Criterion Conferences

Sheila FitzPatrick is President and Founder of FitzPatrick & Associates, a strategic global data privacy and protection compliance consulting firm.

Sheila has over thirty-five years’ experience in global data privacy, data protection and sovereignty compliance and is one of the foremost experts on the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Sheila has been honoured as one of Silicon Valley’s Women of Influence 2017.

Sheila works with numerous multinational companies (including Fortune 500 companies) providing an extensive array of data privacy and sovereignty services.

Sheila also works with corporate legal, finance and HR departments, as well as sales, marketing, and product development teams to help position data privacy compliance as a competitive advantage.

Rachel Dixon is the Privacy and Data Protection Deputy Commissioner at the Office of the Victorian Information Commissioner (OVIC). Rachel is among the most prominent Australian experts on technology and culture. Her professional background encompasses IT and telecommunications, privacy, identity, and security, along with more esoteric work in film, television and new media production.

In former lives Rachel headed the Australian Government’s digital identity initiative (as Head of Identity at the Digital Transformation Office). She has also has worked for Suncorp as Executive Program Manager for Business Transformation, where she oversaw consolidation of 17 legacy data stores into a new big data platform. For more than five years she was COO at Viocorp, where she developed advanced media and advertising platforms. Prior to that she was a senior executive at Seattle-based thePlatform for Media, delivering and supporting major platforms for online and mobile for Telstra and News Corporation, and before that was General Manager at Massive Interactive, where she led a development and design team on state-of-the art systems for the Airbus A380, among other projects.

Rachel has also been a Director of the Australian Centre for Advanced Computing and Communications, Deputy Chair at Choice (the Australian Consumers Association), and Director of several small software companies. In 1998 she co-founded FIBRE, a telecommunications company servicing the Motion Picture Post Production and VFX industry. She is a past Director and Chair of several other media, software and telecommunications companies and a former senior executive with Film Australia and Film Victoria. She has produced and executive produced several hundred film and television projects, many of which won major awards.

Rachel has also delivered many keynotes on technology, privacy, and artificial intelligence and is particularly interested in the impacts of culture upon technology and vice-versa.

Kate Carruthers is Chief Data & Analytics Officer for UNSW Sydney, and is also an Adjunct Senior Lecturer in the School of Computer Science & Engineering. She is a Certified Information Security Manager and is currently undertaking postgraduate studies in cybersecurity. Kate has extensive experience in senior roles in ICT, marketing, data and digital; and is a member of the NSW Government’s Data Analytics Centre Advisory Board.

She is co-founder of several startups, including IoTM, and currently advises a number of startups.

Stephen Bolinger is the Chief Privacy Officer of Cochlear, a global medical device manufacturer.  Stephen’s technology career spans three continents and more than two decades, with the last twelve years devoted to privacy and data protection matters.  He has held key roles in large enterprises, including nine years at Microsoft, as well as start-ups as small as seven employees. Stephen is admitted to practice law in the U.S. states of California and Washington, holds an LLM in Computer and Communications Law from Queen Mary University of London, and is recognised as a Fellow of Information Privacy with the International Association of Privacy Professionals.

He is a highly passionate and motivated Information Technology professional with strong business acumen and deep understanding of core IT principles across multiple disciplines.

His career spans two decades and as has been primarily focused on the Information Security aspect of Information Technology.

His experience ranges from some of the most simplistic systems and management, to some of the most complex. From low level technical engineering through to business leadership.

Amar is the Group Head of Data Strategy & Governance for QBE Insurance. Amar has a wealth of experience in driving data driven culture, partnering with business to drive Data Strategy and Governance initiatives, and delivering programs with 100 +team size. Through his career, he held various roles from an Analyst to a General Manager and played lead roles in large Business Transformation Programs, M&A programs, Data Strategy and Data Governance programs.

Amar is passionate about solving complex business problems through Innovative use of Technology, Data, Analytics & Digital platforms.

Amar believes the Technology, Digital platforms, Delivery & SI partners coupled with Internal and External Data is creating complexity on Data Ownership and Business Risk, hence he advocates and suggests that every large organisation must have Board approved Data Policy in place and also a solid Data Governance Framework to treat Data as a Strategic Asset.

Marko Jovanovic is the Group Manager – Privacy Compliance and Data Management for Australia Post. Marko has experience in working in the consumer services industry, in particular organisations undergoing digital transformation. In his time at Australia Post, Marko has managed an extensive Enterprise privacy program, and has a deep knowledge of compliance, risk management and data governance measures.

Fred Thiele is a career-long information security professional that was fortunate enough to discover the field in 1998. He currently protects the data of over 9 million Australian’s as the CISO and Transformation Director of Velocity Frequent Flyer.

Fred has spent his work-life in large enterprises, mid-sized consulting firms, small start-ups, and as an entrepreneur, across all areas of the information security domain. Throughout a range of company sizes and industries, Fred has built a pragmatic, risk-based approach that drive decisions in complex technology and regulatory environments. Fred helped develop one of the first quantitative risk models to manage cyber security programs in the early 2000’s, which formed the basis for the VERIS framework for cyber security incident reporting.

Kate is the Acting Director of the Information and Data Policy team at the NSW Department of Finance, Services and Innovation. She works with colleagues across the NSW public sector to improve all of government data maturity, capability and outcomes. Kate has a PhD from Monash University, is a co-founder of the Recordkeeping Roundtable discussion group and has been awarded three national Mander Jones Awards from the Australian Society of Archivists (2007, 2014, 2016), for publications making the greatest contribution to the recordkeeping profession.

Daphne is the Group Privacy Technology Manager at Telstra, leading the enterprise Privacy team within Compliance and Regulatory Affairs. As well as providing privacy advice to technology projects within Telstra, Daphne is also responsible for developing the Privacy team’s engagement strategy to promote privacy awareness and to help stimulate discussion on key privacy issues.

Daphne joined Telstra in 2015 as a Cyber Influence Manager in Security Operations before taking up her current role. Prior to this, Daphne worked as a Communications Advisor (Cyber and Information Security) for the Department of Defence in Canberra.

Daphne holds a Bachelor of Arts, a Bachelor of Laws and a Master of Business Administration from Monash University.

Mark is the CMO of Showpo, where he is leading the pure play fashion e-Commerce retailer in growing globally. Mark has worked on many top global and local brands, in house and consulting, including Woolworths Group, Officeworks, Dymocks, Catch of the Day, Microsoft, Allianz, Vodafone, and many others. He has extensive experience in attracting, mentoring and retaining top talent, having managed teams for almost 20 years. He was named a top 50 CMO in Australia in 2018 by CMO.com.au.