headline Keynote Speaker

Born and bred in wild Patagonia, Gus Balbontin never allowed his small town and humble beginnings get in the way of his big dreams. A healthy disrespect for authority and a severe case of FOMO (fear of missing out) landed him in Australia at the young age of 17.

By the age of 22 he had dropped out of uni, hitchhiked South America, set up his first business and landed his dream job at Lonely Planet. Fast forward a few more years and he was leading the company globally, working with companies such as Google X, Nokia and Amazon on the latest technology, creative cultures and high performing teams. Seeking a change from corporate life, he hung up his boots as the executive director and CTO of Lonely Planet and decided to move back to his entrepreneurial roots, becoming an investor, founder and mentor across the start-up ecosystem in Melbourne. He loves sharing a story, but loves even more, knowing those stories make a difference to people, helping them in their own business and life.

Over the last 3 years Gus Balbontin has presented to audiences of 10 across regional Australia and New Zealand, to audiences of 10,000 across North America, Europe, South America and Asia. To him there’s no difference. Small, large, private, public, board room to mail room, his lessons hit a chord, his simplicity disarms you, his energy infects you and his counterintuitive way of looking at the world will motivate you to do things different.

Often thought as futurist, not because he predicts the future, but instead because he helps you focus on what you can control to deal with any future. Gus helps audiences cut through the hype to focus on what the real human impact really is. Still want to talk trends? Sure! Gus loves as much as the next person trying to imagine a world run by AI, but he warns that getting too distracted with future guesses will only take time away from you and your company to actually do something about the future.

Belinda is one of Australia’s most experienced and well-respected media trainers, drawing her expert insights from more than 25 years as a journalist and presenter across TV, radio and print, and as a media strategist and advisor to senior politicians. A trusted and effective coach, her clients include national industry leaders in education, cyber security, finance, health, law, property and construction, real estate, travel, tourism and government. 

Ashwin Ram is a renowned cybersecurity thought leader with over 15 years of experience helping organisations navigate the complexities of an evolving threat landscape. As a Cyber Security Evangelist in the Office of the CTO at Check Point Software Technologies, he partners with executives to design strategies that align cybersecurity with business goals, building resilience against cyber threats.

Recognised as one of The Australian newspaper’s Top 100 Innovators in Australia in 2023 and 2024, Ashwin is celebrated for simplifying complex cybersecurity challenges and delivering actionable insights. Over the past four years, he has been a familiar face at AISA conferences, sharing his expertise at 13 events and captivating audiences with presentations on topics such as cyber warfare, cyber espionage, modern hacktivism, cyber strategy, AI-driven threats, and more.

Ashwin has also earned top honours in global leadership programs, including the Cyber Leadership Program (2020) and Cyber Strategy and Transformation Program (2021). His unique ability to bridge technical and executive perspectives has made him a trusted advisor in advancing cybersecurity governance and resilience.

Driven by a passion for protecting businesses and communities, Ashwin is committed to empowering organisations to build a safer digital future.

Ivano is a researcher, consultant, author, and speaker whose work focuses on the managerial and business implications of Cybersecurity. He is the General Manager of AUSCERT, a not-for-profit organisation affiliated with UQ that delivers cybersecurity services to public and private sector organisations across Australia and New Zealand.

Ivano is also a Senior Lecturer in Cybersecurity Management with the UQ Business School and a member of UQ Cyber.

Ivano helps business leaders and executives make evidence-based decisions in cybersecurity. With a professional background in risk and security management, Ivano’s work bridges the gap between technical cybersecurity and its repercussions across organisations. He has advised ministers, policy-makers, board members, and senior executives on strategies, governance structures, policies, and training programs for effective cybersecurity management. 

Ivano is also an experienced facilitator in the fields of Design Thinking and Design-Led innovation, having run since 2015 more than 70 design-led workshops and longer projects for public and private sector organisations.

Justin is a cybersecurity consultant and educator with over twenty-five years industry experience. He is the founder of Progress Cybersecurity, which assists organisation to improve their cybersecurity practices. 

Justin is located in Brisbane and holds a Master of Business and Technology as well as various vendor certifications

Steve Hunter leads Arctic Wolf’s customer-facing engineering team for Australia and New Zealand and has worked with hundreds of clients across ANZ since launching Arctic Wolf in ANZ. 

Steve has a colourful technology journey having run his own SME IT business in Adelaide, lead IT operations at BHP’s Olympic Dam Copper Uranium mine in the outback, created global standards as an IT architect at Cisco Systems in Australia and Singapore before spending 5 years with an Israeli cybersecurity company in the leadership team that took them through an IPO before being gobbled up by private equity. 

He left Google Cloud to join Arctic Wolf as part of the launch team bringing them into Australia and New Zealand.

Arjen has a strong technical background with decades of experience in Information Technology, Secure Architecture, Software Development, Databases, and Linux. 

As trainer and consultant, he has provided expertise to Defence, government agencies at various levels, as well as to private enterprises. Arjen is a Senior Technical Architect at Ravinn, a Queensland based boutique cyber security company.

Throughout his two-decade career in cyber security, Jon Robertson has earned recognition as a leading authority in security operations and threat response. As the architect behind several well known Security Operations Centres, he has fundamentally transformed how organisations detect and counter cyber threats.

Jon combines deep technical expertise with strategic insight, having pioneered innovative approaches to Managed Detection and Response (MDR) that are now industry standards. His hands-on leadership style and practical experience managing critical incidents have made him an invaluable resource for organisations facing complex security challenges.

At the intersection of technology and business strategy, Jon helps leadership teams develop robust security frameworks that align with their organisational objectives. His pragmatic approach focuses on building resilient security programmes that can adapt to the rapidly evolving threat landscape.