Global Speakers

Andrew Gissing is the Risk Frontiers Director Government Business and Enterprise Risk Management. Andrew has over 15 years emergency management experience, including in executive management positions.  He previously held the position of Deputy Chief Officer / Director Emergency Management and Communication with the Victoria State Emergency Service (VICSES) for four years. Before joining Risk Frontiers he was the Director Enterprise Risk Management at the Department of Family and Community Services.

At Risk Frontiers, Andrew has led engagements to assist Government agencies to better understand management practices in relation to catastrophic disasters, review disaster management plans, develop emergency risk management frameworks and improve community engagement practices.

Andrew holds Masters (Hons) of Science and Bachelors of Economics degrees, and is the author of some thirty journal and conference papers.

Catherine is Director of Media and Corporate Communications for the NSW Department of Finance, Services and Innovation. Her team covers media relations, public affairs, content creation, internal and corporate communications for a diverse range of agencies, including ICT and Digital Government, NSW Fair Trading, SafeWork, Office of State Revenue and NSW Procurement.

Catherine’s experience in corporate affairs spans state and federal government and the corporate and consulting sectors. Previously, she led award winning work, partnering with a range of clients dealing with regulatory, stakeholder and reputation challenges whilst at Ogilvy PR’s specialist public affairs consultancy. She has also worked at the NSW Department of Premier and Cabinet and as a Commonwealth ministerial adviser.

Catherine holds a Master of Arts (Global Media & Communications) from The University of Melbourne.

Luke Enright was appointed Head of Corporate Communications for the Jetstar Group in September 2014. Luke manages a team of media, internal communications and social media specialists for Jetstar’s airlines in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Japan and Vietnam.  He joined the Qantas Group in January 2011 and held a number of senior media roles before his current role with Jetstar. Prior to that he worked for the Office of the Premier in Victoria.

Founder and Managing Director of Gaia Coaching Group – a boutique communication management training and advisory firm – Jane is an international coach and adviser to executive management with a focus on strategic communication, reputation and risk mitigation. As a professional “devils’ advocate,” she takes a broader focus than say a legal and accounting adviser might.

A leader in the field of crisis media management, Jane has been at the forefront of crisis media training since the early nineties, when she co-founded the Australian-based Media Skills, which became the highly respected learning and development consultancy, The Jordan Templeman Group (The JT Group).

Her crisis experience spans twenty years and includes auditing crisis communication, facilitating desk top exercises and crisis communication planning and coaching.  She has been an adviser in numerous high-level crises in corporate Australia and North America. A strong strategist, Jane excels in high-stakes situations and has used her skills and experience to masterfully coach high-level clients in high-risk situations.

A former journalist with Australian Consolidated Press, Jane has vast and diverse media experience with both in-house communication roles and as a public relations consultant. Many of the programs she designed and implemented for her clients won prestigious awards from her peers in the public relations and communication industry.

Jane has a Masters in Communication Management from the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS), a Train the Trainer certificate from Macquarie University (Sydney) and has taught Organisational Communication at the leading Australian communication school, Charles Sturt University plus Strategic Communication at Masters level at UTS.

She is a frequent guest lecturer and speaker at conferences, workshops and seminars in Australia, New Zealand and North America. Her book, The Four Highly Effective Stages of Crisis Management: How to Manage the Media in the Digital Age was released to critical acclaim in May, 2011.

Julie Delaforce is General Manager of online community and social media management leader Quiip.

An insightful operator with close to a decade’s experience in the digital space, Julie is a specialist in social media and online community strategy, content, governance, communications, measurement, monitoring and analytics.

Julie has worked across a range of sectors including entertainment, government, health, Not-For-Profit, FMCG and financial services and has significant experience working with high-risk and regulated industries and organizations.

She has led community management accounts for Quiip clients including SEEK, BCNA, Cancer Council NSW, realestate.com.au, Cbus, Nuix, DDB, AMP Capital, ReachOut and Network TEN.

An engaging trainer, Julie has delivered training programs to social media and community managers for organizations including NSW Department of Family and Community Services (FaCS), NRMA, Coca-Cola Australia and 60 Minutes.

Prior to joining Quiip, Julie was Social Channels Manager at Westpac where she played a key role in Westpac’s ranking as the most engaged Australian financial services brand in 2012.

Stuart is a writer and journalist for 30 years, including two decades with Australia’s national newspaper The Australian and leading magazines including Good Weekend, published by the (rival) Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. Stuart is now working with humanitarian agency World Vision Australia and has high level connections across politics as well as deep roots in indigenous communities across Australia.

• Author of The Wailing – a National Black Oral History (William Heinemann), recommended by Aboriginal leader Patrick Dodson for inclusion in the Library of Alexandria
• Author of Ashes of Vietnam – Australian Voices (William Heinemann and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation), the first oral history of Australians in the Vietnam War

Also published in:

• The Best Australian Essays (Craven, Black Inc);
• The Best Ever Australian Sports Writing – A 200 Year Collection (Headon, Black Inc);
• The Best Australian Sports Writing (Hutchinson, Black Inc;
• Encyclopaedia Britannica
• The Saturday Paper

Anooshe is a first generation Australian of Pakistani origin. She spent her early years in Pakistan and in Libya on posting with her family. Since her arrival in Western Sydney, Anooshe has experienced first-hand the changing cultural landscape of Australia. Based on her own experience, Anooshe offers an insight into how multicultural Australia has changed over the last 30 years and a perspective on the religious and cultural drivers of Muslim
radicalization in Australia.

Anooshe is an accomplished public speaker and writer. She is a regular speaker at national security conferences on the topic of counter terrorism, building social cohesion, social media extremism, Islamic State’s recruitment strategies, countering violent extremism and Muslim youth radicalization.

Anooshe is Chair and founder of The Raqib Taskforce. The Raqib Taskforce is a Muslim-led, diverse organization that builds social inclusion through engagement across the Australian community in a manner designed to dispel extremist messages that exist within the public domain.

Anooshe’s research is based on Australian Muslim culture, integration of Muslim youth with mainstream Australian society, violent extremist ideology and Australian Government policies to combat violent extremism. She publishes regularly in The Australian, Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, Huffington Post, ABC News, Australian Security Magazine and Security Solution Magazine.

Anooshe is currently studying Masters of Terrorism and Security at Charles Sturt University. She is an Associate Member of the Australian Institute of Professional Intelligence Officers (AIPIO) and a Research Associate at the Australian Security Research Centre (ASRC).

Anooshe is also an advisor to Australian Government, Police, Google, YouTube and a consultant to charities and social welfare organizations working with vulnerable members of the Australian Muslim community.

A corporate reputation specialist of nearly 20 years, Peter has worked with a string of internationally revered brands across all sectors, including financial services, energy, healthcare, transport and technology. Peter affords clients a wealth of corporate communication know-how and experience from his board-level roles at the BBC and a number of globally recognized consultancies, in Australia and the UK.

Starting his career at the BBC, where he was appointed the Head of Communications for the corporation’s hugely respected News Division, Peter learnt the craft of developing effective integrated communications strategies, while handling a range of reputational issues and managing a growing team of publicists.

Peter left the  BBC after he was asked to join multinational agency, Hill & Knowlton Strategies as a Senior Director. His time there was spent working closely with a range of illustrious businesses, including Visa, P&G, GE and Intel.

Peter was  invited to run the Reputation Practice at the Bell Pottinger communications agency three years later, where he generated two years of solid growth, and was involved in a spate of high-profile crises, including significant litigation cases, major product recalls and aviation accidents.

Peter moved to Australia with his family and was quickly appointed the Head of Practice for the Corporate Communications practice at Weber Shandwick, supporting the likes of ANZ, MasterCard and Nespresso, before launching the Corporate Reputation Practice.

Peter also tutors students at the University of New South Wales, and University of Western Sydney. Furthermore, he is also a seasoned media and presentation trainer, having trained senior executives from the likes of Barclays, Intel, GE and Emirates. Peter has spoken publicly on a variety of topics and written articles on numerous aspects of reputation management.

For more than a decade Grant has led crisis communication programs around the world, working on projects including Australia’s largest ever pharmaceutical class action, workplace incidents resulting in major fatalities, and one of the world’s first truly global social media crises.

As the Head of Corporate Communications for Australia’s second-largest airport, Grant has a hands-on role in crisis and risk communication every single day. He is responsible for all external communication for the airport, and is frequently a spokesperson for issues of public interest.

Grant’s career includes roles in both in-house and consultancy environments, and he has worked on the ground in markets as diverse as Japan, India, Hungary, Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

Prior to joining Melbourne Airport, Grant was the Global Manager for Media and Communications at the Global Carbon Capture & Storage Institute, where he developed the global communications framework to support the Institute’s mission to accelerate deployment of carbon emissions reduction technology.

He is a previous General Manager of Edelman Public Relations in Melbourne, Chair of Edelman’s South-East Asia Crisis Practice, and Associate Director of H+K Strategies London. He remains a Director of Grant Smith Communications.

Mark was appointed a Constable of the NSW Police Force in July, 1986 and served as a Police Officer for just under 17 years. Mark commenced as the Assistant Manager Operations with the New South Wales State Emergency Service in January, 2006. He was appointed as the Director Special Operations, Assistant Commissioner with the NSW State Emergency Service on 1 September, 2010.

Throughout his period as a Senior Executive within the NSW SES Mark has fulfilled the position of Deputy Commissioner for some 3 years. This coincided with a period of significant review of the organization by a number of bodies including the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), NSW Public Service Commission and the Office of the Ombudsman.

Mark has significant experience as a Level 3 incident controller throughout various major state-wide operational events including the substantial flooding events throughout the 2011-12 financial years and the significant storms and floods which occurred in the Hunter Region of NSW throughout early 2015 along with every other major operational response by the NSW State Emergency Service over the past 10 years.

Dr. Collin Chua is the Program Convenor for the Master of PR & Advertising and the Master of Journalism & Communications at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. His research addresses questions about the role of the media in producing value, desire and sociality, in an era increasingly driven by connectivity and the digital economy. One of the specialist courses he teaches at UNSW is on the topic of Issues & Crisis
Communications.

Alistair J. Nicholas is Executive Vice President – Director, Special Projects at Powell Tate Australia. He has considerable crisis management experience covering Australia, the United States and China. Alistair’s career of more than 30 years includes senior positions in public affairs agency and in-house roles, in political advice, in government and diplomacy, and in journalism.

In his current role he advises corporations on issues and crisis management, corporate and public affairs, and government relations.

From 2000 until 2013 Alistair was based in Beijing, China, where he provided strategic advice to a range of companies including many Global Fortune 500 companies, and to the Chinese government and foreign government embassies and agencies on a range of public affairs, government relations and crisis management issues.

Before moving to China, Alistair was the Trade Commissioner at the Australian Embassy in Washington, DC, where he was responsible for promoting Australian business and trade interests to the World Bank and United Nations.

Earlier in his career Alistair worked as international trade policy and media advisor to Australia’s Federal Coalition. He has also been a research analyst at Australia’s leading free market think tank, the Centre for Independent Studies, and a journalist for The Australian, Pacific Defence Reporter and The Optimist.

Alistair currently acts as Honorary Media Counsel for the Australia-China Chamber of Commerce; he is a member of the Agriculture Committee of the Australia-China Business Council; and, he is a member of the private sector advisory board to Macquarie University’s China Business Research Network. He is a widely quoted media commentator on China business issues and he has written opinion articles for The Australian and The Australian Financial Review as well as regional publications.

Alistair holds a B.A. (Hons.) in Political Science from University of New South Wales and a Certificate in Executive Leadership from Cornell University.

Jacquelynne Willcox leads Australia’s multi award winning Corporate & Public Affairs firm, Powell Tate (a division of Weber Shandwick). Jacquelynne has considerable experience in the management of complex policy reform, influencing legislation, government relations, corporate profiling, litigation communications and crisis and issues management.

Jacquelynne is Deputy Chair of the board of Australia’s leading think tank, The Sydney Institute and is a trustee of CEDA, the Committee for Economic Development of Australia. Jacquelynne is a former television, radio and newspaper journalist. She has produced and directed television documentaries and is the author of two successful books.

Jacquelynne led the award-winning crisis and recovery campaign for Danone Nutricia during the Fonterra botulism scare (which was a multi market recall), and the subsequent and unrelated threat to poison all infant formula.

Mark Carrick is one of Australia’s most experienced counter-terrorism practitioners. He offers more than 20 years of law enforcement experience that includes crisis management and response, general policing, witness protection, close personal protection, crime management, change management, and ultimately counter-terrorism intelligence.

Mark delivers business resilience across organizations, leading multidisciplinary teams to deliver integrated crisis management, contingency planning, and business continuity. By combining the attributes acquired from years of countering terror, managing multiple, complex crisis situations, and practicing as a business consultant, he brings a unique skill set to the business world. The ability to apply the rigor of systematic, intelligence-led methodologies to contemporary business practices places Mark as a unique individual with a proven record for achieving excellent results in high-pressure environments where the consequences of failure can be catastrophic.

Mark Carrick has a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Sydney and is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD), which has a diverse membership of directors and senior leaders from across a wide range of industries in the commercial, private, nonprofit, and government sectors. He currently writes thought leadership articles for the ACID Center of Excellence and co-developed the new Crisis Management Course for board members, he also delivers Courses and webinars designed to prepare large organizations to respond to crisis situations across the broad spectrum of Crisis planning, preparing responding and recovery, including Crisis communications and utilizing social media for west effect.

Katherine Teh-White, founder and managing director of Futureye, is a leading expert on social licence to operate, sustainable development, and project approvals. Through her 25 years experience in corporations and as a consultant she has developed unique experience in transforming organizations to be more proactive. She has successfully created social license for projects including dealing with activism and complex issues such as agriculture, climate change, mining and construction. She is a former journalist and government relations/ public policy manager in a resources company.

Neil is a special Counsel in HWL Ebsworth’s national Litigation Group. Working on a variety of litigious matters, he specializes in resolving disputes where there is potential for significant financial and reputational loss for clients in the media, health, FMCG and transportation industries. His technical experience spans commercial litigation, equity, defamation & media disputes and trade mark and copyright infringements. Neil also has extensive experience in acting for clients seeking to obtain urgent injunctive relief in the Supreme Court and Federal Court to either avoid or minimize reputational and financial harm from occurring or to prevent the distribution of unlawfully obtained assets.

Jamie is a social media strategist and digital media manager with more than 15 years’ experience. He has created social media engagement strategies for ASX-listed companies and junior mining firms, and runs one of Western Australia’s first boardroom-level social media training seminars. He has presented to the AICD on governance and social media issues, and lectures on digital and social crisis response. Jamie is a super-user of key social media listening tools like Hootsuite, Radian 6 and NUVI. His experience in social media monitoring and engagement spans a range of high-profile campaigns, including the highly regarded, multi-award-winning #heartofgold campaign on behalf of the gold mining industry in Western Australia. He has advised and trained organizations in traditional and social media policy including the Western Australian Government’s land and property development agency LandCorp, BHP Billiton Petroleum and one of the biggest consumer brands in Australia, Thermomix. Jamie is regularly published in regarding social media best practice and digital trends and is a founding member of the Social Media Society.”

Mia manages policy for Facebook in Australia and New Zealand and works with government, child safety and other stakeholders to promote greater awareness about Facebook’s policies and products.

Prior to joining Facebook, Mia was the Assistant Secretary for Digital Economy and Convergence Strategy at the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy during which time she served on the Government 2.0 Taskforce, which advised the Government on how best to engage on social media and adopt a more open data policy. Mia joined the Department after working in Silicon Valley as the Product Counsel for YouTube and, prior to this, the General Counsel for the non-profit Creative Commons. She has a Bachelor of Arts and Law from the University of New South Wales and a Masters of Law from Stanford University.