Liz Nair is a seasoned business leader, speaker, facilitator, and entrepreneur renowned for her management and adult education expertise. Liz has gained recognition in several industry associations with her impressive organisational transformation track record.

As the Founder and Director of Attivo Consulting, Liz focuses on human behaviour. She specialises in empowering individuals and organisations to achieve their full potential through effective leadership, communication, social interaction, emotional regulation, mindset, and team-building strategies.

Liz is a highly qualified professional, holding degrees in Management, Adult Education, and Positive Psychology. She has completed certifications in Neuroscience for Business, Neuro Linguistics Practitioner, Whole Brain Thinking Practitioner, and Adesso Well-being Profiling Practitioner. Her unbridled passion for learning and professional development drives her to continually seek new and innovative approaches to help her clients succeed.

Jody Broun is an Yinjibarndi woman from the Pilbara in Western Australia, who has maintained strong connections to country, community and culture throughout her life. Jody is passionate about social justice, community led co-design, and making a difference through changing the way government does business with Aboriginal communities and stakeholders.

In February 2022, Jody was appointed Chief Executive Officer of the National Indigenous Australians Agency.

Previously Jody was Chief Executive of the Aboriginal Housing Office (AHO). Following the inclusion of the AHO in the Department of Planning, Industry and and Environment (DPIE), Jody then led work across the Department on Aboriginal Strategy, Our Place On Country, as Group Deputy Secretary Aboriginal Strategy and Outcomes.

Over the past 30 years Jody has held various senior positions in the government and not-for-profit sectors including: Executive Director Aboriginal Housing and Infrastructure in WA; Director of Equal Opportunity in Public Employment in WA; Director General Department of Aboriginal Affairs in NSW; and Co-Chair of the National Congress of Australia’s First People and Director of NSW and ACT for Australian Red Cross.

Jody has been responsible for delivering community and state wide policy and programs, developing and contributing to national policy reforms, and negotiating national and state government agreements. She has a breadth of experience across housing, health, education, justice, land and culture.

Justine Greig was appointed to the role of Deputy Secretary Defence People in June 2018.  This appointment was on promotion from the role of First Assistant Secretary People Policy and Culture in the Department of Defence.

As Deputy Secretary Defence People, Justine is responsible for people strategy, policy development and service delivery to support the 100,000 strong integrated Australian Defence Force and Defence Australian Public Service workforce.  This includes leadership of Defence’s overarching culture, mental health and wellbeing strategies, development and implementation of the Defence Strategic Workforce Plan, and stewardship of Work Health and Safety across the enterprise.

In June 2023, Justine was awarded a Public Service Medal for outstanding service to Defence and in senior policy roles.

In July 2023, in implementing the Defence Strategic Review, Justine joined together with the Chief of Personnel responsible for the ADF people system, to form a diarchy in leading the Defence People Group and workforce reforms. Most recently Justine was appointed an Executive Sponsor of the South Australian Defence Industry Workforce and Skills Group. 

Justine is also a member of the whole of Government Chief Operating Officer Committee, a council member of the Institute of Public Administration Australia and is a member of the Australian Human Resource Institute Public Sector Panel. Justine has had a long term professional interest in organisational culture, leadership development and workplace inclusion.

Justine’s qualifications include a Bachelor of Arts (Hons Psychology, ANU), a Master of Science (Occupational Psychology, University of London) and a Master of Arts (Strategic Studies, Deakin University). 

Tanya Koeneman is proud Dharawal, Jerrinjah and Wonnarua descendant, and a valued member of the Sydney Aboriginal community of La Perouse. 

The last 25 years of Tanya’s career had a primary focus in cultural heritage and strategic land use planning, including regulation, protection, conservation, and management. 

Tanya is currently an Assistant Secretary within the First Nations Partnership Division of the Commonwealth Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts. Leading a Branch of First Nations staff, Tanya encourages authentic conversations that result in improved relationships and collaborative engagement.

Tanya’s recent role as Director of Healthy Country within Department of Planning and Environment (DPE), celebrated the establishment and development of strategic approaches to increasing the use of cultural fire management by Aboriginal people across NSW as well as exploring opportunities for the establishment of a NSW Aboriginal Rangers program. Both bodies of work are designed to facilitate Aboriginal people to care for Country in a way that responds to cultural obligations and the needs of Country.

Prior to this, Tanya’s team delivered outcomes relating to strategic improvement across the planning and environment sectors, Indigenous cultural intellectual property, Aboriginal languages and dual naming and Aboriginal economic land reform. Work also included a monitoring and evaluation approach that demonstrates meaningful outcomes to key stakeholders and delivery partners. 

Tanya managed Aboriginal community land and infrastructure programs that developed planning tools, strategies and pathways that facilitated the rezoning, subdivision, and infrastructure upgrades to Aboriginal communities across New South Wales and enabled them to leverage greater economic, community and cultural use of Aboriginal land.

Tanya is passionate to see the development of a better cultural understanding and management approach which incorporates the knowledge, cultural authority, and stewardship of traditional owners with their involvement furthering their cultural, social, and economic aspirations as land owners and managers.

Callie Elward-Barrett, pronouns she/her, is a neurodivergent neurodiversity advocate!

Callie has acted in various Assistant Secretary positions at the Department of Health and Aged Care, and has led research, design, and development of multiple platforms, pathways, and communications for people who experience barriers in accessing health services.

Callie actively promotes and models inclusive work practices for neurodivergent staff. She educates on the role of leaders in creating practices that enable NDers to succeed, and harnessing the incredible strengths diverse approaches bring to delivering better Government policy and programs.

She has recently established and Chairs the Health Neurodiversity Community of Practice, is a founding member of the APS-wide Neurodiversity of Practice, and was an SES signatory on the inclusion of a Neurodiversity question in the APS Census. She is a firm believer that the APS should lead the way in inclusive work places.

Prior to working with Government, Callie worked in the Community Sector with both state and territory governments, and not for profit organisations. She started her professional life as a Police Officer in England and then in South Australia.

She has a successful podcast about adult ADHD and what it is like to get a late diagnosis, with all of the challenges it can bring.

Callie identifies as having lived experience with disability, and as the parent of a child with disability

Chancellor Australian National University
38th Foreign Minister of Australia

The Hon Julie Bishop is Chancellor of the Australian National University, appointed in 2020.

On 5 April 2024 the Secretary General of the United Nations announced that he had appointed Julie as his Special Envoy on Myanmar, effective from 26 May 2024.

Ms Bishop served as Australia’s Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2013 until 2018. She was the first female to hold the role as well as the first female Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party, serving for 11 years. She was the longest serving Member for Curtin in the House of Representatives, elected in 1998 until 2019.

As Foreign Minister, Ms Bishop was responsible for strengthening Australia’s key strategic and economic relationships and enhancing engagement with Pacific Island countries, including normalising relations with Fiji, leading international recovery and reconstruction efforts in Vanuatu and establishing a school of government in Papua New Guinea. With Ministerial responsibility for more than 5,000 departmental staff, 110 overseas missions, and several government agencies, including the Australian Secret Intelligence Service and the Australian Centre for International Agriculture Research.

She led the single largest expansion of Australia’s overseas diplomatic presence in 40 years, increasing to 110 diplomatic missions. Ms Bishop developed the 2017 Foreign Policy White Paper, providing a comprehensive policy framework for the next decade; and established the New Colombo Plan, enabling Australian undergraduates to live, study and work in the Indo-Pacific region. Within five years, more than 40,000 students have participated in the Plan.

Bringing her experience from the private sector, Ms Bishop established the innovationXchange within DFAT to develop bold and creative solutions to longstanding overseas development assistance challenges and overhaul Australia’s foreign aid focus.

Ms Bishop promoted Australia’s interests at the United Nations Security Council. In 2014, she led the international response to the downing of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 over Ukraine and was awarded the Commander of the Order of Merit of the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

For her contribution to the US-Australia alliance, in 2018, Ms Bishop received the inaugural Eleanor Roosevelt US Mission Award for Leadership Excellence.

She previously served as a Cabinet Minister in the Howard Government as Minister for Education, Science and Training and as the Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Women’s Issues. Prior to this, Minister Bishop was Minister for Ageing.

Before entering Parliament, Ms Bishop was a commercial litigation lawyer at Perth firm Clayton Utz, becoming a partner in 1985 and managing partner in 1994. Ms Bishop graduated with a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Adelaide in 1978 and attended Harvard Business School in Boston in 1996, completing the Advanced Management Program for Senior Managers.

In 2017, the University of Adelaide awarded Ms Bishop the Honorary Degree of Doctor of the University for her contribution to Australian parliamentary service, and in 2020 she was also awarded an honorary doctorate from ECU.

In 2020 Julie was awarded a Fisher Family Fellowship for the Future of Diplomacy Project at Harvard Kennedy School Belfer Centre for Science and International Affairs. In 2021 Julie was awarded the Kissinger Fellowship at the McCain Institute of International Leadership at Arizona State University.

In 2021, the UK Government appointed Julie to the G7 Gender Equality Advisory Council (GEAC). She is also a member of the Trilateral Commission Capitalism Task Force.

Julie was chosen by Mattel Australia as the 2021 Aus Shero Official Role Model as part of the Barbie Dream Gap Project for her inspiring career and iconic contribution as Australia’s first female Foreign Minister.

In 2022 Ms Bishop was awarded the Sir Edward “Weary” Dunlop AsiaLink Medal for her contribution to Australian diplomacy, women’s empowerment and Australia’s integration with the Indo-Pacific. In 2023 Julie has joined David Jones as an official Friend of the brand.

Julie is Chair of the Board of The King’s Trust Australia, Trustee of King’s Trust Group Company and Member of the International Advisory Board of Council on Foreign Relations.

She is also the Patron of Shooting Stars (an education programme for young aboriginal girls) and was an ambassador for Football Australia’s Legacy ’23 program in the lead up to the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023.

She has also established a boutique consultancy, Julie Bishop and Partners, offering strategic advisory services.

Ms Bishop has previously served as Chair of the WA Town Planning Appeal Tribunal, Director of SBS Media, Director of the West Coast Eagles AFL Club and on the Murdoch University Senate

Professor Michelle Ryan is a world-renowned gender equality expert, Professor of Social and Organisational Psychology, and the inaugural Director of GIWL. Her work centres on understanding the psychological processes underlying workplace gender inequality, and designing and implementing innovative and evidence-based interventions to increase gender equality.

With Alex Haslam, she uncovered the phenomenon of the glass cliff, whereby women (and members of other minority groups) are more likely to be placed in leadership positions that are risky or precarious. Research into the glass cliff was named by the New York Times as one of the top 100 ideas that shaped 2008, and in 2016 the term “the glass cliff” was shortlisted as Word of the Year by the Oxford English Dictionary.

Her extensive body of academic work covers a range of constraints on women’s careers such as the impact of COVID-19 on gender inequalities, how perceptions of equality can lead to gender bias, the motherhood penalty, sacrifice, risk taking, work-life compatibility, impostor syndrome, fatherhood and work, men’s support for gender equality, as well as quotas and affirmative action. Michelle also works closely with corporate, government, and professional organisations in both a research and a consultancy capacity to identify gender equality issues and design bespoke solutions.

Ms Copus Campbell has extensive experience working across the public, private, philanthropic and community sectors in Australia and the Indo Pacific. She has served as head of Australia’s bilateral aid programs with Papua New Guinea, Fiji and Tuvalu and head of Australia’s Pacific Regional programs. Ms Copus Campbell has worked in senior executive roles with CARE Australia and the Oil Search Foundation.

Stephanie is a founding Director on the Femili PNG Board (providing services to survivors of family and sexual violence) and the PNG City Pharmacy Ltd. Board. From 2018 to 2023 she was Chair of the Southern Highlands Provincial Health Authority Board (the third largest province in PNG).

Stephanie holds a Master of Philosophy from Cambridge University (UK) in international relations and a bachelor’s degree from the University of California in political science, where she graduated Summa Cum Laude. She is currently undertaking a Masters of Social Work through the University of Melbourne. She is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. She volunteers in palliative care at Clare Holland House Hospice and as a wildlife carer and rescuer for ACT Wildlife.

The Ambassador for Gender Equality is a lead advocate for Australia’s work on gender equality and the human rights of women and girls.

The Ambassador for Gender Equality engages in international advocacy, public diplomacy, and outreach in support of Australian Government policies and programs to:

• promote gender equality
• eradicate sexual and gender-based violence
• eliminate discrimination against women and girls, and persons of diverse gender identities
• ensure better educational and health (including sexual and reproductive maternal health) opportunities and outcomes for women and girls
• enhance the participation of women in decision-making and leadership
• implement the Women, Peace and Security agenda

On 20 December 2022, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Senator the Hon Penny Wong, appointed Stephanie Copus Campbell as the Ambassador for Gender Equality.

The Office of the Ambassador for Women and Girls was established by former Prime Minister Julia Gillard, former Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd and former Minister for the Status of Women Kate Ellis in September 2011. Ms Penny Williams was Australia’s first Ambassador for Women and Girls, followed by Ms Natasha Stott-Despoja (2013-2016) and Dr Sharman Stone (2017-2019). On 8 March 2020 the former Minister for Foreign Affairs and former Minister for Women, Senator the Hon Marise Payne, announced Ms Julie-Ann Guivarra as Ambassador for Gender Equality, Ms Guivarra left the position on 1 October 2021. Christine Clarke CSC served as Australia’s Ambassador for Women and Girls throughout 2022.

The creation of the Ambassador position reflects the Australian Government’s commitment to gender equality and women’s empowerment, including advancing the human rights of women and girls, particularly in the Indo-Pacific region.

Professor Marcia Langton AO, of the Yiman and Bidjara nations, is an Associate Provost and Foundation Chair of Australian Indigenous Studies at the University of Melbourne. An anthropologist and geographer, Professor Marcia Langton has produced a large body of knowledge in the areas of political and legal anthropology, and Aboriginal arts and culture. In 1993 she was made a member of the Order of Australia in recognition of her work in anthropology and the advocacy of Aboriginal rights. In 2016 Professor Langton was honoured as a University of Melbourne Redmond Barry Distinguished Professor. In further recognition as one of Australia’s most respected Indigenous Academics Professor Langton has in 2017 been appointed as the first Associate Provost at the University of Melbourne.

Rebecca is the former CEO of Services Australia and has a deep defence and national security background. She served as the Associate Secretary of Defence and Deputy Secretary for Strategic Policy and Intelligence. A long-term member of the Defence Committee, she has led Defence strategic policy, capability and technology investment, ministerial engagement and driven transformed governance, human resource management and integrated service delivery. Rebecca led Services Australia through the social security and health demands of the pandemic in the post Robodebt era, setting the organisation on its customer-centric cultural renewal. She is a resilient, people-focused leader experienced in operating under intense pressure through international and domestic crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic, natural disasters and defence operations. Rebecca was awarded a PSM in 2021 for outstanding public service in the areas of national security policy, intelligence, business transformation and service delivery.

Ms. Nicky Bell is the General Manager, Smart Centre Operations Division, with Services Australia. This sees her leading over 9000 staff across a national network of Smart Centres who provide critical services and support to the Australia community. Ms. Bell/Nicky started her career in the agency as a service officer on the front line, and harnesses her significant experience in service delivery and strong record of achievement to support Services Australia to efficiently deliver high-quality, accessible services and payments on behalf of the government.

Ms. Bell/Nicky is committed to increasing organisational capability by developing and harnessing diverse talent, which is evident in her contribution and ongoing work as the Agency’s LGBTI+ Senior Executive Ally. Ms. Bell/Nicky is passionate about creating workplaces that exemplify inclusiveness and celebrate diversity.

As Telstra’s Chief Information Security Officer Asia Pacific, Narelle is responsible for the company’s cyber security operations, intelligence, risk, governance, compliance, development, engagement, law enforcement liaison and physical security. Narelle balances these responsibilities with raising her nine year old daughter and five year old son (with help from her husband, Michael).

Narelle began her career as an officer in the Royal Australian Navy, eventually assuming the role of the Navy’s first Director Cyber Warfare. In 2016, Narelle left the Navy to pursue her next chapter in the public service and was appointed the Chief Information Security Officer for the Department of Human Services. In this role, she transformed the cyber organisation, building a new state of the art Cyber Security Operations Centre and uplifting the capability from 25 to 250 personnel.

Narelle holds a Bachelor of Arts in Information Systems and English, a Master of Science in Information Technology, a Master of Systems Engineering and is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. She is an Adjunct Professor at Deakin University, is a Fellow of the Australian Information Security Association and holds Director positions on the Boards of Telstra Australia Networks and Telstra International Networks.

Narelle was awarded a Conspicuous Service Medal on the 2016 Australia Day Honours List in recognition of meritorious achievement as the Deputy Director – Cyber (Maritime) in Joint Capability Coordination Division.