Megan Enders is from Western Power Corporation where she is the General Manager of the Commercial Services business unit. Commercial Services comprises 530 employees who provide key strategy, support and service functions to Western Power and some external customers. It has a budget of nearly $100m per annum (capital and operating) and generates external revenue for Western Power to the value of at least $15m per annum.
 
Services provided by the business unit range from fleet management, procurement and metering to information technology, human resources, accounting and internal consulting in health, safety, the environment and business performance improvement. Megan is the first female member of the Western Power executive team since the company began as the State Electricity Commission of Western Australia in 1946.
 
Prior to joining Western Power, Megan was a management consultant with The Empower Group (formerly World Competitive Practices) assisting organisations to achieve their strategic objectives by improving their management of people. She became a consultant after completing a master's in business administration at the University of Melbourne and Cornell University, New York State, in 1999.
 
Megan has had experience in the public sector, working as a policy adviser on transport, communications and the environment in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (when Paul Keating was Prime Minister). She was also an adviser to the (then) Special Minister of State, Senator the Hon Nick Minchin (currently the Federal Minister for Finance) for two years. In this role she primarily assisted him in implementing the government’s policy to hold a Constitutional Convention to consider the issue of becoming a republic.
 
Megan also has a Bachelor of Arts (First Class Honours) in organisational communication, with specialisations in public relations, marketing and advertising.

Kate Lundy was elected as the Labor Senator for the Australian Capital Territory in March 1996. She was appointed to the shadow ministry after the 1998 election and following the 2001 federal election holds the portfolios of the Arts, Sport and Information Technology.

Kate is an active member of several Parliamentary and Senate committees and was a member of the ALP's Knowledge Nation Taskforce. Kate is an internet enthusiast and still publishes her own website. In the past, she has been recognised by the Australian Computer Society as the "Most Computer Literate Politician" and in 2001, Kate made the Australian Financial Review's top five power list in the IT&T industry.

Kate is a passionate sportswoman, especially rowing and scuba diving. She is a member and patron of the Canberra Rowing Club, and patron of a number of other sports and charity organisations. Kate Lundy lives in North Canberra with her husband David.  They have a blended family of five children.

As CIO at Australia Post, Valda is responsible for strategy, planning and the delivery of all information systems, supporting architecture and facilities management. Before joining Australia Post, Valda held positions of Finance Director, and Executive Director Information Systems, respectively. Most of her career has been spent with Carlton and United Breweries Limited.

Valda has a Bachelor of Commerce and a Bachelor of Science from Melbourne University.  She is also a certified practising accountant and a member of the Australian Computer Society. Her experience includes various senior accounting positions, company secretarial positions, business planning and information technology roles.

Valda was the IT&T’s Government CIO of the Year in 2002 and was awarded Computerworld Fellow for 2001. In 1993, she won a scholarship to a management programme at the Australian Graduate School of Management at the University of New South Wales.

Mike has spent 20 years with Shell the first 15 of which were in EP operating companies in New Zealand, the United Kingdom and Brunei. On moving to Australia, he initially worked briefly on the CORE project and then spent 12 months in OP working on the OP 2000 transformation project.

With the formation of SSI in early 1998 Mike built up a regional consulting and business solutions practice before taking up the regional lead position for IT projects and solutions, and SITI Australia country lead role. Mike’s current focus is on IT delivering as promised, particularly in respect of projects, positioning ITPS as a trusted partner to Shell's businesses in the zone, and building pride and professionalism within a functioning IT community in the east zone.

As founder and Managing Director of Charter Wilson, Neil Wilson created the vision for the organisation and has worked with key people in the team to establish a highly regarded strategy and architecture services business. Prior to establishing Charter Wilson in 1997, Neil held a number of senior IT positions with Coles Myer. Oakton Limited acquired the Charter Wilson organisation in October 2000.

Neil continues to play a key consulting role in a number of strategic client assignments. Neil provides practical strategy development that is based on sound architecture principles and is geared towards delivery of change. His focus in recent times has been in the area of facilitating the establishment of the linkage between business strategies and objectives and the design of an appropriate IT architecture to support the current and planned business environment.

In October 2002, Neil was appointed to the role of Chief Operating Officer for Oakton Limited. This role has responsibility for all of the operating divisions of the group and provides key input into development of the organisation's strategic direction. More recently, Neil travelled to India and London to gain valuable knowledge about each country's IT industry and marketplace. This was also to source strategic offshore partners that will provide complementary services to Oakton's current service offerings.

In his role as Executive Director, Neil plays a key role in communicating with the investment community and regularly presents on behalf of Oakton at industry forums and investment seminars. Neil has been a Director of Oakton since October 2000 and works in Melbourne.

Ananda Rao heads Australia and New Zealand as the Country Manager for Infosys Technologies Limited. He is also a member of the executive leadership team of Infosys in Asia-Pacific. Infosys Technologies Limited is a global professional services company that focuses on the development and implementation of technology driven business solutions and strategies for growth.

A documentary about Infosys aired on ABC’s Foreign Correspondent program inspired Ananda to approach Infosys with a comprehensive business plan to set up and grow their operations in Australia and New Zealand. He started Infosys in Australia in November 1999. The operations have grown to cover Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.

Ananda started his career as a boiler engineer and subsequently acquired a master’s degree in mechanical engineering specialising in finite element analysis from Queen’s University, Canada. He migrated to Australia in 1990. Starting off as a specialist in stress analysis, Ananda quickly moved into business development, a role he continues to enjoy even today.

Prior to starting Infosys, Ananda was the Regional General Manager for SE Technologies, a US corporation with responsibilities across APAC.

Born in the Republic of Ireland, Yvonne has lived and worked in Europe, North America, and Australia. She entered the computer industry in 1981 and has matured into an enthusiastic and committed project manager and IT departmental manager working in banking, insurance, petrochemical and most recently health sector organisations.

Yvonne has recently returned from a year-long contract with the Stop TB Partnership Secretariat at the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland, where she worked as an information manager.

As a founding member of Queensland's Women In IT network, Jenny Beresford is keen to contribute to the advancement of the Australian and the global IT industry, and has a personal interest in the endless capacity of women to make a difference as business leaders.

Jenny returned to Australia to take up the role of Regional GM, ANZ and Japan, for the India-based IT professional services company Mahindra-BT (MBT). Established in 1986, MBT is a joint venture of two blue chip companies, Mahindra India and British Telecom.

Now based in Melbourne, Jenny's journey into the global playing fields commenced in the early 80s in Queensland, where an arts degree launched her into IT as a computer programmer. Realising that IT was actually a very creative medium, Jenny was excited by the possibilities of innovation in business through technology and was drawn increasingly into the wider business environment. Her career rapidly progressed, with short breaks to have two children and acquire an MBA along the way, to senior roles in both client and vendor organisations including IT Manager for Queensland Health, General Manager IT for AAG Holdings and Director SMS Consulting.

In 2000, Jenny left for London to take on the role of VP for the US-based customer relationship management (CRM) consultancy Extraprise. She formed a consortium which included Extraprise and MBT to provide CRM support for British Telecom, and then visited India to explore the Indian IT industry where she was offered the role she holds today.

Karen Melzack is the Convenor of the Internet Community Hour which has been addressing issues of equity and access to the internet since 1997. This highly successful train the trainer program has brought together marginalised communities in WA by learning to mentor themselves new media skills and so sustaining emotional, social and intellectual growth
within the specific groups.

Karen Melzack has a Master of Arts, Design (research, Cybermind online community), Postgraduate Diploma in Design, Dip T, and Cert IV Assessment and Workplace Training, 2003.

Jackie Gill currently heads up an innovative community-based ICT program called Connected Communities, the key project of which is Networked Neighbourhoods, designed to prove that ICTs can build community by bringing people together. It's a pet project for Jackie and brings together many years' interest and experience in community cultural development, sociology and ICTs.

Jackie is also known to many as the Net Nanny who dispenses interesting stories and advice to listeners of ABC720 Drive Time Radio.

Her career in ICT began formally in 1997 when she was a partner in one of the state's first regional ISPs. Shortly after starting Netculture, she undertook a comprehensive study tour of the UK, from which resulted a report on using compelling content to mobilise regional demand for telecommunications. This lead to the development of the world-class Online WA Communities Program which is now the umbrella for her current project work.

Jackie has spoken at conferences around the world, and organised CASOC2000 (Creating And Sustaining Online Communities), which is still recognised as an international benchmark in online community development.

Jim Ellis has worked in the IT industry for nearly 40 years. After gaining his Bachelor of Science in mathematics and statistics from St Andrews University, Scotland in 1964. Jim worked at British Aerospace, Filton, Bristol, England in a number of computer roles related to the Concorde airliner project. He then worked from 1967 in technical, sales, and management roles with multinational computer suppliers in Eastern Europe and the South East Asia before moving to Perth with his family in 1981 to manage the WA office for mainframe supplier Sperry Univac, later part of Unisys.

After roles with Super Software (1984–1988), Execom (1988–1991) and Tandem Computers (1991–1996), he established Westinfo Services in 1997 as the Gartner distributor for Western Australia and WA Channel Partner for the Thompson NETg range of technology-based training products. Jim is owner and Managing Director of Westinfo Services. He was also a non-executive Director of Imago Multimedia Centre Ltd and of Entrepreneurs in Residence Ltd (EiR) from June 2001 until October 2002.

Jim is a past Chairman of the WA Branch of the Australian Computer Society (ACS), and a Fellow and honorary life member of that society. He is also a member of the British Computer Society, a Chartered Engineer of the Engineering Council (UK), A Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, and an Associate Fellow of the Australian Institute of Management. He is also on the WA Branch Executive of the AIIA (Australian Information Industries Association). Jim conceived the WA IT & Telecommunications Awards (WAITTA) and was Chairman from its inception in 1991 until stepping down in 2003 to take on the role of inaugural Chairman of the WA Chapter of the ACS Foundation. The ACS Foundation facilitates tertiary scholarships in the ICT area.

Graham is a Director of Outcome Consulting, a company that focuses on assisting organisations to deliver benefits from their business and technology initiatives.

Based in Western Australia, Graham works closely with business executives and sponsors to shape projects for the delivery of benefits, and ensure that their investments deliver the intended value. Graham also assists information technology groups with the implementation of a business-value focus within their organisations.

Graham trained originally as a systems engineer in the UK, providing support to clients across a range of industries, before becoming a line manager of technical professionals.

Moving into management consulting, Graham has focused largely in the area of benefits realisation for the past eight years. He has assisted clients to obtain a clear picture of the full range of initiatives in which they are engaged, and to gain control of their portfolio through the implementation of governance processes. Graham has helped clients to justify investments, scope projects for benefits delivery, and has supported project teams and executive sponsors to deliver benefits from their projects.

Formerly an associate director with a large consulting organisation, Graham led the benefits realisation competency for Western Australia and Northern Territories. He led multiple engagements for both government and commercial organisations, was responsible for the development and coaching of benefits realisation staff, and ran Australia-wide training courses. Graham also had international involvement with the ongoing development of the benefits realisation method.

Andrew Walls is a Managing Consultant at SecureNet Limited, based in the Melbourne office. Andrew's expertise lies in security governance, risk and threat assessment, information warfare, policy enforcement, and incident investigation. Prior to joining SecureNet earlier this year, Andrew was the Information Security and Risk Specialist for the Bank of Western Australia in Perth.

Andrew has worked in the IT industry for over 25 years and has managed information security for companies across the globe. He has been involved in corporate and national computer emergency response teams and has served as an expert witness for multiple court cases involving information security.

José Ruggero is a Vice President and General Manager in Gartner Executive Programs (EXP) Asia-Pacific, where he is responsible for driving growth and enhancing the client experience for EXP members in that region.

For the past two years, he was a senior program director in Gartner EXP serving clients in Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia, and New Zealand. His particular areas of interest include innovation, leadership, and IS management strategies. Mr Ruggero joined Gartner in 1998 as a district manager in the sales organisation.

Prior to joining Gartner, Mr Ruggero ran a large solution delivery business with GE Capital IT Solutions concentrating on large corporations delivering product, training, networking, systems management, application development, facilities management, and outsourcing solutions. Prior to that, he owned a successful part-time PC dealership, PC rental, and consultancy business specialising in financial applications, while working for a national payroll and HR outsourcing arm of a global IT service provider, turning a stagnating business into a successful operation.

He began his career in the data processing department for a large insurance company, in a variety of roles including data processing, computer operations, programming, and management and has also worked in the retail industry in both management and IT consulting roles.

Mr Ruggero holds a bachelor of commerce degree majoring in finance and economics from Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia, and is a member of the Golden Key National Honor society.