AFIA Conference Speakers

Our Speakers

Keynote: Brett King, World-renowned Futurist & Speaker
Brett is an International Bestselling Author, a world- renowned futurist and media personality. He has spoken in over 50 countries, given keynotes for TEDx, Wired, Techsauce, Singularity Universi-ty, Web Summit, The Economist, IBM's World of Watson, CES, SIBOS and more. He has appeared on CNBC, BBC, ABC, Fox, and Bloomberg. He advised the Obama administration on Fintech. King hosts the world's #1 Fintech Radio Show/Podcast called Breaking Banks (180 countries, 6.5 million listeners). Banking Exchange named him the King of the Disruptors, he was nominated as American Banker's Innovator of the Year, voted the world's #1 Financial Services Influencer by The Financial Brand and listed by Bank Innovation as one of the top 10 'coolest brands in banking'. King was shortlisted for the Advance Global Australian of the Year for being one of the most influential Australians offshore.

Opening Address: Senator the Hon Jane Hume, Minister for Superannuation, Financial Services and the Digital Economy & Minister for Women’s Economic Security
Senator the Hon Jane Hume was first elected in 2016, and was first appointed to the Morrison Government Ministry in 2019, with responsibility for Superannuation, Financial Services and Financial Technology (Fintech). This responsibility was expanded in December 2020, when Minister Hume was appointed as Minister for Superannuation, Financial Services and the Digital Economy. In March of 2021 Minister Hume was appointed as Australia’s first Minister for Women’s Economic Security. Upon being elected as a Liberal Senator for Victoria in 2016, Senator Hume was appointed Chair of the Senate Standing Committee on Economics. She previously held various senior positions in the financial services industry, working for the National Australia Bank, Rothschild Australia, Deutsche Bank and, immediately prior to her election, as a Senior Policy Adviser at Australian Super.

Stephen Jones MP, Shadow Assistant Treasurer and Shadow Minister for Financial Services and Superannuation
Stephen Jones is the Federal Member for Whitlam and Shadow Assistant Treasurer and Shadow Minister for Financial Services and Superannuation. He was first elected to the Federal Parliament in 2010 representing the Southern Illawarra seat of Throsby. He was re-elected at the 2013 election and elected to the re-named seat of Whitlam in the 2016 election.Prior to entering the Federal Parliament, he worked as a community worker for various front line disability services, youth and health services and as a lawyer with the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) and as the Secretary of the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU).

Ann Sherry, AO, Portfolio Non-Executive Director - NAB | UNICEF | Sydney Airport | MCA | infrastructure Victoria

Ann has been a Director at NAB since November 2017. She is Chair of the Board's Customer Committee and a Member of the Board's People & Remuneration Committee. She has more than 20 years of experience in executive roles within the banking, tourism and transport industries in Australia and New Zealand, together with significant experience in government and public service. Ann was Chair of Carnival Australia, having previously served as CEO and as Executive Chair. Prior to joining Carnival Australia, she had 12 years’ experience with Westpac where she held executive roles including CEO, Westpac New Zealand, CEO, Bank of Melbourne and Group Executive, People & Performance. In 2004 Ann was awarded an Order of Australia for her contribution to the Australian community through the promotion of corporate management policies and practices that embrace gender equity, social justice and work and family partnerships. In 2003 she was awarded a Centenary Medal by the Australian Government for her work on providing banking services to disadvantaged communities.

Sean Hughes BA, LLB (Hons) (Cantab – NZ); LLM (Cambridge); GAICD

Sean Hughes commenced as an ASIC commissioner on 1 December 2018, for a five-year term. He was the Chief Executive of New Zealand’s capital markets and financial services regulator, the Financial Markets Authority from 2010 to 2013. He was most recently the Group General Counsel for the listed company Tabcorp and, before that, Chief Risk and Legal Officer at UniSuper. Sean has held leadership positions at National Australia Bank, ANZ and was a partner at the law firm Herbert Geer & Rundle (now Thompson Geer). Sean has had previous senior positions with ASIC. From 2008 to 2010, Sean was Senior Executive Leader for Corporate Governance and Corporations; and from 1999 to 2003, he held a number of senior executive roles including as Director, Financial Services Regulation.

Bruce Billson, the Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman
Bruce commenced his five-year term as the Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman (ASBFEO) on 11 March 2021. Before this, he was the former Franchise Council of Australia chair. As the ASBFEO, Bruce is independent advocate for small business owners. His office has the legislative powers needed to effectively influence our nation’s lawmakers, ensuring legislation and regulations are put in place to help small businesses grow.

Cris Parker, Head of The Ethics Alliance, The Ethics Centre & Director, The Banking & Finance Oath
Cris heads up two important initiatives at The Ethics Centre; The Ethics Alliance, a community of organisations across sectors that works to collaboratively shape the future of business ethics. And she is also heads up The Banking & Finance Oath, a pledge of integrity and commitment that aims to increase consideration of stakeholders and decision-making accountability by financial service professionals. It is a program she helped execute, and still oversees.

David Koch, TV Presenter
David, otherwise affectionately known by the public as Kochie, is one of Australia’s most recognised and respected faces. Australians have been waking up with Kochie for over 17 consecutive years as the co-host of Australia’s number one breakfast television program, Seven Network’s Sunrise. Before Sunrise, Kochie was a (self-proclaimed) finance nerd who studied to be an accountant, and started as a cadet on the business pages of The Australian newspaper before joining BRW magazine soon after its launch in the early 1980s. He has a strong interest in small business issues and was a director of the NSW Small Business Development Corporation for over six years being appointed to the board at its inception in 1996.

Jessica Irvine, Economics & Finance Commentator
Jessica is one of Australia's most respected economics and finance commentators, noted for her ability to explain complex ideas in an easy-to-understand and often amusing way. A veteran of 16 federal budgets, today she is senior economics writer for Nine Entertainment’s newspapers, including The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. Her popular Sunday column and digital newsletter "Money with Jess" puts the 'personal' back into personal finance, sharing candid details of her own budgeting and investing journey in a bid to help readers engage with and understand their own finances. Previously, she was National Economics Editor of News Corp Australia’s metropolitan mastheads, including Sydney’s Daily Telegraph and Melbourne’s Herald Sun.

Paul Clitheroe, TV Presenter
Paul is founder and editorial adviser of Money magazine. He is one of Australia's leading financial voices, responsible for bringing financial insight to Australians through personal finance books, the television show Money, radio, and most notably this publication, which he established in 1999. Paul is the chair of the Australian Government Financial Literacy Board and is Chairman of InvestSMART Financial Services. He is the chair of Financial Literacy at Macquarie University where he is also a Professor with the School of Business and Economics.

Ada Guan, CEO & Co-founder, Rich Data Corporation
Ada is CEO and Co-founder of Rich Data Corporation (RDC). She brings to RDC over 20 years’ global experience in Financial Services, Software, and Retail industries. Prior to joining RDC, Ada was leading a Global Client Advisor team at Oracle Corporation. Ada advised Board and C-level executives in some of the largest banks globally on digital disruption and Fintech strategy. She also drove Oracle thought leadership in banking digital transformation for Global Key Accounts. She managed Oracle's largest Financial Services customers/accounts in China through her regional team of Client Advisors.

Peter Jones, AFIA Chair & Managing Director, Nissan Financial Services Aus & NZ
Peter has over 30 years’ experience within the Australian automotive sector, including across the Toyota and Nissan brands. Peter is the Managing Director of Nissan Financial Services Australia & New Zealand. He is also the Managing Director of Nissan Australia’s Casting Plant based in Victoria, and is a member of the Board of Directors of Nissan Australia and other associated Nissan companies.

Clare Morgan, Executive General Manager, CBA
Clare is Executive General Manager, Business Lending at the Commonwealth Bank. She has worked almost 25 years in financial services and management consulting across Australia and the US. She has expertise in running large scale profit and loss businesses, setting strategic direction, M&A, developing and retaining high performance teams, executing complex change, governing decision making forums and leading technology programs.

Cameron Poolman, CEO, Ondeck Capital Australia
Cameron is the CEO of OnDeck Australia. Since 2008, OnDeck has originated more than US$8 billion in loans to over 80,000 small businesses across the USA, Canada and Australia. Prior to launching OnDeck in Australia, he was the founding CEO of GraysOnline, one of Australia’s largest eCommerce groups, growing the company to over $500 million in online sales. Before this, Cameron worked as an engineer and production manager at Eveready Australia.

Rebecca James, CEO, Humm
Rebecca joined humm group in October 2018 as CEO, bringing her innovative, inclusive and motivational leadership style to her responsibility for leading humm group’s continued growth and development. Rebecca has lengthy experience in leading strategic and marketing functions having been Chief Marketing and Enterprise Officer for Prospa, following her nearly four years as Chief Marketing Officer for ME where she led the product and customer experience teams, and oversaw ME’s very successful external and internal rebranding project. During her time at ME, Rebecca was voted #12 in the top 50 CMOs in Australia. Prior to joining ME, Rebecca has had a long and successful career at customer experience agency Lavender, including seven years as Managing Director.

Paul Bloxham, Chief Economist for Aus, NZ & Global Commodities
Paul is HSBC’s Chief Economist for Australia, New Zealand and Global Commodities and is a Managing Director. He is chief spokesperson for HSBC on forecasts and trends for the Australian and New Zealand economies and their interaction with global financial markets and international economies and a key spokesperson on HSBC’s unique view on global commodity markets. Paul is a regular commentator on local and international business television and a frequent contributor of opinion editorials to the Australian newspapers. Prior to joining HSBC in 2010, Paul spent 12 years as an economist with the Reserve Bank of Australia.

Dr Michael Schaper, Chair, The AFIA Buy Now Pay Later Code Compliance Committee
Dr Schaper has extensive leadership and governance experience across business, government, industry and professional associations, and academia. He was formerly the Deputy Chairperson of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission for 10 years (2008-18), focusing on industry codes, small business, franchising, and industry associations. Michael's current board roles include Chair of the Black Economy Advisory Board for the Federal Treasury, member of the University of Canberra governing council, and member of a number of AICD advisory committees. Michael was also previously the Small Business Commissioner for the ACT and President of the Small Enterprise Association of Australia and New Zealand.

Aaron Baxter, CEO, Custom Fleet, Australia and New Zealand Z
Aaron is CEO of Custom Fleet Australia and New Zealand, part of Element Fleet Management. He oversees Element's Australia and New Zealand business, supporting its clients with valuable data and insights to run their fleets more efficiently and safely. Aaron Baxter brings extensive expertise in financial services, growth, and innovation strategies across several consumer and commercial businesses. He previously held senior positions with GE Capital, including Managing Director of Commercial with responsibility for strategy and operations across its Australia and New Zealand business units: fleet services, equipment finance, corporate finance, and distribution finance. Prior to that, he was CEO of GE Capital New Zealand.

Jon Moodie, CEO, Allied Credit
Jon is a finance company executive with over 30 years’ experience in Australia and New Zealand in asset and vehicle finance markets. In 1998 he established and grew Mercedes Benz Finance NZ for six years, before transferring to Daimler Finance Australia where he led the Sales and Marketing team. Jon joined Macquarie Leasing in 2006, where he led various sales channels, before becoming the Managing Director in 2014. In 2019 Jon joined Allied Credit as the Chief Executive Officer, leading the company into a growth phase. Jon has sat as a director on the AFIA board for several years, including two years as Chairman.

Lee Hatton, Executive Vice President at Afterpay, Afterpay
Lee has more than 20 years’ experience internationally in the Financial Services industry and has held senior executive roles in marketing, strategy and risk in large scale customer-facing businesses. In 2020 Lee joined the Global Executive team at Afterpay and is responsible for driving the business’s strategy for new products and services. Previously she was the Chief Executive Officer of UBank from 2015 to 2020. Lee has been recognised by IBM as one of 40 Women Leaders in Artificial Intelligence across the globe for her work in delivering world-first innovations. Lee is a non-executive director of Xero, and was previously an executive director of NAB Ventures and TEC (The Executive Connection).

Keith Rodwell, CEO, Maia Financial
Keith is CEO of Maia Financial - a non-bank specialist asset financier, has held an extensive career spanning over 30 years in the Australian & NZ finance industry. Having worked in the equipment asset finance and the specialist finance sector for GE Capital, CIT and establishing BOQ Finance following their acquisition of the CIT Business in Australia and NZ. And most recently as Managing Director of 255 Finance, a business he founded in 2012 as a subsidiary of the Challenger Life Company. Keith was also a Director and Deputy Chairman of the Australian Finance Industry Association between 2018 and 2020.

Piers Redward, Co-Founder & Joint CEO
Piers co-founded the Payright business in 2015 and has served as Director since 2017 and Joint CEO. Piers has in excess of 15 years’ experience working in the retail finance industry across multiple products. He was previously Customer Service and Collections Manager within ANZ’s Esanda Finance business, National Sales Manager for FlexiGroup and Head of Sales and Distributions for Wingate Consumer Finance, managing multiple brands including Flexirent, Lombard Finance, Once Credit, Now Finance and Mac Credit. Piers brings particular expertise in relation to interest free cards, consumer leasing and personal loans.

Mario Rehayem, CEO, Pepper Financial Services
Mario joined Pepper Money in 2011 and has held various roles including Managing Director, Australian Mortgages and Personal Loans, Director of Sales and Distribution, Australian Mortgages and Personal Loans. He was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Pepper Money Limited in 2017 and is responsible for the strategy and oversight of Pepper Money businesses across Australia and New Zealand. With over 18 years of extensive experience across banking and finance, Mario has held senior positions in an ADI environment as well as in the non-bank sector. Mario is a known champion of mortgage broker education and growing the specialist lending category.

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