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.

Jo Evans is Deputy Secretary at the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water. Ms Evans is responsible for domestic climate change policy, low emissions technology and international engagement on climate policies. Ms Evans is also responsible for portfolio bodies related to clean energy: the Clean Energy Regulator, the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), the Clean Energy Finance Corporation and the Climate Change Authority.

Ms Evans has worked in several different portfolios in policy, program and corporate roles. Prior to joining the APS in 2000, Ms Evans worked for management consultants McKinsey & Company. 

Ms Evans has a Masters of Public Policy from the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, a Masters in Environmental Science from the University of Melbourne and a combined bachelor degree in Asian studies and economics (honours) from the Australian National University. 

Ms Evans was awarded a PSM in June 2022 for her work on climate change.

Donna Purcell is a Disability Advocate and a specialist in developing and leading change for the greater inclusion of people with disability in Australia.

Donna joined the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) as The Participant Advocate and as Branch Manager Participant Advocacy in March 2021.  Donna is also the NDIA Agency Disability Champion, representing the NDIA on the Australian Public Service (APS) Disability Champion Network.

Donna’s previous role was within Customer and Community Advocacy at Commonwealth Bank, where she specialised in accessibility and inclusion for customers and employees with disability and where she led the Enable Disability Employee Network. In 2020, Donna was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to undertake overseas study, researching successful international disability employment programs and initiatives to introduce into Australia.

She has recently completed the fellowship and had her Report published, now available on the Churchill Memorial Trust website. Donna is a certified Access Consultant through the Institute of Access Training Australia. Donna is a current Director on the Australian Network on Disability Board and a former Board Director with the Northcott Society, Sydney-based community radio station 2RPH and the NSW Centre for Volunteering.

Donna is passionate about creating accessible and inclusive communities where people are supported to be their best.

Gina Cass-Gottlieb commenced her 5-year appointment as Chair of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commissioner (ACCC) on 21 March 2022.

Before she joined the ACCC Gina was a senior and founding partner of Gilbert and Tobin’s competition and regulation team. Gina has over 25 years’ experience advising on a large number of merger, competition and regulatory matters in Australia and New Zealand. She is widely recognised as one of Australia’s leading competition and regulatory experts.

Gina was appointed by the Commonwealth Treasurer to the Reserve Bank of Australia’s Payments System Board in 2013 and re-appointed in 2018. The Payments System Board is the regulator of access to payment systems. Gina was appointed to the Financial Regulator Assessment Authority in September 2021.

Gina chairs the Digital Platforms and Financial Services Inquiry Boards, and is a member of the ACCC’s Communications, Consumer Data Right, Enforcement, Infrastructure, and Mergers Review Committees and Child Care Inquiry, Electricity Markets Inquiry and East Coast Gas Market Boards.

Gina holds Bachelor of Economics and Laws degrees from the University of Sydney. Gina was a Fulbright Scholar at UC Berkeley from 1986 to 1987, obtaining a Master of Laws degree, majoring in US competition law, comparative constitutional law, financial institutions regulation and securities regulation.

Gina is the first female Chair of the ACCC, which was established as an independent statutory authority in 1995.

David Mackay is the Deputy Secretary for Regional, Cities, and Territories in the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts, after serving as First Assistant Secretary of Infrastructure Investment Division, and, earlier, of Cities Division. Before joining the Department, David held division and branch head roles across the Australian public sector, in the Attorney-General’s Department, the Department of Finance (where he was responsible for Budget coordination and policy), and the Department of Health (in health system and funding reform, and in youth mental health and suicide prevention). 

 Between 2015 and 2017, David accompanied his wife on a DFAT posting to New Zealand. While there, he joined the New Zealand Treasury, and led the division responsible for growth and public services. In this role, he was also a member of the New Zealand Cabinet’s Officials Committee on Economic Growth and Infrastructure. On returning to Australia, David served as a member of the leadership team in McKinsey & Company’s public sector practice.

 David is a graduate of the University of Sydney and Monash University, and is an alumnus of the Australia and New Zealand School of Government’s Executive Fellows Program.

Izzy holds a Masters degree in International Relations from the Australian National University, where she wrote on international ethics and value regimes through an intersectional lens. She became a co-chair of the Department of Social Services’ Pride Committee and Network with a focus on institutional sustainability, local engagement and cultural self-awareness. When she isn’t advocating for LGBTQIA+ people as a Pride co-chair, she advises on policy development regarding participation and economic inclusion. After work, Izzy enjoys a relaxed homemade cocktail with her wife, or a tabletop roleplaying game with her queer found-family.

Kat (they/them/theirs) has been a local queer and disability advocate & community builder in the ACT for the last eight years. They are currently the CEO of Women With Disabilities ACT and a Board Director of Women With Disabilities Australia and of Youth Coalition of the ACT. Kat was recently awarded 2021 Young Canberra Citizen of the Year and one of Out for Australia’s 30 Under 30 for 2021.

Their activism and community building work spans many different intersections. Since the age of 17, they have advocated for the rights of people of colour, queer youth, trans and non-binary people and people with disabilities. They’ve held positions of leadership in both local and national organisations including the ANU Students’ Association and led the Australian Queer Students’ Network as the National Co-Convenor. Kat was a Council member on the ACT LGBTIQ+ Ministerial Advisory Council and advised on issues affecting queer youth from 2015-2018.

Kat is also a political performance artist and through their arts persona they recently finished work on Australia’s very first all trans and gender diverse original musical titled Lost in Transit with a cast of six local trans and gender diverse artists.

My passion is working alongside our communities in empowering Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people to create their own destiny, to provide those opportunities to give us the best chance to be the very best we can with whatever we choose to do. Aboriginal education and training has been my main field along with effective and balanced leadership in building capability with Aboriginal people as well as building understanding and capacity with non-Aboriginal people to recognise their potential in the ‘bigger picture’.

Anna is an international development and policy adviser specialising in climate change, strategic, social and economic policy, and inclusive development. She is passionate about leveraging programs and public decision-making processes to reduce systemic inequalities and make a tangible difference in peoples’ daily lives. Anna has over ten years of experience working in policy, development, advocacy and human rights for the federal government and in the not-for-profit sector, and is an experienced strategy consultant and facilitator.

Anna is a proud culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) woman and is passionate about supporting and creating opportunities for young people with diverse backgrounds, especially women, to embrace their leadership potential. In 2022 and 2023, Anna helped establish and then led the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet’s (PM&C) Cultural Diversity Taskforce, which resulted in the department’s Executive Board agreeing to introduce the target of achieving 20% CALD-identifying staff at the Senior Executive Service (SES) and Senior Adviser (EL2) levels by 2029. Anna was awarded a Secretary’s Excellence Award in December 2022 for her leadership of the PM&C CALD Network. 

Anna is delighted to support causes she believes in, and regularly speaks at events related to women in leadership, international development and promoting cultural and linguistic diversity. Most recently she was an Expert Speaker at the Attorney-General Department’s Pacific Legal Policy Development Course (April 2023), a Panellist at the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet’s Harmony Day Event (March 2023), and a Panellist with the Economics Student Society of Australia (September 2021).

From September 2023 to August 2024, Anna will be undertaking a Master of Development Studies at Cambridge University in the UK. Anna was awarded a full scholarship from the Ramsay Centre to pursue this degree, and will be writing her dissertation on how to better integrate climate change considerations into Australia’s aid program.

Anna also holds a Master of International Human Rights Law (LLM) from the University of New South Wales, a Bachelor of Arts majoring in Philosophy (BA) from the University of Sydney, and a Bachelor of Music (BMus) from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.

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.