Speakers

Dr Amantha Imber is an organisational psychologist and founder of the award-winning behaviour change training consultancy Inventium. She has worked with companies such as Google, Apple, Disney, LEGO, and Microsoft to help boost productivity, innovation and wellbeing.

In 2021, Amantha was the first Australian to win the Thinkers50 Innovation Award (described by the Financial Times as the 'Oscars for Management Thinking'). She is also the host of the number one ranking business podcast How I Work, which has had over 6 million downloads.

Amantha's thoughts have appeared in Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, and Forbes, and she is the author of four bestselling books, including international bestseller Time Wise and her most recent book, The Health Habit.

Pritho currently leads HR for Amazon’s consumer businesses and corporate teams based in Australia, China, Singapore and Philippines. He has helped build and run billion dollar businesses across a number of countries (India, China, Singapore and Australia) and industries (Devices, Digital Content, Publishing & Consumer Retail) He has over 20 years of experience in enabling business strategy execution through people as well as leading diverse teams across geographies. Prior to Amazon, he was at IBM where he led large scale programs focused on workforce research, diversity, rewards, education assistance and case management. He is an alumni of IBM’s prestigious Corporate Service Corps. Pritho is passionate about helping people unblock their potential and simplifying things.

Seemali is a seasoned HR executive with deep expertise across the full spectrum of human resources, with particular strength in HR business partnering and talent acquisition. Over the course of a career spanning more than 25 years, she has led people strategies within leading multinational organisations across FMCG, telecommunications, consulting, and IT/ITES.

As Head of HR for Australia and New Zealand at HP Inc., Seemali leads the people agenda across the region, partnering with leaders to drive organisational capability, talent outcomes, and business performance. She joined HP in India in 2015 as Talent Acquisition Lead and expanded her leadership remit following her move to ANZ in 2017 as People Leader.

Across her career, Seemali has held a number of senior HR and talent leadership roles, including Talent Acquisition Lead at Ernst & Young, HR Manager at Samsung, and Staffing Head at Coca-Cola India, building broad cross-industry expertise and a strong track record in people leadership.

She holds a Master’s degree in Human Resources from Thames Valley University in London, UK, and is a member of the Australian Human Resources Institute.

Seemali is based in Melbourne, Australia, with her husband, Arvind, who runs his own business, and their son, Mudit, who is studying medicine.

Tamsin is a highly credentialled employment lawyer with Australian Business Lawyers & Advisors in Melbourne, acting for a broad range of employers across both the public and private sector. She performs a mix of litigious and advisory work in workplace relations and is a regular author and presenter on a range of bargaining, employment, discrimination and work health and safety related topics.

Tamsin was closely involved in responding on behalf of employers to the National Inquiry into Sexual Harassment in Australian Workplaces. She led the Chamber’s response to the introduction of the Respect at Work Act. This included addressing the new prohibition on sex-based harassment in the workplace. She also served as an associate employer representative member on the newly formed Federal Government Respect@Work Council.

Tamsin takes a keen interest in and is often at the forefront of IR changes, including providing feedback and advice to Government and employer groups on the implications of reforms.

Rebecca Coombes is the Group Chief People Officer of The Disability Trust, with The Disability Trust being the foundational business in a large conglomerate, 6 key entities, operating within the social/community services sector, and employing 4500 employees across the country.

A seasoned professional with over 25-years of vast HR experience, Rebecca has demonstrated excellence at all levels through to the C-suite. As a member of the prestigious Chief HR Australia group, professional member (CAHRI) of The Australian Human Resources institute for almost 20-years, Rebecca leads as a vivacious and contemporary executive.

With experience working across a range of industries from telecommunications, manufacturing, media and higher education prior to joining the for-purpose sector, Rebecca balances solid commercial acumen with a person-centred approach to her discipline.

Holding a Bachelor of Commerce, Employment Relations, and a Master of Commerce, Human Resources Management (with Distinction), combined with 8-years of experience as an academic lecturer, Rebecca demonstrates commitment to the development of the future of HR.

Rebecca brings the rare balance of theory and practical application in the important space of workforce learning and development - Adult learning being one specialist area of her research and teachings in Academia, and L&D in her working remit for more than 2 decades.

Sara has worked internationally as a performer, teacher, corporate coach and facilitator. Her diverse education includes a Bachelor of Arts from Curtin University, a degree in Performing Arts from WAAPA, and a Post Graduate Degree in Radio Journalism from Charles Sturt University. She holds a current Certificate IV in Training and Assessment.

Sara has been a Corporate Role Player and Facilitator for NAB, ANZ, Citi Bank, Johnson and Johnson, Peers and Players, CDAC, NSW Departments of Health and Education, NIDA, and the WA Police Academy.

She has taught at The Australian Actor's Centre, NIDA, AIM, ACT, National Theatre Drama School, and WAAPA.

Sara’s practice combines her background as a professional performer with her expertise in facilitation, communication skills, and leadership development. She is passionate about helping others unlock their authentic voice, enhance their presence, and build meaningful connections.

Louise Hope is a seasoned HR executive and Chief People Officer with an extensive career spanning corporate, government, tertiary, not-for-profit, and creative industries across the UK and Australia. She is known for her pragmatic leadership style, deep commitment to inclusive people experiences, and ability to connect strategy with culture to deliver lasting impact.

Robert is the Chief People & Corporate Affairs Officer at Opal.

 Opal, which is one of Australia and New Zealand’s largest recycling, paper and packaging businesses, manufactures innovative cardboard packaging and paper solutions, and is committed to a circular economy approach. With sites across Australia and New Zealand, Opal employees thousands of people.

 Rob has led HR functions and transformation programs across a diverse array of geographies and industries, including FMCG, Agribusiness, Energy, Professional Services and Transport, and has worked with some of Australia best known brands including Australia Post, StarTrack, Simplot, Masterfoods and Elders.

Dean Jackson is a Digital Workplace and Employee Experience leader with 15+ years’ experience delivering large-scale people technology transformations across FMCG and financial services. As Director of Global Digital Employee Experience at Coca-Cola Europacific Partners, he leads the HR digital ecosystem and drives strategy across Talent, Learning, Workforce Management, HR Services, and AI-enabled employee experience.

Dean specialises in designing technology that works for people, simplifying processes, improving usability, and strengthening employee connection. With a career at the intersection of HR and IT, he brings a distinctive blend of digital strategy, leadership, change, and optimisation expertise.

James is the MD of LHH Australia, New Zealand + Singapore and the Executive Sponsor of LHH partnerships with large customers. James is passionate about helping build better careers, better leaders and better businesses. His strength is in developing solutions to complex problems and addressing these through mobilising and managing talented people. He is responsible for connecting local businesses with the best of globally available LHH solutions helping individuals and organisations reveal and harness their talent and providing tools to support a renewable workforce.

Prior to LHH, he gained extensive experience of in-house recruitment and RPO models across a range of industries and ASX100 companies. James has a degree in Psychology/ Psychophysiology and a Post Graduate qualification in Human Resources and Industrial Relations.

With a passion for enabling an ever-growing number of people to access the science of human flourishing, Mel Neil has been coaching and consulting for over 20 years. Using her strengths-based approach, she designs and delivers custom leadership and performance programs for clients in the public and private sectors. Mel has developed the Happiness Lab and Academy platforms in response to the demand for a space in which individuals can engage with the science of human flourishing and apply their learning to improve the areas of their life that they choose to change.

Nithya Ramaswamy is Solutions Director within the LHH Leadership Development practice, for Australia and New Zealand. Nithya brings over twenty years of experience in providing insights, consultancy, client engagement, leadership development design and delivery to leaders across a range of client organisations globally. Having led complex projects that span multiple levels of leadership and across various markets and functional areas, Nithya has a proven track record in partnering with stakeholders to co-create learning architectures and bring to life robust leadership development experiences.

Having a career background as both industry leader and consultant, Nithya is a credible and commercial learning professional who brings insightful, practical and innovative approaches in her work. Nithya has diverse global and industry experience spanning banking and financial services, insurance, infrastructure, agribusiness, professional services, telecommunications, public sector, education, and pharmaceuticals.

As the Chief Executive Officer for Be Challenged, Lisa Kelliher has had a career firmly embedded in learning and development, cultural enhancement, educational design and team development. Her master’s degree in arts and education, coupled with rich career experiences across a range of non-government independent schools, led to varied leadership opportunities, where she specialised in the development of professional development for the staff, students, and parents of these organisations. Prior to her appointment as CEO at Be Challenged, Lisa was the Head of People and culture, Head of Business Support and an in-house Educational Consultant. Lisa specialises in helping leaders create environments where care and accountability go hand in hand.

Greg Parkes, CEO and Founder of Auto-UX, brings 20+ years’ experience across SaaS, HRTech, and Novated Leasing. He scaled Autopia from startup to a leading provider, then led HR tech transformations as MD of Mumba for some of Australia’s largest employers. Today, Greg fuses deep HR and technology expertise at Auto-UX, redefining novated leasing through a digital-first, employee-centric experience that helps CHROs unlock financial wellbeing, engagement, and retention at zero cost.  

Kate Hickman is an executive HR leader and Chief People Officer whose pathway into leadership and human resources has been anything but conventional. With a background spanning FMCG, healthcare, higher education, finance and global pharmaceuticals, Kate built her career from the ground up, developing a deep understanding of how organisations operate and the challenges faced by executives.

She went on to lead complex organisational change and transformation across sectors, including mergers, technology and HR transformations, restructures and operating model redesigns, always with a strong focus on employee experience and sustainable change.

Now a mother to three children aged 11, 9 and 1, Kate brings a lived perspective to leadership, leading by example in balancing career and life and driving the people strategy in a purpose-led organisation enabling its people in delivering meaningful social impact.

Meredith is a People & Culture executive specializing in growth and transformation, global operations, and organisation effectiveness.

As Senior VP, Global People & Culture at Telix Pharmaceuticals, she leads a global team with focus on talent management and organisation design, and building flexible and future-proofed People & Culture practises that can scale with a business. Telix is an ASX100 and Nasdaq listed, fast growing and highly innovative radiopharmaceutical company with employees in 12 countries across APAC, EMEA and AMER.

Meredith has worked in Healthcare and BioTech for most of her career, and excels in high-stakes, purpose-driven environments. She have a keen curiosity for all things people, particularly in how the systems and networks in the workplace influence capacity for accountability, communication, empathy, and self-awareness.

Elisa joined REA Group in July 2024 and leads teams across HR business partnering, talent acquisition, remuneration, organisation development, HR operations, employee and corporate communications, community partnerships and sustainability.

With more than 20 years’ experience in people and culture across manufacturing, mining, financial services and technology, including Strategy, Transformation, Culture Change, Organisational Design, Talent, Employee Experience & HR Technology, Executive Remuneration and Transactions, Elisa is passionate about leading, coaching and delivering results within high performance cultures. Elisa most recently was Vice-President Human Resources (Minerals Australia, Global Functions & Asia) at BHP, and prior to that held roles at Latitude Financial Services and General Motors (Holden). Elisa holds a degree in Business (Human Resources Management) from Swinburne University of Technology, and a Graduate Diploma in Employment and Labour Relations Law from The University of Melbourne.

Alejandra Sieder is a Sydney-based visual artist, graphic designer, art therapy facilitator, and creator of TRRT™ – The Reset Restore Tool™. With over 30 years of experience in visual communication, design, and contemporary art, and a background in psychology, she developed TRRT™ as a hands-on mental circuit breaker for busy minds. Through hand-drawn patterns, repetition, and focused mark-making, TRRT™ supports calm, focus, emotional regulation, and connection. Designed for teams, companies, individuals, neurodivergent minds, people with ADHD, teenagers, and children, TRRT™ offers a practical way to pause, reset, and reconnect through the movement of the hand.

Dr Gemma Perry is a psychological scientist and yoga teacher who has spent over 10 years investigating how sound affects the brain and body. Holding a PhD from Macquarie University, her research specialises in chanting, mantra, and sound-based contemplative practices. Gemma translates the research into practical, experiential sessions that help teams connect, reduce stress, and sharpen focus, explaining not just what works but why it works. She is passionate about making science and practices accessible, giving people tools to use in everyday life. Expect the same rigour of scientific research, with a bit more fun.

Jessica founded Inner Rhythm with a desire to share the herd wisdom of horses with collective cultures to create cohesive, psychologically safe environments for people to thrive in.

With over 15 years in the Education industry, to completing her Master’s degree with Honours in Equine Assisted Therapy in Germany, a public speaker and facilitator, Jess utilises Equine Assisted Coaching, working on improving cultures across a diverse range of sectors including schools, nursing homes, sporting teams and the corporate space.

Jessica advocates for the belief that to truly thrive we need to embrace our humanity, emphasising the importance of being, rather than merely doing, to truly embody the essence of human connection in any environment.

With over 25 years’ experience, Louise has built her career across retail, FMCG and manufacturing, including senior roles at Bega, Lion, Orica and David Jones. She’s known for being a commercially grounded HR leader who connects people strategy to real business outcomes, whether that’s cost optimisation, productivity uplift, or supporting major transformation and change agendas.

She has spent much of her career working in complex, often unionised environments and private equity settings, bringing a pragmatic, hands-on approach to operating model design, capability building and organisational change. Louise partners business leaders, providing clear, commercially focused advice on workforce strategy, organisational risk and leadership capability.

Louise is passionate about coaching and developing leaders and is known for investing deeply in her teams to build capability and confidence at every level. She has led large, geographically dispersed teams and creates environments where people are empowered to grow, take ownership and deliver at their best.

At her core, Louise is driven by building high-performing, inclusive cultures that can navigate change and deliver sustainable results, with a focus on long-term value creation for both people and the business.

Kate Jolly is the Global Head of Talent & Enablement at Employment Hero. Kate has over 10 years experience hiring on a global scale for both start-ups and FTSE100 businesses. She's worked with candidates from graduate level through to senior leadership and is passionate about building high-performing, high-velocity recruitment teams.  

Samantha is the Learning, Engagement & Communication Manager at SG Fleet, with over 20 years’ experience shaping people and culture strategies within complex organisations. She has a strong track record in designing integrated learning solutions, elevating employee engagement, and delivering clear, impactful internal communications that support organisational performance. Known for her pragmatic and people-focused approach, Samantha works closely with leaders to turn insight into meaningful action, with a focus on strengthening capability, enhancing the employee experience, and driving sustainable cultural outcomes. 

Elise is currently the Chief People Officer at Prospa – a growing FinTech with a purpose to unleash the potential of every small business. In her role, she has responsibility for the design and delivery of our people strategy. A passionate strengths coach, Elise has more than 15 years’ experience in delivering progressive people and culture strategies across start-ups and multinational organisations. Prior to joining Prospa, Elise led the People & Culture team for Canadian-based technology company Elastic Path Software and has held senior HR roles at Samsung and Tabcorp.

Elise has a Bachelor of HR Management from Macquarie University, a Graduate Certificate in Change Management from AGSM at UNSW, and is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Stacey Dawes is an executive human resources leader with diverse experience across the corporate and not‑for‑profit sectors, currently serving as Director, People & Culture at the National Breast Cancer Foundation. She brings a strong track record of working with both national and global organisations to develop people‑first strategies that support modern workforces and enable the creation of high‑performing, inclusive, and values‑driven cultures.

As a purpose‑led leader, Stacey brings deep expertise in people capability strategy, organisational design, workforce planning, and consultative change management. She partners closely with executive teams to deliver sustainable transformation across complex operating environments, with particular strengths in leadership development, governance and risk oversight, and organisation‑wide cultural transformation.

Stacey is known for balancing strategic insight with effective commercial execution, delivering impactful and sustainable outcomes that strengthen both individual capability and overall organisational performance.

An experienced Chief People Officer with a demonstrated history of working in international professional engineering and science related businesses. Skilled in partnering with business leaders to grow and develop business units, through designing and implementing programs that align to the values and goals of the business.

These activities have included: Strategic Organisational Design & Development programs, Organisational Structure reviews, Remuneration, Reward & Retention strategies, support and management of Employment Relations matters, implementation of Succession Planning; including the creation of graduate employee programs and identification of high potential employees, Learning & Development activities (core competency and potential focus) and Employee Wellbeing.

A professional that prioritises communication and the development of strong key stakeholder relationships to enable success through the adaption of programs and activities to suit the individual goals, values and culture requirements of the business.

Chris is a People & Culture executive and Non-Executive Director with more than 20 years’ experience partnering with executive teams to transform organisations and elevate the employee experience.

He brings a strong track record in leading large-scale organisational change, with a particular focus on leveraging HR technology, AI, and data-driven insights to deliver modern, high-impact people solutions.

Chris’s expertise spans people strategy and transformation, HRIS and digital enablement, employee and industrial relations, and governance across legal, regulatory, and risk frameworks.

Having worked across both large and mid-sized multinational organisations, he has deep experience navigating complex, highly regulated environments and delivering outcomes that balance innovation, compliance, and commercial impact.

Passionate about the future of work, Chris is focused on how technology can unlock better workplace cultures, simplify complexity, and create exceptional, human-centered employee experiences at scale.