With a judging panel including senior leaders, academics, business executives, entrepreneurs and innovators, the Australian Cyber Security Awards forms peer-reviewed recognition of your capabilities in cyber security and the passion of those driving the sector forward.
Adrian Tembel is an economics and honours law graduate of the University of Adelaide. He began practising corporate and technology law in 1993 at his law firm Thomson Geer. He became a Partner of that firm in 1997 and its Chief Executive Partner in 2009. He is also a part-time Commissioner of the South Australian Productivity Commission and a Director of the Hackett Foundation.
Bob has been in the telecommunications industry for over 53 years having started as a PMG Technician in 1967. During that period Bob has had 5 successful careers. He has worked in a variety of roles with organisations like PMG/Telecom, Alcatel (formerly STC), Ericsson Australia and worked 31 years as founder, owner, dealer principal and CEO of TTGroup Communications incorporating SmartSpeak Solutions.
While he has held many chairman positions and directorships, at the moment Bob is Chairman of Azentro, a Voice Vision and Data Company after a merger acquisitions with Productiv Pty Ltd, VV Tech Pty Ltd, FleetLink Australia and as at 22/02/18 Data Mobility and Voice (DMV) in Adelaide South Australia. DMV are a Gold MITEL Partner and Calibre One based in Darwin and Adelaide.
In building Azentro into it’s 2023 profile Bob managed 6 merger acquisitions and 4 brand changes.
Bob is also a founding director of Sheldon College which his wife Dr Lyn Bishop founded in 1997.The college has 1600+
Cheng is a partner at King & Wood Mallesons and is the head of their cyber security incident response team. Cheng led the incident response team advising on two of the largest and highest profile cyber security data breach incidents in 2022 and 2023.
I'm an IT support leader obsessed with providing Customer Support Excellence. I do this by bringing together talented support experts and giving them the confidence and resources to grow as part of a high-performing team.
I have over 30 years of experience in fields, including Telecoms, Messaging and IT security and have developed deep technical expertise. I've worked with industry leaders across multiple disciplines, including international financial institutions and telecoms providers.
I see myself as a bit like a sporting coach whose role is to build a winning team. I love to help each individual grow to perform at their best both professionally and personally. I enjoy this work and the way it combines my strengths of technical knowledge and a genuine passion for seeing people thrive.
All support organizations face challenges in recruiting the right people to provide the right advice while also building a winning team environment. Keeping staff engaged can be hard. I focus on building teams of talented individuals working within supportive cultures who can deliver consistent high performance. I believe this is the best way to achieve the holy grail of 'customer support excellence' that is critical to ongoing business success.
Kim Chandler McDonald is the Co-Founder/CEO of a Deep-Tech firm that has a developed a next-gen all-in-one, secure, permission-based, secure by design, data integration, sharing and governance platform, which is focussed on data and digital enablement for all.
Kim is a globally respected thought leader on disruptive approaches, transformational trends and innovative business strategies - particularly those involving innovation and empowerment in the global DACE (Digital, Attention and Collaboration Economies). An internationally sought after board member, Kim’s current board positions include the Paris-based Cybersecurity Advisors Network, Women In AI (Australia, NZ), Griffith University’s Enterprise Advisory Board and Washington D.C.’s WordSmithRapport.
The award-winning author of ‘Innovation: How Innovators Think, Act and Change Our World’, ‘Flat World Navigation: Collaboration and Networking in the Global Digital Economy’; and co-author of ‘Entrepreneurial Renaissance: Cities Striving Towards an Era of Renaissance and Revival’, Kim’s most recent book ‘Postcards From Tomorrow’ continues to raise money for Lou’s Place, Sydney’s only daytime drop-in centre for female victims of domestic abuse and coercive control.
Michael Field is the Brisbane-based partner for EvettField Partners; a specialist B2B consulting firm. He has held senior leadership, strategic marketing, strategy and business development roles in private and public companies including advertising, business services, membership organisations, not-for-profit, publishing, records management and technology.
Michael has previously served as a non-executive director of Save the Children Victoria, council member for Save the Children NSW and guest lecturer in marketing and communication at ECU.
About EvettField
EvettField Partners are a specialist B2B consulting firm, with partners in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne who work with business owners and leaders of mid-sized B2B organisations in Australia and New Zealand to develop their competitive strategy and drive enterprise value in highly contested markets.
Clients come from a diverse range of industries including Agriculture, Architecture, Building, Construction, Distribution, Engineering, Manufacturing, Merchandising and Mining. See www.evettfield.com for more information.
Dr. Michael Sheng is a Distinguished Professor and Head of School of Computing at Macquarie University. Before moving to Macquarie, Michael spent 10 years at School of Computer Science, the University of Adelaide (UoA), serving in a number of senior leadership roles including interim Head and Deputy Head of School of Computer Science. Michael holds a PhD degree in computer science from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) and did his post-doc as a research scientist at CSIRO ICT Centre. From 1999 to 2001, Michael worked at UNSW as a visiting research fellow. Prior to that, he spent 6 years as a senior software engineer in industries.
Dr. Michael Sheng is ranked by Microsoft Academic as one of the Most Impactful Authors in Services Computing (ranked Top 5 All Time) and in Web of Things (ranked Top 20 All Time) in 2021. He is the recipient of the 2018 AMiner Most Influential Scholar Award on IoT (2007-2017), ARC Future Fellowship (2014), Chris Wallace Award for Outstanding Research Contribution (2012), and Microsoft Research Fellowship (2003). Prof Michael Sheng is Vice Chair of the Executive Committee of the IEEE Technical Community on Services Computing (IEEE TCSVC) and a member of the ACS Technical Advisory Board on IoT.
Neil is a highly respected strategic leader with a proven track record leading high performing organisations. Working with all levels of government and industry in the fields of aviation, Defence, space and National security, Neil has extensive experience in strategic risk management and governance. A retired Air Vice-Marshal, Neil has had command at all levels in the military, including operational command of coalition air and space operations embedded with the US Air Force. The former Professor in Defence Technologies with Deakin University is an innovation and outcomes focused leader, highly regarded for his coaching of resilient expert teams.
Dr Paul Scully-Power is an integrator, strategist and orthogonal thinker and is Australia’s first astronaut. He has a unique international background in Industry, Government, Defence, Space and Academia in the US, UK, Australia, and NZ, and is well known for his network of people and institutions around the world. A leader in applying technology, he has broad expertise in national security & intelligence, aviation & aerospace, cybersecurity, remote sensing, and systems analysis & ICT. He is currently engaged in AI (national iAward for innovation), UAVs, microsatellites, smart sensors, nanotechnology and big data analytics.
Dr Scully-Power has led many high-tech, defence and security programs. He held executive appointments under Presidents Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, and Clinton, and was Deputy to the Associate Technical Director, US Naval Undersea Warfare Center, where he held the US Navy Distinguished Chair of Underwater Acoustics He was a Research Associate at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Chairman of Membership of the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering, President of the Fort Trumbull Federal Credit Union, and served on the Universities & Colleges Accreditation Board and the US Office of Naval Research.
Dr Scully-Power qualified for very high altitude full pressure suit flying at Edwards Air Force Base, and was a flight crew instructor in the NASA Astronaut Office, Johnson Space Center, Houston Texas, where he became Australia’s first astronaut flying aboard Challenger on the 13th mission of the Space Shuttle
Peter Lynch is a leader in Professional Indemnity Insurance in the real estate, valuation and management right industry sectors.
He boasts over 30 years’ experience with Aon Risk Solutions and as the Client Manager is responsible for developing new business within the real estate sector including the identification of business opportunities with franchise groups and other stakeholders.
He took a significant role in providing advice and support to introduce a Real Estate specific indemnity insurance scheme and is responsible for the highly successful REIQ/REINT schemes which he coordinated with the assistance of industry, lawyers, underwriters and claims staff.
Peter has a strong interest in promoting safe and quality business practices in real estate and has been a regular contributor to course materials, presentations and editorial submissions. He has been called upon to be a guest speaker at training forums for the REIQ, REIA, REINT, REIWA and various franchise groups.
Peter also provides individual Risk Management training to a number of his Franchise Group clients.
Sam Giffney is ReadyTech's Chief Information Officer, with two decades of experience in technology and security leadership roles across the Australia and New Zealand region.
Responsible for building the ReadyTech information security program and maintaining certification under the international ISO 27001 security management standard, Sam has been integral to embedding information security best practices and culture across the organisation's products and teams as it grew from 20 to 500 staff.
Sam is an (ISC)² Certified Cloud Security Professional (CCSP).
Syed Danial Ali Shah is a distinguished academic with a master's degree in Electronics Engineering from Incheon National University (INU), South Korea, conferred in 2018, and a PhD in Electrical & Electronics Engineering from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) University, Australia, attained in 2022. Currently, he serves as a postdoctoral research associate at the University of New South Wales, Australia Defence Force Academy, where he is deeply committed to scholarly pursuits, actively involved in various research initiatives, and supervises various research projects. Syed's academic journey includes significant academic contributions, having served as a Sessional Academic Staff member at RMIT University from 2020 to 2022 and as a Research Assistant at INU from 2016 to 2018. Beyond his research roles, he engages with esteemed international journals and conferences, leveraging his expertise as a valued review and guest editorial panel member.
Tania Ezra BA(ANU), MPM (USQ), PGCertAstro(Swin), ITIL, PMP, PMI-RMP, CPPD, MRMIA, MAIPM, MASA, SFC is a Security Specialist with Microsoft. She has extensive academic achievements and over 20 years of intimate end to end involvement in complex high-risk security programs, and has previously worked IBM, CSC and Logica.
Thomas Green is a co-founder of Neumann Space where he served as a research and policy analyst and in-house counsel for almost five years. He is currently a Project Manager in the Emerging Technologies branch of Transport for NSW and is a member of the International Institute of Space Law, the Royal Society of NSW and the Australasian Association for the History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Science.
Thomas is currently undertaking a PhD at the University of Wollongong on the regulation and enforcement of new technology — specifically concerning access to space by commercial and non-government entities.
Thomas has also previously worked on software projects and start-ups related to machine learning, worked in private equity, served as a Ministerial Advisor on emergency services and road safety, and was a business coordinator for the COVID-19 response team for Transport for NSW during the COVID outbreaks in NSW throughout 2020 and worked in the private sector as a Quality Manager through 2021 managing the design, development and production of novel COVID-19 testing kits to improve pandemic management responses and patient outcomes.
Troy Swan is the Chief Legal Officer, Company Secretary and Board Member of the $1.4billion office products company Winc Australia & New Zealand. Winc was formed following the acquisition of Staples & OfficeMax by US based private equity firm Platinum Equity.
He has been publicly recognised as one of Australia's leading corporate lawyers and was named the 2017 Australian Lawyer of the Year (FMCG) and a General Counsel of the Year finalist in both 2016 and 2017. He became only the second Australian lawyer to win the prestigious International Value Champions Award in San Francisco and was recently named in Washington, the Association of Corporate Counsel Member of the Year, from over 43,000 lawyers worldwide for his commitment to the legal community and profession. This was the first time this honour was ever awarded to a lawyer outside America.
Known for his business judgment, he is highly active within the Sydney legal and business community. He is a regular speaker and media commentator on legal affairs, innovation and large scale legal service delivery models and leads an award winning legal team based in Sydney.
Xu received his dual PhD degrees from University of Technology Sydney in 2020 and Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, China in 2019 respectively. He received the BE degree in Computer Science from Beijing Information Science and Technology University in 2010.
Dr Xu Wang is a Lecturer of Cryptography and Digital Forensics. His main research interests include blockchain, cybersecurity, vehicle privacy and security, and IoT.
