Tech Talks

Jason Portelli

Founder & Managing Consultant
Tech Pathfinder

Jason is a speaker, Podcast host, and technology evangelist who has worked in the HR tech world for over 10 years.

With hands-on experience across Australia, New Zealand, Asia Pacific, and the UK, he has built and led teams across many aspects of the HR tech space, and his people-centric approach allows him to guide and motivate them to great outcomes for his team and clients. His experience has helped him play an integral part in the growth of tech businesses from start-up to ASX listing and beyond.

Jason is the founder of Tech Pathfinder, a consulting firm helping guide clients to better outcomes through software selection, implementation, and people-focused change management.”

Dave Burrows

Founder
Strictly Workforce Planning

Dave Burrows has over 30 years’ experience devoted to the delivery of data, reporting and analytics including almost 20 years focused on delivering people analytics and strategic workforce planning (SWP) in both London and Sydney. 

In London he honed his craft at Deloitte, Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland, before relocating to Australia in 2012 to lead the workforce analytics team at Commonwealth Bank of Australia where he won two CEO awards for delivering innovative solutions in people analytics. 

Dave has helped many global organisations take their first steps into SWP and was most recently Director of Workforce Planning at Pearson where he set up the SWP function, implemented a methodology underpinned by six playbooks and provided hands-on coaching to clients. 

Simon Holmberg

Leader, People Division
Sage

Simon has 20 years’ experience helping businesses embrace HCM technology. Having worked in HR consulting, learning and development, recruitment and technology, he brings a deep understanding of how technology can help shape the future of HR. Simon has worked with, and consulted to, ASX 50 organisations and public sector agencies, leading the development of technology frameworks, using advanced data analytics and improving employee experiences to provide greater connection and insights between organisations and their people. 

Denzel Viluan

Account Executive
ContactMonkey

Denzel has had numerous years of experience in the HR Tech space across multiple roles. Currently he is an Account Executive at ContactMonkey helping drive employee engagement through an organisation Internal Communications.

Charlotte Bowen

Account Executive
ContactMonkey

Charlotte is an Account Executive at ContactMonkey, who recently moved from the Toronto office to Sydney. Charlotte works with organizations to help create their internal communications strategy by leveraging data and analytics.

Mitch McMurray

Senior Account Executive
HiBob

As Senior Account Executive at HiBob, Mitch partners with HR teams and leaders across Australia to help them find the right solutions to achieve their strategic initiatives. He has worked with HR teams from various industries such as tech, finance, media, construction, medical and more. Mitch believes a great company culture and employee satisfaction plays a big role in business success.

Charles Ferguson

General Manager
G-P

Charles Hamilton Ferguson is the General Manager and head of G-P’s business in Asia. In this capacity, he is responsible for establishing scale and efficiency for G-P and its customers’ business expansion in one of the most dynamic markets in the world. G-P helps growing companies unlock their full potential by making it possible to build highly skilled global teams anywhere in the world, in days instead of months. Through its SaaS-based platform, G-P helps companies to find, hire, onboard, pay, and manage global teams quickly and compliantly, without the hassle of setting up local subsidiaries or branch offices.

Anne Wilson

Strategic Sales Executive
G-P

Anne Wilson works as a global expansion expert with G-P enabling organizations to expand their talent pool and hire candidates in new countries without the legal, tax, and HR burdens as well as removing the need for setting up entities or subsidiaries. 

Anne has over 20 years of experience working within the Software Industry across different disciplines from resourcing and delivering large Software Implementations to Professional Services Sales and prior to that many years spent in various Talent Acquisition roles within the IT Sector. Anne is currently enrolled in a Bachelor of Psychological Science and Counselling degree.

George Akle

CEO
GovernHR

George Akle, the founder of GOVERNHR™, is a thought leader in Human Resources structural and procedural Governance. With over 20 years of experience in his field across The Asia Pacific Region, he has headed up HR for Southeast Asia, held the roles of Regional HR COO & Regional HR Business Partner as well as having led large-scale HR transformations, technology implementations, regional payroll, HR Operations, HR Finance and HR Analytics for 17 countries across the APAC region. Today George combines his business management background and his in-depth knowledge of HR to help companies identify and remediate structural and procedural deficiencies across their HR organisation, build new HR functions or transform existing ones. He also facilitates One-to-One or group HR coaching/training and provides virtual HR Director support services to organisations across the region. He shares his insights into HR in his blogs, through webinars, as a guest speaker at HR events and through his short videos on YouTube

Joel Smith

Chief Revenue Officer
Affinity

Joel Smith is the Chief Revenue Officer at Affinity Payroll where he is responsible for go-to-market and business growth strategies. Joel has worked in technology leadership roles for over 18 years and has extensive experience working in payroll, HRIS and financial services businesses across New Zealand, Australia and the UK. He is passionate about solving real-world problems with cutting-edge technology and driving transformation initiatives to help businesses succeed now and well into the future.

Ben Dixon

Principal Talent Insights Consultant
LinkedIn

Ben Dixon is the Principal Talent Insights Consult for the APAC region at LinkedIn, partnering with large enterprise customers to optimise their use of data and Insights to inform their strategic workforce and hiring decisions.

Ben has over 10 years of Talent Acquisition, Organisational Development and DEI experience across major Australian Banking organisations like the Commonwealth Bank, ANZ and Bankwest before joining LinkedIn as a product consultant and data storyteller.

Martha Travis

CEO & Founder
Martha Travis People Innovators

Martha is a pragmatic, commercially savvy and professional Human Resources Consultant. She has an array of operational and strategic experience in a range of environments, with employee groups from 1 to 5,500.

Technology has been the cornerstone of Martha’s HR practice and she has implemented and utilised technology in several businesses across her career, with her strongest experience being with ELMO Talent Software and more recently with Employment Hero for businesses of up to 50 employees.

Since founding her HR consultancy in 2019, Martha Travis People Innovators have assisted more than 40 organisations implement, optimise and enhance their HR technology to support them to deliver both transactional and strategic HR objectives.

Prior to being a Human Resources Consultant, Martha worked as General Manager People and Culture, within contract-based businesses.

Martha’s passion is for people; and she believes that in every organisation, it is the people who are the key to achieving strategic business outcomes and ensuring long-term sustainability. Martha is always seeking new ways to engage people and help them work to their potential and has a proven track record in using technology to help leverage those outcomes.

Birthe Nohrden

CEO & Founder
TeamTalks

Birthe Nohrden is a thought leader in the realm of human connections at work. With expertise as an innovative learning designer, she has become a sought-after speaker and facilitator, specializing in leadership, productivity, workplace wellbeing, and personal development. In 2022, her company TeamTalks Pty Ltd achieved a significant milestone by winning a seat in the prestigious EY Foundry Start Up Accelerator Program. Leveraging a unique combination of technology and human-centered design, Birthe’s company has successfully created an innovative employee experience that fosters connection among hybrid teams. Her proprietary teaming framework is a simple, yet effective way to build psychological safety in teams in a fun and sustainable way. 

Alex Gelman

Partner
Strategy Assist

Alex Gelman is a serial entrepreneur and corporate technology adviser with a passion for social impact.  He inter-twines technology advisory with innovation, governance and organisational change to achieve business outcomes. 

In his role as Strategic Technology Advisor at Strategy Assist, Alex advises corporate and social impact enterprises on technology strategy, technology architecture, digital transformation and practical innovation. He operates at a senior level, advising numerous clients in the Health and Ageing, Professional Services, Property, Not for Profit and Government sectors.  

Alex has assisted numerous clients strategically define their HCM requirements and select the right systems, then proceeding to oversee the implementation to achieve agreed outcomes.    

Alex is regularly called upon to speak on business technology, innovation, and emerging technologies. Using insights from his work, he published Great Choice!, a self-help guide for organisations to strategically purchase technology. In supplementing his corporate and government clientele, Alex enjoys helping Social Impact organisations optimise their business to do more good.  

Alex also engages with boards either as a Non-Executive Director or through advisory boards. 

Leah Louey

Senior Change Manager
Strategy Assist

Leah Louey is a passionate people person, who loves to create business processes and manage the change associated with the transition. While coming from a consulting systems based background, leah has developed a passion for organisational change management which she infuses with process optimisation, validation and immersive knowledge transfer to drive lasting change.