Speakers:

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!

Karen brings her experience in engineering, industrial relations and running her own business to her roles as a Cabinet Minister and Federal Member for McPherson.

Born and educated in Queensland, Karen’s aptitude for maths and science saw her break through stereotypes to pursue a career in engineering. As one of only two female graduates in Mechanical Engineering at QUT in 1983, Karen knows that it takes hard work and determination to succeed in sometimes difficult circumstances.
Karen has a history of breaking down barriers. She worked at power stations in Queensland, and in Victoria she became both the first female and the youngest plant engineer employed by a petrochemical company.

From there, Karen launched her own Human Resources and Industrial Relations Consultancy, where she gained first-hand experience of the pressures of owning and running a small business.  She is a strong advocate for local businesses as the powerhouse of our local economy.

Karen’s commitment to serving the local community led to her decision to stand as the LNP candidate for McPherson and she was successful at the 2010 election. Karen was re-elected in 2013 and again in 2016 and 2019 to represent Southern Gold Coast residents in the Federal Parliament.

Delivering $1 billion in Federal Government funding to fix the M1, including widening the stretch from Varity Lakes to Tugun, is among Karen’s proudest achievements for the Southern Gold Coast. On top of this, Karen has been behind an increase in funding for local infrastructure, including hospitals and schools. She is also a champion for small business owners, the tourism industry and jobs creation.

Karen is humbled to be Queensland’s first-ever female Federal Cabinet Minister, having been sworn in as Minister for Industry, Science and Technology in the Morrison Government Cabinet in August 2018. She retained this vital portfolio following the Coalition’s 2019 election win.

In this role, Minister Andrews has done significant work to help Australian industry to flourish, with commitments including the $160 million Manufacturing Modernisation Fund. She has been a key driver of Women in STEM initiatives and has guided the Australian Space Agency through its highly successful first year, as it works to a goal of tripling the size of the sector to $12 billion and creating 20,000 new jobs by 2030.

Prior to this, Karen held a leadership position during 2013 and 2014 as Chair of the House of Representatives Joint Standing Committee on Public Works. She served in this capacity until December 2014, when she was appointed as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Industry and Science.

Karen’s also served as Assistant Minister for Vocational Education & Skills and Assistant Minister for Science in the Turnbull Ministry, where she was one of the architects of the $1.1 billion National Innovation and Science Agenda.

A long-term resident of the Southern Gold Coast, Karen understands the challenges and pressures of raising a family.  She is married with three daughters, all attending either high school or university.

Michael is a Partner in Piper Alderman’s Blockchain Group based in Sydney.

The Blockchain space presents unique challenges merging cutting edge technology and a challenging regulatory space as rapid development and adoption of this exciting technology occurs.  As a former developer, Michael has a rare combination of technical, regulatory and legal skills which he leverages to assist his clients

As Initial Coin Offerings rose to prominence in 2017, Piper Alderman was on the forefront, advising a significant number of the top ten ICO offerings.  As the space has matured, Piper Alderman continues to advise projects on structuring security offerings and other tokenization deployments within existing businesses. We now assist a range of Blockchain projects from enterprise level deployments to start-up ventures, exchanges, RegTech and compliance businesses.

Since founding and exiting a successful start-up in the early 2000s, Michael has maintained an active involvement in software development.  He is knowledgeable in the workings of (and legal issues surrounding) virtual currencies and cryptocurrencies, blockchain projects, smart contract deployments as well as FinTech and RegTech projects.

This technical knowledge coupled with a highly commercial approach enables Michael to add real value to his client’s business. Michael delivers targeted advice for the whole of life software, start-up and project lifecycle including design and analysis, commercial contracts including shareholder, advisory, supply and software agreements, financial services regulation including project analysis, compliance as well as fundraising documentation and ongoing support.

Michael regularly publishes on technology and Blockchain matters and is a sought after speaker in relation to legal issues facing smart contract and Blockchain adoption both internationally (New York, San Francisco and Singapore) and in Australia (Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane).

Luke Behncke, Executive Chair of Holon Global Investments, a global investment manager focused on innovation and investor alignment. He has more than 20 years’ experience in the private sector and worked in government leading major state and national policy, regulation and standards reforms across multiple industries from inception to implementation. Luke has also led stakeholder-based, industry and community organisations in the not-for-profit sector.

Caroline Bowler is CEO of BTC Markets, the largest Australian digital asset exchange.

Formerly Director, Asia-Pacific for Red Flag Consulting. Caroline was the founder of Bowlah PR, the first FinTech PR agency in Asia with offices in Singapore and Melbourne. She has worked in Financial Services since 2004, both in Europe and Asia Pacific.

Over her career, Caroline has worked with a variety of financial institutions. These include investment banks, hedge funds, financial technology companies, and financial advisors. This has extended to blockchain and digital asset companies since 2015.

She has been published in national media; interviewed senior industry figures; and speaks regularly at FinTech industry events. Follow her tweets at @CaroBowler.

Nick is the CEO and co-founder at Type Human, and a recent fellow of Intersticia Foundation. Nick founded TypeHuman because of a belief that we need to accelerate the adoption of Web 3.0 technologies in order to bring about a more human centric web. TypeHuman now operates as a Blockchain Venture Studio, and is working with leading organisations across Australia, including RMIT University and Red Cross Australia.

Prior to TypeHuman, Nick has found himself involve with startups, traveling the world, rowing surf-boats, working for engineers without borders, and dreams of one day joining the van life movement

Daniel is responsible for the delivery of Standards Australia’s strategic engagement objectives and a multitude of key external relationships with industry leaders, government officials and the general community.

Daniel has held various roles in engagement and standards development. He’s wealth of experience spans into identifying political and commercial risks, and the policy environment. He also has experience representing the collective interest of State & Territory Governments and the Commonwealth for the purpose of ensuring that documents are consistent with regulatory and policy needs.

Daniel holds a Graduate Certificate in Business Administration and a Masters in Strategic Communication at the University of Canberra

Karen is the founder of Blockconsulting Group, which specialises in the intersection between Blockchain and HR. She is program manager of  the Women in Fintech program as an Expert in Residence for Stone & Chalk Melbourne.

She is the Board Secretary for Blockchain Australia. She heads up the Women in Blockchain group in Melbourne and is the global  head of HR and Operations for the Nem Foundation. Karen is known in Australia as “Blockmum” for her caring nature of the blockchain community.

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.

Grant has been involved in cryptocurrencies and digital assets for the past several years and in that time has become a valuable member of the Australian crypto community. Grant holds a dual degree in Commerce (Hons I) & Economics from UQ and was a PhD candidate at UNSW focusing on portfolio management, decision making and market microstructure.

Paul Derham is a financial services lawyer who provides legal advice and regulatory training to

• Australian and overseas government regulators;
• Australian professional bodies representing the blockchain industry, the payments industry, the financial advisory industry, the accounting industry;
• banks;
• many of Australia’s cryptocurrency exchanges;
• many of the world’s largest OTC derivatives providers; and
• other virtual currency industry participants.

Paul is a Partner of leading financial services law firm Holley Nethercote, with offices in Melbourne and Sydney, Australia.  The firm of 33 staff provides commercial advice and financial services regulatory advice to all financial services sectors.  The firm also operates a licensing team headed up by Frank Varga, ASIC’s previous Head of Licensing for 15 years.

Paul is passionate about driving the right conduct within the diverse virtual currency ecosystem.  For example, Paul was the primary author for the Code of Conduct for Digital Currency Exchanges in Australia.

Paul and his colleagues are currently helping an overseas government body write rules regulating their new digital currency regime.

Paul chairs the Australian Digital Commerce Association’s AML & Financial Crime committee, the Code Committee, the OTC Derivatives Compliance Forum, and the Remittance Compliance Forum, and the FinTech Compliance Forum.

Jonathon Miller, a founding shareholder of Bit Trade, was appointed MD in August 2017 and has since become MD of Kraken Australia in January 2020.

Jonathon is responsible for the performance of the Australian market. In addition to managing the growth of Bit Trade, Jonathon has delivered expert consultancy to several large Australian financial and professional services firms and has directed a number of blockchain development projects for the Bit Trade innovation team.

Jonathon holds an Honours degree in Political Economics.

Katrina is the Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Civic Ledger – a multi-award winning Australian technology start up that builds data-driven platforms for open governments. We use blockchain and smart contracts to create a secure and digitised environment for the exchange of information. The exchange between the public and the government is in government to citizen (G2C) format and improves civilians’ trust.

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.

Katryna Dow is the CEO and founder of Meeco, the global tech company that launched a world leading data independence platform for people. Meeco guarantees individuals choice and data sovereignty rights in the way they interact in the digital world and with the Internet-of-things.

For the past two decades, she has split her time between being asked to challenge convention to drive change and growth – with leading enterprises, start-ups and everything in-between – and studying human behaviour: neuro-economics, archetypes, mythology, profiling systems and psychographic segmentation.

The two streams of her life co-exist and merge to give her a unique perspective on how individuals and organisations work and communicate, and how organisations fit and function within the context of the larger social and economic landscape.

Her unique fusion of industry experience and academic knowledge has enabled Katryna to drive change and develop strategies for clients such as ipac, Commonwealth Bank and AMP.  Her vision and passion is focused on inviting organisations to reassess their relationships with customers, view their opportunities differently, while always remaining empathetic to the cultural dislocation that this can cause.

Katryna has delivered projects around the globe, living and working in Australia, the United Kingdom, India and the United States.  Her work across industry sectors including finance, technology, human resources, healthcare and infrastructure has contributed to her deep understanding of human motivation.

Always looking to the future, Katryna has drawn on her unique experiences and intuitive understanding of people’s motivations and behaviours to see that, with the rise of the connected world, the privacy and rights of individuals are being eroded by data brokers and governments. She believes passionately in regaining people’s digital sovereignty, and has evolved a concept that shifts the power and insight back to the people.

Meeco is Katryna’s idea born of the movement of like-minded thinkers who believe in the possibility of a shift in the relationship between the person, their privacy and the online world. The Meeco platform allows people to take control of their digital lives, with Katryna’s commitment ensuring that, from its inception, Meeco will create and generate real value for the community and be a nexus of online social interactions, brand engagement and mutual value creation.

In early 2012 she wrote the Meeco Manifesto which describes her vision “for everyone on the planet to get equity and value for the information they share”.

Her extensive commercial experience has inspired a range of new business models which when implemented will help eliminate the unauthorised trading of personal data, whilst raising the value of personal data for owners.  Meeco will also significantly reduce the cost to enterprise in the delivery of goods and services to customers through the creation of a shared value data exchange.

In addition to leadership role with Meeco, she is actively involved in the IEEE Standards community, serving on two working groups for IEEE; as the Co-Chair for the Personal Data and Privacy Committee, part of The Global Initiative for Ethical Considerations in the Design of Autonomous Systems, and Chair for the new P7006 – Standard for Personal Data Artificial Intelligence (AI) Agent.

A globally respected thought-leader in the prescient topics of data sovereignty and consumer choice, Katryna is at the forefront of the digital sovereignty movement, with her passionate vision for the empowerment of the online individual making her one of the CEOs to watch.

Tim Draper founded Draper Associates, DFJ and the Draper Venture Network, a global network of venture capital funds. The firms’ investments include Baidu, Focus Media, YeePay, KongZhong, Skype, Hotmail, Tesla, SolarCity, Coinbase, Ledger, Robinhood, Athenahealth, Box, TwitchTV, SpaceX, Cruise Automation, Carta, Planet, PTC and many others.

He is a leading spokesperson for Bitcoin, Blockchain, ICOs and cryptocurrencies, having won the Bitcoin US Marshall’s auction in 2014, investing in over 50 crypto companies, and having led investments in Coinbase, Ledger, Tezos, and Bancor, among others.

He created viral marketing, a marketing method for exponentially spreading an electronic service from customer to customer, instrumental to the successes of Hotmail and Skype and other applications, particularly effective for mail and communications applications. Arguably, social media, crowdsourcing and growth hacking are all outgrowths of viral marketing.

He is regularly featured on all major networks as a proponent for entrepreneurship, innovative governance, free markets and Bitcoin, and has received various awards and honors including the World Entrepreneurship Forum’s “Entrepreneur of the World,” and is listed as one of the top 100 most powerful people in finance by Worth Magazine, the top 20 most influential people in Crypto by CryptoWeekly, #1 most networked VC by AlwaysOn, #7 on the Forbes Midas List, and #48 most influential Harvard Alum. For 2019, Global Guru listed Tim as #7 of the top 30 Startup Gurus in the world.

In promoting entrepreneurship, he created Draper University of Heroes, a residential and online school based in San Mateo, Ca to help extraordinary people accomplish their life missions. The school created entrepreneurs that built 350 companies including crypto leaders, QTUM, Spacecash, DataWallet and Credo. He started Innovate Your State, a non-profit dedicated to crowdsource innovation in government, and BizWorld, a non-profit that teaches young children how business and entrepreneurship work. 

He served on the California State Board of Education, and led a movement for Local Choice in schools culminating in becoming proponent for a statewide initiative for School Vouchers. He also led a statewide initiative to create competitive governance with Six Californias, followed by an initiative for Three Californias.

Tim Draper received a Bachelor of Science from Stanford University with a major in electrical engineering and a Master of Business Administration from the Harvard Business School. He has two honorary doctorates from The International University and Trinity College of Dublin.

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.

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.

Shadow Minister Ed Husic has a well-established interest in digital innovation and the growth of Australia’s digital economy.

Elected to Federal Parliament in 2010, the Western Sydney-based MP has advocated for policies designed to promote early stage and digital innovation - because of its ability to generate the firms and jobs of the future. He also argued for the need to sharpen the national focus on preparing for the impact of automation and technology on current and future jobs.

Leading into the 2016 federal election, Ed was heavily involved in the development of Opposition policy designed to encourage the growth of startups and digital entrepreneurship. He also championed policies to help accelerate the creation of startup communities beyond Australia's capital cities.

After the 2016 election Ed was promoted to the front bench as Shadow Minister for the Digital Economy, as well as Shadow Minister for Employment Services, Workforce Participation and the Future of Work.

He previously held the positions of Parliamentary Secretary to Prime Minister and Parliamentary Secretary for Broadband.

Samantha is a creative, environmentally focused executive, author and speaker, operating at the intersection of technology, climate change, markets, Science and nutrition.
Having launched a blockchain enabled market place (Urth.io) for regeneratively produced food in 2019, Samantha is working on improving the assessment of carbon in soils for farmers (as well as urban neighbourhoods) through the application of satellite technology. 
With over twenty five years of management experience in hospitality and food service, Samantha studied organic food practices throughout the 90’s and introduced organic icecream and dairy products to the Pancake Parlour restaurant chain which operates throughout Melbourne. 

An associated customer education program led to increasing public awareness of organic agriculture as a contributor to a solution for climate change. This program also represented the benefits of biodynamic farming, exclusion of GMO products from the menu and the importance of supply chain integrity for food from farm to plate.
Wearing her Human Resources hat, Samantha implemented the workplace Certificate IV for hospitality, delivering the founders vision to increase skills in the restaurant industry.
Reflecting Samantha’s long term, wholistic approach to food and climate she has authored three books on solutions to climate change (published in seven languages), is an international speaker on the subject and in 2006 bought the first created soil carbon credit.
To support the increasing demand for climate friendly and nutritious food, and shift away from industrial agricultural processes Samantha is creating a trust brand, Climatefood,  for food products that represent a positive drawdown of carbon from the atmosphere.

Leanne is Founder and CEO of Everledger and Queensland Chief Entrepreneur. In her role as CEO, she inspires and steers the team of Everlegends to increase transparency and trust with technology, in close collaboration with our industry partners.

She is a prominent figure in the technology sector. Leanne co-chairs the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on the Future of Manufacturing and takes part in the Global Future Council on Blockchain. She also leads workstreams at the Global Blockchain Business Council, co-chairs the World Trade Board’s Sustainable Trade Action Group, and is on the IBM Blockchain Platform Board of Advisors.

Leanne’s awards include the AIM Global Allan Gilligan Award 2019, Advance Global Australian Awards 2018 for Technology Innovation, and Innovator of the Year 2016 and 2018 at the Women in IT Awards (London). In 2018, her entrepreneurial success saw her appointed as the Queensland Chief Entrepreneur in Australia, to develop the state’s startup ecosystem, attract investment and support job creation. She is the first female entrepreneur to hold this position.

More recently, Leanne has been appointed to the Global Blockchain Business Council as a Regional Ambassador of Australia, an Adjunct Professor in the Institute for Future Environment at the Queensland University of Technology and Blockchain Advisory Board Member of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

David Knights joined NAB Asset Servicing in 2013. David has over 20 years of multi-industry experience, spanning engineering, management consulting and banking & finance. He joined Nab in 2002, and has held senior roles across the Personal Bank, Business Bank, and Operations. Most recently David has demonstrated his breadth of financial experience through leading the business configuration of the new NAB core banking platform.   In his current role as General Manager, Transformation for NAB Asset Servicing he brings extensive operational and product management expertise to the ACSA Executive Committee.  

Previously David has worked for Bevington Group (originally BCG) leading consulting assignments across the finance, logistics, healthcare and primary resource industries. His early career in engineering blends financial analysis, complex problem solving, strategic insight and continuous improvement skills into consistent, successful commercial delivery.

Tim Lea has a 20-year professional career in Corporate funding – lending with such names as GE Capital, HSBC and Lloyds Bank. A seasoned Blockchain professional, having been involved in the space, entrepreneurially and corporately, for almost five years. CEO of Fractonium that is designed to transform Corporate Funding markets by blending tradeable, programmable tokens that represent fractional assets, revenue flows and debt into the traditional capital stack of debt and equity. Fractonium increases funding flexibility for business owners, open up new global pools of capital and reduces operational & banking risk. Author of the leading Blockchain book, 'Down the Rabbit Hole: Discover the Power of the Blockchain'. Keynote speaker, both domestically and internationally, on the strategic applications of Blockchain, and a regular MC to Blockchain events.

Michael has over 10 years’ experience in the climate finance and carbon trading industry. Being a CFA® charterholder Michael has been able to combine his financial skills with his passion around action on climate change to use markets and finance to deliver real carbon emission reductions.

Michael has a wealth of knowledge and experience across the climate finance and carbon trading industry, this includes creating and trading the first Australian Carbon Credit Unit under Australia’s Clean Energy Future policy through to helping guide industry led carbon trading policies.

Discussions with various blockchain experts led Michael to realise that central governments were no longer the key to achieving real action on climate change, rather a truly distributed financial solution was possible. Out of these discussions Emmi was born.

Samuel Lim is Chief Compliance Officer of Binance, where he covers group-level compliance strategies, performs global regulatory outreach and strengthens the company's risk framework. Throughout his time at Binance, he has presented at events hosted by United Nations and Europol. Apart from compliance work, Samuel has also launched two Binance-issued stablecoins (backed by USD and GBP) and successful set up Binance Singapore. Samuel has been featured on Forbes and Fortune magazines for his work on improving compliance within the blockchain industry together with partnering firms such as Chainalysis, Elliptic, CipherTrace and IdentityMind.

Joseph Liu is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Information Technology, Monash University. He got his PhD from the Chinese University of Hong Kong at 2004. Prior to joining Monash at 2015, he has worked as a research scientist at Institute for Infocomm Research (I2R) in Singapore for more than 7 years. His research areas include cyber security, blockchain, applied cryptography and privacy enhanced technology. He has established the Monash Blockchain Technology Centre at August 2019 and serves as the director since then. His remarkable research in linkable ring signature forms the theory basis of Monero (XMR), one of the largest cryptocurrencies in the world. He has been given the Dean's Award for Excellence in Research Impact in 2018 and the 'ICT Researcher of the Year 2018’ Award (winner) given by the Australian Computer Society (ACS), the largest professional body in Australia representing the ICT sector, for his contribution to the blockchain and cyber security community.

Caroline heads the OECD’s work on blockchain and other distributed ledger technologies, assessing the policy implications to ensure governments can access and respond to the opportunities and challenges they raise.

Caroline also sits on the OECD's Staff Review Board, and since 2016, is a visiting lecturer at Paris-Est Créteil University, and more recently, at Kings College London.

Prior to her current role, Caroline led the OECD's work on the tax implications of emerging technologies. She was responsible for the delivery to the G20 of the 2018 Interim Report on the tax challenges raised by digitalisation by the OECD/G20 Inclusive Framework.

From 2014-2017, Caroline was the Senior Counsellor to the OECD Tax Director & Deputy-Director developing the Centre's strategy & ensuring its implementation. She worked with senior country officials, external stakeholders and international & regional organisations on issues such as the OECD/G20 BEPS Project and the establishment of the +120 member Inclusive Framework, as well as managing the tax aspects of OECD projects on anti-corruption & responsible business conduct.

Beginning in 2012, Caroline established the Tax Inspectors Without Borders initiative (TIWB) to build tax audit expertise in low-capacity countries. This included the negotiation of a partnership with the UN Development Programme (UNDP) in 2015, allowing TIWB to expand globally.

From 2010-2012, Caroline worked in the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes. She led the teams assessing tax transparency, including bank secrecy, in jurisdictions including Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Jersey, Russia & Switzerland, as well as managing a 2-year capacity building project in Ghana.

Previously, Caroline worked as a tax lawyer for the Australian government, and graduated with a Bachelor of Laws & a Bachelor of Arts in Communications as well as a Master of Laws in International Tax.

Connie Mckeage has an enviable track record of leading teams that deliver. She sits on the OneVue Board and is Managing Director of the OneVue Group, an Australian All ordinaries listed company.  Connie joined the board of OneVentures, a leading Australian venture capital firm, as an independent Director in 2017.

Connie has extensive experience in the Australian, Asian, European and North American financial services markets which solidly underpins her role as Managing Director.

As acting CEO Connie drove the establishment of E*TRADE in Australia. She has also run a number of large scale projects as a senior executive of companies such as Bankers Trust Australia, Rothschild Australia Asset Management and Perpetual Funds Management where she held the role of Deputy Managing Director. Whilst Head of

International based in the US for New River Technologies she was responsible for business growth focused on global IT, operational and business transformation.

Connie's expertise is taking businesses from start-up to grown up.

Connie was awarded the Centenary Medal for her contribution to Australian business leadership. She is a Founder of Financial Executive Women (FEW) and in 2015 was an Eastern Finalist for E&Y’s Entrepreneur of the Year. She has been recognised by Insights Success magazine as one of the “the 30 most influential Women in Business”, and most recently was awarded Chief Executive Officer of the Year at the Women in Finance Awards 2018.

Louise develops Everledger’s business and technology globally, focussed on creating great outcomes for our customers and our people. She drives strategy and delivery, and leads collaborations with the insurance industry to help address systemic challenges.
Louise held senior roles with Australia’s largest general insurers, Suncorp and IAG, designing and leading strategic innovation transformation. She has led strategic investments and M&A activity. She has also held directorship and strategic advisor roles with multiple not-for-profits and social enterprises, including her own business ventures.

Cindy Nicholson is  the Managing Director & CEO of Braintree. She has a track record for working with Boards of Directors and C-Suites, embracing leading edge and emerging technology to solve business challenges.

As ‘Entrepreneur’ finalist of the ARN Women in ICT Awards last year, Cindy is an internationally recognised thought leader, bringing together many facets of her global professional experience from Investment Banking, Management Consulting and global FinTech start-ups.

She is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD), a Board Member of BlockChain Australia; an Advisory Board member to technology companies, from the USA, Ireland and Australia,

She is also a qualified Executive Coach with the International Coach Federation (ACC)

Anya Nova is a Crypto Economist at Power Ledger, where she is leading the development of Power Ledger’s energy financing product. Anya specializes in security tokens and is a strong advocate for renewable energy and blockchain adoption.

Anya has presented at blockchain, security token and digital assets conferences internationally. Prior to Power Ledger, Anya was an advisor to technology startups and large corporates. She has also worked internationally in roles with Shell, Rio Tinto, and Merrill Lynch. Anya is a recipient of the 2018 Women in Technology WA ‘20 in 20’ Award.

Driving the blockchain innovation strategy at AgriDigital, Bridie works across industry sectors to build communication channels and relationships with government, agribusinesses and the tech start up ecosystem. Bridie manages AgriDigital's blockchain pilots, sitting at the juncture of industry and technology to develop transformational software solutions and solve embedded challenges across international supply chains. Before joining AgriDigital, Bridie worked across research, policy analysis and compliance in the legal and not-for-profit sectors. She holds a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Sydney, and a Bachelor of Arts in French and Politics studying both at the University of Sydney and Sciences Po, Paris. Bridie has proven success in building effective policies and services, and a deep understanding of global supply chains. Bridie is also the founder of sustainable food production startup, Crecos.

John Phillips is driven by the desire to make a positive, lasting, difference to the organisations, projects, and people that he works with. A believer in continuous learning and the power of curiosity, he counts himself lucky to have worked in 10 countries across sectors from the Space Industry to Finance and Higher Education.

Powered by the 460degrees Expert Management Agency, John is a Partner and a Champion of Self-Sovereign Identity, Emerging Technology the Education Sector.

John believes that Self-Sovereign Identity is the best digital identity model available for our global society and the next generation of our digital lives.

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.

Adam has had a long history in the bitcoin community in Australia having been one of the founders of the Bitcoin Association of Australia and being involved in many events, conferences and submissions in his various roles and projects since formation in 2013. Adams primary focus over the years has been adoptive use of blockchain technology by all sectors of the Australian economy and he continues this work with Get Paid In Bitcoin, a payroll provider offering bitcoin in wages to all Australians.
Adam is looking forward to the future in the new role at Blockchain Australia and believes that the blockchain future will be bright and that BA has a pivotal role to play in this process.

Adrian is the CEO and co-founder of Independent Reserve, a Digital Currency exchange based in Sydney. Adrian’s career spans more than 15 years in Information Technology, specialising in the design and development of critical business systems. Prior to founding Independent Reserve, Adrian was the principal consultant at a Sydney-based IT consultancy which he also co-founded. Through this challenging role, Adrian led the delivery of many enterprise solutions for financial institutions across Australia, as well as holding a long-standing role as Solutions Architect at the Nine network.

In 2016 Adrian joined the Board of Directors of ADCA to help progress the standing of Digital Currencies in Australia.

Alexander created Flex Dapps with Tom Nash.  Flex Dapps build programmable financial instruments and currency powered applications which are permissionless, uncensorable and don't require users to relinquish custody of their assets. These financial instruments are commonly referred to as decentralised finance or DeFi. They allow every day people to not only be bankless but to become a bank. Alexander is a business executive, programmer and visual designer who has successfully failed at running a start-up company multiple times before founding Flex Dapps.

Flex Dapps is a globally recognised web3 company. They work with clients like the Australian Red Cross, Ethereum Foundation, Web3 Foundation, BinanceX, Blocknative and more. They have a strong software engineering background with their entire team having been nerds since their early years. If you're looking for a high-performing, developer-first web3 company, look no further.

Victoria has been working with payment and identity technologies for over 20 years. She has advised a range of organisations, from start-ups to major banks, on the business implications of emerging payment and identity technologies. Her role at AusPayNet includes leading the initiatives undertaken by the Australian Payments Council.

Dr Pip Ryan is a barrister and lecturer in the Faculty of Law at the University of Technology.  She coordinates and teaches Commercial Equity and Disruptive Technologies and the 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).

Mark Staples is a Senior Principal Researcher at CSIRO’s Data61, where he leads the regtech technology program and a number of blockchain initiatives. His research is in software engineering, software architecture, blockchain, and philosophy of engineering. He has previously held software and systems engineering management roles, in industries including industrial control, electronic payments, and medical devices. He is on the Standards Australia and international standards committee for blockchain and distributed ledger technology. He has degrees in computer science and cognitive science from the University of Queensland, and a PhD in computer science from the University of Cambridge.

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.

Mr. Leigh Travers is Executive Director at blockchain consulting and digital asset fund manager, DigitalX Ltd (DCC:ASX) who he began working with in 2014. He has served on the board of Australia's Blockchain industry body since 2015 and is currently Treasurer of the organisation. Leigh has co-founded a Blockchain media and education company and the Perth Blockchain Centre, a coworking space that serves as a home for Perth tech and investment professionals. Leigh holds a Bachelor of Commerce and Communications from UWA, a Fintech Certification from MIT while living in Boston during 2016 and a Blockchain Strategy Certificate from RMIT in 2019.

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.

Kain is the founder of Synthetix, a protocol for issuing and trading synthetic assets on Ethereum. Since launching its native trading platform, Synthetix.Exchange, in December 2018, it has processed nearly one billion dollars worth of trading volume. He is also the Founder and CEO of blueshyft, a retail payment network of over 1200 locations across Australia. blueshyft has become the largest cryptocurrency payment gateway in Australia, processing over three hundred million dollars in transaction volume.

Steve Wilson is a leading authority on digital identity, privacy and data protection, and a specialist in the broad application of blockchain technologies. He has worked in identity for 25 years. In 2004 he established Lockstep Consulting and in 2013 took up an adjunct position with Silicon Valley based Constellation Research as VP Digital Safety & Privacy.

Steve is known for his distinct and independent voice on blockchain. The B2B News Network named him on its Fintech Influencers Index of 2016; he was awarded Best Paper at the HIMSS Asia Pacific 2017 conference, for “How healthy is blockchain?”.

Glenn joined Ledger in October 2018 and is responsible for overseeing all Ledger’s businesses in Asia Pacific. He has an extensive career in the financial services and technology industry, working for S&P Global Market intelligence as Head of Hong Kong, Taiwan and Korea, and Shinhan AITAS as a consultant in financial asset custody.

Glenn holds a BA in Business Administration and English Literature at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies.

Professor Yang Xiang received his PhD in Computer Science from Deakin University, Australia. He is currently a full professor and the Dean of Digital Research & Innovation Capability Platform, Swinburne University of Technology, Australia. His research interests include cyber security, which covers network and system security, data analytics, distributed systems, and networking. He is also leading the Blockchain initiatives at Swinburne. In the past 20 years, he has been working in the broad area of cyber security, which covers network and system security, AI, data analytics, and networking. He has published more than 300 research papers in many international journals and conferences. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the SpringerBriefs on Cyber Security Systems and Networks. He serves as the Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing and IEEE Internet of Things Journal, and the Editor of Journal of Network and Computer Applications. He served as the Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Computers and IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems. He is the Coordinator, Asia for IEEE Computer Society Technical Committee on Distributed Processing (TCDP). He is a Fellow of the IEEE.