Workshops Speakers

Sonya Law is a values led HR Director and founder of SL Human Resources Consulting.

The company’s vision is “Putting the Human back into Human Resources” driven by a belief that if you take care of your people, they will take care of business.

Follow Sonya Law on LinkedIn

Her authentic leadership style throughout her career has contributed to positive workplace cultures, improved leadership and employee engagement.

In her personal life she is a marathoner and triathlete, competing in New York, Berlin, Chicago, Sydney and Tokyo in 2026!

…”I’m thrilled to be chairing the HR Summit for the sixth year and look forward to engaging with all the speakers and delegates, in what will be an insightful and fun event!”…

Melissa Mason is a People and Performance Coach with over 15 years’ experience guiding organisations through complex change. From FIFO sites to boardrooms, she’s led cultural alignment, post-merger integration, and leadership development across industrial sectors. Her approach blends strategic clarity with emotional intelligence, helping teams turn resistance into resilience. With qualifications spanning Human Resource Management, Corporate Governance, Facilitation, and Coaching, Melissa brings a rare blend of technical depth and human warmth. She now coaches HR professionals, especially women, through the emotional labour of change, offering space to reflect, restore energy, and sustain performance. Her sessions build self-awareness so HR can keep making work a place people want to be.

As Head of Customer Success at Navigo, Michelle Clancy specialises in delivering high-impact data initiatives and org design technology. With over 15 years of experience, she has a proven track record of orchestrating transformational change for HR and IT, partnering with all levels of Government and some of Australia’s most iconic brands. Known for her strategic oversight, Michelle excels at navigating complex environments and translating raw HR data into streamlined organisational success. Outside of architecting better ways to work, she is often on a quest for Australia’s best coffee or enjoying the energy of a live rock concert.

As CEO of Navigo, a leading HR technology firm specialising in organisation design and HR analytics, Andrew Rees helps organisations navigate change and achieve their strategic goals. Drawing on a diverse background in IT, Management, and Consulting across Ireland and Hong Kong, Andrew has guided hundreds of businesses through pivotal transformations. At Navigo, he leads a team passionate about solving complex HR data problems and creating sustainable, long-term value through practical, results-driven technology.

Nathan Green is a Senior Sales Engineer at HiBob, partnering with APAC organisations to design modern employee-experience solutions. With roots in software development and experience across enterprise support and solution consulting, he turns complex requirements into clear, measurable outcomes. Known for a pragmatic take on AI, CRM, and automation, Nathan builds targeted demos and architectures that lift engagement and productivity at scale. Based in Sydney, he enjoys sharing practical patterns that bridge people and technology.

In Netta's role as Global Director of People & Culture at Koala, she leads a team that shapes the company's People Experience. Her experience in progressive HR spans over ten years, including talent acquisition, policy development, coaching and mentoring leaders. Netta enjoys discussing strategy and researching solutions to problems — she's incredibly passionate about innovation and technology. A recent achievement she takes great pride in is the roll out of equitable and inclusive People processes that are designed to enhance the wellbeing of every team member. These include Work From Anywhere, 20 Weeks Paid Parental Leave and Life Leave which provides an additional 10 days per year for our team.

When she’s not working, Netta is a busy mother of three and enjoys cooking and dancing with her kids. In addition to being a self-proclaimed nerd, she has a lifelong love of learning and trying new things, as well as being a total sneakerhead.

Katrina Symons brings over two decades of HR leadership and executive coaching into one mission: reimagining leadership development. As Founder and CEO of Out of Bounds, she's pioneered the Fresh Air Leadership approach - taking leaders out of boardrooms and into the kind of environments where breakthroughs happen. Known for her warmth, strategic insight, and adventurous spirit, expect provocative questions, practical insights, and a fresh perspective on leadership development.

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.

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.

Naomi Oyston has over 20 years’ senior leadership experience across corporate, financial, and SME environments, helping organisations lift performance through stronger leadership, sales, service, and culture. She has led large-scale Customer Service Excellence, Sales Performance, and Leadership capability programs within complex organisations and fast-growing businesses alike, delivering practical, results-driven outcomes.

An author of The Sales Playbook Playbook, Naomi is known for translating strategy into action and building high-performing teams that deliver consistent results.

A Certified Speaking Professional (CSP), she is recognised for engaging, high-impact presentations that inspire change and drive real-world performance.

Naomi combines commercial insight with a deeply human-centred approach, delivering tailored training, coaching, and consulting that engages the head, heart, and hands to create sustainable success.

Professor Azadeh (Az) Dastyari is the Director of the Centre for Western Sydney and a Professor of Human Rights Law at Western Sydney University. She leads place-based research, engagement, and advocacy that seeks to unlock the unlimited potential of Western Sydney, with a strong focus on challenging systemic inequality and amplifying community voices. Professor Dastyari has held academic appointments at Harvard Law School, Georgetown University, and the European University Institute, and her expertise is regularly sought by parliaments and United Nations bodies.

Founder of Storytellers Australia and host of the Always Be Connecting podcast and webinar series, Linsey Houston specialises in the mechanics of workplace belonging. By translating analytical EVP research into strategic storytelling, she oversees broadcast-grade communication and high-value media that bridge the gap between corporate strategy and a healthy, human culture.

Stephanie Walker has over 20 years experience leading teams across HR, TA and Operations in complex global environments within the Technology and Professional Services sectors. Having most recently led TA at Amazon (AWS and AGI) for the Asia Pacific region, Stephanie is now operating in the Executive Interim market within ANZ. Stephanie is passionate about building high performing leadership teams and their responsibility to lead organisations through transformational growth and change.

Utkarsh Narang, is a TEDx speaker, podcast host and a values-driven Leadership Coach who helps startups and high-growth organisations turn their core values into everyday leadership habits. He works with founding teams, senior leaders, and managers to ensure that leaders live their values, not just talk about them. He has a passion for understanding human behaviour and using his diverse experience to build programs for organisations across Australia, India and the United States.
 
He lives by his 5 CORE VALUES - Discipline, Presence, Growth, Freedom, Love. When not helping others improve, he enjoys working on himself through reading, meditation, exercise, and raising two boys with his wife in Melbourne!

Sonia McDonald is a globally recognised leadership expert, keynote speaker, and award-winning author with over 30 years’ experience in leadership and HR. She is the founder and CEO of LeadershipHQ, The Leadership Association, Best Mondays and Women Leaders, partnering with organisations across the globe to build courageous, human-centred leaders and organisations. Grounded in neuroscience and real-world experience, Sonia is known for her practical, no-fluff approach to leadership in complex environments. Her work has influenced thousands of leaders globally and continues to shape modern
leadership conversations around courage, trust, and humanity in the age of AI.

Dr Oliver Suendermann is the Vice President (VP), Clinical at Intellect, overseeing clinical governance, clinical services, research, and clinical product innovations.

Dr Suendermann is a UK-trained Clinical Psychologist, educator, supervisor and
researcher with over 20 years of experience in academia, healthcare and
workplace mental health. He is also an honorary faculty member at the National
University of Singapore (NUS), and has published extensively on mental health
topics.

Prior to joining Intellect, he was the Deputy Director of the Masters in Clinical
Psychology Program at the National University of Singapore NUS, where he was also a member of the 2020 Mental Health and Wellbeing Taskforce to improve
staff wellbeing.

Jo Turner has been working with NIDA for over 20 years and brings a diverse and unique mix of skills to the NIDA Corporate Training team. As a tutor, Jo has worked extensively with training institutions such as QUT and The Actors Centre, across a wide range of disciplines including movement and improvisation.

Jo trained at the Ecole Jacques Lecoq in Paris, a school specialising in movement and improvisation. He worked in Europe for several years performing, creating new work, and running workshops on the Lecoq Method.

Since returning to Sydney, Jo has worked as a performer, director and writer with Bell Shakespeare, The Sydney Theatre Company, Belvoir Street, The Ensemble Theatre, Black Swan Theatre Company (WA) and La Boite Theatre (QLD), as well as extensively in film and television.

As an independent artist Jo is dedicated to the production of new visually driven work, including the highly successful Ruby’s Wish which recently toured to the Sydney Opera House, the Arts Centre Melbourne, and Belvoir Street.

Vangie Daquilanea leads WTW’s Work & Rewards practice across Australia and New Zealand, focusing on rewards strategy and workforce analytics. With over 20 years of experience, she advises organisations on designing competitive and equitable compensation structures, strengthening pay governance and leveraging workforce data to support strategic decision-making.

Daisy has over 25 years of experience in Human Capital consulting. She has helped leaders and organisations across a wide range of industries align their people management practices with business strategies.

Daisy advises organisations, including large multinational corporations, on job architecture and grading, total rewards strategies, gender pay gap analysis, and reward frameworks aligned with business priorities. ​She also brings deep expertise in enhancing total rewards offerings to improve employee experience.

Over the years, Daisy has led numerous client projects across a broad range of industries, working with both Australian and multinational organisations.

Cameron has over 25 years' leadership experience in the Community Services, International Development, Social Enterprise, and Child Protection sectors. From 2012-2017 Cameron established and led Mission Australia's Strengthening Communities program, delivering innovative community renewal projects in urban public Housing Estates and remote Indigenous communities across Australia. The program was a finalist in the national Collaboration for Impact awards.

Cameron has worked extensively across Myanmar, Vietnam, and Cambodia, and previously chaired the Board of an International NGO. Prior to his current role as the Australian Director of the Sanctuary model, Cameron managed MacKillop Family Services' programs across South West Victoria. Cameron holds a Master of Business Psychology, BA Social Work (Honours) along with qualifications in Leadership and Business Management. Cameron is passionate about assisting organisations to cultivate healthy cultures.

Denver Naidoo is the Founder and CEO of Zeligate, an AI-powered hiring platform headquartered on the Gold Coast, Australia. With a career spanning global technology enterprises and a Honours degree in Computer Science, Denver specialised in machine learning and AI before founding Zeligate in 2023. His mission is simple: transform hiring from a scattered series of tasks into a high-trust, high-performance workflow. Zeligate's intelligent AI employee, Zeli, handles end-to-end recruitment - from sourcing and screening to interviews, reference checks and compliance - helping organisations hire faster, fairer and at scale without adding headcount. Denver is a recognised speaker on the future of work, AI's role in unlocking human potential, and what Workforce 2.0 means for organisations building for growth.