Tony Smales is the driving force behind Forticode. Tony created Forticode when he recognized the world was becoming more connected, more technology dependent and thoroughly compromised. He has an honours degree in computer science, specializing in Artificial Intelligence.

Michelle, who’s CEO of the Australian Cyber Security Growth Network, has a wealth of public sector security experience. With the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet she held Senior Adviser roles in National Security Policy and Planning and Domestic Cyber Policy, before becoming Senior Adviser, Cyber Security at ANU’s National Security College.

Jeff’s the Digital Innovation Lead at AWS. Previously the cofounder and Managing Director of ResponSight, which rethought how security breaches are detected in the enterprise with the help of behavioural analytics. Jeff’s long history of Founder and Advisor roles developed his passion for leadership — and for cyber security.

Casey is the Cofounder, Chairman and CTO at security services marketplace Bugcrowd, having been working in the cyber security space since 2001. He’s founded and worked as Director and CSO at a number of enterprise and security-focused businesses while simultaneously mentoring others through Pushstart, the Tall Poppy Group — and now CyRise.

Sal Unwin is a highly respected senior executive with over 30 years’ cross-sector experience. She is a thought leader in the cybersecurity sector and is skilled at delivering customer focused solutions. In 2015 Sal joined Triskele Labs as General Manager of Sales and Marketing to build strong recurring revenue streams. Today, Triskele Labs has 23 staff and is growing across Australia, with significant future income.

Having founded and run Sessions (sold to MyFitnessPal), Nick's passion for getting new projects up and running drew him to investment. Today he's a Partner at BlackBird Ventures and Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Startmate.

Before co-founding Qualgro, which has raised funds of more than $50 million and made 14 investments, Peter cofounded and was Director at both Optus Innov8 and Singtel Group Digital Life. Today, Qualgro focuses its investments in health, education, communication, cyber security and financial technology — sectors Peter and his partners see as critical to the growth of the Asia Pacific region.

Ran Lewinski is VP Global Sales at Watchful. Previously he was VP of Sales APAC at Checkmarx, a global leader in application security solutions. With close to 20 years of enterprise sales and marketing experience in the global tech industry, Ran has a deep understanding of Application Security, Mobile Applications, Cloud and SaaS markets.

Former CTO of Lonely Planet, Gus has since held advisory Board roles for initiatives like travel-data analysis service Volantino, and pre-paid data roaming provider DataGO. Today he’s Director of management consultancy The Roshambo Group, helping businesses grow and innovate, and co-founder of Sneaky Surf, an app that helps surfers surf more.

Alex is currently CMO at Influx where he developed the brand and global go-to-market strategy. He previously built a marketing team at Envato and founded Y Audience, the first transparent audience targeting platform for advertisers.

Pete is CEO of Avalanche Technology Group and a Venture Partner at Giant Leap Fund, Australia's first VC fund dedicated to investing into “impact businesses”. He is an active angel investor with over 15 investments in early stage businesses and venture funds. Pete previously founded, owned and was CEO of the APAC business for AVG Technologies, which he exited in 2012.

Debra is a Consultant CTO and Scale Up Strategist. As CTO of Dimension Data Group Australia previously, Debra lead the strategy for the group regarding future technologies, offerings and partnerships. She was previously at Hewlett Packard, as their Chief Technologist, Innovation Leader for the APJ office of the CTO, and Leader – Innovation and Industry Initiatives for HP’s Enterprise Services division.

CEO/CO-Founder of Culture AMP, Didier has now raised over $30 million, grown Culture Amp to 125+ people in 4 offices and already boasts over 1000 customers globally. He’s also a non-executive Director of the Atlassian Foundation, and on the board of Rising Sun Research.

Craig’s been CEO of MailGuard, the world’s largest privately owned cloud email and web security provider, since 2001. He’s also Founder CEO at BlackEvents, the isayso and CCRM salesforce.com apps, and Sidearm Café.

Vaughan is the Founder of CYDARM, a platform that enables cybersecurity operations teams to perform at their best. Vaughan was previously a Forward Deployed Engineer at Palantir Technologies, and prior to that spent almost a decade working in the Australian Department of Defence. Vaughan holds a PhD in Computer Science, specialising in high scale machine learning.

Dr Silvio Cesare has worked in technical roles and been involved in computer security for over 20 years. He has worked commercially in both defensive and offensive roles within engineering. He is now the Director for Education and Training at UNSW Canberra Cyber. He also the co-founder of BSides Canberra - Australia's largest cyber security conference, and is a co-founder of InfoSect - a security hackerspace in Canberra. He has a Ph.D. from Deakin University.

Rachael is the Chief Executive Officer of the Cyber Security Research Centre Limited (Cyber CRC). The Cyber CRC is a not-for-profit company that will deliver innovative research and solutions with an Australia-wide approach in response to the ever changing cyber threat landscape. Rachael has held several senior roles in cyber security both at Telstra and in other industries. Prior to making the move into cyber security, Rachael practiced as a lawyer for fifteen years.

Doug’s founding role in Culture AMP in 2010 wasn’t his first. He’d already founded startup Jodoro in 2009 after a career that included technology roles with the National Australia Bank and EDS. Today, he’s VP of Engineering with Culture AMP, overseeing an ever-growing team of talented engineers.

Over the last 18 years Mick has co-founded 12 tech startups, as well as cofounding Pollenizer with Phil Morle and being co-founding investor of Startmate. His greatest successes have been travel-service provider Flightfox, where he was an investor and advisor; Pollenizer, where he was Cofounder and CEO, and which he grew to $3m in revenue; and Spreets, where he was an investor and advisor, and which sold to Yahoo for ~$40m in 13 months.

Terrie Anderson is the VP (APAC) for RiskIQ. Previously she was the Regional Director for Asia Pacific Region for Venafi, the Machine Identity Protection company. Terrie has over 20 years of experience in the cyber security industry and is considered a trusted adviser to many CIO's, board members and digital leaders. Prior to joining Venafi, she has held senior commercial positions at Cyber Sec vendors Entrust, Symantec, and RSA Security.

Alfred is the Investor-in-Residence at Australia’s leading deep technology incubator Cicada Innovations. Formerly Head of AMP New Ventures, AMP’s local and international corporate venture capital program, he also co-founded and led Singtel Innov8’s investment activities through Optus-Innov8 in Australia. If you think he looks familiar, that’s probably because Alfred was named one of Australia’s Top 50 startup influencers by Startup Daily.

Three-time CEO Adrian cofounded and lead AngelCube, Australia’s first venture accelerator, which made investments in 31 local startups. Today he’s Founding Chairman of Investors’ Organisation, Australia’s leading forum for investors focused on tech startups.

Vijay’s a National Security Architect at Dimension Data — the latest in a long line of security-focused architect and engineering roles that have seen him work across research, risk, and solutions design for businesses including Datacraft (now Dimension Data) and CA technologies. In his current role, Vijay has been responsible for transformational projects that move clients to the next level of security — often by successfully integrating the services of innovative vendors.

Fresh from a four-year stint as Vice President of Accel Partners in London, James is a Partner at AirTree Ventures, which has raised more than $306 million to find growth and scale-up-stage software companies. His focus is on enterprise software and cybersecurity, and before joining Airtree he covered Israel for Accel and worked with several of their cybersecurity investments including Forgerock, Aorato, Demisto and Crowdstrike. James is also the founder of Bipsync - a West Coast based and venture backed fintech startup.

Nick is the Global Head of Strategy, Consulting & Professional Services at Trustwave. He was previously the co-Founder of Hivint and cybersecurity collaboration portal Security Colony, as well as an Advisor to Bugcrowd. Before that Nick was co-founder of cyber-security firms SIFT and Stratsec, sold to BAE Systems in 2010, followed by a stint as a corporate adviser focused on the cybersecurity industry. He has served on boards and forums including the Internet Industry Association, the NATA AAC for Software Testing, UNSW Advisory Boards, and the APEC TEL Security & Prosperity Steering Group.

Craig is the Director, Consulting & Professional Services (Pacific) at Trustwave. Prior to that he was the Chief Apiarist and Co-Founder of Hivint and cybersecurity collaboration portal Security Colony. Before that Craig ran the cybersecurity division in APAC for BAE Systems Applied Intelligence and was the Chief Operating Officer for Stratsec. A self-professed “security nerd” Craig has presented at tech-focussed security conferences in the US, Asia and Australia, and has been a member of a number of benchmark development teams for the Centre for Internet Security (CIS).

Ulric is the Principal at King River Capital. Previously he was on the investment team at Right Click Capital, a VC fund that invests in technology businesses with global ambitions. He has deep product expertise in cybersecurity and algorithms, and has done product development at a number of startups. He did his Ph.D. in Computer Science at MIT in Boston and is an alumni of BCG. For kicks, he has a few patents and loves coming up with creative tests for product/market fit.

Damien is the Chairperson of AISA (Australian Information Security Association). Previously he was the Director of Deakin's Centre for Cyber Security Research & Innovation (CSRI). With more than 20 years of experience in senior roles at Symantec, NAB, RSA, Telstra and Melbourne IT, he specialises in cyber security, business governance, compliance and risk management.

Dr. Daniel Potts is a security professional and entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience in the design, implementation, and delivery of embedded and secure systems. Daniel has held technical and executive positions at commercial, startups, and major defence organizations including National ICT Australia, Open Kernel Labs, General Dynamics, and Northrop Grumman. Daniel received his Ph.D. from the University of New South Wales through research into improving the performance of Distributed Systems. Daniel is currently the Director of Engineering of Ghost Australia.

Dr Omaru Maruatona is the CEO at Aiculus, a Cyber-AI company which helps organisations embrace new technology without adding to their risk profile. Omaru is a Cyber security and Machine Learning practitioner with deep industry and research experience. Before founding Aiculus, Omaru worked with Westpac, Computershare and PwC Australia in Machine Learning, Cyber security architecture and strategy. Omaru is a thought leader in the area of Cyber-AI and regularly publishes and speaks at various academic and industry conferences.

Hamish Hawthorn is currently the VP of Corporate Development at Propeller Aero, the global leader in drone-mapping and analytics solutions. He was previously UpGuard’s Chief Operating Officer, driving operations and corporate development activities, and overseeing partnerships with the cyber insurance sector. Hamish has been involved in the commercialisation of new technologies for over twenty 20 years, and his experience spans the software, biotechnology and advanced manufacturing sectors. UpGuard is the world’s first cyber resilience platform, designed to proactively assess cyber risk for every organization. UpGuard monitors the digital footprints of millions of organizations, automates assessment questionnaires, and synthesizes those factors into the most accurate cyber risk score.

Carolyn is a creative and strategic communications and engagement marketing expert. She is passionate about helping clever people and companies to build authentic brands and develop effective strategies to accelerate growth and success. Carolyn's extensive experience includes leadership positions in the media, federal politics, public companies and a world-leading Australian tech startup as well as running her own consulting business. She was previously the Head of Marketing for Nuix and CMO of Devicie.

Start-up advisor, investor and mentor since 2000. Was the Global Director & Chief Technologist at Hewlett Packard Enterprise, as well as led the strategy and development of HP's Business Process as a Service (BPaaS) platform and the generation of horizontal and vertical solutions on that platform. Distinguished Technologist & Chief Technologist-Cloud Security for HP from 2007 - 2013. Archie is currently the Co-Founder / Advisor in Incyzr, the Augmented Consulting Platform.

Eddie is a tech entrepreneur, investor and non-executive director with a significant interest in early stage technology companies. From 2006 - 2017 he was co-founder and CEO of Nuix, taking the Australian tech start-up from an R&D venture with two developers to build a profitable $100M+ global business. Eddie is passionate about ensuring founders retain control of their business as it grows.

Wes has been the co-founder and CEO of two cyber security startups in the United States, selling one (QuadMetrics) to US public company FICO. He has over 20 years of startup experience and serves as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence for Queensland University of Technology. He advises startups, investors, and corporates globally.

Cofounder and CEO of unique travel-focused startup Rome2rio, Michael was previously a Senior Software Development Lead with Microsoft and a cross-departmental Research Associate at Monash University. He earned his PhD on genomic search algorithms at RMIT.

Mark is the APAC Cyber Defense Lead for Accenture. He has 20+ years’ information security experience in the design, implementation and operation of enterprise-level security systems for some of the world’s leading organisations. His specialist areas of expertise are identity and access Management ; cyber defence & operations ; digital and cloud technologies and operating models ; and threat and risk management.

An experienced finance leader with a 20+ year track record across a wide spectrum of services, ranging from investment banking to heading up finance for corporations across Asia Pacific. As CFO, Cornell focusses on finance leadership within the technology sector with a particular emphasis on high growth businesses across Australia and Asia.

Gilad is a hacker. Over 20 years of experience in securing and breaking the security of anything from OSs and browsers to embedded systems and hardware micro-controllers. Gilad has a rare, hands-on experience with the bare-metals of the Cyber industry. An entrepreneur and investor with significant financial and technological successes behind him, both in the governmental and private sectors, and a board member at MazeBolt Security, Gilad is passionate about new technologies and helping young Cyber startups create the future.

Current cofounder and CEO of Darwinium. Previously owner of global fraud and identity commercial markets and strategy for LexisNexis Risk Solutions Business Services. Co-Founder and VP product management and product marketing, and patent holder for ThreatMetrix the leading Digital Identity company acquired by LexisNexis a global leader in identity, fraud, financial crime and credit risk solutions.

A well-regarded cybersecurity industry executive with over 30 years of broad operational, strategy and P&L experience. He served as a member of the distinguished corporate or cybersecurity business unit leadership teams at premier Fortune 500 technology companies Microsoft, Symantec, and CA Technologies, and as CTO of Finjan Software, a first-generation advanced persistent threat start-up, known today as Singtel’s Secure Web Gateway. Most recently, Ron was the CEO of Israeli start-up, BioCatch, an innovator in cognitive biometrics and continuous authentication.

Director at Penten. A technology executive with 20 years experience in leadership positions within Government and Commercial industries, having held senior roles working with highly qualified and experienced people in the US DoD, NATO, the Australian DoD and Australian Industry. Kristian has a proven record of technical, interpersonal and engagement skills, successfully guiding teams to accomplish complex modernisation tasks in challenging environments.

Ben is a cyber security entrepreneur and engineer. After a career in the military, Ben worked as a consultant in a number of Australian government and commercial cyber incident response teams. He co-founded several companies, including M5 Network Security. Now with his new venture, Penten, he is working to create the next generations of cyber deceptions to help protect business data and detect and track intruders.

Matthew is a founder and CEO of cyber engineering firm Penten which was named 2018 Australian Business of the Year and awarded 2018 Australian Platforms and Infrastructure Innovation of the Year. A successful technology entrepreneur with experience in development and commercialisation of software, hardware, cyber security and communications technologies. Matthew led the team that successfully built and sold award winning cyber security firm M5 Network Security to US defense contractor Northrop Grumman and build and sold an IP communications firm to US business communications provider ShoreTel, Inc (now Mitel).

Ami Hofman is a Cybersecurity evangelist and industry veteran with over 25 years’ experience in the IT industry. During this time, Ami has performed a number of cybersecurity strategic roles and currently serves as the Technology Lead across NTT security solutions and platforms. Ami is based in Tel Aviv supporting key innovation initiatives and strategic investments in the local startup community.

Jesse is a Cyber Security technologist and entrepreneur. His career ranges from scientific and engineering R&D for NATO, to joining and helping incubate two unicorn start-ups (CrowdStrike and LightSpeed). Jesse is currently working for Barclays Ventures as Director of Cyber Innovation seeking to build new cyber-based business lines, partner & joint-venture with industry, and invest in the top cyber start-ups across the globe.