Main Conference

Kylie Speer

Host
Key Media

Kylie Speer is a television host, media professional and author with international experience spanning more than 15 years. Since graduating from the Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Kylie’s career has seen her assume posts in Sydney, Melbourne, London, Dubai, Los Angeles and New York across numerous print, online and broadcast television media outlets including The Sunday Telegraph, nineMSN, the Nine Network Australia and Sky TV in the UK.

Kara Gear

Head of Learning
Lendlease

Kara is the Head of Learning for Lendlease, responsible for all global learning initiatives for over 7000 employees worldwide.  Kara leads global transformation projects within Lendlease, including a series of Leadership Flagship programs, cultural flagship program and critical capability-based learning interventions. 
 
Kara has a background in instructional design, adult education, developing learning strategies and frameworks and leading learning teams.  She is passionate about connecting the dots between learning, organisational design and business strategy. She has worked across industries, building her experiences in financial services, construction, and real estate sectors.

Gerry Marcus

Associate Director, Learning & Capability Real Estate Management Services
Colliers

Gerry’s career in learning and development has spanned many years across different industry sectors including banking and finance, real estate, education and telecommunications. He’s worked for large and small organisations developing and implementing learning solutions that empower and enable people to adapt and stay relevant.

He is passionate about working with: project teams, leaders, managers and frontline staff to create empowered, engaged and adaptive teams.

Shawna Murray

Learning Transformation Leader

Shawna Murray, a learning aficionado with a 20-year career that has taken her across Europe and happily brought her back to Sydney. While she has worked in various industries, including financial services, tourism, higher education, and insurance, Shawna firmly believes that the art of performance and capability consulting can be adapted to any organisation, fostering the development of leaders and their teams. Whether at Macquarie Bank or Contiki, she holds pragmatic views on how flexible working and high-performing teams can coexist, with digital fluency and leadership capability being key focuses to make this happen.

Since 2019, she has led projects that earned Platinum LearnX awards for Future Learning Models, User Generated Content, Future of Work, Leadership, and Onboarding using Virtual Reality.

When she’s not at work, you can find her guiding visually impaired runners with Achilles or winter swimming at Bondi Icebergs. Regardless of what she’s doing, Shawna believes in kindness and making the complex simple.

Maria Zotos

Head of Learning and Capability
QBE

Maria is an experienced leader in the learning and capability space with 16+ years’ experience in financial services .With a strong background in the insurance industry, Maria has honed her ability to develop capability frameworks, design engaging induction and learning programs from ideation to implementation to enhance capability. Maria is known for having a passion in building and sustaining culture of continuous learning and is dedicated to helping to unlock the full potential of their people and drive business success. Maria is passionate about equipping the workforce with skills in a non-traditional manner to enhance their knowledge to ensure they build meaningful careers. 

Kylie Speer

Host
Key Media

Kylie Speer is a television host, media professional and author with international experience spanning more than 15 years. Since graduating from the Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Kylie’s career has seen her assume posts in Sydney, Melbourne, London, Dubai, Los Angeles and New York across numerous print, online and broadcast television media outlets including The Sunday Telegraph, nineMSN, the Nine Network Australia and Sky TV in the UK.

Belinda Barron

Learning and Development Manager
NEXTDC

Belinda has more than 15 years’ global experience in leading the learning and development strategy in the financial, professional services and technology industries. With passion, curiosity, and the ability to look at talent development through a strategic lens, Belinda is always looking for ways NEXTDC can innovate and leverage development opportunities to support our broader people and culture key initiatives and her vision and leadership inspire and empowers our people to adopt a growth mindset and own their career development.

Belinda is a trusted advisor and subject matter expert in employee engagement, talent management, leadership development and performance management. Most importantly, Belinda is a lifelong learner who leads by example.

Cam Elliot

Country Director
GoodHabitz Australia

Cam is GoodHabitz Australia’s Country Director. He is responsible for launching and growing the GoodHabitz brand in Australia. GoodHabitz aims to make learning accessible to everyone and intrinsically motivating through outstanding content and customer support.

Cam has been involved in the learning and development industry for over eight years and has been dedicated to helping people and organisations create high performing teams through effective training. His career has seen him work with leaders to help them empower their teams to succeed, running team workshops designed to improve communication and collaboration, leading to better outcomes for individuals and their organisations. Having cut his teeth in sales in the early part of his career, Cam is also an outstanding leader and developer of talent.

Cam successfully founded and ran Elevate Corporate Training, a boutique firm that specialises in leadership training, team development, sales training and recruitment training. He sold the business in 2022 and still advises to Elevate.

Cam’s career saw him working for iconic brands such as Channel 7 and ACP magazines. He was sales director at Reed Business where he oversaw sales operations in Australia, New Zealand and Singapore, managing over 50 sales reps and sales managers. In 2013 Cam left his corporate roles to pursue his passion for people development.

When he is not dedicating himself to helping people grow, Cam can be found spending time with his family in Coorabell, just outside of Byron Bay. He is a keen surfer, fisherman and tennis fanatic.

Laurie Hibbs

General Manager – Capability
Judo Bank

Laurie has been at Judo since late 2018, when he joined to run the “Go for Growth” project which was responsible for hiring the first 50 bankers and opening a number of new Judo offices.  He has held a number of roles since that that time and is currently responsible for the development and orientation of Judo colleagues as GM of Capability. 

Laurie has a passion for data and has led and implemented a number of broader Judo projects such as their unique engagement methodology (JEDI) and the codification of the Judo Way of Banking aka. “What makes a Judo Banker different?” 

A self-proclaimed adrenaline addict, Laurie’s spare time is full of activities that fulfil this need from kayaking, kite surfing, karate and motorbiking. 

Laurie holds a degree in Accountancy & Finance. 

Maryna Matthew

Head of Learning & Transformation
Novartis

Maryna leads the learning vision and strategy that builds a skills-based organization. Driving change and transformation needs to secure our future both as individuals and as an organization. In a VUCA world (marked by volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity) learning agility is paramount as technology impacts the way we live and work and evolves what our customers expect of us in terms of value.   

Maryna believes that the way we learn and what we learn is evolves in keeping with personal aspirations and also technological advances impacting our work. Learning is curiosity and mindset. Incorporating a skills-based learning approach that is democratized and personalized not only amplifies learning agility and impact, but also wins the hearts and minds of our people to consistently bring their best selves to their work. 

David Bellas

Director, LinkedIn Talent Solutions
LinkedIn

David Bellas is a Director for LinkedIn’s Talent Solutions business for Australia and New Zealand. David and his team are responsible for helping organisation the way they plan, hire, and develop talent. This is possible through the disruptive technology and unique data and insights from LinkedIn’s 875+ million members and 57 million companies.

He is passionate about investing in people, everything sales, turning business visions into reality and working with customers to meet their business objectives.

Over the past 10 years at LinkedIn, David has had the opportunity to lead the growth and distribution efforts across all sectors at LinkedIn. When LinkedIn acquired Lynda.com in 2015, an online learning company, David was appointed as Head of Learning for Australia and New Zealand and helped oversee the successful transition to LinkedIn Learning.

Over the past several years David has been recognised with awards such as Diversity and Inclusion Manager of the Year and LinkedIn Manager of the Year and has a reputation for inspiring, coaching and developing talent.

Samantha Alkin

Director Human Resources, Australia & New Zealand
Edwards Lifesciences

For the past 28 years, Samantha has dedicated her career to the Human Resources field, specializing in various industries including Banking and Finance, IT, and Lifesciences. Throughout her journey, she has worked with renowned organizations such as Westpac, Lexmark, IMS Health/I@VIA, Cardinal Health, and Edwards Lifesciences.

Samantha’s expertise as a Senior HR professional has been honed through leading HR teams across ANZ and globally for the past 15 years. Her extensive experience lies in developing and implementing strategies that revolve around human capital management. This includes crucial aspects such as workforce planning, talent development, employee engagement, learning and development, organization design, and capability building.

With her wealth of knowledge and skillset, Samantha has consistently demonstrated her ability to navigate complex HR challenges, ensuring that organizations effectively leverage their human resources to achieve their goals.

Gillian Davie

Director – People & Culture
AMP

An ASX C-suite executive and Non-Executive Director spanning over a 25-year career.
Gillian holds a rare combination of experience in rapid growth businesses, turnarounds, transformation, crisis management, acquisition (acquiring and being acquired), and how to successfully lead teams through these events.

This experience was gained in domestic and international businesses in the Financial Services, Technology and FMCG / Retail sectors.

She is also an experienced Board member, Fellow of the Governance Institute of Australia and Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Gillian is passionate about the role HR plays in helping people (and business) to see what is possible and the change required to achieve that.

Michelle Pombart

GWF People and Performance Director
George Weston Foods

Michelle joined GWF in 2013 and leads the People and Performance function across the company. With expertise in driving high performance people practices and organisational change, Michelle has held senior leadership roles in companies across industries including financial services, telecommunications, hospitality and retail. Prior to GWF, she was Head of HR for FlexiGroup achieving AON Hewitt Best Employer accreditation; and also held senior HR roles with Vodafone Australia, Dymocks and Mariott Hotels. She holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Human Resources) from the University of Western Sydney.

Sarah Sprott

Head of Learning and Development
Village Entertainment

Sarah Sprott is a proactive and results-driven L&D professional with a proven track record in transformative strategies and people-based performance improvement aligned with business goals. A dynamic leader with vast experience in developing diverse teams, from junior team members to senior executives. 

Sarah has a strong focus on continuous improvement and constructive reflection, currently as the Head of Learning & Development at Village Roadshow, driving innovative learning interventions and targeted change management in the entertainment and hospitality industry. 

Additionally, her expertise in teaching, customer support, tech, and sales management further showcases her versatility and impactful results in education, technology, travel, and beauty industries.