Global Speakers

Gordon Falconer is currently Director of Smart Cities for Schneider Electric Singapore. He was formerly Director of Urban Innovation at Cisco. He is a smart city expert, city consultant, global thought leader in city / property / infrastructure development, technology clusters, city developer and chartered surveyor.

Gordon was formerly Head of Strategy and Real Estate for Masdar City, one of the world’s most innovative greenfield and sustainable city projects in Abu Dhabi. During the time, he was heavily involved with strategies for both sustainable real estate and sustainable utility integration in the areas of clean energy, water, infrastructure, Information and Communications Technology (ICT), and ICT financing.

Ben Chung has various experiences in ICT industry – including Research & Development, Technical Support, Consulting, Architecture, Product / Service / Solution Sales, Project / Program Management, Operation, Management and Leadership with several years of hands-on industrial experiences / exposure in technical, business & leadership areas.

Ben is a prominent speaker in the area of Innovation, Digital Transformation, Smart City and IoT in Asia.

Michelle Fitzgerald is City of Melbourne’s first ever Chief Digital Officer (the first position of its kind for Victorian Local Government), managing the newly-formed Smart City Office. In this role, she works to attract start-up investment, drive the take up of digital, agile development and open data across customer services for City of Melbourne.

Michelle plays a chief role in leading the shift in infrastructure management towards smart city modelling and collaborating with Melbourne’s research and higher education sectors to build the city’s education capabilities and reputation as a knowledge hub.

Michelle was previously a Partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers Australia, taking charge of the Digital, Data and Customer Consulting portfolio. She is also a Non-Executive Director for Standards Australia, helming key advisory role on digital disruption.

Paul Pisasale has served as the Mayor of the City of Ipswich since 2004.

Under Paul’s leadership, Ipswich is the fastest growing region in Queensland and one of the fastest growth regions in the country. At the same time, Paul has made job creation and community care his number one priorities. Ipswich has received numerous awards and nominations in no small part due to Paul’s vision and leadership – Nominated as Top 7 Intelligent Communities in 2015 (the very first year an Australian city was nominated and named in the Top 7 Intelligent Communities in the World); nominated as a finalist for the Intelligent Community Forum’s Worldwide Smart21 Award in 2011, 2012, 2015 and 2016.

Peter Seamer is the CEO of the Victorian Planning Authority (VPA). As CEO, Peter oversees the VPA’s planning and infrastructure coordination activities to ensure Victoria has a strong supply of quality housing and job precincts, to keep pace with our thriving population.

With a professional career starting in planning new towns in the United Kingdom and Australia, much of Peter’s career has been in Local Government and leading a number of cities in the capacity of CEO, including City of Essendon, City of Greater Bendigo, City of Whitehorse, and the City of Sydney.

Peter has a background in engineering, planning and management, with a Master of Engineering Science in Transport Planning and a Master of Urban Planning, from Melbourne University. Peter is also a Fellow of Planning Institute of Australia, Victorian Planning and Environmental Law Association and Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Sendur Kathir is the Chief Information Officer at Public Transport Victoria, a statutory authority within the Department of Economic Development, Jobs, Transport and Resources. It is responsible for trains, trams and buses in Victoria.

Sendur’s responsibilities include leadership in technology, information management and business improvement and implementation of robust information platform and investment in digital and traditional channels for information dissemination. Prior to his current appointment, Sendur served as the Chief Information Officer and Executive Director of Digital at the University of Melbourne. He has also been recognized as the Higher Education CIO of the Year by IT News in February 2015.

Brook Dixon is a senior executive of the ACT Government, leading the government’s regulatory reform, smart city, transport improvement, and digital service innovation agendas.

Brook is also a 2015 Churchill Fellow, studying the drivers of digital transformation in leading global cities. As part of this study, Brook has visited cities in Asia, Europe and the Americas in 2016.

Brook is an experienced leader, strategic planner, digital city exponent, public administrator, economist, and policy analyst. He has a passion for public service, innovation and leadership.

Ric Clarke is the Director of Emerging Data and Methods woth Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). He joined ABS as a technologist in 2008, after a career of more than 15 years with the Defence Signals Directorate (DSD) spanning communications analysis, systems development, project management and strategic planning. Originally a theoretical physicist, Ric has postgraduate qualifications in Computer Science.

In his current role, Ric leads a multidisciplinary team in the delivery of innovative prototype solutions for official statistics. This work includes the investigation of new methods and technologies for exploiting complex digital information from diverse sources, such as survey and administrative collections, transactional data and sensor measurements.

Amy Brown is an industry expert in complex government infrastructures and services projects, providing commercial, contractual and strategic advice to ensure optimal outcomes for Government, its customers and the sector. Prior to joining PwC, Amy was Director of the Infrastructure and Structured Finance Unit of NSW Treasury.

Amy has been involved in more than 20 projects in recent years, including driving the successful financial closure of the most recent wave of projects in NSW – including the Northern Beaches Hospital Project, North West Rail Link Project, Sydney Light Rail Project, NSW Health Helicopter Retrieval Network and the Darling Harbour Live Project. She also led the development of the new suite of NSW government project documents (to be released in conjunction with the revised NSW PPP Guidelines) which have an emphasis on partnership, outcomes, optimal risk allocation and streamlined contractual mechanisms.

Peter Newman is the Professor of Sustainability at Curtin University in Perth, Australia. Peter has written 16 books and over 300 papers on sustainable cities. His books include ‘The End of Automobile Dependence’ (2015), ‘Green Urbanism in Asia’ (2013) and ‘Sustainability and Cities: Overcoming Automobile Dependence’ which was launched in the White House in 1999.

In 2014, Peter was awarded an Order of Australia for his contributions to urban design and sustainable transport, in particular for his contribution to saving and rebuilding of Perth’s rail system. In 2011, Peter was awarded the Sidney Luker Medal by the Planning Institute of Australia for his contribution to the science and practice of town planning in Australia.

He is a Fellow of the Academy of Technological and Engineering Sciences Australia. Peter has worked in local government as an Elected Councillor of City of Fremantle, in state government as an Advisor to three Premiers and in the Australian Government on the Board of Infrastructure Australia. The Prime Minister of Australia recently referred to Peter as his ‘tutor’ on smart cities.

Catherine Caruana-McManus is a global expert in smart cities and digital transformation.

Recently, Catherine was recognized by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s Knowledge Nation initiative as one of Australia’s leading thinkers and innovators in big data and smart cities.

Catherine is the Founder of Giant Ideas, which provides IoT and smart city advisory, and Director of an Australian based IoT integration company, Meshed. Catherine is also Board Member of Hypercat Australia and Chairperson of the IoT Alliance Australia Smart Cities and Industry Engagement Work Stream.

Catherine’s former roles include Smart Industry and Smart City Director with IBM, Director of MC2 Consulting. Catherine has a background in urban planning, economics and finance.

Kane Thornton is Chief Executive of the Clean Energy Council, the peak body for the renewable energy industry in Australia.

Kane has more than a decade’s experience in energy policy and leadership in the renewable energy industry. Kane has advocated for and helped design the policies that have been critical to the renewable energy industry’s growth. His previous roles include Executive Officer of Renewable Energy Generators Australia and Senior Manager and Advisor for Hydro Tasmania. He has held a range of advisory and board roles with government and non-government organisations in the climate change and energy sector, and is a Non-Executive Director of Sustainability Victoria.

Kane is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, has a Masters in Social Science and Bachelor of Information Technology.

As the first appointed CEO of AISA, Arno Brok is committed to delivering value to its members, the community, and the information security industry. Arno was a former AISA Board executive and held the position of AISA National Director from 2013 – 2015.

Arno is vital in defining the strategy for AISA to advance from an association purely for information security professionals to one where all individuals, businesses and governments are educated in the risks and dangers of cyber-attack and data theft. Arno also set up AISA’s first Advisory Council that made recommendations to AISA’s Board of Directors.

Michael Comninos is the acting Executive Director for Infrastructure and Analytics at the Greater Sydney Commission, a statutory agency that provides specialist advice to the NSW Government on planning and development in Sydney. Michael is responsible for the Commission’s digital assets and provides strategic advice on the co-ordination of infrastructure planning across Sydney.

Previously Michael was the Director for Infrastructure Planning and Co-ordination with the NSW Government, where he was also a contributing author to the 2014 State Infrastructure Strategy Update. Michael’s expertise is amassed from his years of experience in public service covering portfolio spanning transport, planning, treasury and housing in the capacity of Director, Project Management and Co-ordination with NSW Department of Planning and Policy Adviser with NSW Department of Premier and Cabinet.

Yahya Khaled is a Spectrum Engineer with ATDI, software solution company headquartered in France, who is passionate about IoT, home automation and software defined radios.

Yahya has extensive experience with 4G and SRD modeling and simulations.

David Harris is a Senior Field Application Engineer – Enterprise South Pacific with CommScope.

David comes with over 30 years of experience in communications infrastructure and is responsible for driving consistent and high-quality technical support for enterprise customers. David oversees all technical support for the region, including quality control, site audits and certification.

Some of the high profile projects David has worked on include Western Australia’s new hospital’s integrated structured cabling system, data center designs for major financial, gaming and corporate organizations as well as large natural gas plants.

Julian Szafraniec is Principal and Partner at SGS Economic and Planning.

Julian specializes in urban economics and has extensive experience applying economic theories and models to urban and regional issues across Australia and internationally. He has provided advisory to all tiers of government and the private sector, contributing to better policies and investment decisions around the dynamics of housing, transport, community infrastructure, retail and the general economy.

Drawing on data and economic models, Julian has worked with education agencies and local governments across Australia to better understand how to provide sufficient social and community infrastructure to a rapidly growing population. In particular, the work has focused on the pressing challenges of providing infrastructure in established areas.

Andrew McDougall is the Principal and Partner of SGS Economics & Planning, a firm dedicated to shaping policy and investment decisions to achieve sustainable places, communities and economies. Andrew leads a wide array of consultancy based projects including business cases and economic assessments of infrastructure proposals, as well as formal reviews of infrastructure and service delivery programs.

Andrew has completed consultancy projects for all tiers of government, across all of Australia’s states and territories, as well as for the private and not for profit sectors. Andrew has also successfully delivered projects in New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Oman, and Malaysia.

Andrew has worked extensively with social infrastructure stakeholders (education, cultural, recreational, community) for more than a decade to ensure appropriate planning, analysis and funding are leveraged to optimize infrastructure provision. He has also led numerous economic assessments of integrated urban development plans, including testing the costs and benefits generated by whole of region plans (e.g. Lower Hunter Housing Strategy), and specific urban renewal projects (e.g. E-Gate, Green Square, Tonsley).

Andrew brings along broad appreciation of infrastructure funding, financing and value capture mechanisms, and how these might be appropriately conceptualized and applied in metropolitan regions.

Terry Rawnsley is a renowned economist who provides advice to all tiers of government, not for profit organisations and the private sector.

Terry is the National Leader at SGS for Economic and Social Analysis. He is Australia’s leading thinker on the link between the urban productivity and the macroeconomy and is a regular media commentator on the functioning of our cities and regions.

He is a prolific writer, producing regular research papers and contributing to academic debate across a broad range of topics. Terry was co-author to a chapter in the book ‘Australia’s Unintended Cities’ looking at the link between urban structure and productivity. His experience also includes public policy development, economic modelling, examining social exclusion, strategy development, detailed economic appraisal and statistical analysis. Terry’s advice is highly sought after for economic development, land use and transport strategies and individual infrastructure projects.

Frank Tudor has held various executive management roles over the last 25 years in the European, Asian and Australian oil, gas and power industries with BP, Woodside and most recently Horizon Power.

Frank lectures part-time in oil and gas economics and law at the University of Western Australia for over 10 years. Frank is also the Vice Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s (CCI) Energy and Resources Forum. He was the National Chairman of the Australian China Business Council from 2008 – 2013 and is currently Board Member of the Federal Government’s Australia China Council and Member of the ANU China in the World Advisory Board.

David has a real passion to create great places for people. Director and Principal of David Lock Associates Australia, he has over 25 years experience in the planning and design industry. David specializes in bringing together teams and managing industry leaders to deliver outstanding outcomes in urban development, town planning and urban design. David has worked on significant projects nationally and internationally for state and local governments, as well as the private sector.

David is driven to produce great planning and urban design outcomes, education and training. He regularly presents at conferences both in Australia and Asia and teaches at universities and for the Planning Institute of Australia.

Philip Edney has over 25 years of experience in public libraries and he is passionate about engaging the community, enhancing learning and improving service delivery.

Stephanie Kelly currently leads cultural and economic development and place management for the City of Canada Bay. Her prior experience include public affairs, communications and community relations programs in Australia, United Kingdom and European Union. She sees opportunities for changes and innovation in everything.