SPEAKERS 


Anthony Mackay

Master of Ceremonies

Anthony Mackay AM is President & CEO of the Washington DC based National Center on Education and the Economy. He is moderator of the annual International Summit on the Teaching Profession and the Annual Global Education Industry Summit, and also Co-Chair of the recently launched National Project, Learning Creates Australia.

Anthony is Deputy Chancellor Swinburne University, Melbourne, and Senior Fellow, Graduate School of Education, The University of Melbourne. He is immediate past Chair of the Australian Council for Educational Research, and immediate past Deputy Chair of New Zealand's Education Council. He was Inaugural Chair of the Australia. Institute for Teaching and School Leadership and the Inaugural Deputy Chair of the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority.

Anthony is Past President of the International Congress for School Effectiveness and Improvement.
Anthony is an expert consultant to OECD, Senior Fellow IBE UNESCO, and Council Member of Asia Society’s Center for Global Education.


Karen Mundine

CEO, Reconciliation Australia

Karen Mundine is from the Bundjalung Nation of northern NSW. As the CEO at Reconciliation Australia, Karen brings to the role more than 20 years’ experience leading community engagement, public advocacy, communications and social marketing campaigns.

Over the course of her career she has been instrumental in some of Australia’s watershed national events including the Apology to the Stolen Generations, Centenary of Federation commemorations, Corroboree 2000 and the 1997 Australian Reconciliation Convention. Ms Mundine holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communication from the University of Technology Sydney and is a Director of the Gondwana Children’s Choir Board.  Previous roles include Mary Mackillop Board Director, Deputy Chief Executive and General Manager Communication and Engagement, Reconciliation Australia; Senior Consultant, CPR Communications; senior public affairs and communications roles with federal government departments including Prime Minister and Cabinet and Foreign Affairs and Trade.


Professor Pamela Hanrahan

University of NSW

Dr Pamela Hanrahan is a lawyer, legal academic and author who specialises in corporate law, corporate governance, and financial regulation.  She is Professor of Commercial Law and Regulation at the University of New South Wales Business School and a Senior Fellow of the Melbourne Law School.  Pamela is a member of the Executive Board of the Business Law Section of the Law Council of Australia, a member of the National Corporate Governance Committee of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, and a non-executive director of Landcom. 


In 2010-11 she was the Queensland Regional Commissioner of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and in 2013-15 served as the Registrar of Community Housing for New South Wales.  In 2016-17 Pamela was an appointed member of the ASIC Enforcement Review Taskforce and in 2018 she was an adviser to the Hayne Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry. 


Rebecca Razavi

Australian eSafety Acting Commissioner

Rebecca Razavi is General Manager and Chief Operating Officer at Australia’s eSafety Commission, the world’s first online safety regulator.  Rebecca has extensive management and strategic policy experience with a 20-year career in public and private sector leadership roles that has taken her to Asia, Africa, Europe and Australia and included more than a decade in senior diplomatic roles.

Prior to her current role, Rebecca was Executive Director at NSW Treasury leading the design and development of the NSW Government’s Industry, Trade and Investment Strategy and leading the Government’s innovation programs. Between 2015 and 2018 she was Executive Director at Ernst & Young in South East Asia, establishing a practice focused on sustainability, corporate reporting, green finance and clean tech. Her leadership roles in the UK’s Foreign Office and Home Office include positions as Charge d’Affairs, Deputy Ambassador and Consul General to Indonesia and Timor Leste, Deputy Ambassador and Consul General to Sudan, and policy and operational roles providing oversight of trade, privacy, counter-terrorism, immigration and transnational crime issues, including negotiation and design of EU regulation and international cooperation mechanisms.

Rebecca holds an Executive MBA from the University of Oxford and is also an alumnus of the University of New South Wales with bachelor degrees in Environmental Science (Hons) and International Relations.


Professor Donna Cross 

Program Head, Health Promotion and Education
Telethon Kids Institute

Donna Cross is a Professor with the School of Population and Global Health at the University of Western Australia and Program Head, Health Promotion and Education research team at the Telethon Kids Institute, and one of the Institute’s leadership team. Her research has been instrumental in the development and empirical testing of social and emotional wellbeing programs to support school-age children and adolescents. She is committed to promoting positive, community-driven approaches to enhance the health, development, and learning of children and adolescents.

Professor Cross’ research has included extensive school-based health promotion research, publishing on child health issues related to drug use, nutrition, road safety, smoking and bullying prevention. She has led over 80 applied school, digital technology and community-based research projects with a focus on transferring knowledge from research evidence into policy and practice and bridging the gap between university research and school and community programs. Professor Cross’ scholarly contribution to children’s health research has been recognised by many university, state and national awards. She was awarded the 2012 WA Australian of the Year Award and received the Future Justice Prize for Australian leadership and initiative in the advancement of future justice. In 2015 she was inducted as a fellow to the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Science. 


Craig James

Chief Economist, CommSec

Craig is currently chief economist at CommSec, interpreting ‘big picture’ economic and financial trends for customers, clients and staff.

CommSec is known for innovative, ‘user friendly’ reports including State of the States, the CommSec iPhone Index and CommSec Home Size report. CommSec economic reports are a bit different in that they devise tools such as the 'Mums and Dads' share index and the iPod index, and undertake research on the weather and demographic changes to show how they affect the economy.

Craig currently does around two to three regular TV crosses a day, ad hoc radio and newspaper interviews and writes regular commentaries as well as presenting to staff, clients and external organisations.
Craig has worked in banking, finance and journalism for around 38 years and holds both Bachelor and Master degrees in Commerce (Economics). 

He was appointed Adjunct Professor at Perth's Curtin Business School in 2012.

Outside work, Craig's main interests are Masters athletics and trying to keep up with his three '20-something' children.


Richard Fidler

Dinner Speaker

Richard is a presenter of Conversations on ABC Radio, which attracts a large listening audience around the nation, and is the most popular podcast in Australia.

Richard is also the author of several bestselling books that blend history with travel memoir and mythology. His first book, Ghost Empire (2016) brings to life the lost city of Constantinople and its dramatic fall in 1453. This was followed by, Saga Land (2018), co-authored with his friend Kári Gíslason, a journey into the sagas of Iceland.

Richard’s most recent book, The Golden Maze, tells the tumultuous story of the city of Prague, inspired by his experience of the city’s dramatic Velvet Revolution of 1989.