Global Speakers

Sarah Gillies is CoreLogic’s General Counsel International based in Wellington, New Zealand and heads up the legal team for CoreLogic’s international business. The company provides dynamic and innovative, technology‐based services and solutions to clients across the Banking, Finance, Insurance, Real Estate, Property, Utilities and general commercial segments. Sarah started her legal career in private practice at Minter Ellison, before moving into the legal team at Telecom New Zealand Limited (now Spark) in 2005. Sarah held a number of roles at Telecom at a time when the business and the telecommunications industry was undergoing significant change. Sarah began working with Telecom in the Competition and Regulatory team and then moved into a key role supporting the Gen‐i business. During this time Sarah also joined the committee of ILANZ (In‐House Lawyers Association of New Zealand). Sarah returned to private practice at Duncan Cotterill before joining CoreLogic in 2014, to set up the legal function for CoreLogic’s New Zealand business. In February 2016 Sarah was appointed as General Counsel International and serves on the Executive Team for the wider International business.

Jessica currently work for the world’s largest consumer goods company and sit on the board of the seven companies in the Australian and New Zealand group as a statutory director. She has over 7 years’ experience working in top-tier Australian law firms and in-house in the highly regulated, complex health and consumables sectors, both in Australian and a short-term project in ASEAN (based in Singapore). Prior to her board appointment and role at Procter & Gamble, she was in a strategic management on the Executive Leadership Team in Australia at Medtronic, the world’s largest medical devices company (including the manufacturer of diabetic insulin pumps and consumables). Further, she was chair of the Medtronic Australasia Women’s Network and Asia Pacific representative on the legal department’s Global Inclusion Committee. She is a member of the Legal Forum of the Australian Food and Grocery Council and have experience, as a Government Relations leader, in pushing a policy agenda with the Council for the improvement of the position of a supplier of goods into Australia’s major supermarket retailers. She has strong interpersonal skills and enjoy building relationships with a variety of stakeholders from diverse backgrounds. In May 2014, she was recognized by the Australian legal community as the winner of the Lawyers Weekly Young In-House Lawyer of the Year award, which is a national award recognizing emerging legal talent in Australia.

Sarah is General Counsel and Company Secretary for the Brisbane Airport Group of companies and is responsible for managing the delivery of legal services across the business as well as company secretarial, investor relations & governance. Prior to her legal career Sarah worked in a number of marketing roles gaining valuable commercial skills and expertise. On completing a Bachelor of Laws with First Class Honours Sarah worked as a Solicitor with Clayton Utz and became Virgin Australia Airline’s first in house counsel in 2002. From there Sarah moved to Joy Global, a NASDAQ-listed global manufacturer of mining equipment, as Regional General Counsel and Company Secretary of the Australian entities in the Joy group and then on to BAC in 2010. In November 2016, Sarah was announced Australian Corporate Lawyer of the Year by the in house legal professions’ global peak body, the Association of Corporate Counsel, in recognition of her leadership and accomplishments in the field of in house legal process management and her significant contribution to the law in the aviation industry.

David is the Chief Legal Counsel at Canon Australia, after having worked in-house at Telstra for more than nineteen years. Prior to moving in-house, David worked in private practice for Mallesons Stephen Jaques, having started his legal career working for Mallesons in Taiwan. David is on the board of the Tristan Jepson Memorial Foundation, a member of the Telstra Heritage Board, and president of a youth community string orchestra.

Lily joined Amcor in 2014 as the inaugural regional General Counsel for Amcor’s Flexibles Asia Pacific Business Group. Amcor is an ASX-listed corporate multinational which provides flexible and rigid packaging solutions for businesses in the food, beverage, personal care, home care, pharmaceutical, medical, tobacco, industrial, and general household sectors. AFAP is headquartered in Singapore and presently has operations in Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, China / Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Thailand and The Philippines. Lily works closely with Amcor and AFAP’s Risk and Compliance function and is intimately involved with training her businesses on core legal and policy requirements. Before joining Amcor Lily worked as a lawyer with Corrs Chambers Westgarth (during which time she was engaged for a number of client secondments), and before then a leading regional law firm and Allen Arthur Robinson (now Allens Linklaters). Lily has twice been a guest panelist for InnoXcell at its annual legal, risk, compliance, e-discovery, financial crime, corporate governance and data privacy symposiums, speaking to the topic of localization and third party risk in Melbourne in 2017, and on the topic of international anti-corruption compliance as part of the white collar ethics and corporate legal topics stream in Sydney in 2016. Lily holds a LLB (Hons I) from The University of Sydney and a B.Sci (Hons)/B.Biomed.Sc from The University of Melbourne.

Victor Li is General Counsel at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles Australia, a subsidiary of the seventh largest automaker in the world, better known for its Jeep, Alfa Romeo and Maserati brands. He leads the legal function in the Australian business and is dedicated to establishing robust governance processes within the company. Prior to joining FCA, Victor commenced his legal career in private practice at Herbert Smith Freehills in 2004, specializing in intellectual property litigation. He then made the transition into in-house practice, joining Lion (one of Australia’s largest FMCG companies) in 2007, practising in a diverse range of areas from general commercial, mergers and acquisitions, intellectual property, and competition and consumer law. In 2014 he became Director of Legal and Governance at Northern Health, a large public health service in northern metro Melbourne. He holds a Bachelor of Laws (Hons) and Bachelor of Commerce (First Class Hons) degree from the University of Melbourne.

Claire Bibby is Senior Vice President & General Counsel for Brookfield. Claire’s strengths rest in overseeing a busy, multiple award winning, in-house legal team, working at strategic and operational levels for her circa 4,000 clients. Claire is a director of Luna Park, a non-executive director of Marist180, an Executive Member of the Association of Corporate Counsel, an Entrepreneur Ambassador for Opportunity International, a Commissioner on the NSW Law Society Futures Committee of Inquiry and a committee member of each of MS Angels, the Australian National Committee for UN Women and Soroptimist International of the South West Pacific. In 2016 Claire won the title of General Counsel of the Year, Female Executive of the Year in Asia, Australia, New Zealand (a silver Stevie Award), the Women in Law Excellence Award, was recognized on the ANZ General Counsel Powerlist and is repeatedly named in the Doyles Guide as a leading In-House Lawyer. This year she has won the title of Construction & Real Estate Lawyer of the year, with her team taking out the category award. Outside of the law Claire is a passionate philanthropist and public speaker on issues of diversity and inclusion, psychological wellness and women’s leadership.

Christopher Barry QC is a Barrister with over 30 years experience in legal practice and mediation. He was appointed QC at the age of 40 and is an Accredited Mediator. Christopher Barry QC is the youngest NSW Queens Counsel having been appointed to that rank at the age of 40. He has practiced in all jurisdictions but has a special interest in large and complex cases, commissions of inquiry and appeals. Having completed certification as a mediator under the system of National Accreditation Christopher Barry QC was accredited as a Court Appointed Mediator. He has been involved in several dozen mediations involving a range of disputes.

John Fitzgerald was appointed Company Secretary on 1 October 2015. In December 2007, John was appointed General Counsel and continues to hold that position in addition to his role as Company Secretary. John’s qualifications are a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Laws from the University of New South Wales and a Masters in Arts from the National University of Ireland (University College Dublin). John is admitted as a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of New South Wales and has been practising in projects, mining and energy law for over 20 years.

Simon Galbally has worked with Senetas for more than 10 years. As CMO, his responsibilities have included working closely with data security, cryptography and high-speed data networks experts including Senetas’s global distribution partner, Gemalto, the world’s largest data security company. This has necessitated Simon’s participation in cyber-security, technology and data connectivity use-cases among various commercial, professional and government industry verticals that are increasingly exposed to cyber-risks.

Senetas is an all-Australian developer and manufacturer of world-leading data connectivity cyber-security products – they provide high-assurance encryption security for data transmitted over networks. Senetas encryptors are use in 40 countries by secure organisations including US defence forces, government agencies and the world’s largest Cloud service providers.

Simon has authored a number of papers on critical cyber-security issues such as the attempts by the FBI and Interpol to have governments legislate mandating “backdoors” in high-assurance security products to enable law enforcement eavesdropping. Other topics include threats to critical national infrastructure (e.g. energy sector), threats to intellectual property, professional service providers and the health sector.

Having been been involved in a range of data connectivity cyber-security issues, Simon has strong insights into government security policy and regulations in Australia, Europe, UK and the US, and the threats to data transmitted across high-speed networks and the risks of data breaches. He is experienced in the issues affecting organisations’ exposure to cyber-risks, and how their data security strategies address them.

Today, there are very few organizations not maximizing their data connectivity through high-speed networks. All are exposed to multiple cyber-risks, from rapidly growing business technologies, such as Cloud/SaaS and data centre services, to critical infrastructure control systems, Big Data and CCTV security networks.

Maki Takken is a General Manager within the Legal, Governance & Regulatory Affairs team at Medibank Private Limited, managing a sub-team of around 10 lawyers who support Medibank’s Healthcare & Strategy division. Amongst other things, this division is responsible for managing Medibank’s benefit outlays and improving our customers’ experiences via contracts with a wide variety of healthcare professionals and hospitals, as well as delivering healthcare directly via various programs and service offerings. Maki’s previous experience includes line management within Medibank (running the online specialist practice, Anywhere Healthcare, prior to its sale to Telstra Health) and 15 years in private practice with Norton Rose Fulbright (formerly Deacons), primarily in the general commercial and corporate advisory area.

Alexandra Rose is an experienced commercial lawyer and company director. Alexandra’s current role is Senior Manager – Group Compliance & Regulatory Affairs at Insurance Australia Group. She was previously General Counsel at The Benevolent Society, a large not for profit organisation with over 1000 staff. She is a former director of The Law Society of NSW, LawCover. Justice Connect and Intech Credit Union. Alexandra is a member of the University of Technology Law Advisory Board and holds a Bachelor of Laws from UTS. Alexandra is a Fellow of Governance Institute of Australia and Member of Australian Institute of Company Directors.