Jessica Strutt (summit MC)
Jessica Strutt has worked as a political reporter in Western Australia for more than a decade and has experience across all media platforms including print, radio, television and on line. She joined ABC News Perth four years ago, after two years out of journalism working as a senior media adviser in Government. She is currently ABC’s State political reporter.
Prior to working in Government Jessica worked at Nine News as their state political reporter. She started her journalism career as a print reporter with The West Australian newspaper. Before entering journalism, Jessica completed a Bachelor of Arts majoring in politics and history at the University of Western Australia.
Jessica completed all of her journalism training on the job, which started when she secured an internship with The Australian’s Perth office in 2003. From there she landed her first journalism job with Rural Press, working as a cadet reporter in the Wheatbelt farming town of Merredin. But after a few months she left the sheep and wheat reporting behind after being offered a cadetship with The Sunday Times in Perth.
In 2005, Jessica was poached by The West Australian and during her time with the newspaper won awards for her political and resources reporting. In 2008 she won the top State print news award for a series of reports exposing child sex abuse, violence and alcohol problems plaguing the remote Aboriginal community of Oombulgurri. In 2016 Jessica was the joint winner of WA’s top political reporting prize.
Karl O’Callaghan
Karl O’Callaghan is the former Police Commissioner for Western Australia, a position which he held from 2004 to 2017. He is the longest serving post-war West Australian Police Commissioner and was formerly a career police officer having served for more than 43 years. He has been awarded the Australian Police Medal and is a Rotary International Paul Harris Fellow, awarded for outstanding community service. He is also the first serving police officer in Western Australia ever to be award a PhD and in 1997 was made a Churchill Fellow.
Karl has overseen significant reform and cultural change within the Western Australia Police Service having been appointed by Government to oversee the implementation of reforms. His significant work on police culture not only resulted in the ‘modernisation’ of the WA Police and the ‘softening’ of old hierarchical structures but also resulted in a greater gender balance in the most influential management levels in the Force.
During his time as Police Commissioner he was arguably the most well known and most listened to public sector figure gaining respect for his practical and common-sense approach. He is credited with being one of the only Police Commissioners in Australia to regularly work on the street with front line officers.
Karl is still very much in demand by the media for opinion-based commentary on a range of issues affecting the community and regularly, both writes opinion pieces for print media and works in radio. In recent times he has developed quite a high profile as an announcer and DJ on one of Perth’s premier community radio stations and his knowledge of the music industry furnish many amusing and informative anecdotes for his listeners.
Dr Jenny Brockis
As a doctor, speaker, author and mentor, Dr. Jenny is passionate about all things ‘brain’. Her mission is to become the Jamie Oliver of brain health fitness, empowering others to create their own brain that is fit, healthy and optimised to help them work at their best.
Dr. Jenny has devoted her career to the health and wellbeing of others. Concerned by the alarming increase in the amount of stress, stress related illness and mental health problems she was witnessing in society as a whole, she realised the need to promote brain health to elevate mental performance and wellbeing.
As the Director and Founder of Brain Fit! she works with those who seek to thrive in our increasingly complex world, translating the complexities of the neuroscience into easily understood strategies that can be readily integrated into our busy lives.
Dr Jenny is featured regularly in the media, has authored three books including the best seller Future brain (Wiley) and is a keen blogger and writer.
As a wife and mother to two young adults, when not writing, researching or presenting, Dr. Jenny loves to spend her time travelling and challenging her long-standing fear of heights.
Rabia Siddique
History making humanitarian, author and international keynote speaker Rabia Siddique is a power house for change. Entertaining, powerful and engaging, this best-selling author represents a living example of how each one of us can be a force for positive change in our own lives and those around us.
Having survived a hostage crisis in Iraq, Rabia garnered global attention for making the British military accountable for silencing her about her ordeal and role in releasing captured special forces soldiers. Standing up for justice in the face of public ridicule, Rabia’s brave action in suing the British Government for sexism and racism became a catalyst for policy change to ensure a fairer workplace for women and cultural minorities in the British military.
Drawing on extensive experience as a former criminal, war crimes, terrorism and human rights lawyer, military career, psychology training and business, Rabia is also a sought after transformational coach and mentor. She has provided equality and diversity training at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst where her charges included Prince William.
A noted media commentator, Rabia’s first book, Equal Justice, is the focus for a feature film. She also has the delightful challenge of being Mum to triplet boys.
Julie Meek
Performance is a funny thing – it means different things to each of us and there’s no doubt it’s one thing to perform and yet another to achieve success. It’s this link between performance and success that inspired Julie to discover what some of the world’s top performers do to enable them to be the best in their fields. Innate talent and motivation are common threads, but more often it’s the tactics and strategies they’ve developed and honed over the years that allow them to gain an advantage and stay at the top of their game.
Julie Meek is a thought leader and keynote speaker in peak performance. She inspires leaders to achieve personal success by utilizing the strategies of world class athletes and performers at the top of their game. In sport, some of Julie’s high-profile clients include the Fremantle Dockers football team, the champion Perth Wildcats team and many Olympic athletes across all sports at the Western Australian Institute of Sport. She brings the attributes of elite athletes to business to assist leaders and their teams in achieving high performance.
Julie is known for her signature no-nonsense approach and unique ability to inspire immediate action. Over the past 20 years, Julie has partnered with many top performers across business, elite sport, politics, health, medicine, arts and culture, property, philanthropy and many other industries, helping them achieve the highest levels of professional and personal success.
She is a coach, qualified sports dietitian and degree qualified in Health Promotion. Julie Meek is also the author of truth, lies and chocolate (Finalist in the World Food Media Awards) and ‘Ready, Set…Go’. She is the resident performance expert on a top rating Australian radio station and her expertise is sought across all media channels. Julie loves to challenge herself by running marathons.
Kasia Orlowska-Meinen
Kasia Orlowska-Meinen is a founder of Kasia OM a multifaceted consultancy delivering corporate and professional development, personal growth and connections via a women’s network.
Kasia has delivered high quality leadership development training and executive coaching programs to private and public sector clients in Australia and internationally since 2009.
As part of her ‘Connect’ platform, Kasia provides events and workshops, training and coaching programs for women, who through connections, growth and achievement of their most aspiring goals, positively influence their lives and those around them.
Kasia has worked with leaders and organisations in helping them develop their cultures and desired behaviours by bringing required change: clarity, purpose and alternative perspectives and creating values and vision alignment.
Kasia is a great believer in the power of self-awareness, mindfulness and overall emotional intelligence as the fundamental building blocks of the most effective leadership and communication. In 2015 Kasia was interviewed by ABC TV for their Australia Wide national broadcast to talk about the benefits of teaching mindfulness and meditation in a corporate environment for leadership and professional effectiveness.
Tim Dillon
For more than a decade, Tim Dillon has helped some of Australia’s largest organisations keep their most valuable asset, information, safe from cyber criminals and other threats.
As Director of Technical Security Consulting, Asia Pacific, for NCC Group, Tim has advised corporate leadership teams and led cyber security projects across multiple industries, such as financial services, government, transport and mining, within Australia and the local region.
After working as a computer programmer for several years, Tim joined the consulting world as a security analyst in 2004, with a focus on investigating cyber incidents. Throughout subsequent cyber security roles in Australia and Singapore, Tim has focused on ethical hacking, in which security researchers test the systems and networks of organisations to identify weaknesses and advise ways to strengthen them.
While much of Tim’s work with enterprises involves the technical elements needed to spot cyber security vulnerabilities, he also plays a major role in top-down cyber security strategy for many organisations, advising organisations’ C-level and senior leadership about how best to implement company-wide approaches to minimise cyber risks and keep information secure.
Tim has written about and presented on numerous cyber security issues over the years, including ethical hacking, cloud security, social engineering and emerging cyber threats.
Peter Dhu
Peter has been speaking professionally full time for 10 years. He began his working life working for the WA Health Department as a Medical Scientist. In his 30 years as a scientist, he managed various pathology labs and WA’s Organ Donation Agency.
He now specialises in helping people overcome their fear and find their voice by training them in public speaking. This is a remarkable transition because Peter is a person who stutters, and chose not to speak for much of his life. He brings a real-life success story and courage to his work, where he inspires people with his own compelling story.
He is a living example that anyone can overcome their fears and unlock their hidden potential so they can have the courage to speak up and inspire the world with their stories. He shows people how they can change the world one conversation at a time.
Julie Ambrosi
Backpacking her way from London to Sydney in 1989 armed with a language degree and a certificate in touch-typing Julie found a clerking role at Sydney City Council. Two years later she was PA to the City Planner of Sydney and being sponsored to undertake a Masters in Public Management.
Career took a backseat for a while to a young family and a myriad of small business ownership/part-time roles/volunteering experience. A fourth location change finds her calling Perth home where she has worked as an EA at both Anglicare and in a private Anglican girl’s school.
It has been said that Julie is possessed of a warm and perceptive disposition and this, combined with her ability to think strategically and a passion for streamlining systems, stands her in good stead for the varied challenges of the EA world. In 2017 Julie was an AIOP Office Professional of the Year finalist, enjoys mentoring, giving back and maintaining a sense of fun. Her current role is as Executive Assistant to two Directors at St John Ambulance WA.