Speaker Profiles

Phil Minns joined the Department of Defence in February 2008 as the inaugural Deputy Secretary People Strategies and Policy (DEPSEC PSP). As DEPSEC PSP, Phil is responsible for developing contemporary and compelling employee value propositions and policies to foster a climate in which people want to join the Defence organisation, want to work at their best, and want to stay.

Phil is an experienced senior HR practitioner and has worked with private and public sector organisations both as a consultant and as a senior executive. His expertise includes aligning HR strategy to business strategy, industrial relations strategy and negotiations, programs to drive cultural change and process improvements, remuneration and rewards strategies, talent management and workforce planning frameworks.

Phil holds Bachelor and Master degrees in Economics from the University of Sydney and is an Affiliate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Samantha Palmer has overseen people strategy and communication at the Australian Government's Department of Health and Ageing since early 2009.

Samantha led the development and delivery of the Department's innovative People Strategy 2010-2015: Performance through People and is a member of the Department's People Committee, Audit Committee, and Bullying and Harrasment Working Group. During her time as Disability Champion Samantha has been a driving force in the establishment of the Network for Staff with Disability, the implementation and improvement of the Disability Action Plan, and the establishment of increase education, awareness and support for staff with Disability.

Prior to joining DoHA Samantha was the Deputy-General Manager External Relations, People and Assurance for the Child Support Agency and was part of a senior executive team who delivered significant child support and internal reforms for the benefit of separated families and children.

Before joining the Australian Public Service Samantha worked in senior positions in Queensland for more than 15 years including for the Queensland Government (Office of Fair Trading, Environment Protection Authority, Transport, road safety, Housing), and Griffith University.

Samantha has also worked for the non-profit and private sector, and lectured part-time at the Queensland University of Technology.

Samantha Palmer has a Master of Public Administration from the University of Queensland and a Bachelor of Business (Communication) from QUT.

David Diment is the First Assistant Commissioner of ATO People and a member of the Tax Office executive.

A broad range of HR services fall into his responsibility. David's oversight of the strategic direction of the people system takes into consideration the overall health of the people system and how it aligns with business needs. He was appointed First Assistant Commissioner in April 2008.

Over his 20-year career at the Tax Office he has established a strong track record in leadership in the ATO's compliance and operations. He holds a BA (Hons) from Sydney University.

John has a long career in senior management beginning with his early years with the Department of Agriculture in Victoria. He then worked for IBM in Australia, and focused on public sector activities, including work with CITEC in Queensland. He subsequently founded his own company which initially handled confidential projects with the Department of Defense and Parliament, prior to building internet banking systems for major banks around the world. After the sale of his company to Newscorp in 2002, John has been engaged in strategic management of a number of companies in NSW and Queensland.

Peter McIlwain is Director, Performance and Development, Public Sector Workforce Branch in the NSW Department of Premier and Cabinet.

Peter joined the NSW public sector in 2009, after working as a senior executive in three Australian Government agencies in Melbourne and Sydney.

His expertise is in helping organisations to deal strategically with functional and structural change, especially where there is an impact on client services.

His current brief is to develop workforce management products and services to assist NSW public sector agencies.

Craig Farrell is currently Chief Human Resources Officer in the People Strategy and Services Division at the Department of Immigration and Citizenship. Prior to this role Craig was Director National HR Operations at the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations. Craig holds a Graduate Certificate in Management Studies from the University of Canberra and an Advanced Certificate in Human Resources Studies from Southern Cross University.

Jo is a senior Public Servant with many years experience across a range of ACT and Commonwealth Agencies.

An organisation development enthusiast, Jo has a record of achieving whole of organisation cultural change. In 2010 Jo had a lead role implementing a safety program to rectify issues arising from the Home Insulation Program. Currently she is the Assistant Secretary for Human Resources at the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency.

Elizabeth is an experienced Human Resources executive, having spent the past six years on executive teams of ASX100 listed companies, working with colleagues and Boards to achieve change in both growth and turnaround contexts. Elizabeth currently holds the role of Chief Executive, Human Resources at Transfield Services.

Prior to this Elizabeth spent 11 years at the National Australia Bank in various Human Resources roles across the breadth of the financial services businesses, including international experience in the UK operations. In her last role with the NAB she was responsible for supporting the business and cultural change required after the bank's trading losses of the mid 2000's. She has an MBA from RMIT University and a Business undergraduate degree.

Chris is Manager Organisational Development in the Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment. She has been in this role for six years and previously managed Corporate Planning teams in State and Local Government (for 10 years). Prior to her career in government organisations Chris was in involved in Geographic education. With qualifications in Earth Sciences (B Science), Education (Dip Ed), Public Relations (Grad Dip PR) and Organisational Change (Masters Applied Science), Chris is able to bring all of her passions to her current role in DSE.

Ron Heffernan has had careers in the banking, manufacturing, petroleum, higher education and public sector industries with experience primarily in human resources and related fields.

For the past two years Ron has been the Executive Director People & Performance for the Department of Transport and Main Roads in Queensland. In this role he has been the accountable executive for all people matters for the Department's 10,500 strong workforce. During this period he also spent five months as General Manager People & Capability responsible for all people matters, workplace health & safety and corporate accommodation/facilities functions for the department.

Ron has been with the Queensland Public Service for the last 12 years. He brings a wealth of executive management experience in corporate services, strategic direction, setting employment policy, major change initiatives and superannuation administration.

Ron has a Bachelor of Business and Diploma of Superannuation Management.

With expertise in human & organisational dynamics, enhanced through a successful 20-year career in both public & private sectors, Helen Wood established TMS Consulting in 2006 to enable her skills and knowledge to be shared with a wider client base. As a skilled leader and facilitator, Helen has guided several organisations through periods of major change. Her ability to quickly ascertain a client's needs and devise timely, effective solutions has made her a highly sought-after strategic advisor. Helen is passionate about delivering measurable results for clients and has instilled this value in the TMS Consulting team. Typical outcomes that Helen has achieved for her clients include: significant improvements in team dynamics and productivity, measureable improvements in workplace culture and attitudinal survey, positive feedback from clients and stakeholders, gains in efficiency and business process improvements and clear strategic focus and an enhanced ability to describe and realise future states.

Rory Martin is the HR Senior Business Partner in the People and Performance section at the Department Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. In this role he has been a primary contributor to the review of the performance management framework, aligning employee effort to business outcomes. Rory has over 13 years experience in both large and small agencies with a strong background in business and human capital management, including implementation of IT solutions to streamline work processes. He actively promotes the 'HR Business Partner' model, ensuring HR is placed as a contemporary contributor and core to business. Rory is a passionate individual with qualifications in business and human resources and hopes to one day finish writing his book – HR: Human Remains.

Angus Macalister has been Chief Operating Officer and General Manager of AIM NSW/ACT since June 2008.

AIM is Australia's largest provider of private education to the Management and Leadership sector and has a core mission of "Developing better managers and better leaders for a better society". As a not for distribution company, AIM is proud to reinvest every cent that clients invest in education and Learning back into the provision of the very best researched solutions for their members and clients.

Angus has specific accountability for both Business Development and Delivery across both NSW and ACT including New Product Development, Curriculum Design, Student support, Compliance and Qualifications.

Prior roles have included being CEO for Dore Achievement Centres in Australia/ NZ (an organisation that support kids with learning difficulties such as ADHD, Dyslexia or Dyspraxia through exercise based remediation). General Manager and Managing Director for both DDI Asia Pacific and SDI Asia Pacific ( a large US based HR Consulting firm) and Partner in the Search firm JML Australia.

Prior to moving to Australia in 1993, Angus spent ten years with Dixons Stores Group in the UK ultimately heading HR for Scotland, Northern Ireland and Northern England with accountability for over 140 retail stores.

Grant Nicholson is the director responsible for ICT human resourcing, the intranet and Whole of Government coordination at IP Australia. Grant started at IP Australia as an examiner in the Patents & Designs branch before moving through a variety of technical ICT roles over the last decade. In his current role, Grant has managed the creation of ICT resourcing as a discipline within the IT branch. This discipline complements and spans across corporate HR, procurement and financing functions. Grant has driven the development of IP Australia's ICT Workforce Plan and is continuing to manage the implementation and further development of that plan as part of the organisation's overall approach to ICT resourcing.

Leanne has worked in a number of government departments in Victoria and in the APS. She has led the OD function in the Department of Primary Industries and the Department of Justice in Victoria and had senior roles in various other HR teams. Along with a strong background in public sector management she has a long involvement in leadership development, culture surveys and performance management. Leanne has also spent time researching and analysing public sector values and people data. She has a passion for simple, useful OD initiatives that enhance people decisions and ultimately organisational productivity.

Helen Kidston is the Manager, People and Capability for the Australian Communications and Media Authority. In this role she designs organisational development and workforce planning processes and strategies to support the agency business objectives. Helen has worked in the broader HR field for over twenty years in a variety of federal and state sector organisations, culminating in executive roles immediately prior to the ACMA including as HR Director for the NSW Attorney-General's Department. Helen's drive and focus is to integrate strategy across the whole human capital remit in a manner to enable core, business and transformative strategy.

Danielle Leigh has worked in a variety of federal and state sector agencies in the areas of Workforce Planning, strategic HR and broader human capital policy development. Her work has involved both practical, agency focussed initiatives and also broader sector support from her time in the Public Sector Workforce Office of the NSW Department of Premier and Cabinet. Currently Danielle is a key architect of the ACMA's practical tools and approaches to workforce planning and liaises with the various agency business areas to ensure that these are fit for purpose and reflect the agency appropriately. Her innovative and problem solving approach has been instrumental in progressing the adoption of workforce planning and related human capital initiatives in the agency.

Rosemary Howard is Executive Director and Conjoint Professor at AGSM Executive Programs, Australian School of Business, UNSW. She brings a wealth of experience in senior management with executive leadership positions in public and private sectors. Prior to joining AGSM, Rosemary was CEO at TelstraClear and inaugural Managing Director, Telstra Wholesale. Previously, Rosemary was Executive Director, NSW Department of State Government.

Rosemary holds a Bachelor of Science from Sydney University, Masters of Science and Society from UNSW and Graduate Diploma of Management from AGSM. In 2003, she was awarded an Australian Government Centenary Medal for 'Service to Australian Society in Business Leadership'.

As a senior L&OD practitioner Andrew's career spans more than 20 years including 5 years as General Manager of L&OD at CEVA Logistics Australia and New Zealand and 15 years in the Royal Australian Air Force.

At Blended, Andrew and his team partner with organisations to leverage Harvard Business Publishing's resources in support of developing leadership capability and organisational performance. Andrew focuses on supporting organisation wide integration of HBP's resources to support teaching, learning and performance linked to business imperatives. At the heart of his approach is use of the 70/20/10 framework and leader-led learning.

Andrew holds a Masters in Human Resource and General Management and a Bachelor of Administrative Leadership. In 2005 Andrew was awarded a Commendation for his services to leadership development as Chief Instructor at the Air Force's Officer's Training School.

Craig is an experienced accountant and small business manager, but in 1999 he saw the light and became part of the HR community when he joined an eRecruitment software vendor. He remained there for more than 4 years, initially in a business development role, then as General Manager. During this time this vendor became on of the dominant providers of eRecruitment software, at one point holding more than 40% of the market.

Drawing on his experience over those 4+ years, at the beginning of 2004 Craig started Pinpoint HRM with the objective of assisting employers to maximise the benefits from their investment in eRecruitment through more effective planning, vendor selection, implementation and optimisation. Within 2 years the business added recruitment strategy and change management services, and by 2008 was providing services to support the selection and implementation of Performance Management and L&D systems. In September 2010 Pinpoint HRM made the BRW list of 100 fastest growing companies in Australia. Today the business has a team of more than 20 subject matter experts and thought leaders who assist with designing, implementing and optimising the tools, tactics and strategies used at each stage of the employment lifecycle.

Since creating the business, Craig has led consulting projects with some of Australia 's largest employers. These projects include recruitment strategy development, e-Recruitment selection and implementation and HCM software planning, evaluation and execution.

After ten years as a strategy consultant with Arthur Andersen, Bain International and more recently Deloitte, Tom recognised that "people" drove sustainable organisational performance not "PowerPoint".

Tom has since focused on developing leadership capability in organisations so individuals can have maximum impact, inspire and motivate their teams, and therefore drive organisational outcomes.

Tom is a Deloitte Partner based in Australia, and currently works with 80 of the countries' leading organisations to help design and execute their leadership development programs. Tom founded and launched the DLA two years ago to ensure clients had access to a world class blended solution as part of their overarching programme. Tom is a certified practicing accountant (CPA) and a Master of Business Administration (MBA). Tom is on the Advisory Board of the Australian Applied Management Colloquium and is a frequent presenter and facilitator on building the next generation of leaders

Arie is the Global Client Manager of DLA and implements blended leadership development best practice with major clients across sector & industry.

With over 4,000 executives from more than 120 Organisations using the DLA, Arie has unparalleled insight into the use of cutting edge techniques to cost effectively and pragmatically build the capability of tomorrow's business leaders.

Arie strongly believes in the direct correlation between Organisational Improvement through Leadership Performance and Impact.

With Commerce & Management degrees and a background in Digital Professional Services, Arie's passion lies in the development and connectivity of global leaders through innovative thinking and online education.