Innovate. Why Now?

Two-time Walkley Award winner, Virginia Trioli is one of Australia’s best-known journalists, with a formidable reputation as a television anchor, radio presenter, writer and commentator. She is much sought-after as a speaker and MC, and combines a rigorous interviewing style with an often wicked sense of humour.

Virginia, is an honours graduate in fine arts from the University of Melbourne and La Trobe University, and in 1996 published’Generation F”, her celebrated response to Helen Garner’s ‘First Stone’.

In 1995 she won Australian journalism's highest honour, the Walkley Award for her business reporting and in 2001 Virginia won a second Walkley for her landmark interview with the former Defence Minister, Peter Reith, over the notorious Children Overboard issue. In 1999 she won the Melbourne Press Club's Best Columnist award, The Quill. In 2006 she won Broadcaster of the Year at the ABC Local Radio Awards.

Virginia has held senior positions at the Age newspaper and the Bulletin magazine For eight years she hosted the Drive Program on 774 ABC Melbourne, and the Morning Program on 702 ABC Sydney. She has been the host of ABC TV premiere news and current affairs programs, 7.30 and Lateline, also Artscape and Sunday Arts. She is a regular fill-in host on Q and A.

She currently anchors ABC News Breakfast on ABC 1 and ABC News 24. Virginia is married with three step-children, a four year old, and one chocolate labrador.

Like ABBA, IKEA and the chef from The Muppets, Anders hails from Sweden. Like the former, he has a global outlook, and using his reformed lawyer skills has managed to convince the Australian government of his Crocodile Dundee credentials, and since holding dual passports, calls himself Swedish-Australian, or Australian-Swedish, depending on who is doing better at the Winter Olympics.

With an average of 240 international travel days a year, he recently clocked up 38 per cent more miles than Hillary Clinton in her final full year as Secretary of State. As such, he is always on the search for avant-garde ideas that expand minds and inspire a change of heart. Anders is a futurist, but also an occasional traditionalist, who loves belonging locally, while still travelling with his own Chia Seeds and his favourite, smuggled pillow from his mum’s house in Sweden.

Anders’ view is that the future and the now are converging in a city or start-up near you, giving the curious, the creative and the courageous a competitive and sustainable edge. Since founding his company, Thinque, in 2005 he has been helping leaders on 4 continents decode trends, decipher what’s next and turn provocative questions into proactive strategies.

Graeme Whickman is president and chief executive officer, Ford of Australia and New Zealand at Ford Motor Company, a position he has held since 2015. In this role, he is leading the team delivering Ford’s transformation plan to that will result in a world-class marketing and sales organization serving the wants and needs of our customers in Australia.

Previously, Whickman served as the vice president, Marketing Sales & Service, Ford of Australia, playing a key role in delivering the transformation of Ford’s business in the market, including the work to revamp the dealer experience, resulting in dramatic improvements in customer satisfaction with both sales and service.

Since joining the company in 1997, Whickman has delivered landmark work in Asia Pacific, Europe and North America. Prior to moving to Australia, he served as vice president of Marketing and vice president of Sales for Ford of Canada, where he pioneered the company’s global consumer experience initiatives. Before that, he was the executive director of Marketing for Asia Pacific, leading the transformation of the company’s key marketing processes in Asia Pacific.

Among other company assignments, he was the market director for Ford in New Zealand and worked on customer relationship management for Ford in the U.K. Prior to coming to Ford, Whickman served with Coca Cola in New Zealand and Hertz Rentacar in the U.K. Whickman grew up in England and New Zealand, and obtained a Bachelor of Business in Marketing from Auckland University of Technology (NZ) in 1998.

Mr David Thodey is chairman of Australia’s national scientific research agency, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). The CSIRO is Australia’s innovation catalyst, collaborating to boost Australia’s innovation performance. As set out in its Strategy 2020, the CSIRO creates benefit for Australia through impactful science and innovation. He is also chair of Jobs for NSW and on the Advisory Boards of SquarePeg Capital and UHG. Mr Thodey was chief executive officer (CEO) and executive director of Telstra from May 2009, until he formally retired from the CEO position on 30 April 2015.

He joined Telstra in April 2001 as group managing director of Telstra Mobiles and in 2002 was appointed group managing director Telstra Enterprise and Government. In this role, he was responsible for the company's corporate, government and large business customers in Australia and internationally. Before joining Telstra, Mr Thodey’s 22 year career at IBM comprised a number of senior marketing and sales positions including chief executive officer of IBM Australia/New Zealand.

He is an experienced board chairman and director. He has worked in Asia for over 25 years. Former board memberships include co-chair of the Infrastructure and Investment Taskforce of the B20 leadership group, and chairman of IBM ANZ, TelstraClear, Information Technology (IT) Skills Hub, Industry Groups and Basketball Australia. He was also on the board of the GSM Association, the global body of carriers and related companies that supports the standardisation and deployment of mobile technology around the world. He has extensive experience in information and communications technology (ICT), digital business, data services and digital services.

He is known as an inspiring leader who builds extraordinary teams and winning cultures by creating career opportunities that challenge, provide a strong learning environment, and enable top talent to have an impact. Mr Thodey holds a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology and English from Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand. He attended the Kellogg School of Management Postgraduate General Management Program at Northwestern University in Chicago, USA. He has taken part in a number of Harvard Education programs and IBM Executive Education programs.

In 2017, Mr Thodey was made an officer (AO) in the General Division of the Order of Australia for distinguished service to business, notably to the telecommunications and information technology sectors, to the promotion of ethical leadership and workplace diversity, and to basketball. David Thodey is a compelling and content rich speaker with a wealth of business wisdom.