Meet Our Speakers
Our speakers are experts in their fields. Many work with small business owners, innovation managers and entrepreneurs. Some lead corporate teams that provide foundational services essential to small business success. There will be no “fluff” just practical strategies, processes and tools designed to give you the Edge on your competition.
Ana Marinkovic
Executive General Manager Small Business Bank
NAB
Meet Ana
Ana is the Executive General Manager of Business Direct and Small Business Bank at Australia’s largest Small Business Bank. She leads a team of over 1600 dedicated NAB employees including in field bankers, six national hubs, Business Bank servicing teams and specialised support functions all of which actively work to support the success of 550,000 business groups and 1.1 million small business customers in Australia.
Michael Vitale
Professorial Fellow at Faculty of Engineering and IT
University of Melbourne
Meet Michael
Professor Michael Vitale is an education entrepreneur and an entrepreneur educator. Michael graduated from Harvard Business School with an MBA in 1982 and then joined the Harvard faculty. He has co-founded 4 companies and moved to Australia to become the Foundation Professor of Information Systems at the University of Melbourne. He has been a faculty member at Melbourne Business School, Monash University and Dean of the Australian Graduate School of Management (AGSM). He co-developed the Master of Management (Innovation) course at Melbourne University and was the Inaugural General Manager of the Wade Institute of Entrepreneurship. He is an active angel investor, innovation adviser and Director of several start-ups.
Mark Carter
Keynote Speaker, MC & Trainer
Mark Carter
Meet Mark
Mark Carter is an international keynote speaker, trainer and coach. He has over 25 years experience as a global learning and development professional with his first role being developing leaders for Contiki Holidays.
His TEDx talk was the movie trailer for his second book, ‘Add Value’, published globally by WILEY.
Mark is the creator of a learning management system for SME’s and a media contributor. He regularly consults businesses around critical business pillars including: culture, leadership, value, adaptability and sales. His keynotes and rich academy of training programs all have a common thread specialisation in people and behaviour.
Born in England, raised in Scotland, nurtured by Europe and several round world trips he’s called Australia home since 2002. Mangoes, after all, don’t grow in Edinburgh.
Liz Grant
Owner
What Your Customers Want
Meet Liz
Liz is a small business growth specialist who knows exactly how to help your business thrive. With a wealth of expertise in customer research, communications, content strategy development and execution, project management, and online presence design. Liz and her company, Know what your customers want, will help you navigate the crowded online landscape with ease, designing engaging websites, newsletters, and social media content that tell your brand’s story while adhering to brand guidelines. As an experienced coach and mentor, Liz loves sharing her insights and knowledge to help small businesses succeed.
Bill Lang
Director
Small Business Australia
Meet Bill
Bill is a business educator, coach and advisor with a passion for helping businesses improve performance through individual skill development, strategy execution and capitalising on the opportunities presented by the digital and international business revolutions.
His 30 years’ experience in building better businesses across a range of industries and countries began at top tier consulting firms, and then in his own businesses which serve clients operating in over 50 countries.
His entrepreneurial journey began with ‘Dr Dog’, a hotdog selling start-up co-founded while studying at Melbourne University in 1985. After graduating as a Baker Scholar from Harvard Business School, he co-founded internet technology and marketing businesses in Australia and Silicon Valley that culminated in a $120 million global alliance with AT&T and British Telecom.
Bill works with the team at Small Business Australia and their team of business coaches to help business owners and leaders achieve their goals, to achieve more success with less stress.
Rukshana Sashankan
General Manager – Practitioners
PEXA
Meet Rukshana
Rukshana has over 18 years of extensive experience in senior operations and leadership roles, generating and building relationships with critical internal and external stakeholders, and coaching teams and individuals to success. She has a proven ability to motivate and inspire teams to deliver large-scale change, driving a superior customer experience. As the leader of PEXA’s National Practitioner Team, Rukshana is at the forefront of digital property transactions, providing integrated solutions to practitioner customers. Along with her team she continues to play an instrumental part in evolving the way property is transacted.
Damien Gooden
Chief Executive
HR Central
Meet Damien
Damian is the Managing Director of HR Central which provides HR Solutions for over 18000 people across Franchises, Bookkeepers/Accountants and Small Businesses. Their subscription service includes access to their cloud-based platform and experienced humans that clients can call for support and advice. He is a skilled professional with a technical background and a passion for people. As a firm believer in the power of technology, Damian has embraced the use of technology to change the way things are done and make them more efficient, saving countless hours for businesses. He works closely with clients and staff to optimise business processes and deliver technical solutions.
Hannah Gibbon
Chief Executive Officer
The Founder CEO
Meet Hannah
Hannah works with Founder CEOs, helping them to navigate the complexity and risks associated with rapid growth. Hannah is an expert in diagnosing specific business challenges, planting the seeds of the solutions, and watching them blossom.
Hannah understands that fast growing businesses face a range of unique challenges and that all too often avoidable mistakes prevent great business from realising their full potential
Evan Williams
Director Microsoft Azure and Security Business Group A/NZ
Microsoft
Meet Evan
Evan is the current Cyber Security and Azure Business Group Director for Australia and New Zealand. Previously, he held the position of Microsoft 365 Business Group Director until June 2022. Before his business group director roles, Evan served as the Small, Medium and Partner Group Director, collaborating with Microsoft Australia’s business group leaders to drive sales and marketing efforts and provide solutions for small to midmarket businesses. He also managed Microsoft Australia’s channel strategy, supporting a partner network of 14,000 Australian businesses that offer Microsoft-based solutions and services.
James Buzzard
Partner CTO and Technology Strategist
Microsoft
Meet James
James is a Partner CTO and Technology Strategist. James works with Partners to help them strategically leverage the breadth and depth of the Microsoft portfolio for their clients. James has experience working in advisory firms, higher education and has run his own MSP. James has a diverse background, having trained in Neuroscience and worked as a chef in the past.
Jennifer Quirk
Senior Corporate Training Associate
Aptitude Management
Meet Jennifer
Jen is an experienced and highly motivated commercial business leader and corporate training professional with a successful 30-year track record with global blue-chip companies in the UK, Australia and Asia Pacific.
Jen has particular expertise in identifying and analysing business needs and the development and execution of strategy across multiple channels that deliver sales growth, new market penetration, turnaround strategies and profitability.
Samantha Tait
CEO & Founder
Thinktank Social
Meet Samantha
Ian Roberts
Founder/CEO
Roberts Analysis & Market Planning
Meet Ian
Ian is an expert at unearthing the nuggets from the myriad of data that business owners are confronted with in the “Information Age”. He realises that utilising this data requires specialist knowledge, skills and methodical processes in order to make sense of what we see in charts and research.
Ian has a unique blend of analytical and digital marketing skills that he uses to help organisations get actionable insights from data and improve customer experience and performance of digital and traditional marketing.
Wendi Dawson
Director of Partnerships and Client Engagement
Coraggio
Meet Wendi
Wendi has an extensive background in leadership, sales, and brand strategy and has excelled in delivering exceptional customer experiences, fostering high-performance cultures, and building business communities. Wendi’s extensive experience in business leadership includes leading organisational change and driving growth in volatile and uncertain times. As President of the Melbourne Business Network, Wendi understands the needs of small to medium-sized businesses and advocates strongly for the Melbourne business community and the role that this sector plays in fostering strong communities.
Wendi also thrives on the work she does with Coraggio, who provide peer based advisory board services to privately owned businesses through the provision of “fearless objective advice”.
Alex Solo
Co-founder
Sprintlaw
Meet Alex
Alex is the co-founder of Sprintlaw a law firm that operates completely online and which is transforming the way legal services are delivered to businesses. Founded in 2017 it has provided legal assistance to 40,000+ start-ups and small businesses with a team of expert lawyers supported by custom-built technology.
Thanks to the vision and hard work of Alex and his team, Sprintlaw is Australia’s fastest growing legal firm, and was the top ranked legal business in the Financial Times APAC High Growth Companies List (2022, 2023), the AFR Fast Starters (2021) and the Deloitte’s APAC Technology Fast 500 (2021) as well as a host of other awards for innovation in service delivery.
Robbie Carter
Principal Business Advisor
EXVOS
Meet Robbie
Robbie is a seasoned Founder and Principal Business Advisor of EXVOS, with rich experience as a coach, facilitator, and speaker. With over 25 years of international exposure as a manager, consultant, and coach across diverse industries, Robbie has developed deep expertise in all aspects of human resources, particularly in organisational design and development, high-performing teams, and transformative leadership. Robbie recognises that navigating the intricacies of rapid growth necessitates strong leadership, talent, and capability, and that great teams are not formed by chance.
Michael Kerr
Director
Kerr Capital
Meet Michael
Michael is a dedicated professional committed to helping business owners attain successful sale outcomes that significantly enhance their financial and personal wellbeing. He established Kerr Capital in 2002 after having senior management experience across a broad and diverse business sector and he has a deep understanding of how the business sale market works. Michael recognises that a successful exit and sale outcome can only be achieved through investment in smart advice, rigorous planning, and strong management of the end-to-end planning and selling process.
Elle-May Michael
Managing Director, Curator
in.cube8r gallery & emporium
Meet Elle-May
Elle works by providing practical advice that business owners can understand about how to grow their “handmade” brands providing them branding opportunities, mentoring, customer feedback and community benefits just not available in other spaces.
Rob Hartnett
Managing Partner
Value Selling Associates
Meet Rob
Rob Hartnett is a global award-winning enterprise sales performance specialist and the author of the book “It’s All Possible”, on how to use a growth mindset to drive extraordinary outcomes.
Rob and his teams have won numerous global sales and marketing awards at organisations such as Apple, HP, Publicis Mojo & Miller Heiman Group (Korn Ferry). He has also been involved in a number of start up’s and successful small businesses and a regular in the media appearing in Kochies Business Builders, Fortune Magazine, Business Daily on Sky & TickerTV.
Hayden Brass
Founder and Managing Director
Zea
Meet Hayden
For the past few years, Hayden has lived and breathed Zea. He has been the driving force behind transforming a family project into a thriving business that impacts thousands of people throughout the world. He scaled his family business from about $5,000 a month in sales to over$60,000 a month over the course of a single year. It is Hayden’s personal mission to develop pure, Australian-made products that positively impact both people, and the planet. When he is not working and talking about Kunzea, Hayden enjoys getting outdoors, exploring nature and spending time with partner Jade and newborn son Hendrix.
Mark Fletcher
Head of Insights
Octomedia
Meet Mark
Mark has over 30 years’ experience as an insights professional conducting qualitative, quantitative, and secondary data market research for Australian and global organisations across all industry sectors. He has a particular interest in research in the food and retail sectors, and in the production of thought leadership reports around emerging consumer trends.
Tara Fry
Partner
The Social Connection
Meet Tara
Tara, along with business partner Nat, together have over 20 years of industry experience. Tara and Nat pivoted their careers as journalists and newspaper editors to business owners and social media managers in 2021 with the start of their business The Social Connection. With two decades of combined experience, they can help align your business mission & marketing efforts, connect you with your audience & grow your business platform, through contemporary forms like social media management and email marketing, or traditional methods like media release writing, & essential services like proofreading.
Matt Vitale
Co-Founder
Birchal
Meet Matt
Matt is a Co-Founder of Birchal, which is Australia’s top equity crowdfunding platform. With a background as a highly skilled financial services lawyer and entrepreneur, Matt brings a wealth of experience to his role. He has worked at a prestigious law firm in private practice and has also founded multiple successful businesses. Due to his expertise in the regulation of financial services and crowdfunding, Matt frequently provides insights as a media commentator and actively contributes to scholarly journals and industry consultations.
Sam Ralton
Director Working Capital Solutions
Octet
Meet Sam
Sam Ralton is the Director – Working capital Solutions with Octet Finance. Sam works hard to ensure that Octet continues to provide innovative supply chain finance and payments solutions to Australian businesses and their local and global trading partners, Octet’s vision is to connect and grow the world’s businesses.
Since 2008 Octet has powered the growth of over 200,000 businesses, ensuring that local and global trade is fast, simple and safe and providing the supply chain technology and financial capability you need to grow.
The Conference Hub
The conference sessions, partner and sponsor offers and additional resources will be available from the Conference Hub from Monday 6th November.
Sponsors and Partners
