Dr Ruwangi Fernando is an accomplished IT expert and AI specialist with a strong academic, industry and consulting background. Dr Fernando completed her PhD at Victoria University in collaboration with Data61, CSIRO and the Department of Transport in Victoria. She chairs the Diversity and Inclusion Committee of the Australian Computer Society Victoria.

Dr. Fernando has a strong history of advocating for gender equity in STEM, especially addressing the intersectional challenges faced by Women of Colour (WOC) in STEM. She was recognised for her efforts and awarded a STEM Women Changemaker by the Australian Academy of Science and the Melbourne Asian Game Changer award by Asia Society.

Dr Fernando founded STEM Sisters, a pioneer organisation that empowers STEM women of colour. She spearheads six award-winning programs to break down systemic barriers and promote equal access to opportunities in STEM for WOC. Under her leadership, STEM Sisters won many awards, including the Techdiversity Business (2023) and Media (2023) Awards, the Victorian International Education Excellence Award 2022, the Multicultural Excellence Award 2022 and the WISE grant from the Department of Industry, Science and Resources.

She is also the founder of iSTEM Co., a research, consulting and talent-sourcing company that enables employment for women in STEM, including WOC and CALD. iSTEM Co. was nominated as a finalist for the Women in Digital awards and has recently launched DEIR, a recruitment-tech platform that eliminates recruitment bias for women in STEM. DEIR has also received recognition in STEM and won the Lift Women Social Impact Award.

Sarah Chapman is the Founder of STEM Changemakers, with twenty years experience as a secondary science educator and Head of Department. She is also the Founder of the Townsville STEM Hub, Co-Chair of Women in STEMM Australia and a Board Member of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute. She is passionate about inspiring, engaging and empowering people through STEM. Sarah commits extensive portions of her own time lifting the profile of STEM education, by working with students, teachers and the broader community. 

In 2019, Sarah was awarded a Commonwealth Bank of Australia Teaching Award Fellowship. In 2018, Sarah was selected as one of ten national STEM Ambassadors by Science and Technology Australia, and was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute. She was awarded a Barbara Cail STEM Fellowship in 2016, which involved international travel to research best practice in engaging young people into STEM. Sarah was awarded the prestigious Prime Minister’s Secondary Science Teaching Prize for Excellence in Science Teaching in 2013. In 2014 she was selected as a Queensland Government Science Champion. Sarah’s work has also been recognised with a prestigious Peter Doherty, Outstanding Teacher of Science Award in 2008 (Queensland Government) and an Australian Award for Teaching Excellence in 2009 (Teaching Australia).  

Sarah is an inspirational keynote speaker and workshop presenter at local, state, national and international STEM events. She is also regularly consulted by a range of institutions for the advice around vision and direction of STEM engagement and education.

Sue is Executive Group Director of Sustainability for Worley, a key role supporting the realisation of Worley’s purpose: Delivering a more sustainable world.  

Sue is a purpose-driven leader with a passion for making a difference using her deep domain expertise honed over 25 years working on the sustainability issues in the energy, chemicals, and resources industries globally.  

Sue leads a corporate sustainability team that influences, challenges, and empowers the business to define and demonstrate sustainability leadership, creating value for industry, customers, employees, shareholders, and communities.   

Sue and her team drive initiatives that enhance Worley’s sustainability thinking and action, including the flagship From Ambition to Reality series with Princeton University’s Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment, and programs that focus on building strong sustainability culture and performance via appropriate governance and the engagement and activation of Worley people.   

At Worley Sue has led Worley’s Corporate Affairs function, an Environment and Society business unit, and held senior advisory consulting roles. Prior to joining Worley in 2012, Sue led sustainability teams for bp and AGL.

Sue is on the board of the Business Council for Sustainable Development Australia, a member of the advisory board of the Curtin University Institute for Energy Transition, a member of the Princeton University E-ffiliates Advisory Committee and an Executive Sponsor of Worley’s Pride people network group.

Sue holds an Honors degree in Chemical Engineering, a Bachelor of Science, as well as a Graduate Certificate in Environmental Management and Development (Climate Change).

Marianne has been at ANSTO since August 2018 and has overseen the Information Digital Services (IDS) group during this time. She has a wealth of experience in both domestic and international settings, having had senior roles in commerce and at universities. Marianne’s appointment highlights ANSTO’s focus to continue upon the path of digital transformation and developing solutions for the future.

Marianne has previously worked in commerce and education at senior levels for the likes of Smith & Nephew, Macquarie University, Cochlear, GE Healthcare (Domestic and International), MBF, St George / Advance Bank and James Hardie.  She has experience in IT operations, program governance and delivery, vendor management, digital transformation, Global SAP ERP implementations, IT strategy / process improvement and digitisation, has used the ITIL framework, IT Security and has lead significant change management projects.

Claire is a dynamic and driven leader with over 25 years of corporate experience across business and technology, in large and global enterprises, consulting and small business.  An authentic leader who is passionate about helping organizations apply digital technologies and ways of working at scale to transform their business. She has worked across a diverse range industries segments; Resources, Financial Services, FMCG, Retail, Transport and Logistics.  She is currently at Amazon Web Services leading the Customer Solutions team across Australia and New Zealand and Co-Leads the Women @Amazon affinity group across ANZ

Lucy McClean is a passionate leader and advocate in the resources industry. First starting in the industry over 25 years ago, Lucy was a pioneer of ESG, and now industry leader, with extensive experience in environment, community, and governance as well as in industry advocacy. She was recently recognised internationally as one of the ‘100 Global Inspirational Women in Mining’ and in 2023 named as Inclusion and Diversity Champion in State and National awards. 

Roshmeen is a passionate Internal Medicine and Public Health Physician with a career spanning across clinical practice with a settings approach from primary care to Aged Care. Her medical training, public health background and epidemiology expertise has led to delivery of multiple successful national programs addressing best clinical practice guidelines and sustainable quality care for Veterans and the elderly. Furthermore, design and evaluation of clinical audits focusing on Quality-of-care standards in General practice and aged care facilities place her in good standing as an evidence expert in health care settings.

Roshmeen has held pivotal clinical governance roles in the delivery of national chronic disease management, health coaching and online health risk assessment programs as well as successfully led the clinical design of the Medibank Private e health book and Home care for the elderly. She has had an integral role in developing national evidence based training for nurses, pharmacists, doctors and the health consumer and extensive expertise in digital health frameworks. She is a member of key National clinical advisory groups. Furthermore, she has extensive clinical expertise in evidence based medicine and is  highly skilled in applying high level clinical evidence in the analysis of the medico-legal aspects of Life Insurance.

Roshmeen is a skilled clinician who seeks to provide the best possible outcome for patients and insurance clients within the context of risk management.

Nadene Serman is a leading IT executive with a proven track record spearheading first-of-its-kind technology and business transformation for some of the most prominent organisations globally and in Australia. As the Global Chief Technology Officer, she is a key protagonist of innovation as an enabler of InfoTrack’s next stage growth. Her energy, commercial acuity and strategic capability have fueled her success.

Nadene leads with clarity, transparency and urgency, uniting people in complex, multi-layered technology and business execution, and go-to-market transformation and innovation. She tackles and resolves complex and seemingly intractable challenges while building support and collaboration – even in times of crisis.

Nadene is a passionate innovator, pioneering technologist, and a well-respected transformational leader. Her people-first, core-collaboration and ‘think straight, talk straight’ approach makes her a formidable force.

A Sustainability strategist, change manager, thought leader and intrapreneur for all things ESG (Environment, Social and Governance) in the Supply Chain. Rina is a natural but reluctant leader who started corporate life at EDS (HP) London in 2004 with almost 2 decades in Procurement, sourcing outsourced Business Processes, Technology and Innovation predominately in the Finance and Technology sector. Exposure to multiple organisational structures (centre led, distributed, centralised, hybrid) means Rina sees the interplay between the business and procurement and supplier management as critical in creating value. Dedicated to paying to forward Rina mentors and coaches others to increase their impact and effectiveness to bring significant commercial value to the organisation in a way that will quite simply change the change the world. 

Rina’s leadership style is reflective of her first leader and mentor, Lorna Jard, whose voice inspires her to think critically and advocate for education for her people. With education, comes a better job, a bigger impact, and financial stability leading to less compromise in my quality of life. Education also ensures that Rina has something of substance to give back to her country and community. Rina’s bloodline is Kamilaroi / Gamilaraay.

Rowenna Walker is the Managing Director for NSW and ACT for an international design, engineering and advisory company called Aurecon. As a member of Aurecon’s Australian Executive Leadership Team, she is responsible for the leadership and performance of the New South Wales & ACT business including health & safety, client engagement, staff engagement, project and financial performance.

Qualified as a Chartered Civil Engineer with 30 years of international experience in the engineering industry across a diversity of geographies including Australia, New Zealand, the UK and Hong Kong. Rowenna has held leadership roles on a range of infrastructure projects as well as having key business and operational leadership roles.

A member of Chief Executive Women, Rowenna was the 2022 National Infrastructure Awards winning the Women’s Achievement Award. In 2019 she was acknowledged for her business leadership in the construction industry by being awarded the National Association of Women in Construction (NAWIC) ‘NSW Business Woman of the Year’ Award. She is passionate about the diversity and inclusion agenda and in 2017 received a Highly Commended award for Champions of Change, Female Leadership by Consult Australia. A Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, Rowenna is the recent Past President and Board Director on the Board of Consult Australia.

Cheryl has over 25 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, including 20 years in leadership roles at organisations such as Novartis and AbbVie. She is currently the Chief Executive Officer at Starpharma, an Australian biotechnology company focused on developing innovative therapies using dendrimer technology to improve the lives of patients with unmet medical needs, such as cancer.

Her expertise includes leading pharmaceutical innovation, marketing strategies, and business growth across Australia, Asia, and international markets. During her time at Novartis, Cheryl held several senior leadership positions, including Country Head and President of Novartis Philippines and the General Manager of Oncology, Australia and New Zealand (ANZ). She has led large and smaller organisations, and cross-functional teams across multiple geographies. 

Cheryl’s career journey embodies resilience, curiosity, and unwavering dedication to driving transformative change in healthcare and biotechnology leadership. She is a staunch advocate for helping others achieve their career goals through mentorship, leadership development programs and experiences, and is passionate about diversity and inclusion within the industry.

Prof Dr Nicole Grobert is Professor of Nanomaterials and Associate Head of Department (Research) at the Department of Materials at the University of Oxford, UK. She is a Royal Society Industry Fellow at Williams Advanced Engineering, Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford and visiting professor at the Bio-Nano Electronics Research Centre at Tokyo University, Japan.

Prof Grobert is a vocal defender of best practices and efficient leadership, experience obtained over almost 20 years as a frontline researcher and representative of young researchers in Europe, having been a founding member, Chair and Fellow of the Young Academy of Europe.

She is also a member of the Academia Europaea, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, a Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining, and a Founding Member of the Young Academy of Europe – a bottom-up pan-European initiative of outstanding young scientists for networking, scientific exchange and science policy.

Moreover, Professor Grobert has received the Carbon Pergamon Prize in 2001, has been selected outstanding young scientist by the Royal Society in 2005, the STS Forum in 2008, and the World Economic Forum in 2013. She has been one of seven Chief Scientific Advisors to the European Commission since 2018. In November 2020 she has been nominated the Chair of the Group.

Dr Ruwangi Fernando is an accomplished IT expert and AI specialist with a strong academic, industry and consulting background. Dr Fernando completed her PhD at Victoria University in collaboration with Data61, CSIRO and the Department of Transport in Victoria. She chairs the Diversity and Inclusion Committee of the Australian Computer Society Victoria.

Dr. Fernando has a strong history of advocating for gender equity in STEM, especially addressing the intersectional challenges faced by Women of Colour (WOC) in STEM. She was recognised for her efforts and awarded a STEM Women Changemaker by the Australian Academy of Science and the Melbourne Asian Game Changer award by Asia Society.

Dr Fernando founded STEM Sisters, a pioneer organisation that empowers STEM women of colour. She spearheads six award-winning programs to break down systemic barriers and promote equal access to opportunities in STEM for WOC. Under her leadership, STEM Sisters won many awards, including the Techdiversity Business (2023) and Media (2023) Awards, the Victorian International Education Excellence Award 2022, the Multicultural Excellence Award 2022 and the WISE grant from the Department of Industry, Science and Resources.

She is also the founder of iSTEM Co., a research, consulting and talent-sourcing company that enables employment for women in STEM, including WOC and CALD. iSTEM Co. was nominated as a finalist for the Women in Digital awards and has recently launched DEIR, a recruitment-tech platform that eliminates recruitment bias for women in STEM. DEIR has also received recognition in STEM and won the Lift Women Social Impact Award.

As the National Chief Technology Officer for Microsoft, Sarah Carney spearheads the technical strategy, vision, and execution for the company’s most significant customers across enterprise and government sectors. In addition to her primary role, Sarah is also the Responsible AI lead for Microsoft in Australia and New Zealand and a member of Microsoft’s regional AI product Red Team.

Prior to Microsoft Sarah served in the Australian army, followed by a decade travelling the world and working across a broad range of industries in both Europe and the Middle East. From supporting Think Tanks to building custom business applications and even attending ballet for a living, Sarah’s varied experiences and perspectives bring a unique lens to the way she approaches innovation and the potential of technology.

Professor Wendy Umberger is directly responsible to the Minister for Foreign Affairs and was appointed CEO in 2023. As agency head, the CEO manages the administrative and financial affairs of ACIAR and its staff. 

Professor Umberger has played influential roles in sustainable agriculture for over 20 years. From 2013 to 2022, she founded and led the Centre for Global Food and Resources at the University of Adelaide, which engaged with policymakers and industry to make positive changes in agriculture, food, and resource systems. Professor Umberger has also served as President of Australia’s Policy Advisory Council (for International Agricultural Research and Development) from 2020 to 2023 and was on the Board of Trustees of the International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) from 2015 to 2021. 

Professor Umberger is an Honorary Professorial Fellow in the School of Agriculture and Food at the University of Melbourne and an expert in agricultural economics, development, and food policy. She has worked on food system issues across the Indo-Pacific region and led interdisciplinary value chain research projects in Asia, Australia, North America, the Pacific Islands and South Africa. Her research has explored opportunities for smallholder agricultural households to produce high-value (horticulture, dairy, beef) food products and adopt new technology to access modern food value chains. 

Professor Umberger is also a Director of the International Association of Agricultural Economists, a board member of Food Bank SA, an Honorary Fellow of Food Standards Australia New Zealand, a Distinguished Fellow of the Australasian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society and served as an Independent Director of Grain Producers South Australia (GPSA) for six years. Wendy has a B.S. in Animal Science (1996), an M.S. in Economics (1998) from South Dakota State University and a PhD in Agricultural Economics (2001) from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Renu Steggles is Director of Ecology, Environmental Approvals & Engagement for WSP Sydney and is the National Transport Sector Lead in the Earth and Environment business, a 1,200 person strong team at WSP Australia.

Renu is a Chartered Geotechnical Engineer with a Bachelor and Masters Degree in Engineering, a member of the Australian Geomechanics Society and a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. Renu has over 20 years of local and overseas industry experience, spanning technical, project management, leadership and strategic roles.

Outside of her engineering roles, Renu is a non-executive director at a not-for-profit sporting organisation and mum to 3 primary-school aged children.

Assoc. Professor Bernadette Eather is the Chief Nurse and Clinical Services Director and Head of Clinical Governance for Ramsay Australia. She has worked in health care for more than 30 years in a range of clinical, operational, and clinical governance roles. She spent her clinical career as a Clinical Nurse Specialist in Intensive Care. Prior to her current role, she was the Director of Patient Safety for NSW Health.

She was recognised for her work in leading Ramsay Health Care’s National COVID response receiving the Front Line Hero Award in the Women’s Agenda Leadership Awards in 2021.

She graduated from the University of Sydney in 1988, and holds a Masters in Health Management, a Masters in Health and Medical Law and a Doctor of Nursing.

Professor Madhu Bhaskaran FTSE is a multi-award-winning electronics engineer and innovator. She co-leads the Functional Materials and Microsystems Research Group at RMIT University which she established in 2010.

She is also Chief Investigator of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Transformative Meta-Optical Systems and Deputy Director (Research) of the ARC Hub for Connected Sensors for Health.

Her work on electronic skin and wearable sensors has been patented and her group now works collaboratively with multiple industry and design partners to commercialise the technology for healthcare and aged care.

She is a migrant Australian and a passionate advocate for diversity and inclusion. She co-founded the RMIT Women Researchers’ Network, has served on RMIT Athena Swan Committee, and was a Member of Expert Working Group of the ‘Women in STEM Decadal Plan’.

She is currently the IDEA Director for the ARC Centre of Excellence TMOS, on the Advisory Board for STEM Sisters and proudly co-leads Women in STEMM Australia.

Dr Mautner is CEO and Managing Director of ASX-listed biotech company Noxopharm Limited (ASX:NOX).

Before joining Noxopharm, Gisela has developed her career of over 20 years in leadership roles in global pharmaceutical and medical device organisations across multiple continents and therapeutic areas.

She is an international business leader with significant experience developing and launching new products and delivering successful corporate strategies in highly
competitive global markets. These skills are now being applied in the emerging area of  mRNA technologies, autoimmune disease and oncology.

This experience is founded on an education at some of the world’s highest-ranking institutions, a Master of Public Health from Harvard, an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in Chicago, a PhD from Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich, and a Doctor of Medicine degree from Technical University in Munich. She is also a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and a member of the CEO Institute.

Gisela has strong global pharmaceutical industry networks and served as President, Vice-President and Treasurer of the Australian Pharmaceutical Physicians Association (APPA; now MAPA) for many years with serving until recently as Past-President. She is also the Australian delegate for the International Federation of Associations of Pharmaceutical Physicians (IFAPP), which connects the pharmaceutical industry globally. Recently she was appointed as Chair of the Biotechnology Committee of BIO NSW, a Not-for-Profit body to promote Life Sciences across NSW.

Gisela‘s Board experience includes serving on the Noxopharm Board, as well as being a Non-Executive Board member of Nyrada Inc., a US biotechnology company listed on the ASX. She is also a Non-Executive Board member for a Not-for-Profit national sports organisation.

Jenna Nelson is the current Director of Reliability Platforms at Canva. Previously, she was at Google for 14 years, where she was a senior manager in various roles across Corp, Networking, Photos, Chrome, and Blogger SRE teams. She is keenly interested in how you drive cultural change to make effective and enduring teams and has far too many 3D printers.

Miranda is the CIO of Group Business Units for Westpac.

She is a leader of large scale and complex technological and digital transformations.

Miranda has developed strategic and tactical direction, built high performing teams and enabled service to uplift customer experiences.

Her leadership, focus and business direction results in improved engagement and productivity through enhanced employee experience, delivering significantly engaged teams who have more time to delight customers.

Driving excellence in product delivery is key to having systems that provide the right experience – Miranda has 25 years of global experience and is a master of this craft. Her experience spans Federal Government, Telecommunications and Financial Services sectors across Europe, Asia and Australia.

Miranda is passionate about diversity and promoting women in Technology.

Community is a strong anchor for Miranda, and she is also a volunteer yoga teacher.

• Miranda’s recent awards and nominations include:
• WiBF Award for Inclusive Leadership
• Ranked #37 in the Top 100 Women in Finance Technology
  (Globally)
• Recognised #9 on the Power List in the Atlassian’s Women
  Leading Tech 2024 Awards

Taylor Bamin, is a proud Gamilaraay woman and dynamic management professional. Taylor is experienced in delivering strategic talent projects, delivering finance initiatives, providing operational support and streamlining organisation processes. Areas of interest include: education and Strategic Planning policy, human resource and organisational development, diversity and inclusion and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employment in both the private and public sector.

Angela Fox is responsible for the sustained business success of the company in both countries.

Based in Sydney, Angela leads the commercial and public sector strategy and direction of the business while maintaining a commitment to keeping customers at the core of what Dell EMC does.

Angela joined Dell in 2006. Her career moved her to Australia then Singapore, taking executive responsibilities across the broader Asia Pacific and Japan region. In July 2014, Angela was appointed the Managing Director for Dell ANZ.

During her time in this role, Angela drew on her solutions and services experience to help customers achieve their IT needs.

She led the business to deliver market leading benefits to large organisations across private and public sectors, small and medium businesses, and consumers.

Angela has a passion for people management and is a strong advocate for diversity and inclusion. She launched the Dell Australia and New Zealand Diversity and Inclusion Council and is a founding member of the APJ Diversity and Inclusion Council. Angela plays a pivotal role in driving Dell EMC cultural initiatives in ANZ by supporting several internal employee resource groups (ERG) that represent the team’s passion. Angela is a vocal advocate for career success, believing a person’s adaptability and openness to embrace new challenges are key drivers to progression.

Her own career path has cemented the belief that broad experiences and the ability to be remain flexible will open alternative career paths. Angela is a promoter of mentoring, advocacy and sponsorship within the company having experienced first‐hand the success these relationships manifest.

She continues to actively supports Dell’s Women in IT Executive Mentoring (DELL WITEM) program, which has recently celebrated its 10th anniversary, and has taken on the role as executive sponsor for the Dell Women’s Entrepreneur Network (DWEN). Angela graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Zoology from the University of Auckland. Before embarking on her IT career.

She manages her life and career from Sydney, with the support of her husband and daughter.