1-2 April 2025, International Convention Centre, Sydney
Director
Australian Business Lawyers & Advisors
Director
Australian Business Lawyers & Advisors
Julian is a Director at Australian Business Lawyers & Advisors, a workplace and employment law firm that only acts for employers and employer associations.
His expertise focuses on bargaining, union disputes and employee claims, and with his varied experience acting for peak employer associations he has been involved in large scale industrial test cases and, more recently, in consulting with Government regarding legislative change.
Over the past nine years, Julian has acted as the lead employer advocate in a range of prominent test cases including the Family and Domestic Violence Leave Test cases, the Family Friendly (s 65) award test case, the Paid Pandemic Leave case, the Childcare Industry case, the Retail Industry junior rates case, the casual and part-time test case and the Casual review 2021. Julian was also in the team involved in the well-known ‘penalty rates case’.
His experience ranges across a wide variety of industries including aged care, labour hire, horticulture, early childhood education and care, retail, health and transport.
In 2023 he co-authored the first book on Owner-Driver Law in Australia and has been recognized by Doyles as a Rising Star in Employment law.
Chief People Officer
Humanforce
Chief People Officer
Humanforce
Holly, a seasoned HR leader with over 15 years’ experience brings a wealth of experience across all facets of people and culture. Previously holding executive roles within the Technology and Human Capital Management sectors, Holly is dedicated to reshaping conventional people management approaches. Passionate about redefining traditional people management, Holly focuses on values, the employee value proposition, and leadership to introduce innovative approaches while driving business results.
Chief People and Service Officer
NTI
Chief People and Service Officer
NTI
As NTI’s Chief People and Services Officer, Kerrie maintains the standard of excellence across NTI people, and customer experience. In this capacity, she leads NTI’s People & Capability team, two Australia-based national Customer Service Centres, and has corporate responsibility for NTI’s Environment, Social & Governance (ESG).
Under Kerrie’s stewardship, NTI has been recognised year on year as one of the best places to work in Australia; this includes winner of HRD 5 Star Employer of Choice, Kincentric’s Best Employer Australia, and Australian HR Awards Employer of Choice.
In her day-to-day Kerrie focuses on delivering NTI’s People Strategy, with an emphasis on culture, engagement, and talent development. She also manages NTI’s Customer Service operations which is dedicated to roadside assistance, claims, and policy support. More recently, Kerrie has taken on leadership of NTI initiatives to address the organisation’s key environmental and sustainability priorities.
With over 40 years of experience in the insurance industry, and more than 20 years in leadership, Kerrie’s career has spanned a wide range of disciplines, including Human Resources, Risk and Compliance, Distribution, Corporate Strategy, Business Transformation, and Customer Experience. Her professional journey also includes an executive role within a respected not-for-profit organisation, where she applied HR leadership and expertise across international settings.
Kerrie has a genuine passion for leading people through change, growing engagement, and achieving strategic and commercial outcomes through harnessing the richness of thought diversity.
Kerrie holds formal qualifications in Management, Human Resources, and Training & Assessment.
Head of People Risk, Superannuation and Benefits
Commonwealth Bank
Head of People Risk, Superannuation and Benefits
Commonwealth Bank
Steve’s career in HR spans 20 years across international and Australian organisations. He currently leads Employee Benefits and Superannuation at Commonwealth Bank, delivering modern, digital employee experiences and offerings. His focus is on ensuring employees’ wellbeing is supported and increased through their career with the organisation.
Chief People Officer
Viva Energy
Chief People Officer
Viva Energy
Natasha is a seasoned HR Executive who builds strong relationships across businesses by developing deeply commercial and strategic understanding of the operating environment.
Natasha has led various People and Culture functions focusing on key Human Resources disciplines including business transformation and change, workforce planning, organisational design and development, strategic talent management, and industrial relations.
After a long tenure in retail, including holding leadership roles during turnaround and transformation, Natasha has moved into an industry on the cusp of significant transformation. As the Chief People and Culture Officer, the focus of her role is to create an environment across Viva Energy with highly engaged and capable team members eager to contribute to delivering on the transformation agenda while sustaining high performance in core operations. Working with the Executive and senior leadership teams, Natasha is responsible for people strategy, operations and execution, as well as fostering the Viva Energy culture to ensure it is a great place to work.
Having completed honours in Science specialising in Conservation Biology, a HR career was not necessary the plan – however over 20 years later having started in management consulting, into organisational development and progressing into generalist People and Culture roles, Natasha’s true passion is delivering business results through great people.
Chief People and Culture Officer
Harris Farm Markets
Chief People and Culture Officer
Harris Farm Markets
Laura Durkan is the Chief People and Culture Officer at Harris Farm Markets, where she leads with energy, values and a commitment to placing people at the heart of business success. A dynamic executive, Laura has earned a reputation for fostering high-performance cultures that become a key driver of competitive advantage.
Before joining Harris Farm Markets, Laura served as Executive Director of People and Culture at the Foxtel Group, where she led cost transformation initiatives, improved employee engagement, and strengthened strategic business partnership capabilities. Prior to that, she spent seven years at Richard Crookes Construction, heading the People & Culture function alongside Corporate Strategy. During her tenure, the company received numerous accolades, including recognition as one of the top 10 Great Places to Work and achieving a top 5 ranking for employee engagement across ANZ. Earlier in her career, Laura held specialised HR roles at Campbell Arnott’s, refining her expertise in talent management and organisational development.
In addition to her professional accomplishments, Laura is deeply committed to social causes and serves as a Board Director of the Sydney Breast Cancer Foundation.
Head of People and Culture
OzHarvest
Head of People and Culture
OzHarvest
Chief People Officer
Mantel Group
Chief People Officer
Mantel Group
Caroline Henshaw is the Chief People Officer with Mantel Group, an Australian owned, technology-led consulting business founded in Melbourne in 2017. Caroline joined Mantel Group in 2018 to design and build the strongest culture and employee experience in Australia and New Zealand, focusing Mantel’s people strategy on individual employee experiences and creating a principle-based culture. Caroline is an experienced People and Culture executive, having previously created and implemented people strategies across consulting businesses and public institutions. Her experience includes large scale culture transformation, driving sustainable change across businesses, engaging and building on employee potential. She is passionate about creating great workplaces which genuinely make life better for their team, community and clients.
Senior Director of Human Resources, Australasia
Hilton
Senior Director of Human Resources, Australasia
Hilton
Managing Director
Australian Business Lawyers & Advisors
Managing Director
Australian Business Lawyers & Advisors
Luis oversees ABLA’s Sydney and Melbourne Workplace Relations teams and has over 15 years’ experience practicing as a specialist employment and industrial relations lawyer.
Acting only for employers or employer associations, he is well regarded in the industry for providing comprehensive and practical legal services for complex matters. This has included the conduct of investigations involving numerous allegations from multiple complainants; handing of workforce-wide underpayment claims; a judicial review application before the Full Court of the Federal Court; and being a lead employer advocate in test case proceedings relating to annual leave provisions and penalty rate provisions in over 100 modern awards.
In the public sector, Luis has previously been the principal legal advisor on department-wide enterprise agreement negotiations for the AFP and ATO.
Luis is regularly recognised by peers and clients as an expert in this field and was named a leading practitioner in employment law for the 2023 Doyles’ Guide.
Senior Associate
Australian Business Lawyers & Advisors
Senior Associate
Australian Business Lawyers & Advisors
Rhys is a skilled workplace and employment law professional with extensive experience in advisory services and litigation across state and federal courts and tribunals. Rhys has worked with businesses in industries such as manufacturing, road transport, media, and hospitality, as well as supporting not-for-profit organisations like Jobs and Skills Councils and medical research facilities.
Specialising in owner-driver engagement, Rhys frequently appears before the NSW Industrial Relations Commission to provide expert representation. He also conducts workplace health checks, including payroll audits and compliance reviews, helping businesses ensure they meet legal obligations while minimising risks. With prior experience as an Inspector for the Fair Work Ombudsman, Rhys is known for delivering tailored, practical advice and innovative, commercially viable solutions to workplace challenges.
General Manager, eMobility
Origin Energy
General Manager, eMobility
Origin Energy
Chau leads the eMobility team at Origin 360 EV, helping Australians transition to electric vehicles (EVs) with solutions like flexible leasing, carsharing, subscriptions, charging infrastructure, smart charging, and energy services. Chau is also Chair of the Electric Vehicle Council, who advocates for supportive government policies to accelerate the EV industry development in Australia.
VP People Enablement ANZ
SUEZ
VP People Enablement ANZ
SUEZ
Bo is currently the VP People Enablement for SUEZ in ANZ. Bo has over 15 years experience in complex global organisations. Bo has been with SUEZ for 6 years and leads a team of HR and IT professionals across Australia and New Zealand.
During his time at SUEZ, Bo has supported the growth of the business and led through periods of significant change.
Prior to joining SUEZ, Bo has worked across Australia and the Pacific regions as well as roles in the United Kingdom and Central Europe.
Managing Director ANZ + SG
LHH
Managing Director ANZ + SG
LHH
James is the MD of LHH Australia and New Zealand 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 LLH, 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.
VP, Human Resources, Toll Global Forwarding ANZ
Toll Group
VP, Human Resources, Toll Global Forwarding ANZ
Toll Group
Ida Pulic is an experienced HR professional with over 10 years of expertise in strategic human resources management. With a passion for fostering organizational culture and optimizing talent development, Ida has led HR initiatives in predominately the logistics industry. She specializes in driving employee engagement, performance management, and leadership development, while ensuring alignment between business goals and HR strategies. Known for her collaborative leadership style, Ida excels in building strong, inclusive teams and implementing HR solutions that promote growth, innovation, and employee well-being.
Solutions Director, ANZ
LHH
Solutions Director, ANZ
LHH
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.
Chief People and Culture Officer
St. Vincent's Health
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.
Senior Associate
Australian Business Lawyers & Advisors
Senior Associate
Australian Business Lawyers & Advisors
Lewis has over 10 years’ experience as an employment relations specialist, having previously worked in consultancy, and for a peak employer organisation. Throughout his career, Lewis has advised clients across all facets of the employment life cycle, with particular experience in wage compliance, award/agreement interpretation and enterprise bargaining.
He has experience working across a range of sectors including social and community services (welfare), aged care, early childhood and school education, health, construction materials manufacturing, transport and retail/hospitality.
Senior Director People Experience, EM & Developed Asia
Pfizer
Senior Director People Experience, EM & Developed Asia
Pfizer
She has been with Pfizer for 19 years, having led teams and operations in many international markets. In her present role she is responsible for the Asia Pacific region.
Gaya’s early career began as an Industrial Chemist in Pharmaceuticals and has since worked in consulting, training, commercial and manufacturing operations in healthcare.
Gaya has a Bachelor of Science majoring in Applied Chemistry and post graduate qualifications in organisational development.
Gaya is an HR practitioner that is passionate about maximising the potential of talents and culture of organisations to maximise business outcomes.
People & Culture Regional Director
The Iconic
People & Culture Regional Director
The Iconic