2019 Speakers

A solution architect specialising in blockchain technologies and financial services.

Nick has over 20 years experience architecting and developing IT solutions that add business value. His early career was working for the multinational container shipping company P&O Nedlloyd.

He then moved into financial services working on systems for payments, structured products, funds management and lending.

Since joining ConsenSys in January 2018, Nick has worked on Project i2i in the Philippines working with Union Bank. This project tokenised the peso for inter-bank settlement. Nick also worked on building 1exchange, the world’s first regulated private equity exchange on public blockchain in partnership with Singapore-based CapBridge Group.

Darcy Allen is an institutional economist focused on the economics of new technologies. Dr Allen has published on Blockchain across academic journals, books and conferences, regularly appears as an expert witness before parliamentary inquiries, and his research has featured widely across the national and international print media and radio. He is also Adjunct Fellow at free market think tank the Institute of Public Affairs and an Academic Fellow at the Australian Taxpayers’ Alliance. Dr Allen is a former magazine editor, sits on the editorial boards of Blockchain journals, recently edited a book on Australian regulation, and has a forthcoming book, Cryptodemocracy: How Blockchain Can Radically Expand Democratic Choice. His PhD was passed outright and won the university-wide prize for research excellence.

Rob has been building financial services technology for over 20 years. He is a chartered engineer and a specialist in Payments and Blockchain-based systems having delivered platforms for some of Europe’s largest banks.  He led PwC’s fintech practice in Australia, where he was responsible for their innovative Vulcan digital assets platform. He has also been a board member of the Australian Payments Council and is now on the boards of several fintech and crypto startups as well as having advised on a number of successful ICOs.

In 2018, Rob co-founded nodl, a Blockchain consultancy and technical services business, to focus on applications of Blockchain in the areas of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and financial inclusion. This has brought a diverse range of work including designing a security token for a large impact investment fund; applications of Blockchain technology to the waste to energy industry; and is currently working with the Asian Development Bank on a fintech strategy for the South Pacific islands.

Rob is the co-author of “Fintech Revolution: Universal inclusion in the new financial ecosystem” and in his spare time loves to swim with sharks!

Dr. Alzarouni is not only the CEO of Dubai Blockchain center but also the Director of Information Services at Dubai Electronic Security Center.  He founded the region’s first innovation hub for Blockchain technology. The center was inaugurated by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai on the 15th of May 2018 and is encompassed within Area 2071 in Emirates Towers.

The center aims to bring together Blockchain thought leaders, developers, investors, and educators. It is a place to engage with the Blockchain community. The center therefore continuously hosts Blockchain related courses, events, meet-ups, and hackathons.

Before establishing the Blockchain center, Marwan was an early crypto investor that started Bitcoin mining in early 2013. He also created Dubai’s first crypto payment processing and Blockchain software development company in January 2014. In February 2018 he launched OTC Supply DMCC, the region’s first fully licensed over- the-counter crypto commodity trading entity. His latest venture is Co-Founding Quanterium, a technology solutions provider focusing on providing social impact solutions for organ and blood donation based on technologies such as Blockchain, artificial intelligence, IoT and genomics.

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.

Originally from the UK, Daniel has a legal and business background spanning 10 years and has worked for the Foreign Commonwealth Chinese Section of the British Government. Daniel has been in the Blockchain industry for over two years, and he currently manages and oversees the activities of a team consisting of 200 Blockchain developers in China. He has advised a variety of new and upcoming Blockchain projects in Asia and on the global stage, ranging from exchange providers to token projects and he is passionate about developing the future of Blockchain.

Graduated from the International Christian University (ICU) and obtained a master of law degree from the Kiev National Economics University.
Former CEO of Goldfinch Network, Elevenbots Co-Founder, Co-Founder and COO of STOBox. He has more than 10 years of business experience, knowledge and expertise in Blockchain technology, marketing and law, which can ensure successful capital raising and new market development.

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.

Siriboon Chaisawat is a research assistant in Information Security Research Team at National Electronics and Computer Technology Center(NECTEC) which is a national technology center under the National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA), Ministry of Science and Technology of Thailand. Drawing on expertise in cybersecurity and related fields, her team conducts interdisciplinary research which exploit multiple domains of knowledge such as Technologies, Social Sciences and Legal Studies in order to achieve national goals.

Siriboon has been working as a developer as well as conducting research on Blockchain. Her works are mainly focused on designing Blockchain network and implementing trustworthy decentralized platforms as well as integrating Blockchain technology with traditional applications.

Lindy Chen has 20 years’ experience in international trade. She is the founder of China's international procurement system, the founder and managing director of the global business ChinaDirect Sourcing– a leading sourcing company in Australia. Since its establishment in 2005, it has been in the leading position in the Australian import and export service industry. It is the only global service partner of Alibaba in Australia. She is also the author of the best-selling book “How to Import from China”.

Lindy Chen is the founder of FRETHAN Chain - a trusted international trade certificate storage platform based on Blockchain technology. This Blockchain network connects users with global trade needs, via the Frethan Chain big data credit network, through the incentive mechanism of a shared ecosystem. FRETHAN establishes an international trade ecosystem founded on an ethos of trust and provision of efficient autonomy. FRETHAN values every seller and buyer, and makes all interactions and elements in processes beneficial to the FRETHAN community. After years of research and development & 3 million AUD investment, the technology of Frethan chain has been recognized by the judicial institutions of 16 cities in China.

Lindy Chen is the founding president of Australia Blockchain Alliance (ABA) - a Not-For-Profit Association originated in Queensland Australia. The goal of the Alliance is to grow and enhance the Australian Blockchain community and to further enhance the ecosystem.

Rupert is the IBM Blockchain lead for Australia and New Zealand. He works with government and businesses across all industries, driving business and industry transformation using Blockchain.

Rupert spent 10 years working for IBM in the UK in both technical and sales roles, before starting IBM’s Blockchain business in the UK. His consulting and technical delivery engagements since have spanned a wide variety of use cases - from proof of concepts through to production implementations.

He has a degree in AI and Computer Science from University of Edinburgh.

Grant is an experienced and trusted finance professional. He has held positions with a global macro hedge fund, Macquarie Bank, proprietary trading firm and IAG (Australia’s largest general insurance company). Grant has managed significant investment funds and trading books (most recently co-managed portfolios with FUM in excess of 10bn USD). He has extensive experience across all asset classes and forms of investment strategy and is comfortable in analyzing, unpacking and navigating any form of opportunity. Grant combines his deep knowledge of quantitative techniques with qualitative insight to provide novel viewpoints.

Grant has been involved in cryptocurrencies’ for the past several years and in that time has become a valuable member of the Australian Blockchain community. Grant was recently named of CEO of Mine. Mine’s purpose is to be the new standard in the Australian digital asset exchange landscape supported by its partnership with Asia’s leading listed digital asset firm - BC Group (HKSE: 0863).

Deborah is an entrepreneur and business strategist, facilitating diverse conversations and contributing as one of many stewards to generate the paradigm shift necessary so that our grandchildren’s grandchildren have the future we wish for them.

Deborah's involvement in Blockchain started early 2017 and she is currently the business strategist for two early stage companies.  One of these is The Formary, a world leader in developing solutions to recycle and repurpose the world's tsumani of textile waste.The clothing industry is changing rapidly with the reseller market outpacing the luxury market. Having transparency over this extended value chain is a natural progression. The Formary have developed the Textile Reuse Programme and have engaged Track-Back to apply Blockchain technology in the textile re-use supply chain to provide valuable oversight and data on clothing, the value these resources hold and the impacts beyond the first point of sale.

Deborah has been active in the application of leading edge technology since the early 90's - from the the digitisation of telco infrastructure as an engineer; to web and IT application project management and then co-founding an SMS / Text marketing business in the early 2000's providing solutions in New Zealand and the South Pacific. Run The Red was sold to Pushpay in 2014.

Love and Care Ltd was founded soon after to provide enlightened leadership in the application of appropriate technologies and the transformation of the commercial ecosystem so that it serves humanity, the environment and all Beings of Nature. Deborah has a degree in Electrical Engineering, a graduate diploma in Fashion design, is an Edmund Hilary Fellow, a student and guide with the Way of Nature and an alumni of several business and accelerator programs.

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.

Full-Stack Developer and Entrepreneur

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.

Nick Giulietto is the Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director at the Australian Digital Currency & Commerce Association. He is a B2B marketing and product professional enthused by the potential for Blockchain technology to transform business models in every industry sector - and in government service delivery.

He has become a champion for the Blockchain industry and led the efforts of the Australian Digital Currency and Commerce Association to accelerate adoption of Blockchain technologies in Australia.

He is proud to have been a founding member of the Global Blockchain Forum which is striving for global regulatory alignment to support a global transformation.

Nick Giulietto is the Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director at the Australian Digital Currency & Commerce Association. He is a B2B marketing and product professional enthused by the potential for Blockchain technology to transform business models in every industry sector - and in government service delivery.

He has become a champion for the Blockchain industry and led the efforts of the Australian Digital Currency and Commerce Association to accelerate adoption of Blockchain technologies in Australia.

He is proud to have been a founding member of the Global Blockchain Forum which is striving for global regulatory alignment to support a global transformation.

Hannah Glass is a senior associate in the leading financial markets team at King & Wood Mallesons, specialising in Blockchain technology, fintech and payments. Hannah works with a broad range of clients advising on the evolving legal and regulatory issues associated with the implementation and application of innovative technologies. Her work ranges from assisting start-ups to conduct global ICOs to working with large organisations to formulate smart contract and Blockchain based infrastructure to solve existing problems.  On the policy front, she has contributed to regulatory discussions in the Blockchain and fintech space including in relation to the treatment of digital currencies and regulatory sandboxes with a variety of stakeholders both in Australia and internationally.

KWM’s specialist team is at the forefront of legal and technological developments in Blockchain technology, having worked with governments, banks, industry bodies and start-ups around the world. In recognition of their work, the team has won the FT innovation in law awards in 4 of the last six years.  KWM was also recognised as the “Most Innovative Firm of the Year” in 2018 by the International Financial Law Review in both Australia and China.

Hannah has been named as an “Up and Coming” lawyer in the 2019 Chambers and Partners FinTech Guide.  Hannah is also a fellow of the Australian Digital Commerce Association (ADCA) and a member of the US based Wall Street Blockchain Alliance’s legal working group

Vincent Gramoli is the head of the Concurrent Systems Research Group at the University of Sydney and a senior researcher at Data61-CSIRO. Prior to this, he was affiliated with INRIA, University of Connecticut, Cornell University, University of Neuchâtel and EPFL. Vincent received his PhD from Université de Rennes and his Habilitation from UPMC Sorbonne University.

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.

Jane Hume is a Liberal Party Senator from Victoria, having been elected in July 2016. 

Born and raised in Melbourne, Senator Hume completed a Bachelor of Commerce at the University of Melbourne and later returned to gain further qualifications in Political Science. Senator Hume has held various senior positions in the financial services industry, working for the National Australia Bank, Rothschild Australia, Deutsche Bank and, immediately prior to her election, as a Senior Policy Advisor at Australian Super. She has also served on a number of boards including the Royal Children’s Hospital, Federation Square, and Perinatal Anxiety & Depression Australia. 

Upon entering the Senate, she was immediately appointed Chair of the Senate Standing Committee on Economics (Legislation). Outside of her career pursuits, Senator Hume enjoys swimming, reading, and most of all, spending time with her three children, Harry, Charlie, and Imogen.

Following the Coalition election victory in May, Senator Hume was made Assistant Minister for Superannuation, Financial Services and Financial Technology.

Paul has been at IBM since 2017 and leads Blockchain for IBM Asia Pacific. Prior to IBM, Paul was Senior Vice President at E*TRADE Financial Services where he was a member of the executive committee and served as President of the company’s Corporate Services division. Paul’s career in the software and services industry spans more than 25 years, including a number of years at IBM as PE and Americas HRBPO Service Delivery Leader. Other notable roles include VP and COO of NGAHR, COO and President at FuelSpot, and SVP Technology at Fidelity Investments.

David Jackson is Founder and Managing Director of S2M Digital Recruitment, Executive Director of DSi Professionals IT consulting business and Executive Director of S2P Project Professionals IT contract and project team recruitment firm. He is the inaugural CEO at Blockchain Australia, sits on the board as Executive Chairman of ASX listed company REFFIND and is Non-Executive Director at the world’s leading enterprise Blockchain loyalty start-up www.loyyal.com based in San Francisco.

He is a serial entrepreneur, Crypto analyst and angel investor to early stage businesses in Australia, Asia and the USA, and has over 21 years’ experience founding and mentoring successful start-ups across Australia, Asia and the United States.

David’s passion for supporting innovation in Australia and beyond has led him to become an active member of fintech incubator, Stone & Chalk, and tech accelerator, BlueChilli and the founder of Australia’s largest Blockchain MeetUp, Crypto Sydney. He sits on the board of angel group Sydney Angels Inc., is a mentor at Sydney University’s accelerator program, incubate.org.au and mentors at UNSW University’s entrepreneur programme.

David is a true business visionary who is well renowned for his energy, passion and drive, and his ability to think outside the box. Not to mention, frank honesty!

David is in love with his family, holds a Bachelor of Business, and has over 26 years’ management experience in technology, finance, executive search, talent management, PR, sales, and revenue generation.

Talks fast, respects honesty, loyalty and hard work!

Raja Jurdak is a Professor of Distributed Systems & Chair in Applied Data Sciences at the Queensland University of Technology as of July 2019. From 2008-2019, he was with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), where he founded and grew the Distributed Sensing Systems Group to become one of the world’s leading groups in large scale sensing. He has a PhD in Information and Computer Science at University of California, Irvine in 2005, an MS in Computer Networks and Distributed Computing from the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at UCI (2001), and a BE in Computer and Communications Engineering from the American University of Beirut (2000). His current research interests focus on the Internet of Things, Blockchain, and data trust. His research has received multiple awards, including the CSIRO medal for environmental achievement and the Endeavour Executive Award in 2011, the Queensland iAwards Merit Award in 2014, and the best paper award at the EWSN conference in 2016.

Prof Jurdak has over 150 peer-reviewed journal and conference publications, as well as a book published by Springer in 2007 titled Wireless Ad Hoc and Sensor Networks: A Cross-Layer Design Perspective. He serves on the editorial board of 4 international journals. He regularly serves on the organising and technical program committees of leading international conferences. Prof Jurdak is an Honorary Professor at University of Queensland, and a Conjoint Professor at University of New South Wales. He has spent time as a visiting scientist at MIT in 2011 and at University of Oxford in 2017. He is a Senior Member of the IEEE.

Dr. Salil Kanhere obtained a B.E. in Electrical Engineering from VJTI, Bombay, India in 1998. Subsequently, he joined the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Drexel University in Philadelphia, USA as a post-graduate student. Salil received his M.S. and Ph.D., both in Electrical Engineering in 2001 and 2003 respectively. Salil's Ph.D. dissertation was in the area of fair, efficient, and low-latency scheduling in high-speed networks with a particular focus on achieving low implementation complexity for practical use in switches and routers.

Since April 2004, Salil is with the School of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia.

Salil's current research interests are in the areas of Internet of Things, Blockchain technology, sensor networks, mobile networking, security, and privacy. Salil has served on the organising and technical program committees of several international IEEE and ACM conferences. He has presented tutorials and invited talks on his research. Salil is a senior member of the IEEE and ACM. Salil is a recipient of 4 Best Paper Awards and the Humboldt Research Fellowship.

Oleksii Konashevych is a PhD fellow in the international program funded by the EU government - Erasmus Mundus Joint International Doctoral Fellow in Law, Science and Technology. This year Oleksii is visiting RMIT and collaborates with Blockchain Innovation Hub doing his research in the field of the use of blockchain technologies for e-governance and e-democracy. Oleksii works on tokenization of real estate titles, digital IDs, public registries and e-voting. Oleksii earned a Master Degree in Law in 2005 and a Master Degree in Economics in 2010. Before academic work, he practised law in Ukraine for 10 years, holding senior positions. He participated in the initiative which worked on e-democracy reforms and became a co-author of the law on e-petitions, collaborating the Presidential Administration of Ukraine as a manager of e-Democracy Group.

Vi has over 20 years’ experience in the Information Communications and Technology (ICT) sector, starting with one of Australia’s major telecommunication companies Telstra, to working with the NSW Department of Finance, Services and Innovation’s ICT Policy Branch. During her time with the NSW Government, she has worked as a senior political advisor in the NSW Parliament and also successfully managed the $11.4 million partnership agreement with Data 61; a commercial division of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), which helped drive digital transformation through the New South Wales public sector.

Vi currently works for Standards Australia as the Stakeholder Engagement Manager for ICT and e-Commerce Services, and Secretariat to the Australian ISO/IEC Joint Technical Committee which develops, maintains and promotes standards in the fields of information and communications technology.

Lina Lim is Managing Director & Co-Founder of Tempus Adventus Advisory, a boutique strategic advisory and ventures company that focuses on promoting and delivering Distributed Ledger Technologies, Blockchain and emerging technologies in the financial market and services industry, and impact investing.

As a strategic leader, she is passionate in bringing and advocating creative and innovative financial technology adoption, in particular to challenge and solve the problems for greater and more distributed and inclusive wealth access for everyone. Her projects involve and focus in the development of fairer financial markets in the emerging, development and frontier markets, impact investing, social impact, financial inclusion, and empowering women leadership and contribution in financial services and technology.

Lina has over 20 years’ experience leading on business and technology transformation projects in global and international capital and financial market infrastructure and participants. She was awarded by CIO50 Australia in 2017 as a rising star on the CIO50 Ones to Watch for her leadership role and achievements.  She holds Bachelor of Technology in Computer Engineering from Monash University and studies Global Management program, Executive Education at INSEAD. She is a fellow of Salzburg Global Seminar (SGS) in her participation in Social Investment Program, and serves as Advisor and Mentor for start-up companies and impact enterprises.

Lucy is a leader in global technology, AI and Blockchain marketing.

She works in partnership with innovative organisations and founders to deliver marketing strategy, communications and digital solutions. She is passionate about innovation and emerging technologies and speaks and writes regularly about these topics. Possessing an entrepreneurial mindset, she founded an award-winning mobile app and a global marketing consultancy (Forestlyn).

As a sought-after marketing advisor, she had successfully built one of cryptocurrency’s largest global community groups in history with over 127,000 Telegram members and has been instrumental in raising over $60 million for Blockchain projects.

Lucy has over 15 years working experience in corporations (American Express, AMP, Qantas, HERE Technologies, Linklaters Law), medium-size businesses and start-ups. Lucy is a global citizen with working experiences in Australia, Canada, Japan, Taiwan and the UK, and holds a Master of Commerce (majoring in Marketing and Strategic Management) and Communications undergrad degrees.

Claudio leads the development of strategic initiatives and corporate ventures in Asia-Pacific for ConsenSys, a leading blockchain venture production studio. He has led the development of high profile projects such as Project i2i, ConsenSys’ collaboration with UnionBank to establish a payment platform for rural banks in the Philippines.

Prior to ConsenSys, Claudio played a key role in establishing and developing UBS’s research initiatives and proof-of-concepts on blockchain technology. For his work, Claudio was recognised by Forbes magazine as part of their “Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe 2017” list.

Michael is Co-Founder of the Tide Foundation, an not-for-profit setting an open source global standard for data privacy. He’s an experienced CPO and Marketing Director with a strong track record building and marketing digital products in start-up and top tier brands like Westpac, Dell, Yahoo! He spent 10 years growing a decorated digital agency before merging with a full services agency. Michael holds a Bachelor of Commerce in Information Systems and Accounting with merit, UNSW; was an academic professional at the University of Illinois; and has been a guest speaker on marketing & technology.

David is a Venture Partner at Virgil Capital, a multinational crypto-arbitrage fund and co-founder of Textbook Ventures, the first student-led venture fund in Australia. He leads the ICO investment arm of the business and has a particular interest in how cryptocurrencies and venture capital can be combined to create alternative funding models. He is also writing an academic paper that examines the commoditisation of venture capital and the regulation around the different ways in which early stage companies can get funded.

Toshikazu MASUYAMA is a former senior official in Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) for Japanese Government, where he served in positions including Director of Europe and Russia, Middle East and Africa Division for trade and energy policy, Director of Policy Planning in the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy, Director General of JOGMEC (Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Company), and Director General of METI for Hokkaido.

His contributions as a government official include playing the main role to negotiate the creation of APEC and the Japan-EU Partnership Agreement (EPA), building new fields of industry for the renewable energy through new schemes like feed-in-tariff system and building and managing the energy project of energy overseas.
  
Mr. Masuyama currently works as a special adviser or outside director for many companies related to energy, trade, public policy, and IT AI and he is a professor at the University of Asahikawa in Hokkaido, and Kyoto University of Advanced Scienece after giving lectures to University of Hokkaido University, Waseda University and Australian National University.

Mr Masuyama currently works for Japan Global Blockchain Association and Kyoto Kimono Traditional Association and Japan Business Risk Management and control association for small and medium enterprises as a Vice President.

Long is currently working as a solution architect at FPT Software, a leading ICT service provider headquartered in Vietnam. He is also the head of Research and Development (R&D) unit on blockchain and information security at Akachain.io – an enterprise blockchain as a service platform startup.

Long is also working on his PhD on transparency system at Université de Lorraine/CNRS/LORIA in Nancy, France. His thesis focuses on the application of blockchain technology in bringing decentralization and transparency to secure systems.

Long won the first prize of the Privacy via IT Security: Innovating Mobile App Competition, a part of the European MAPPING project that addresses challenges in preserving user privacy through developing applications for IT security on mobile devices in a range of sub-topics including privacy, services, anonymization, cyber security, authentication and blockchain technology.

Cindy has 30 years international experience with Investment Banking, Management Consulting, Software Solution Providers and Telco with a consistent theme of Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Cindy is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD); a Senior Member of the Australian Computer Society (MACS Snr); and a certified Executive Coach accredited by the International Coach Federation (ICF). Cindy is also a board member of the ICF Australasia.

Cindy currently leads Innovation for the Financial Services Industry at Optus, and has developed an innovative Digital Identity Verification platform (OptusIDV), enabling Individuals and Corporates to interact in a digital and frictionless world.

Joni leads the Blockchain & Cryptocurrency Tax team at Hall & Wilcox and is also responsible for maximising Hall & Wilcox’s connection with start-ups and scale-ups (and the technology they are working on) through relationships with the likes of RMIT, Stone & Chalk, Fintech Australia and Blockchain Australia. Joni was recently recognised as a thought leader in the legal space, being named a finalist in the 2018 Lawyers Weekly Awards, and was significantly involved in Treasury’s 2019 review into Initial Coin Offerings.

Over the last few years, Joni has mentored students undertaking RMIT Online’s Blockchain Business Strategy course and regularly presents on Blockchain and cryptocurrencies at accounting, legal and industry events such as those convened by The Tax Institute, Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand, and CPA Australia.

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.

Melissa Ran is the Head of Global Partnerships at bitfwd, a Blockchain ventures network and education community with the mission of empowering emerging technology projects through tech pilots, hackathons, global community building and funding. Previously Melissa was the Global Founders Program Manager at UNSW where she coached hundreds of Australian startups and was also in charge of the university’s Australia-China entrepreneurship collaboration initiatives. Melissa is one of 45 honorees recognised by DFAT in the celebration of 45 years of diplomatic relations between Australia and China in 2018 and a three-time recipient of the prestigious DFAT Australia-China International Relations Grant. Prior to joining the technology innovation sector, Melissa worked in sales and marketing at Procter & Gamble and in the banking sector.

Jason Rockwood is the North American General Manager for VeChain, the world's leading enterprise Blockchain company.  In that role he is forging partnerships with new enterprises, developers, and public institutions looking to use Blockchain to solve the world's most pressing problems in business and public services.

Prior to VeChain, Jason was Chief Information Officer at Oasis, a home-sharing platform, and VP of Innovation at the Miami Heat and American Airlines Arena.  His diverse background includes experience in digital and social media strategy, online community design, IT, and e-commerce. 

Jason has a BA in Communication Arts and Sciences from UIUC, and an MS in Comparative Media Studies from MIT.

Brenda Saveluc is the director and founder of BlackGold Legal. She’s a straight talking, freelance commercial and corporate M&A lawyer with more than a decade of experience working in accounting and law. Brenda is passionate about ICO and STO regulation, Blockchain technology and cryptocurrency, and loves working with cool tech clients all over the world.

I have been with Data61 since its merger with NICTA in late 2015. I am a Senior Principal Researcher in the Software and Computational Systems program, and lead a Challenge pilot across Data61 on visible and connected supply chains. I coordinate most of the Blockchain research at Data61, and lead various Blockchain projects including work towards the Australian National Blockchain. I am the Data61 representative on Standards Australia's Blockchain and distributed ledger technology standardisation committee as part of ISO's technical committee TC307

In 2017 I led a NISA-funded project with The Treasury on technical risks and opportunities for Blockchain-based systems.

I joined NICTA as a researcher in 2004. During the 2008-2011 period, I led the Managing Complexity research group (was "Empirical Software Engineering") at the ATP lab. During 2010-2011, I was also the founding leader of the international research collaboration Fraunhofer Project Center on Transport and Logistics at NICTA. As an activity of the Project Center and in collaboration with SAP Research and Fraunhofer IESE, I led the creation of the Future Logistics Living Lab. The living lab is both an industry innovation network and a physical demonstration space. In addition to hosting regular logistics industry innovation network meetings, it has hosted many high-profile visitors, including a 2014 visit by the German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The living lab continues now as the Transport and Logistics Living Lab. Earlier at NICTA I led a project on Understanding the Impact of CMMI on SMEs, and conducted research in projects on Business Adaptation and Interoperation, and on Trustworthy Embedded Systems. I also led the definition of the strategy for the earlier Software Infrastructure business area.

In 2014, I had a sabbatical year working as Systems Engineering Team Leader for Saluda Medical, a NICTA spinout company developing implantable medical devices for neuromodulation (spinal cord stimulation, for chronic neuropathic pain).

Prior to joining NICTA, I spent four years with two software development companies in Brisbane, Australia, working in verification, configuration management, and process management roles. I worked on the development of safety-critical embedded systems for industrial automation in the transportation industry, and also on enterprise infrastructure for electronic payments over the Internet. Before this, I held a one-year post-doc position at the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory.

I hold a conjoint appointment at UNSW with the School of Computer Science and Engineering, and supervise a number of PhD students in software engineering.

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.

Giang’s career has been profoundly associated with the applications of Blockchain technologies in businesses. Since 2017, Giang has been in charge of Blockchain Center of Excellence for FPT, a leading ICT service provider headquartered in Vietnam. He has also been acting as founder of Akachain – an enterprise Blockchain platform and Utop – one of the first Blockchain-based loyalty network in South Asia, both of which spearhead FPT’s directions towards a Blockchain future. In June 2019, Giang and his team successfully secured an investment of over USD3 Million investment from both FPT and the Japanese giant SBI Holdings.

Carolyn Trickett is passionate about using technology as a strategic enabler for business innovation and growth.  Her experience as an IT professional spans 25 years across a broad range of industries and technology; including nine years in property, eight years in telecommunications, and seven years in SAP software integration.

As the Head of Business Technology for JLL Property & Asset Management, Carolyn drives IT strategy, delivery and support across the Asia Pacific region.  Over the last nine years, she has delivered a systems transformation program that has re-engineered the day to day functions for staff and provides clients with a continually improving reporting and service delivery suite.  Her latest success at JLL was the design and delivery of JLL Acumen - an enterprise data warehouse and reporting system which provides staff and clients with access to portfolio and property performance data through dashboards, reports and data analysis tools.

Steve is a qualified lawyer, blockchain technology and digital strategist. He is the founder of Honey Digital. Working with a range of verticals including telecommunications, education and startups. Focusing on building value adding relationships with content producing professionals, social media strategists, SME’s and enterprise businesses who are looking to benefit from the paradigm shift to customer centric online marketing opportunities and emerging technologies. Steve is a mentor in the Melbourne University Accelerator Program and assists many budding entrepreneurs with their foray into the business world. He is the founder of www.blockchainapac.com.au launched in conjunction with the Victorian Government Digital Innovation Festival in 2018. The event was attended by 500 delegates with support from Austrade, Optus, Deloitte and IBM. The initiative brings together the best Blockchain people and projects in Australia. The organisation aims to advance, develop and deliver on the promise of Blockchain technology. Blockchain APAC works to advocate for the industry by contributing to debate and driving policy through the delivery of advisory services and project outcomes.

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.

Chloe White is from the federal Treasury’s Financial System Division and is the Treasury’s lead analyst on blockchain in finance. Chloe began her career at PricewaterhouseCoopers in 2008 after studying finance and economics at the University of New South Wales. Since then she has obtained a Masters in Public Policy from the United Nations University and has worked in a range of federal government agencies including the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Department of Industry and Innovation. In these roles Chloe has advised national and international policy makers on a range of high-profile issues, and earlier this year organised the Treasury’s review into Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs). Her role encompasses capital markets, payments systems and innovation in the finance sector. Chloe is based in the Treasury’s Sydney Office.

Chris Zhong, Accenture Digital Blockchain Lead and founder & president of Blockchain Philanthropy Foundation, a non-profit organisation focus on promoting Blockchain technology for humanitarian causes. Prior to joining Accenture, she worked as the Lead Cloud Architect in Microsoft Australia.

She is an innovative leader in tech industry with a track record of driving business growth and develop new revenue stream through technology. She is also a strong advocate for technology making social impact.

Dr. Zhu leads the Software and Computational Systems Research Program at Data61, CSIRO. The research program has 200+ people innovating in the following research areas: big data analytics infrastructure, computational and simulation sciences platforms (including verticals such as satellite/aerial images, visual analytics and AR/VR), data modelling and integration, data platforms, trustworthy systems, distributed systems, business process management, legal informatics/regulation technology, provenance, Blockchains, software ecosystems, software engineering/architecture, DevOps, privacy and cybersecurity.

He is also a conjoint full professor at University of New South Wales (UNSW). He chairs Australia's Blockchain standards committee. He is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. He formerly worked in several technology lead positions in software industry before obtaining a PHD degree in software engineering from UNSW. He has been a research lead in several collaborative projects with Australia government agencies, defence, standardisation bodies and commercial companies. For example, he led the B2B reference software architecture effort for Australia's lending industry. He was a committee member of the Standards Australia IT -015 (system and software engineering) group and IT-038 (Cloud Computing) group and contributes to the ISO/SC7/WG42 on architecture related standards. He is currently the chairperson of Standards Australia's Blockchain and distributed ledger committee. He has supervised more than a dozen PhD students as their primary supervisor and taught software architecture courses at UNSW and University of Sydney.

His personal research interests include Software Architecture, Cloud, Dependable Distributed Systems, (Big) Data Analytics Infrastructure, Software Ecosystem, Platform Economics, Blockchain, Continuous Deliveries/Deployment, DevOps, Model Driven Development (MDD), Business/Software Processes and Software Engineering.

He has published more than 150 academic papers on software architecture, dependable and secure systems and data analytics infrastructure. His recent book is DevOps: A Software Architect's Perspective (2015, part of the CMU/SEI Series and published by Addison-Wesley).

Mike Zhuang joined VeChain as a Partner and Chief Strategy Officer (CSO) in 2018, primarily responsible for overall corporate governance and strategy, business development of international markets, as well as overseeing global investment and incubation programs.

Mike is an instrumental, seasoned and accomplished business, finance and corporate governance leader with an extensive background in the high tech, electronics, services and consulting industries. Prior to VeChain, Mike was a Director from Arrow Electronics (NYSE: ARW), a Fortune 150 company, managing Corporate Audit, as well as Merges and Acquisitions related matters including pre-acquisition due diligence and post-acquisition integration etc.

Mike started his public accounting career with PwC Shanghai. Subsequently, he progressed his career and expanded his leadership roles within various large Fortune 500 companies in the United States and Hong Kong, leading and managing different teams and staff in North America and Asia Pac regions.

Mike is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) in the United States, Certified Internal Auditor (CIA) and Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA). He holds a Bachelor of Engineering from Shanghai Jiaotong University and a Master from Kelley School of Business, Indiana University.