A cybercrime is reported in Australia every seven minutes. That number gets quoted in a lot of boardrooms, and it still lands wrong, because it makes the threat sound technical. It isn't. The fastest growing attacks never touch your firewall. They arrive as a familiar name in an inbox, a convincing voice on a phone call, an invoice that looks exactly like the last eleven invoices. Someone in accounts approves it at 4pm on a Friday, and by Monday the money is gone.
That is why cyber security has stopped being an item on the IT report and become a standing board agenda item, a brand risk and a culture question. And it is why the wrong speaker does real damage. Put a technical expert in front of a general audience and you get forty minutes of acronyms, a room full of people who feel stupid, and no behaviour change at all.
The eight Australians below can each hold a non technical room. Between them they have run the incident response, written the national policy, sat in the CISO chair at a global bank, negotiated with ransomware operators, studied how people actually make decisions under pressure and, in one case, hacked a major Australian bank at the age of sixteen.
Here is who to put on stage, and which audience each of them suits best.
Adam Spencer is an iconic star of Australian radio and television, and a leading conference MC and keynote speaker most in demand for AI. He cuts through the hype to leave audiences with fresh, usable insights, but it is his range, from hosting Epic Builds to interviewing prime ministers and Hollywood stars, that has every audience laughing and learning.
Bastien Treptel is a former black-hat hacker turned leading cybersecurity expert. At 16, he infiltrated a major Australian bank-now he helps organisations defend against digital threats. Founder of CTRL: Cyber (valued at over $100 million) and Ironclad ID, Bastien delivers fast-paced, practical keynotes revealing how hackers think and how leaders can outsmart cybercrime.
Professor Rocky Scopelliti is a globally recognised futurist, bestselling author and AI expert who helps organisations navigate rapid technological change. Through his groundbreaking research, keynote presentations and Adaptive Capacity Quotient System™, he equips leaders to build future-ready organisations. Rocky's insights into artificial intelligence, emerging technologies and organisational adaptation are trusted by Fortune 100 companies and audiences worldwide.
A distinguished executive with a proven track record of driving digital transformation, reducing business risk, and enhancing cybersecurity posture across global financial services and pharmaceutical organisations. David Gee brings extensive executive management experience from HSBC, Macquarie Group, CUA and Eli Lilly, coupled with a deep understanding of complex regulatory environments and emerging technologies.
Katherine has 10+ years’ experience as a strategic advisor across government, industry and think tanks. She is the Director—Cyber Intelligence and Public Policy at CyberCX, and a Senior Fellow at the Australian National University's National Security College. Previously, Katherine led the College’s Public Policy team.
Alastair is Australia’s foremost cyber security leader, and is Chief Strategy Officer at CyberCX.
Dr Juliette Tobias-Webb is a behavioural scientist and keynote speaker who helps leaders design for the way people actually behave, not the way the org chart assumes they will. With a PhD from Cambridge, she has advised Google, Mastercard, Citibank and Atlassian, and has held senior behavioural science roles at Commonwealth Bank and Ogilvy Australia.
