served as a motivation to devise blockchains for critical applications.

In particular, his group developed the Red Belly Blockchain, a secure blockchain that scales to a thousand of machines on 4 continents.

Benjamin is a senior systems analyst with the Australian Federal Government, who has worked across a number of large-scale ICT implementations to deliver social welfare payment systems to the Australian public. He is currently working to develop and deliver a modular framework for automation of claim processing for social service benefits, part of the Government’s $1B commitment to Delivery Modernisation (WPIT).

Benjamin has previously completed work for Macquarie Private Wealth and is highly active in the Australian Blockchain community hosting, speaking and educating as many people as he can on where potential value may lie, dispelling the hype machine along the way. He is also the Australian Ambassador for ETHLend (AAVE)– a decentralised P2P lending platform built on Ethereum. Benjamin holds a BS in Information Technology majoring in Information Systems & Business Analysis

Cameron Hall joined the Port of Brisbane in 2016 after working in a strategy consulting capacity with the Board and Executive team. He has over 25 years’ experience in both strategy consulting and line management, focused on addressing and managing corporate strategic issues.

Cameron has worked across many industrial sectors including infrastructure and logistics, the energy and resources sector, manufacturing, financial services and retailing in Australia, New Zealand, Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Prior to joining the Port of Brisbane Cameron was the Principal Consultant of his own Strategy Advisory firm working with CEOs and Boards in the region to plan and deliver growth opportunities.

Cameron holds a Bachelor of Business (Economics) degree from the Queensland University of Technology and earned a Master of Business Administration from the Macquarie Graduate School of Management in 2000.

Peter Hiom has been Deputy Chief Executive Officer of ASX since April 2010. He is responsible for the development of all ASX businesses: Listings and Issuer Services, Trading Services, Derivatives and OTC Markets, and Equity Post-Trade Services – including ASX’s development of distributed ledger technology to replace CHESS. 

Peter has a deep understanding of market structure, business processes, sales, product development, distribution and the application of technology in capital markets. He joined ASX in July 2006 following the merger of the Australian Stock Exchange and SFE Corporation where he had responsibility for the business development of the Sydney Futures Exchange and Austraclear.

As part of his role, Peter is a director of Yieldbroker, Australia’s leading electronic fixed income trading platform, and also of Digital Asset, a New York based global leader in the provision of distributed ledger technology to regulated financial institutions.
Prior to moving to Australia, Peter worked for the London International Financial Futures Exchange, where he held a number of management roles within the Business Development and Information Technology divisions.

Josh Hyland manages the blockchain portfolio for the Australian Trade and Investment Commission’s Services and Technology team.

He has seven years’ experience working in trade and investment across multiple sectors including manufacturing, import/export, education, technology and retail.

Spending 13 years in Southeast Asia, Josh has a deep understanding of international business and worked at senior levels between the private and public sectors. As part of Austrade’s global strategy to promote Australian blockchain capability, Josh has led a 50pax delegation to the U.S. in May this year and will organise a second cohort to Shanghai and Taipei later this year.

Josh is former Vice President of the Australia-Thai Chamber of Commerce, has operated his own consultancy business and worked on numerous large-scale import/export projects. He is now Trade and Investment Advisor, at Austrade.

Akasha is a blockchain corporate strategy advisor for BLOCKLOAN.

Mastura Ishak is the Programme Director at the Malaysian Industry-Government Group for High Technology (MIGHT), an agency under the purview of the Prime Minister’s Department. MIGHT is a Private-Public Partnership platform focused on harnessing technology for business and business for technology.

Mastura has served in various capacities within industry, government as well as NGOs since graduating with an MBA in International Business and Finance from Syracuse University.  She has written articles on blockchain and related topics for  MyForesight magazine as well as the Malaysia High Tech Outlook by MIGHT.  She is a member of the T/C/G 15, the national mirror committee for the ISO TC307 on Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technology.

Mastura is currently heading the Blockchain initiative at MIGHT focusing on adoption of blockchain by the Malaysian industries beyond fintech, in order to enhance and sustain the country’s competitiveness in the future. Her most recent programme is the upcoming Malaysia Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technology Outlook 2019.

Lawyer and Chartered Accountant. Established lawyer who has also worked as senior project manager for private equity and as the COO of New York Consulting Group over the last 17 years.

The IDACB representative of Korea. A Deputy CEO at VC (venture capital company, hedge fund, private equity) which has services for seed funding, ICO and OTC training Smart Crypto Ctiy expert.

Sam is the founder and CEO of Blockchain Global Limited , a profitable technology company with audited FY2016 revenue of AU$5.9 million, and offices in Melbourne, Hong Kong, Dalian and Washington. The company's corporate accelerator program has made over a dozen investments in successful startups leveraging Blockchain Technology.

With Blockchain Technology poised to dis-intermediate middlemen on a global scale, Sam established the Distributed Group, a blockchain venture platform that connects corporates, investors and entrepreneurs through a network of +100 DLT pioneers that apply knowledge to create value at all stages, (Ideation, Proof of Concept and Production), with the aim to ultimately reduced friction, fraud and cost for any company in any industry that interfaces with technology.

As an industry leader, Sam founded the Blockchain Centre , (worlds first Blockchain Knowledge Hub) and Distributed Technologies Institute . He is a frequent speaker, having delivered presentations as a subject matter expert at numerous Blockchain Summits, DLT Conferences and Governance Institute Forums among others and been interviewed on CNBC, BBC, Sky News and RT.

Lina Lim is the Head of Technology at the National Stock Exchange of Australia (NSX), where she is responsible for the strategic direction on innovative product and technology adoption for the business. Her leadership and achievements were recognised by CIO50 Australia 2017 as a rising star on the CIO50 Ones to Watch list.

She is also Managing Director & Co-founder of Tempus Adventus, a start-up company that focuses on promoting and delivering Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technologies in the financial market and services industry. Her projects are involving and focusing particularly in blockchain for social impact, impact investing, fintech for financial inclusion, and empowering women leadership and involvement in financial technology.

Lina recently joins as Director and Board of Directors of the Blockchain Philanthropy Foundation (BPF). It is a not for profit organisation; with purpose statement is enabling and accelerating humanitarian and initiative social good projects worldwide, through blockchain technology. Committed to be the catalyst of change for the world by providing thought leadership in Blockchain for Philanthropy and Social Good space, BPF is connecting NFPs, corporates, governments, philanthropists and blockchain community together to create a better future.

CEO & Co-Founder of Avestix Group and Linzen Property Group. A Dverse Group specialised in Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence, Robotics ,Fintech and Disrupted Technologies in the Property Development, Construction and Real Estate Industry.

Linzen Group focuses on Masterplan community developments and construction. The entire team is passionate about self-sustainable and affordable housing communities.

Brad Maclean is the Chief Operations Officer for Gatecoin and is based in Hong Kong.

A frequent commentator and contributor on financial service regulation. Maclean was previously the CEO for Regulation Asia, a financial regulation data provider working with more than 700 Institutions across the region.

Throughout his career he has held numerous positions including being the CEO of a prominent Chinese advisory focusing on domestic financial institutions, Maclean was also the previous Head of Strategy with SunGard Financial Systems (now FIS). Prior to joining SunGard, Maclean headed up the Asian practice for a prominent European alternative assets advisory firm.

With a focus on providing strategic advice to private equity, hedge funds, and their investor firms, he has been involved with the fundraising of US$15bnplus across Asia & Europe. Additionally, was involved with several significant research programmes during the global financial crisis (GFC) with the World Bank, US Department of the Treasury and the Office of the Comptroller of Currency. Maclean holds a Master of Laws from Melbourne University and Masters in Finance from New York University, Leonard Stern School of Business.

Global Spokesperson and Australian Coordinator for CloakCoin, an untraceable cryptocurrency launched June 2014.

Co-founder and Senior Consultant at Privacy Express. Privacy Consultant & Advisor at Bright Matter Advisory and Quixxi Connect (Lakeba Group).

Privacy Activist and Blockchain Speaker.

Acting Group Executive, Perpetual Corporate Trust
Richard joined Perpetual in 2007 as Director Sales and Relationship Management, and has been General Manager Sales & Relationship Management, Product & Strategy and Marketing since 2011.

Richard has more than 23 years’ experience in banking and financial services, with deep sector knowledge in debt capital markets and managed funds.

Prior to joining Perpetual, Richard was the Vice President, Head of Relationship Management at BNY Mellon’s Corporate Trust Division in Sydney and previously spent eight years at JP Morgan in London.

Richard is a Director of the Australian Digital Commerce Association.

Vaibhav Namburi is a founder who has taken his emerging tech consultancy from $500 to $1.1m. In doing so he's worked on apps for the likes of News Corp and recently built a blockchain solution for the UN to better help get resources to those in need in developing nations like Romania.

Vaibhav has a strong background in Engineering, spending nearly 6 years building products for various start-ups and companies. He has built applications for companies that receive nearly 500,000 unique visitors a month.

Hired to help with the technical architecture and smart contract infrastructure to facilitate a proxy based / replaceable smart contract structure he has helped raise a combined 1/4 Billion dollars in funds in a safe and secure way.

Breaking down concepts and correlating them to real life situations is what he does best. He lives by the 'If you can't explain it simply, you haven't understood it' principle.

He has already trained multiple engineers through bootcamps and at various companies in React and Node and he is extremely passionate about empowering through education.

Managing a team of 8, he effectively white boards, breaks down and maps through complex problems making sure everyone is on the same page. He's combined his education in engineering from The University of New South Wales, multiple Mentors and the ubiquity of all the internet blogs and articles into concise, structured and goal driven courses. Together with his team, they use their vast experience in web and cloud technologies and combine it with the blockchain world to create elegant and efficient contracts and protocols for ICOs as well as dApps.

Vaibhav is a lead lecturer for React and Javascript at Sydney's leading programming bootcamp, Coder Factory

Vaibhav believes that the main thing holding the industry back is tangible results - "All this money has been raised with no perceivable and actionable output, we need justification for the amount of money publicly raised in 2017, there’s still a lot of money being raised in 2018 but through institutions but for the "market" to recover it would take a few of these start ups to build a sustainable and useable product".

In her previous role as Head of Corporate Marketing at Infinity Blockchain Labs, Nicole was entrusted to leverage her industry insights and extensive network to develop the blockchain and tech startup ecosystem in Vietnam and help transform the country into the leading blockchain hub in the region.

Nicole has been the key organizer behind a series of community outreach initiatives in Vietnam including the first Vietnam Blockathon, Vietnam Blockchain Week and ENIGMA - a blockchain business contest. She is also a co-author of the first Vietnam Blockchain Landscape Report.

She has been a speaker at various international and local conferences such as Shanghai Blockchain Week, World Bank blockchain workshop series and Seamless Asia. In her new role as Head of Asia Pacific for Infinity Blockchain Ventures, Nicole is spearheading a regional initiative to connect major players and to foster the evolving blockchain ecosystem in Asia.

Recently her team has launched Asia Blockchain Review - one of the leading media and community outreach platforms - which focuses on untapped stories and emerging markets in Southeast Asia/Asia and bridges the gap between the Asian ecosystem and other regions in the world.

Jason Potts is Professor of Economics at RMIT University, Director of the Blockchain Innovation Hub at RMIT, and Adjunct Fellow at the Institute of Public Affairs in Melbourne. His research work focuses on the economics of innovation and new technologies, economic evolution, institutional economics, and complexity economics. He has written 5 books and published over 80 articles on topics including growth theory, creative industries, economics of cities, innovation commons, and recently on crypto-economics and blockchain.

He is editor of the Journal of Institutional Economics, Vice President of the International Joseph A Schumpeter Society, and a Board Member of Australian Digital Commerce Association.

Professor Deborah Ralston holds a number of non-executive director positions including Chair of the SMSF Association, and is a member the Reserve Bank of Australia’s Payments System Board.

She was the inaugural Chair of ASIC’s Digital Finance Advisory Committee (DFAC) and is a member of the YBF Fintech Hub Advisory Board in Melbourne. She is a Professorial Fellow at Monash University with research interests in digital disruption, superannuation, and financial regulation.

PK Rasam brings over 25 years of experience working with top 100 global brands in technology focussed around Innovation, Corporates, Startups, Entrepreneurship, Management, Investing and Strategic Guidance. He has over 8 years of expertise in Blockchain, specializing in Blockchain Strategy and Distributed Ledger Infrastructure services.

PK is sought after by Universities, Corporates, Incubators, and Accelerators to run workshops, create frameworks, and mental models, that help participants become market relevant and investor ready.He is one of the content developers and course instructors at Udacity for their "Blockchain Nanodegree" ...where a student will work with the Bitcoin and Ethereum protocols, build projects for real-world application. Pk is a repeat entrepreneur, his previous blockchain company - LINCD, and current blockchain company - whole-brain.

PK sits on various boards helping both public and private companies shape, build and implement their blockchain roadmap.

Dr Pip Ryan is a barrister and Senior lecturer in the Faculty of Law at the University of Technology.  She coordinates and teaches Commercial Equity, Disruptive Technologies and Law.  Pip also facilitates an extracurricular programme that teaches law students how to design and develop legal apps for NGOs.

She is a member of the Industry Advisory Board for the Australian Digital Currency Association,  the Deputy Chair of the Australian Computer Society’s Blockchain Technical Committee, and the Standards Australia Blockchain Technical Committee, where she convenes the Smart Contracts Working Group.

Pip is also a member of the ISO Smart Contracts Study Group. Pip’s PhD formulated a new classification for the liability of third parties to breach of trust. Her current research explores business relationships, custodial obligations and breach of fiduciary duty in apparently trustless commercial arrangements and smart contracts enabled by Blockchain technology. Forthcoming publications: Trust and Distrust in Decentralised Digital Economies (Routledge, NY).

Manesh Samtani is General Manager at Regulation Asia, a data-driven regulatory news and intelligence platform for Asia Pacific. He directs editorial strategy and production while overseeing day-to-day operations including research functions.

His coverage focuses on regulatory changes impacting capital markets, banking and asset management across Asia, including the latest developments in cryptocurrency and blockchain regulation.

Manesh is a former trader and investment consultant with a degree in Finance and Banking.

Sydney based Founder of Wholesale Investor, who is passionate about connecting Private, Pre-IPO, IPO and Small Cap opportunities with High Net Worth, Professional and International Investors.

Over the last 9 years I have been working with Entrepreneurs, CEO’s and Investors to expand the opportunities available in the space and explore ways to connect deal makers throughout Asia-Pacific.

In FY17, WI has surpassed over 17,700 subscribers, hosted 33 Investors event, across 5 countries to over 3900 attendees.

Ron Van Der Meyden is a Professor in the School of Computer Science and Engineering at UNSW Sydney and Founder and CEO of Rationative Systems, a startup concerned with rigorous engineering of secure distributed intelligence. He previously held positions at the University of Technology, Sydney, the Weizmann Institute of Science, and NTT Basic Research Laboratories, Tokyo, and has held visiting appointments at New York University and Stanford University.

His research interests include the foundations of distributed and multi-agent systems and computer security.  He was a member of the teams that established the Cooperative Research Centre for Smart Internet Technology and National ICT Australia (now part of Data61).

He served in 2001 as a research program leader in the Cooperative Research Centre for Smart Internet Technology, before establishing the Formal Methods Program of National ICT Australia, which he led from 2002 to 2006. Significant outcomes from this program include the verification of the SeL4 micro-kernel, and Red Lizard Software, a software verification startup that was acquired by Synopsis.

He received the ACM Distinguished Scientist Award in 2009.

He currently leads the UNSW Interest Group on Blockchain, Smart Contracts and Cryptocurrency, an interdisciplinary group including staff from the Faculties of Engineering, Law and Business. His interests in blockchain are focussed on the development of smart contract languages and methodologies and tools for the verification of blockchain systems.

Emma is the CEO and Co Founder of AgriDigital, one of Australia’s leading emerging agtech and fintech companies.

Emma has had a diverse career as a lawyer, agribusiness executive and executive coach. She is mentor to several start ups and founders in Australia and overseas and was recently named one Australia’s Top 25 Fintech Influencers and was awarded Female Fintech Leader of the Year and Emerging Fintech Leader of the Year for 2017 by FinTech Australia as well as Female Fintech Leader of the Year at the 2017 Australian Fintech Awards.

In December 2016, AgriDigital achieved the world’s first settlement of a physical agri-commodity on a blockchain between a farmer and a buyer in New South Wales, Australia and this was recognised by Fintech Australia presenting AgriDigital the Excellence in Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technology award for 2017.

AgriDigital recently launched its digital supply chain platform for the agricultural sector and continues to work with blockchain and other novel enabling technologies to bring efficiency and transparency to global supply chains.

A sought after speaker on agtech, fintech, women in tech and blockchain, Emma holds an MBA from the Australian Graduate School of Management, a LLB (Hons) from the University of Melbourne, and a BA from the University of Melbourne. Emma is an active tech community member and advisor to start ups. She is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and is a non-executive director of the Australian Digital Commerce Association and Fintech Australia.

I received my PhD in Computer Science from Deakin University, Australia.

I am currerntly the Dean of the Digital Research & Innovation Capability Platform, Swinburne University of Technology, Australia. My research interests include cyber security, which covers network and system security, data analytics, distributed systems, and networking.

In the past 20 years, I have been leading my team developing active defense systems against large-scale distributed network attacks. My translational research has made significant impact to the real-world applications, such as AI-driven cyber security applications, malware applications, cloud and IoT security applications, and blockchain applications.

My research was funded by the Australian Research Council (ARC) and industry partners. I have published more than 200 research papers in many international journals and conferences, such as IEEE Transactions on Computers, IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems, IEEE Transactions on Information Security and Forensics, and IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing. I have published three books, Honeypot Frameworks and Their Applications: A New Framework (Springer), Software Similarity and Classification (Springer) and Dynamic and Advanced Data Mining for Progressing Technological Development (IGI-Global).

I am the foundation Editor-in-Chief of the SpringerBriefs on Cyber Security Systems and Networks. I am the co-founder and the steering committee chair of the NSS, ICA3PP, CSS, SocialSec conference series. I served as the Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Computers, IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems, Security and Communication Networks (Wiley), and the Editor of Journal of Network and Computer Applications. I am the Coordinator, Asia for IEEE Computer Society Technical Committee on Distributed Processing (TCDP). I am a Senior Member of the IEEE.

Anson Zeall is the Co-founder/CEO of CoinPip, a money transfer service leveraging on blockchain technologies. CoinPip is backed by 500 Startups, one of the most prominent venture capital firms in Silicon Valley. Anson is also the Chairman of the Association of Cryptocurrency Enterprises and Startups Singapore (ACCESS).

He is an instructor of blockchain 101 at General Assembly Singapore. Prior to CoinPip, he ran a private family office in Singapore managing various asset classes, equities, derivatives and real estate. Anson is an alumni of University of New South Wales and Columbia Business School

Dr/Prof. Liming Zhu is a Research Director at Data61, CSIRO. He is also a conjoint full professor at University of New South Wales (UNSW). He is the chairperson of Standards Australia's blockchain and distributed ledger committee. His research program has more than 200 people innovating in the area of big data platforms, computational science, blockchain, regulation technology, privacy and cybersecurity. He has published more than 150 academic papers on software architecture, secure systems and data analytics infrastructure.