Main Conference

Esha Oberoi

Founder and CEO
Leora.ai

Esha Oberoi is a mental health advocate and tech pioneer with a mission to redefine how mental healthcare is delivered. Her newly founded tech venture has used machine learning and AI technology to bring to life a world-class AI mental health self-care coach named Leora. Esha has previously founded and scaled the award-winning healthcare business Afea Care Services, where she served as CEO from 2008 to 2022. Under her leadership, Afea has been named one of the fastest growing companies in Australia and one of AFR’s Best Places to Work in 2021 & 2022.

Emma Mani

Head of People APAC
Klarna

With a wealth of experience in the field of organizational development and people strategy. Emma’s expertise lies in driving positive change and fostering inclusive, high-performing cultures within organisations.

With a diverse background that spans various industries and geographies, Emma brings a unique perspective. She has held leadership roles in prominent organizations, including Klarna, where she currently leads the people space across the APAC region. As a people and diversity champion, Emma is deeply committed to making work experiences the best they can be, ensuring employee satisfaction, and building engaged and thriving teams.

Renowned for her dedication and results-driven approach, Emma is widely recognized as a trusted advisor to executive teams. She strives to be a leader who inspires and enables others to reach their full potential. Her areas of expertise encompass a wide range of critical people processes, including performance management, compensation, growth and development, talent mapping, and global mobility.

Emma’s passion for innovation and continuous learning sets her apart. She constantly seeks new ways of doing things, embracing fresh ideas and strategies to navigate the challenges of a rapidly evolving business landscape. Her track record of successfully implementing large-scale change programs across different employee lifecycle events is a testament to her expertise and adaptability.

Justine Knight

Head of Diversity, Inclusion and Wellbeing
The GPT Group

Justine is GPT’s Head of Diversity, Inclusion and Wellbeing. Justine’s career has seen her work for a range of blue chip employers in both the UK and Australia across a range of People related disciplines including Graduate Recruitment, HR business Partnering and Talent and Organisational Development before moving into the D&I and Wellbeing realms more than 10 years ago. She has worked in this capacity within legal, telco and now the property sector. Her passion is for driving equality and wellbeing in the workplace and she is passionate about developing and driving inclusive and healthy organisational cultures, through which individual employee engagement, team success and improved business outcomes can all be realised.

Louise Hope

Chief People Experience Officer
GrowthOps

Louise Hope is an HR industry leader on a mission to help leaders and businesses transform their approach to employee engagement through compelling EVPs that deliver strong engagement, productivity and talent outcomes. With an extensive OD background, she has a broad range of experience in commercial, not for profit and government sectors, both state and federal.

Louise is the Chief People Experience Officer for global growth company, GrowthOps. Prior to this she was the Executive Director, People & Culture at The Australian Film, Television and Radio School and the Head of Organisation Development & Learning at Sydney Opera House.

Louise is passionate about the role of creativity and storytelling amidst technological disruption and developing leaders at all levels who can nurture a positive and inclusive performance culture that drives engagement, productivity, and career growth.

Mary Hogg

Regional Human Resources Director
Hilton

Mary Hogg is Regional Human Resources Director for Australasia at Hilton. Based in Sydney, she supports a diverse portfolio of 28 hotels with 12 hotels in the pipeline across Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific.  

As part of Hilton’s Asia Pacific HR Leadership Team, Mary drives people and culture plans to realise Hilton’s ambitious growth plans to double the region’s footprint within the next five years, with a focus on launching new brands and entering new markets.  

Mary joined Hilton in November 2021 as the next step in her 20-year career in Human Resources. Initially based in the UK, Mary grew her career through a variety of sectors including the Police, Hospitality, Local Government and Education. In 2011, Mary relocated to Australia and after exploring the country, settled in Sydney and soon became the Australia/New Zealand HR Leader for the world’s second largest tourist attraction operator, Merlin Entertainments. In 2018, Mary became the Regional HR Director for Asia Pacific with responsibility for people leadership across nine countries, including China, Japan and Australia.  

Born in the UK, Mary holds a BA Hons in Human Resource Management from the University of Lincoln and is a Chartered Fellow of the Australian Human Resources Institute. She is married with two children, is an active runner and explorer of new cultures and will usually have multiple books on the go at any time.  

Heather Ikin

Principal & Organisational Psychologist
Worklife Psychology

Heather Ikin is a registered Organisational Psychologist and Owner and Principal at Brisbane-based counselling and consulting firm WorkLife Psychology. Heather is passionate about supporting businesses and employees to lead productive and meaningful working lives, through fostering mentally healthy workplaces. Heather provides a range of organisational and individual services, primarily in the areas of mental health at work, psychosocial risk management, and the treatment of work-related psychological injuries. She has extensive expertise in understanding the dynamics of stress and job burnout, coaching and guiding leaders on a range of workplace issues and challenges.

For the past 15 years, Heather’s diverse background has seen her deliver interventions and strategies across workplace health and safety, employee mental health and wellbeing, change management, organisational development, learning and development, culture and engagement, recruitment and selection, career development and coaching, and management and leadership development. She has worked with organisations across the public, private and not-for-profit sectors in consulting, advisory, and management roles. Heather has also made significant contributions to the field of organisational psychology in Australia, having spent over 10 years volunteering for the Australian Psychological Society (APS) alongside her full-time career. Most notably, she was appointed as Chair of the APS College of Organisational Psychologists from June 2018 to August 2021. During this time, she led the strategic affairs of the College whilst engaging in a range of advocacy activities, with an emphasis on mental health at work.

Mason Gismondi

Psychological Health and Wellbeing Lead
Bupa Asia Pacific

Mason Gismondi is the Psychological Health and Wellbeing Lead for Bupa Asia Pacific, and currently supports Bupa’s Aged Care businesses in Australia and New Zealand, as well as Bupa’s Business Services.

Mason has a background in psychology, injury management, operations management, leadership coaching and is currently driving effective psychosocial risk management within Bupa.

Mason is particularly passionate in establishing the role of a Leader in creating a psychologically healthy and safe workplace climate, through Leader capability uplift, and implementation of sustainable, preventative action.

Dr. Peter Simpson

Global Head, Safety, Security & ESG
Standard Chartered

Dr Peter Simpson has worked in the safety and security profession for over 25 years. He is currently the Global Head of Safety, Security & ESG for Standard Chartered bank., with a footprint in the highest risk regions of the world. Peter is a pilot by trade, and has BSc, MSc, MA, MBA and DBA. He is passionate about and leading organisations through customer-focussed change and simplification, and working with the next generation of young leaders. He is a Board member in a not-for-profit looking after the most vulnerable members of society.

Robert Stone

Chief People Officer, Australia/NZ
Wunderman Thompson

Rob is the Chief People Officer at Wunderman Thompson, which is part of WPP, one of the world’s largest creative transformation companies. Prior to Wunderman Thompson, he was the Chief Talent Officer at McCANN Australia and McCANN London. He played a critical role in McCANN Worldgroup’s recent success having helped to transform and diversify the agencies approach to its People. With a unique and forward-thinking to talent, he also played a significant role in converting global new business wins. Rob sat on the Global Diversity & Inclusion Coalition and was recognised by being asked to present evidence at The House of Lords regarding the benefits of an internationally diverse workforce in the wake of Brexit. Prior to McCANN, Rob was the Global Partner for Adidas, based out of HQ in Germany, Rob oversaw the major sporting brand’s largest Talent initiative in the history of the business. Rob was responsible for building and enhancing Adidas’s digital offering across Germany, Amsterdam, London, Brazil, Moscow, New York, Paris, Tokyo & Shanghai. 

Vanessa Hicks

Group Executive People Experience
TPG Telecom

Vanessa Hicks is TPG Telecom’s Group Executive People Experience following the merger of TPG and Vodafone Hutchison Australia in July 2020. She joined Vodafone Australia in 2006 and was appointed VHA’s Director of Human Resources in 2017. She has served in several senior roles within the company, including General Manager of Business Customer Operations and General Manager Human Resources. Ms Hicks is responsible for all human resources functions including organisational culture, leadership, internal comms, OHS and facilities. Ms Hicks has been an active board member of the Vodafone Foundation since 2010, serving as Chair of the Board from 2010 to 2014 and recommencing as Chair from February 2022. Ms Hicks has served as an Advisory Board Member of the Telco Together Foundation since 2017. Ms Hicks is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD).

Heather Ikin

Principal & Organisational Psychologist
Worklife Psychology

Heather Ikin is a registered Organisational Psychologist and Owner and Principal at Brisbane-based counselling and consulting firm WorkLife Psychology. Heather is passionate about supporting businesses and employees to lead productive and meaningful working lives, through fostering mentally healthy workplaces. Heather provides a range of organisational and individual services, primarily in the areas of mental health at work, psychosocial risk management, and the treatment of work-related psychological injuries. She has extensive expertise in understanding the dynamics of stress and job burnout, coaching and guiding leaders on a range of workplace issues and challenges.

For the past 15 years, Heather’s diverse background has seen her deliver interventions and strategies across workplace health and safety, employee mental health and wellbeing, change management, organisational development, learning and development, culture and engagement, recruitment and selection, career development and coaching, and management and leadership development. She has worked with organisations across the public, private and not-for-profit sectors in consulting, advisory, and management roles. Heather has also made significant contributions to the field of organisational psychology in Australia, having spent over 10 years volunteering for the Australian Psychological Society (APS) alongside her full-time career. Most notably, she was appointed as Chair of the APS College of Organisational Psychologists from June 2018 to August 2021. During this time, she led the strategic affairs of the College whilst engaging in a range of advocacy activities, with an emphasis on mental health at work.

Julie Gratton

Safety, Health, Environment & Wellbeing Director, Australia & New Zealand / Aotearoa
AECOM

Julie Gratton – Safety, Health, Environment & Wellbeing Director across Australia & New Zealand at AECOM, has managed Health, Safety & Wellbeing in the engineering sector for over 15 years. Julie’s original involvement with workplace mental health and wellbeing started in 2010 when asked to assist with cases of burnout and depression occurring within the engineering consulting industry and take part in a RMIT thinktank led by Helen Lingard.  Following on from supporting individuals rehabilitation and return to work, Julie was responsible for trialling Mental Health First Aid training at a time when these issues were not as well known or discussed as they are now. This was soon after adopted and rolled out across her organisation. Later in her career, in her role at Rio Tinto, Julie assisted in the development, trial and roll out of site Peer Support programs in FIFO environments in Western Australia. Julie has since managed the development of organisational psychosocial risk assessments, gap analysis of processes in support of mental health and wellbeing, and worked closely with Consult Australia as a founding member of their Mental Health Roundtable.  

While initially studying Commerce as an undergraduate, Julie went on to completed Post Graduate studies in Occupational Hazard Management and is currently undertaking a Bachelor of Design & Construction Management to combine her passion for safety & health with sustainable design in planning. Julie has a love for teamwork, creating humancentric solutions to enhance safe & healthy environments through innovation, safe design and driving sustained culture change.

“I am proud of my ongoing collaborative relationships working with people to understand the nature of their work, their drivers and together, developing innovative solutions to improve healthier and safer outcomes. I get energy from working with great people to create environments that drive Wellbeing & Care, together with compliance & best practice.”

Julie currently leads a wonderful team of Health & Safety professionals across Australia & New Zealand at AECOM, as they transition to realise certification under ISO 45003 – (The International Psychological Health & Safety at work Standard) and continued recognition as an Employer of Choice by their people.

Nada George

Vice President, People Business Partner-Australasia
Mastercard

Nada has over 20 years’ experience in HR and has been at Mastercard for 2 years as the Vice President, People Business Partner of the Australasia division. Nada works to align company strategy and values to HR priorities and outcomes, delivering positive business impact, building high performing cultures, and lifting employee engagement.