Brent Smart

Brent Smart is CMO of Telstra, where he has been leading Australia’s second most valuable brand since September 2022.

Previously, Brent spent five years as CMO at IAG, the Australian insurance giant. He led the transformation of the NRMA brand, taking it from 36^th strongest brand in Australia to fifth, creating over $400m of brand value and winning the coveted Grand Effie in 2021. Mark Ritson wrote in The Australian that “NRMA is not just a fantastic Australian case study, it could be taught at Harvard or Stanford and positions Brent Smart as the most accomplished CMO in Australia and one of the best in the world”. 

Brent grew up in the advertising business with a 20-year agency career that included leading New Zealand Agency of the Decade Colenso BBDO and becoming CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi New York.

Brent lives in Bondi with his wife and three boys, but originally hails from Melbourne, which explains his love of Carlton Football Club and coffee.

Dr Kerstin Oberprieler

Dr Kerstin is a gamification and behavioural designer, blending academic research with design and innovation to tackle behaviour and engagement challenges. She works with governments, private organisations, educational institutions and not-for-profits to apply psychology to deliver impact.

Dr Kerstin has a PhD in behaviour change and gamification and is described as one of the World’s Leading Figures in Behavioural Science by Insights Success Magazine. Dr Kerstin is an Adjunct Fellow with the University of Western Sydney and an academic tutor for University of Canberra.

Dr Kerstin is a sought after keynote speaker, having presented in Australia, USA, Germany, Singapore and Hong Kong. Kerstin has also delivered a TED talk on the power of gamification.

Dr Juliette Tobias-Webb

Dr Juliette Tobias-Webb is a Professor of Practice in Behavioural Science and one of Australia's leading behavioural scientists. She has a PhD in Experimental Psychology from Cambridge University and has since worked for a range of leading government and corporate organisations to explore human decision-making and behaviour change, helping teams and companies leverage behavioural insight to drive positive transformation at scale. As a founder of a behavioural science consultancy, she collaborates with industry leaders such as Mastercard, Citibank, Insurance Australia Group, Atlassian, and Deloitte. She is also an award-winning lecturer for business and executive leaders. She has held significant roles, including a Senior Manager in Behavioural Science for Commonwealth Bank and the Behaviour Change Lead for Ogilvy Australia. Her contributions extend to publications in leading neuroscience and psychology journals, and she has been featured in various media outlets, including Triple J Hack, ABC, and the Australian Financial Review. Dr Juliette has been recognised for her exceptional contributions to the field being one of 60 women in Australia nominated as a Superstar of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Maths), and being selected as one of 100 women in STEM to explore Antarctica.

Will Mailer

William Mailer leads the Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s Behavioural Science Centre of Excellence. This multi-disciplinary unit of economists, psychologists and data scientists works across CBA’s business lines to improve financial wellbeing and climate action outcomes for millions of Australians. The CBA team partners with leading research groups and practitioners around the world to produce impactful research and develop new innovations in partnerships, products and services. Prior to joining CBA, Will established and led the PwC Behavioural Economics team. Will has over 20 years of consulting experience, and a MSc in Behavioural Economics from the Centre for Decision Research and Experimental Economics (CeDEx) in Nottingham, UK. Originally from Wagga Wagga, NSW, Will now lives in Sydney’s inner west with his wife and two young boys.

Sally McMullen

Sally is one half of the dynamic podcasting duo "Two Broke Chicks." She brings a unique and refreshing blend of candid life lessons, financial tips, and a healthy dose of humour to listeners twice weekly. Sally is also a freelance music journalist and writer, who happens to be an absolute gun at building and engaging online audiences.

Robert Brittain

Robert Brittain is an independent marketing consultant and strategic advisor to CMOs. A published writer and speaker in his field, Robert is co-author of the “Advertising Effectiveness Rules” series of reports from the ACA Effectiveness Database with the globally renowned Peter Field. These include “To ESOV and Beyond” and “Attention and Effectiveness”. Prior to becoming an independent marketing consultant Robert spent 20 years in client-side commercial roles including leading Marketing Effectiveness at ANZ Bank Banking Group and Marketing Analytics at Mondelez International across the Asia-Pacific region.

Matt Plant

Matt is Thinkerbell’s Head of Behavioural Sciences and it’s fortunate he has this title and a general obsession with how humans work, because in isolation, the feedback: ‘Matt knows a lot about people but talks about them like he’s not one of them’ would seem particularly odd.

Starting off as a musician Matt left to pursue the world of consumer psychology when he found himself more interested in changing how the crowds behaved and cross-checking it with bar sales.

Having worked across national and international brands from tech and insurance to FMCG and retail, Matt has a proven track record of unearthing the behavioural science behind any business problem. He is also known to feel uncomfortable writing bios about himself in third person pretending somebody else has said it.

Maura Halpin

Maura is a strategic, insights driven marketer who believes in the power of creativity to drive emotional connections with consumers and outsized commercial impact. She currently heads up marketing at Ideally, the consumer insights platform that allows you to quickly test and iterate on brand, product, campaign or innovation ideas - bringing the voice of the consumer in early to give ideas momentum.

Prior to Ideally, Maura spent 11 years at Google ANZ in sales strategy, creative innovation and B2C brand marketing roles. Most recently, she looked after consumer marketing for Google Search in Australia where she managed Google Australia’s brand health through a series of crises (Bushfires/Covid/ACCC News Media Bargaining Code) and developed a brand platform (Helping you, help others) that resulted in award winning creative work. (B&T TV Ad of the Year ‘22; Mumbrella Campaign of the Year ‘22; ARIA Award Best Use of Australian Recording in Advertising ‘23.)

Maura is an Aussie American who recently relocated to Auckland where she lives with her Kiwi husband and two daughters.

Anna Jackson

Anna is a strategic and creative leader with experience spanning advertising, consultancy and marketing
roles. She places great value on the potential of ideas to solve any type of challenge, whether it be commercial, cultural or customer, and is currently responsible for the creative transformation of Australia’s second most valuable brand, Telstra.

Prior to Telstra, Anna was a director of brand strategy and creative at IAG, helping NRMA Insurance become the world's strongest insurance brand – increasing its brand value by $427M from 2017 to 2020
– and WARC crowning it the most effective and creative financial services brand globally. She has also
launched and sold a gifting business, Brewquets, which is still successful, ten years on.

She cares deeply about the work, and the impact it can make, but cares equally about the importance of
culture and creating the best conditions for people to shine and do their best work.

Dr Alex Gyani

Alex is the Managing Director of the Behavioural Insights Team’s APAC region. He leads the team’s work across Australia, Singapore, Indonesia and the wider region. He has spent his career supporting governments and organisations across the globe to use behavioural science, human-centred design, data science and implementation science to improve policies, programs and services.

Since joining the Behavioural Insights Team in 2012, Alex has worked in diverse fields from antimicrobial resistance, domestic violence, innovation policy and mental health, to energy usage, health system efficiency, obesity, financial regulation, employment services and education.

His PhD focused on encouraging psychological therapists to use evidence-based treatments and encouraging people with anxiety and depression to seek treatment using a mobile phone app. In October 2012, this app was the top free health app in the Apple Store. In 2018, he was named one of Apolitical’s 100 Future Government Leaders. He holds degrees from the University of Oxford and the University of Reading, as well as a research fellowship at the University of Melbourne’s School of Psychology. He has been based in Sydney since 2014.

Rob Dougan

Rob spent most of his working life as a brand planner in advertising agencies across Sydney and London. He’s worked on a wide range of brands and won effies around the world. He made the move client side with Tourism Australia just before the Black Summer Fires and COVID-19. Two events which decimated the Australian tourism industry. Since then, Rob has written recovery strategies for both crises, developed TA’s Principles of Destination Marketing, written the brief for TA’s Come and Say G'day campaign, launched groundbreaking global demand research and redesigned strategic and planning processes across the organisation.

Dr Simon Longstaff

Simon Longstaff began his working life on Groote Eylandt in the Northern Territory of Australia. He is proud of his kinship ties to the Anindilyakwa people. After a period studying law in Sydney and teaching in Tasmania, he pursued postgraduate studies as a Member of Magdalene College, Cambridge. Simon has been Executive Director of The Ethics Centre for 30 years. In 2013, he was made an officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for “distinguished service to the community through the promotion of ethical standards in governance and business, to improving corporate responsibility, and to philosophy.” Simon is an Adjunct Professor of the Australian Graduate School of Management at UNSW, a Fellow of CPA Australia, the Royal Society of NSW and the Australian Risk Policy Institute.

Alison Tilling

Ali is CSO at VML in Australia and Aotearoa NZ.

She partners with senior clients and team alike, to create a culture obsessed with finding disconnects and overcoming them to drive growth.

During her 22-year career, Ali’s worked across categories from tech and media to retail and financial services, and across brand, commerce, brand architcture and CX-based projects. Starting at TBWA\London, she’s worked at Wieden+Kennedy, client side at Apple Europe, at Australian independent BMF and now at VML.

Ali is a highly awarded strategy leader, particularly in Effies, D&AD, APG and Jay Chiat. She’s served on juries including NY Festivals and Cannes Lions, is an involved industry mentor and a columnist for Brandingmag and Mumbrella.

She’s the slightly frazzled parent of two young girls, so there’s a lot of LEGO involved.

Professor Ujwal Kayande

Ujwal Kayande, Professor at Melbourne Business School, founded and directed the school’s Centre for Business Analytics and was the Dean at the Beedie School of Business, Simon Fraser University from 2022-2024. He has taught Marketing and Business Analytics to thousands of senior executives and published extensively in top journals. His research has garnered numerous awards, including the Lehmann Award from the American Marketing Association. Currently, Ujwal advises companies like L'Oréal and tech startups on data and AI strategies, and is a Professor-in-Residence at Forethought.

Brent Vrdoljak

After 10 years in various marketing leadership roles, Brent jumped off the corporate ladder to explore consulting with clients, creating content and building new businesses in the FMCG marketing space. With a particular interest in the area of brand design and packaging artwork, Brent has grown an online presence to 3 million+ views in the last six months. And he's just getting started.

Pip Bingemann

Ex-agency nerd turned Springboards.ai co-founder. Pip has spent 15 years in creative, media and marketing roles. From Sydney to San Francisco and finally Noosa.

Yen Trinh

Yen Trinh is a designer and project manager, who became an “accidental restaurateur” after marrying a chef. She co-owns an award-winning regional restaurant, Pipit Restaurant, located in Pottsville (Northern NSW) with her husband Ben Devlin.

Yen's career spans urban design and strategic projects for government, museums exhibitions, graphic design and major events like the Commonwealth Games. She now applies design-thinking strategies to small businesses and the restaurant industry. Yen is passionate about supporting creativity, collaborations and a sense of place within all projects.

Pipit Restaurant showcases the best of Northern Rivers' local produce, sustainable seafood, and wood-fired dishes through creative, seasonal menus. The relaxed setting features an open-plan kitchen where guests can see the chefs in action. Supporting regional dining since 2019, Pipit was awarded two Hats and Regional Restaurant NSW (SMH Good Food Guide), Top 25 NSW Gourmet Traveller, and the Tweed Shire Sustainability Award.

Michael McConville

Michael has been CEO at cummins&partners for two years, overseeing the Sydney, Melbourne and New York offices and work for clients as wonderfully varied as Jeep, McCain, Beyond Blue and many others. Formerly of adam&eveDDB in London, Michael has spent years overseeing multi-agency, integrated teams on brands such as Volkswagen Global, Royal Navy & Marines, John Lewis, BMW, Ford and countless others. A winner of Cannes, D&AD and Campaign AOTY Awards as well as multiple IPA effectiveness and APG Awards, Michael’s predominant focus has always been in the use of creativity to drive effective business results.

Ryan O'Connell

Ryan is the Junior Chief Strategy Officer and Co-Founder of jnr., an independent, Trans-Tasman, effectiveness led creative agency.

During his career, ‘Ryano’ has won over 40 effectiveness awards - including a Global Grand Effie – and has been named Campaign’s ‘Strategist of the Year’ for AUNZ the three years in a row (2021, 2022, 2023).

At his previous role at Ogilvy Sydney, he helped KFC Australia win Brand of the Year at the APAC Effies, and Advertiser of the Year at the Australian Effies, while also steering Ogilvy Sydney to finishes of 1st, 1st, 2nd and 3rd for Agency of the Year at the APAC Effies over the last four years.

Adam Ferrier

Adam is one of Australia's leading creative strategists, and a consumer psychologist. Adam began work life as a criminal psychologist, before becoming a cool hunter (and completing his masters in psychology in ‘Identifying the Underlying Constructs of Cool People’) and then co-founding Naked Communications APAC. Naked was a wild trip and became one of Australia’s most audacious and successful agencies, embracing a strategically focused behavioural change model. Following that, Adam co-founded Thinkerbell - where they practices 'measured magic' - bringing together marketing science and hardcore creativity. After just 5 years Thinkerbell was officially recognised as Mumbrella’s 2021 Creative, Full Service, and PR Agency of the Year - the first time one agency has won all three awards, as well as 2023 Campaign Briefs Agency of The Year.

In other news Adam is also the author of two books “The Advertising Effect” (Oxford), and 'Stop Listening to the Customer' (Wiley). Adam co-hosts the potentially multi-awarding winning podcast ‘Black T-Shirts’, and has a weekly national TV segment on Sunrise, as well as being a regular on The Project and Gruen.  Adam is married to Anna and has two sons Asterix and Arturo (like the Kardashians but with an ‘A’).

Professor Gayle Kerr

Gayle’s passion for advertising began as a copywriter working in the industry for more than a decade. She shifted from writing advertising to teaching and researching it and now Gayle shares her love of advertising as a Professor in Advertising and IMC at the School of Advertising, Marketing and Public Relations at QUT. Gayle’s PhD was first in Australia in the area of IMC. Since then, she has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles and conference papers in the area of creativity, advertising regulation, advertising avoidance and IMC. Gayle served on the Executive of the American Academy of Advertising for three years. She has won many international and national awards for her teaching and was the inaugural winner of Don Schultz Award for Innovation in IMC Teaching, Research and Practice in 2022. Gayle was also honoured as the winner of the first decade of Five Decades of Advertising Graduates, 2024.

Craig Page

Craig probably calls himself something lofty and pretentious, like an ‘Esteemed Nomadic Perspective Curator’, but his career (if you can call it that) has meandered, in an apparently aimless fashion for over 20 years, through a suspiciously diverse range of roles, industries and disciplines within the marketing cinematic universe.

Since leaping from a bike bound for Psychological academia into a grad trainee role at M&C Saatchi London, back when Maurice was still giving the training, he has journeyed from advertising thru brand, product, performance, social, activation, innovation, CX, BX, EX and back again, both in-house and at agencies, big and small, across two hemispheres; fuelled by a nerdish compulsion to find new ways to creatively crack business-based puzzles, growing brands and grabbing a slew (the correct collective noun) of awards in the process.

Last year (before it was cool) he founded a strategic consultancy, WeirdWorks, offering “Weird that Works” to anyone who would listen, later forming a strategic partnership with indie agency Connecting Plots, and most recently writing a painfully try-hard bio for MSIX. What a chump.

Penny Shell

Penny is the Chief Strategy and Product Officer at Zenith Australia. She has held Australian, Asia Pacific and Global leadership roles in agencies, client side and as an independent consultant in strategy, account leadership and new business. Penny is an award winning strategist locally and globally,  with expertise in categories including Retail, Financial Services, FMCG, Luxury, Sport, Automotive, Government, Tourism / Travel, Beauty, QSR and Telecommunications.

Penny was an original project member of shEqual (2018-2022). She has judged and mentored for Media Federation Australia, The Pause Awards, B&T Women in Media Awards and Cannes Young Lions Awards. Penny was awarded the B&T Women in Media Award for Strategy in 2021. Her work has been published in WARC and AdNews and her keynote ‘AI vs EQ’ featured in MFA Ex’s 2023 Sydney and Melbourne events. In the last 12 months Penny has been leading a media industry Social Media Responsibility initiative, for positive actions on teen body image. She has recently been appointed as a Non-Executive Board Director for The Butterfly Foundation.

Darren Woolley

Darren Woolley, Founder and Global CEO of TrinityP3. With his background as an analytical scientist and creative problem solver, Darren brings unique insights and learnings to the marketing process. He is considered a global thought leader in optimizing marketing productivity and performance across marketing agencies and supplier rosters.