Directors Forum

Mitch Trevillion

Director of Operations
Beyond the Boardroom

Mitch Trevillion is the Director of Operations at Beyond the Boardroom. For 20 years, Beyond the Boardroom have created positive shared experiences for corporate groups throughout Australasia.

Jessica Fox OAM

3 x Olympic Gold Medallist and 10 x Canoe Slalom World Champion

There aren’t many athletes who can lay claim to being the greatest of all time in their sport by the age of 27. If she weren’t so humble, Jess Fox OAM could do just that.

Jess is one of our all-time great Olympians. She now has six individual Olympic medals including three gold, one silver and two bronze, more than any Australian in history.

The most successful paddler (male or female) in history, Jess has a long list of achievements including 51 World Cup gold medals, 10 World Championship titles, and 3 Olympic gold medals (a total of 6 Olympic medals across four Games).

Born in Marseille, France, Jess moved to Australia at age four. With an elite paddling pedigree, her parents, both accomplished paddlers, inspired her passion for the sport. Coached by her mother, Myriam Fox-Jerusalmi, a bronze medallist in K1 at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, Jess quickly rose through the ranks, joining the national junior team in 2009. Her early career was marked by four junior World Championship titles, eight under-23 world titles, and a Youth Olympics gold medal.

Jess made her Olympic debut at 18, winning silver in K1 at the London 2012 Olympics. Four years later, she secured a bronze in K1 at the Rio 2016 Olympics. However, it was at the Tokyo 2020 Games where Fox underlined her greatness when she won gold to become the C1 Olympic Champion. Earning the headline ‘Australia’s Golden Girl’ Fox also won the heart of the nation. Her technically flawless performance, without a single-time penalty, led to what was hailed as one of Australia’s greatest Olympic moments.

In July 2024, Jess cemented her legacy at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games leading the Australian Olympic Team as Flagbearer and claiming double Olympic gold. First up was the K1 event. In an exhilarating final, racing in eighth position out of twelve finalists, Jess maintained the fastest time (96.08) as she waited to watch seven athletes proceeding her.

After chasing gold at the previous three Olympic Games, Jess had finally secured that elusive K1 gold in Paris and became the only Australian to win four consecutive medals in the same event. Just days later, she defended her 2020 title, to again become C1 Olympic Champion.

These achievements bring Jess’s tally to a historic six individual Olympic medals, propelling her into the upper echelon of Australia’s most successful athletes of all time. To finish off her most successful Olympic Games, Jess was one of four athletes globally to be elected to the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) Athletes’ Commission where she will serve an eight-year term leading into the Brisbane 2032 Olympic Games.

In addition to her athletic achievements, Jess has completed a Bachelor’s degree in Social Science Psychology and is currently studying her Master of Business Administration through Griffith University.

Jess is an advocate for women in sport and a firm believer in balance of sport and education, achieving an ATAR of 99.1 while training for the Olympic Games. She is an inspiration to young children and business people around the world.

Sharon Gray

Head of People and Culture
OzHarvest

Sharon started her working life in hospitality. She was a waitress, events planner and even a trivia host. 30 years later, she uses all of the skills from those roles, plus more, in her current dream job as Head of People and Culture at OzHarvest. 

Sharon has spent her career in the pursuit of joy at work. Whether that is through recruiting people into their perfect roles, creating remarkable employee experiences, nurturing workplaces of belonging or developing people to be their very best, Sharon is proud to be part of the world of people and culture. 

She worked in retail, clinical, hospitality and pharmaceutical businesses before moving into Not for Profit work, firstly in children’s disability and now in food insecurity at OzHarvest. Sharon feels that 2025 is full of opportunity for the world of work and knows that the people in this room will be instrumental in shaping what it will be. 

Chau Le

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. 

Anitta Krishan

Chief Culture Officer
Hoogly AI; Former TikTok

Anitta Krishan is a globally recognised leader and culture strategist, currently serving as Chief Culture Officer at Hoogly AI, a B2B SaaS platform harnessing AI to transform employee engagement. 

Renowned for her people-first philosophy, Anitta has successfully scaled organisations ranging from early-stage startups to publicly listed unicorns by spearheading bold, innovative global people strategies. She has collaborated with senior leaders across industries—from fast-growth disruptors to Fortune 500 giants—to build cultures that empower talent at every level. 

With multiple CEO awards at trivago, Grab, and TikTok, Anitta is celebrated for her entrepreneurial drive and her ability to harness emerging technologies to foster meaningful organisational change. Living intentionally in Bali, she’s a certified Breathwork Coach and is passionate about shaping human-centric workplaces that champion employee wellbeing. 

Luis Izzo

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.

James McIlvena

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.

Vanessa Porter

Executive Facilitator
LHH

Vanessa Porter is a Leadership Development Facilitator at LHH, bringing a wealth of experience in people and culture strategy. With a passion for helping organisations create space to focus on what truly matters—their people and stakeholders—Vanessa has built a strong reputation for developing talent and cultivating positive workplace cultures.

Previously, as General Manager – People & Culture for the National Rugby League (NRL), Vanessa led the organisation through significant cultural change, setting it up for long-term success as a modern professional sport. She made history as the first woman to hold this role. Vanessa has also served as Co-Chairperson of the Australian Women’s Leadership Network (AWLN) for McDonald’s, further demonstrating her commitment to fostering leadership and inclusivity.

Luis Izzo

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.

Julian Arndt

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.

Erika Takahashi

People & Culture Regional Director
The Iconic

Erika Takahashi is the Regional People & Culture Director at THE ICONIC, a role she has held since January 2024. With over 20 years of experience in global HR, Erika possesses a wealth of knowledge and expertise in Organizational Design, Leadership and Talent Development, Driving High-Performing organizations, and Employee Experience. Her responsibilities at THE ICONIC encompass Employee Relations, Talent Attraction, Health, Safety & Wellbeing, P&C Business Partnering, Organizational Development, Change Management, People Operations, Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging, Compensation & Benefits, and Internal Communications, ensuring a comprehensive approach to people and culture within the organization. Before joining THE ICONIC, Erika held prominent HR leadership positions at several renowned organizations. Most recently, she served as the Global Senior Human Resources Director at Fiskars Group. She has also held Director and Vice President roles at Mastercard, covering Australia, New Zealand, and South America. During her tenure at Mastercard Brazil, the company was recognized as one of the best places to work for women, highlighting her commitment to fostering inclusive and supportive work environments. Additionally, Erika was the Latam HR Director for GUCCI, based in Brazil, and held senior positions at General Electric, further solidifying her expertise in managing diverse teams and driving business growth through strategic HR initiatives. Erika’s exceptional contributions to the field of HR have been recognized with several prestigious awards. In January 2022, she was featured on the HRD 2022 HR Hot List by HRD Magazine, which identified the most influential leaders in the Australian HR sector for their leadership, innovation, and industry contributions. This recognition followed independent research conducted by the HRD Australia team, which highlighted her significant contributions to the industry over the previous 12 months. Additionally, in 2022, she was honored as one of the Global Best in HR by HRD Magazine, acknowledging her outstanding leadership and impact in the industry. In 2023, she was nominated as one of the top 10 best HR professionals in APAC by Manage HR magazine, highlighting her influence and leadership in shaping the future of human resources.