Luke Fleming

Director of Human Resources
ICC Sydney

ICC Sydney’s Director of Human Resources, Luke Fleming, is a business events and hospitality industry specialist with over 20 years’ experience in managing expansive workforces both in Australia, Asia and the United States. Luke was an integral part of ICC Sydney’s pre-opening stage having joined the premier Convention, Exhibition and Entertainment venue in March 2016. 
  
Initially responsible for managing ICC Sydney’s sizable permanent and casual workforce planning requirements, Luke’s strengths in strategic business planning, talent acquisition and onboarding, employment relations and industrial compliance earned him a sound reputation as a highly effective people leader. 
  
Luke was recognised by his peers winning the Extraordinaires Awards in 2019 in the Innovation and Creativity category and again in 2021 by the Human Resource Director Magazine as the Australian Human Resource Manager of the Year. Luke is an avid champion of ICC Sydney’s Diversity and Inclusion program. He is a Diversity Inclusion Trainer, certified DISC Practitioner, trained Mental Health and First Aid Responder and key member of ICC Sydney’s internal COVID Taskforce.  
  
A long standing member of the Australian Human Resources Institute, Luke’s Bachelor of Commerce and Master of Human Resources, coupled with being a qualified Trainer and Assessor holds him in good stead to bring business best practices to his role. 
  
Luke is highly skilled at leading top performing, multi-disciplinary teams; developing and maintaining key relationships with stakeholders to drive quality and exemplary service delivery in the business events sector while ensuring team member safety, health and wellbeing remains a focal point. 

Rebecca Roberts

Chief People and Culture Officer
St. Vincent’s Health

Rebecca is a versatile executive with an extensive background in People and Culture and law who has led organisational change to ensure operations are strategic, optimised and service focused. After a career in law both within Australia and internationally, Rebecca joined St Vincent’s as Executive Director Legal and Commercial Services in 2014 at St Vincent’s Public Hospital Melbourne. In 2018, Rebecca was appointed to lead the People and Culture and Corporate Services and 2021, Rebecca took up the same role at St Vincent’s Public Health Network Sydney. Rebecca commenced her role as Chief People & Culture Officer at St Vincent’s in early 2023 where she now proudly leads our 30,000 people who deliver incredible care to those we serve.

Avani Prabhakar

Vice President, Head of HR Asia Pacific & Global M&A Lead
Atlassian

Avani Prabhakar is the Global Head of Talent and HR Business Partners at Atlassian. Avani is an accomplished People executive with international experience across APAC, the Middle East and US. Avani leads a team of ~100 people across Human Resource Business Partners, Employment Relations, Talent, M&A and DEI across Atlassian’s global footprint. She’s passionate about leading people strategy to deliver outcomes and driving culture transformation in organisations going through a change journey.

David Johansson

Director, Strategy, Organisational Development & Analytics
AMP

Delivery focused executive leader and management consultant. Holds a Master of Business Administration. Specialist in strategy and business performance. Has 25 years’ experience in leadership, 15 in transformation, 12 in financial services. Is passionate about the future of work, and shaping inclusive, high performing working communities that ensure people operate at their full potential.

David is currently Director Strategy, Performance & Reporting, AMP, working across company strategy, reputation, performance improvement and culture transformation objectives.

Alissa Bartlett

Chief People Officer
JCDecaux

Alissa Bartlett is JCDecaux’s Chief People Officer and leads the Out-of-Home media company’s People and Culture strategy.​

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She is an experienced executive leader with over fifteen years leadership, talent management, and organisational development experience, holding both internal positions and consulting to local and international organisations. ​

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Alissa has a wealth of experience in creating and driving high performance cultures and is spearheading organisational transformation at JCDecaux. Previously she was the Global Head of Talent & Culture at international mining conglomerate Sibelco, where she worked for almost seven years. She has also worked with PricewaterhouseCoopers, CompAssess Psychologists and as an Organisational Psychologist with Macquarie Group.​

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Alissa holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Psychology from Macquarie University. ​

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David Bellas

Director, LinkedIn Talent Solutions
LinkedIn

David Bellas is a Director for LinkedIn’s Talent Solutions business for Australia and New Zealand. David and his team are responsible for helping organisation the way they plan, hire, and develop talent. This is possible through the disruptive technology and unique data and insights from LinkedIn’s 875+ million members and 57 million companies.

He is passionate about investing in people, everything sales, turning business visions into reality and working with customers to meet their business objectives.

Over the past 10 years at LinkedIn, David has had the opportunity to lead the growth and distribution efforts across all sectors at LinkedIn. When LinkedIn acquired Lynda.com in 2015, an online learning company, David was appointed as Head of Learning for Australia and New Zealand and helped oversee the successful transition to LinkedIn Learning.

Over the past several years David has been recognised with awards such as Diversity and Inclusion Manager of the Year and LinkedIn Manager of the Year and has a reputation for inspiring, coaching and developing talent.

Gemma Mulready

General Manager, People & Culture
Sympli

Gemma brings nearly two decades of expertise in sales, service, operations, and Human Resources. Specialising in driving startups and scaling businesses, specifically in financial services and private equity, Gemma’s HR approach aligns innovation with organisational goals. Her pivotal role in a transformative 18-month people and culture shift led to wealth management firm Centric Wealth’s $130 million sale to FINDEX. At life insurer Integrity Life, as their inaugural employee, she rapidly expanded the workforce, getting them into the market in 9 months, and earning various employer and industry accolades, including the esteemed Good Design Award. As the General Manager for People and Culture at Sympli, Gemma has also secured the Great Place to Work certification for two consecutive years, underscoring her unwavering commitment to excellence and innovation. Her team’s recognition as the HR Team of the Year in 2023 further exemplifies her dedication to driving excellence and innovation within the field. 

Sarah Novelli

Executive Director, People & Culture – APAC
BGIS

Sarah Novelli is the Executive Director, People & Culture at BGIS. Having worked in HR leadership roles for over 10 years, Sarah is particularly passionate about developing and executing People Strategies which align with and achieve business goals. Sarah holds a Master of Legal and Ethics, specialising in Industrial Relations and a Bachelor of Business majoring in Human Resources Management. With a strong interest around people analytics and benchmarking, Sarah provides counsel to all levels of leadership around retention, strategic talent management and future capability. Sarah also holds a passion for Diversity & Inclusion, working as an advocate for D&I across various areas.

Lainie Tayler

Chief People Officer
Carman’s Kitchen

Lainie Tayler is the Chief People Officer for Carman’s Kitchen.  With over 26 years’ human resources experience Lainie has worked in large global and local organisations specialising in business strategy, organisational development, leadership development, talent management and generalist human resources.  

Lainie is also the founding Managing Director of HR Squad, a boutique HR consultancy with a philosophy of building capable and engaged organisations and leaders.  

Lainie believes the key to an organisations success and longevity is a clearly communicated and understood business strategy, enabled through the quality of its leaders and organizational operating rhythm.  

“Getting the People stuff right is so important, we know that a people mindset is the biggest lever you can pull to ensure sustained financial and cultural success in an organisation.  However, it is important that this is supported by a clearly designed and understood business strategy.” 

Lainie has deep expertise in oganisational development and talent management and in addition to her role at Carman’s Kitchen is a qualified executive performance coach.  Lainie’s real passion is unlocking the potential in all leaders and has deep expertise in strategy, organizational capability, and leadership development.  

Ian Thorpe

5-time Olympic Gold Medallist
World Record Holder

Ian Thorpe is without doubt, one of the most successful sportspeople Australia has ever produced. Ian’s accomplishments are nothing short of amazing.

Over his highly-successful swimming career, Ian won 11 World Championship titles, claimed 10 Commonwealth Games medals, broke 22 World Records and was the first person in history to win six gold medals in one World Championship.

He won Nine Olympic gold medals during his swimming career, the most won by any Australian and a record that cements his place in history as Australia’s greatest Olympian to date.

Ian’s most famous wins however, came at the Sydney 2000 Olympics where he won three gold medals and two silvers, making him the most successful athlete at the Games. The gold in the 4 x 100m freestyle relay in which the American’s lost for the first time at Olympic level will forever be remembered as one of the greatest victories in Australian sporting history and was a defining moment of the Games. He later went on to win another two gold medals at the 2004 Athens Olympics and shortly thereafter made the decision to retire from the pool.

Ian was awarded an AM for his significant service to youth and Indigenous education, and

Swimming. He’s the winner of the Australian Sports Medal, Young Australian of the Year in 2000 and Four time World Swimmer of the Year.

Ian’s received the Human Rights Medal in 2012 for his work fighting for better services for

Indigenous children in remote communities and he’s been awarded Honorary Doctorates from the Western Sydney University and Macquarie University.

He’s hosted one the world’s largest Olympic Games broadcasts for Star Sports India at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games and provided his expert commentary for Seven Network at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, Australian Swim Trials, FINA World Championships, and 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Ian hosted the critically acclaimed ABC documentary series ‘Bullied’ which resulted in the ABC’s biggest ever social media event.

Ian’s currently the Ambassador for Australian Marriage Equality, Invictus Games Sydney and AIME, Patron and Board Member for frontline youth mental health service, ReachOut and has advisory roles with Australian Institute of Sport (AIS).

As a keynote speaker, Ian can draw on his experiences with international competitive swimming to explore high performance, goal-setting and overcoming adversity. He is also a proud advocate for mental health and the LGBTQIA+ community.

Charmaine Higgins

Group Executive People & Capability
Ventia

Charmaine Higgins is an experienced People Leader with 30 years of experience gained across large diverse organisations in the public and private sectors.

Charmaine joined Ventia at its inception in 2015 and has held various Executive and Senior People leadership roles, most recently as Executive General Manager People Business Partnering & Employee Relations.

Charmaine is known for her strong passionate leadership, strategic thinking and business partnering with senior leaders in translating strategy in operational outcomes that drive organisational performance and engagement. She enjoys working within organisations that are values driven, people and customer centric and foster an open, collaborative and results focused culture. Demonstrated success in building strong partnerships with diverse senior executives and leaders and the ability to influence stakeholders in adopting new ways of thinking and working.

Having had both strategic, corporate and operational ‘hands on’ responsibilities in a number of businesses, Charmaine’s strengths and capabilities lie in: Strategy and execution, organisational development, employee relations, transformational change, leadership development, business restructuring, business acquisition, talent acquisition and management, organisational design, learning and development ,remuneration and benefits, HR start up, program and project management.

Deborah Howcroft

Vice President Organisation Development and Corporate People Team
Bluescope

Deb Howcroft is a senior business executive with experience in both the Australian and international markets. Deb has successfully worked in organisations that are complex and have required strong leadership and influence to achieve desired outcomes. Deb’s primary focus is on the management of change and development of people within businesses to achieve strategic objectives.

With a corporate background Deb currently holds the role of Vice President Global Organisational Development and Corporate Advisory for BlueScope Steel Limited. Prior to this Deb held the role of Executive General Manager Group Organisational Development for the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (2014-2018). Deb also worked internationally and locally for the Vodafone Group as Global Director of Organisational Capability for Vodafone Group Limited (2005 – 2008) and Director, People and Brand, Australia for a period of 5 years.

Deb has also worked for many years in a consulting capacity, some of her clients included Origin Energy, NBNCo, Coles Group, Telstra, CBA and NRMA. Working with these clients has ranged from HR strategy, alignment of people practices with organisational strategy, facilitation of groups to achieve outcomes; and coaching individuals to successfully influence the organisation to appropriate agendas.

Throughout her career Deb has led business turnarounds, been involved in start ups and has worked within corporate centers to affect the changes required to align businesses with customer needs. Deb’s key skills are in providing clarity to strategic thinking and being able to break this down into effective operational plans that achieve results. This combined with her commercial and customer understanding, and ability to identify and manage risk, enable her to provide leadership needed both directly, and indirectly, to help businesses and individuals define, and successfully implement change.

Sarah Novelli

Executive Director, People & Culture - APAC
BGIS

Sarah Novelli is the Executive Director, People & Culture at BGIS. Having worked in HR leadership roles for over 10 years, Sarah is particularly passionate about developing and executing People Strategies which align with and achieve business goals. Sarah holds a Master of Legal and Ethics, specialising in Industrial Relations and a Bachelor of Business majoring in Human Resources Management. With a strong interest around people analytics and benchmarking, Sarah provides counsel to all levels of leadership around retention, strategic talent management and future capability. Sarah also holds a passion for Diversity & Inclusion, working as an advocate for D&I across various areas.

Jodi Paton

Chief People Officer
HOYTS Group

Jodi joined The HOYTS Group in 2013 in a newly formed role heading up the People, Performance and Culture function. She is a key member of the Executive Leadership Team with a primary focus on partnering with senior leaders and key business stakeholders in building organisational capability and employee engagement to foster a learning culture in a high-performance environment. Her remit includes HR, Recruitment, Learning, Payroll, Health, Well-being & Safety and ESG. Jodi has been invited to speak at various conferences and participate on panels, and her team has been awarded the AHRI Award for Technology.

Jodi holds a Master of Organisational Development and Training, a Postgraduate Diploma of Psychology (Sport), a Bachelor of Arts (Psychology), is a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and is on the Employer Leadership Group for Workplace Giving Australia. She is also accredited in LSI 360, 360 Profiler Report Interpretation, DiSC and McQuaig.

Prior to joining The HOYTS Group, Jodi held positions in Learning & Development and HR for Jones Lang LaSalle and InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG).

Elise Ward

Chief People Officer
Prospa

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.

Angela Wiggins

Chief People Officer
BAE Systems

Angela is a senior executive with 20 years of corporate and defence experience. Angela has been with BAE Systems Australia since 2009 and was appointed as our Chief People Officer in January 2023. 

In her role as Chief People Officer, Angela is responsible for leading the human resources function to help enable operational performance by supporting a healthy, safe and high-performing workforce of more than 5,500 employees across Australia. 

Angela leads a team of professionals who provide a range of people solutions and services, including people business partnering, workforce planning, talent management, recruitment, reward, learning and development, diversity and inclusion, and culture and change.  

Prior to her current role, Angela was our Chief Counsel, where she led a range of functions, including legal, security, export control, business continuity management, risk and insurance, records management and business assurance. 

Before joining BAE Systems Australia, Angela was a Partner at Fisher Jeffries in the firm’s corporate and commercial practice. 

Angela attended the University of Adelaide and obtained her Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Law with First Class Honours in 2002. She is also a graduate of the Institute of Directors and Companies Secretaries course. 

Angela is passionate about the ongoing development of our people. As an active coach and mentor, she provides individuals with ongoing support and guidance to encourage their growth and development and support them with their career progression. 

Angela is married with one daughter and enjoys spending quality time with her family, keeping fit and indulging in all the good things life has to offer.