2016 Judges

Malcolm Alder | Partner, Orchestrate

Malcolm Alder is a partner in Orchestrate, a digital strategy consulting firm. He has more than 25 years' experience and was named as one of the 50 Most Influential People in Technology by Australian IT.

Over the course of his career, Malcolm has worked in Australia, UK, Singapore, Malaysia, Canada, New Zealand and the USA. He is a regular public presenter and media commentator on topics such as social media, broadband and the broader impacts and implications of disruptive technology.

Malcolm was previously Partner for Digital Economy at KPMG. He has a degree in Politics, is a published author and has appeared in more than 25 theatre productions.

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Andrew Barlow | Partner, PricewaterhouseCoopers

Andrew Barlow is a Partner within PricewaterhouseCoopers Australia based in Melbourne. He has been with PricewaterhouseCoopers for 20 years and specialises in providing financial assurance and advisory services in the Technology, Communication, Entertainment and Media Industry. Andrew has also worked in the UK, Saudi Arabia, Jakarta and Sydney offices of PricewaterhouseCoopers. Andrew leads the PwC Technology, Information, Communication, Entertainment & Media markets in Melbourne and leads the assurance Communications sector in Australia. He is also one of the key partners contributing to, compiling and presenting the annual Australian Entertainment & Media Outlook, a significant and highly in demand market leading publication.

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Chris Chapman

Chris Chapman commenced as the inaugural Chairman and CEO of the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) in February 2006 and just recently completed a decade- long term. He was also appointed an Associate Member of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission in September 2007, which term also recently concluded.

He was recently appointed the President of the International Institute of Communications (IIC). Based in London and founded in 1969, the IIC is an independent, non – partisan and diverse membership organisation whose mission is to promote sound public policy in the converging telecommunications, media and technology sectors of the global communications industry.

Chris has had an extensive career including leadership roles in the media, broadcasting and film, internet, telecommunications and internet business, sports and the infrastructure sector. Before joining the ACMA, Chris held a number of senior management positions with the Seven Network, Stadium Australia Management, Optus and Babcock & Brown. He has also been the Chairman of Film Australia and Sports Vision Australia, and was a member of the National Film and Sound Archives’ Advisory Council.

Chris has a Bachelor of Laws and a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of New South Wales and has completed the Harvard Business School AMP program.

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Teresa Corbin | Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, ACCAN

Teresa Corbin is a co-founder of ACCAN, Australia’s peak body for communications consumers. Ms Corbin worked in various roles at Consumers’ Telecommunications Network (CTN) before taking on the role there of CEO from 2003 to 2009. She has 20 years of experience in telecommunications policy and her community sector work spans a 25-year period and includes strong ties with consumer groups both nationally and internationally. Teresa is a director on the International Telecommunications Users Group (INTUG). She was appointed to the role of ACCAN CEO in 2010 and currently sits on many industry and government bodies including the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman Board, the ACMA Consumer Consultative Forum and the NSW Information Privacy Advisory Committee. In 2015, she was awarded the Charles Todd Medal by the Telecommunications Society for having made an outstanding contribution to Australian telecommunications in recent years. Teresa holds a Bachelor of Arts with a major in Linguistics from La Trobe University and is a Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

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Rob Fitzpatrick | Chief Executive Officer, Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA)

Rob Fitzpatrick is a passionate technology advocate, and has been so for much of the past 3 decades. His career spans research and advocacy at the Property Council of Australia, corporate strategy, sales & marketing at McKinsey & Company, telecommunications at SingTel Optus, technology innovation at shopfast.com.au, commercialisation of early stage research at Data61, foundation investor in technology-based startups and company director influencing technology adoption in traditional businesses.

As CEO of the Australian Information Industry Association, Rob helps shape Australia’s innovation agenda, connecting members with public and private sector organisations as the nation embraces disruption to improve our economy and society. AIIA's members - from large 'born global' Australian companies, to talented small and medium businesses, to entrepreneurial startups and the incubators that nourish their journeys, to global players making a difference in our society - are the digital leaders helping Australian industry embrace disruption to grow wealth, stake out globally relevant leadership and remove friction from our economy.

Rob has Economics and Law degrees from the University of Sydney and a Master in Business Administration from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Rob is an active family man, avid traveller, ocean swimmer and surfer.

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Garry Hausfeld | Principle, Hausfeld Consulting

Garry Hausfeld is an independent consulting engineer in satellite communications, and principle of Hausfeld Consulting since 2002.

With over 30 years of experience in the international telecommunications industry, Garry has been providing independent technical advice and engineering consultancy services to Telcos in the Asia Pacific region for the last 14 years.

Garry first worked as a satellite communications engineer at OTC from 1984 until the merger with Telstra in 1992, where he was involved with all of the major technical developments at the main OTC earth stations in Sydney, Melbourne, Ceduna and Perth.

From 1992 until 2001, Garry was employed by Telstra as a satellite communications engineer in the Network Design & Construction branch, and later as an engineering manager in the International Business Unit. During this period, Garry also served as the Australian delegate on the INTELSAT Board of Governors Technical Advisory Committee in Washington DC, including 2 years as Vice Chairman and then Chairman of that committee.

When the International Business Unit of Telstra was moved into Reach Ltd (the joint venture with PCCW of Hong Kong), Garry served 12 months as Engineering Manager Global Satellite Platform Planning at Reach. Where he was responsible for planning and managing engineering projects at Reach's teleports in Hong Kong, Sydney and Perth.

Since forming Hausfeld Consulting in 2002, Garry has provided satcom engineering consultancy services to a wide range of clients in Australia, Hong Kong, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Vanuatu, Tonga, and the Solomon Islands.

Garry has a Bachelor of Engineering Degree from Newcastle University, a Master of Engineering Science degree from the University of New South Wales, and a Graduate Certificate in Management from the University of Southern Queensland.

Garry is a current member of the Institute of Engineers Australia, and a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).

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Sabiene Heindl | Executive Director, SWH Legal & Business Consulting

Sabiene Heindl is an experienced executive, director and lawyer in the telecommunications and technology sectors. Returning recently to Australia with an Executive MBA from Brown University in the U.S. and IE Business School in Spain, she formerly managed Stakeholder Relations for NBN Co and a high profile industry body in the content industries. She is currently the Executive Director of a legal and business consulting organization.

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Maha Krishnapillai | Executive Director External Affairs, Worksafe - Victoria

A winner of ACOMM’s “Telecommunications Ambassador” award and named as one of the “Top 50 most influential people in Technology”, Maha is an experienced senior executive in a broad range of environments from start-up to large major corporates, including Macquarie Telecom, SingTel-Optus and Australia Post. As Executive Director, External Affairs with Worksafe, he is responsible for all marketing, comms, media & stakeholder management as well as the Client Services business.

Prior to this, as Macquarie Telecom’s Group Executive, Strategy his responsibilities included industry strategy, carrier negotiation, regulatory and Government - for Australia and the Asia-Pacific region. He also led Macquarie’s mobile business and its Southern Regional office. A member of Optus’ Executive Leadership Team, as Director of Government and Corporate Affairs, he had national portfolio accountability for NBN & Regulatory Affairs; Sponsorship Marketing, Government & Community Relations. He was also Director Victoria, responsible for enterprise customers & Optus’ 2500 person-strong business in Victoria. Prior to then, Maha worked with AUSTEL (the precursor to ACMA) for seven years where he held a wide range of management positions.

For over 20 years, he was a major leader in the high profile campaign to advocate open market competition and overarching regulatory reform, firstly as a Government regulator, then via a new entrant (Macquarie Telecom) and ultimately recruited to escalate that campaign at Optus.

Maha holds a BSc in Mathematics, post graduate qualifications in management and is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. He enjoys spending time with his family, travelling, reading and rugby.

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Grahame Lynch | Chief Executive Officer, CommsDay

Grahame Lynch founded Decisive in 1994, launching the Communications Day newsletter. Grahame won the Australian Telecommunications Users Group Journalist of the Year award in 1996 and the Service Providers' Association of Australia Media Excellence award in 1997. He then took leave-of-absence from Decisive, joining Advanstar in Hong Kong as group editor of Telecom Asia and Telecom China, where he launched Wireless Asia magazine. In 1999, Grahame was promoted to group editorial director of Advanstar Telecom Group, in charge of America's Network, Telepress Latino America and the aforementioned Asian titles.

Under Grahame's stewardship, America's Network was nominated for a record six National Magazine Awards in 2001. In April 2001, Grahame returned to Decisive to spearhead the company's Asian expansion. Grahame has also written a book, Bandwidth Bubble Bust: The Rise and Fall of the Global Telecom Industry, published in the US in July 2001. Grahame has also been extensively published in titles such as, The Bulletin and The Australian.

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Deirdre Mason | Chair, Communications Compliance

Deirdre Mason has had a long career in the private and the public sectors, in fact combining both by working at Telecom/Telstra for nine years in the role of Director of Corporate Affairs, responsible for all Telstra's corporate communications including media relations, internal communication and corporate relationships with the state governments and local government.

Deirdre is now the Chair of Communications Compliance (Commcom), the company set up to support CSP's as they develop their business processes such as advertising and staff training, to ensure compliance with the new Telecommunications Consumer Protections Code.

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Paul McCann | Managing Director, McCann Consulting International Pty Ltd

Paul McCann is Managing Director of McCann Consulting International Pty Ltd. Paul has over 40 years network planning & development experience in telecommunications both in international and domestic arenas. Prior to returning to consulting in 2012, Paul spent over 8 years with Verizon in Asia Pacific, driving growth of Verizon's network across Asia by developing & implementing plans delivering major operational cost reductions and improved service performance. Paul is now Managing Director of his own consulting business where the core business focus is on "connectivity" with expertise spanning all aspects of planning and development for Satellite, Submarine cable and Domestic access technologies and business. Paul is well known for his personable nature, his rapport with customers and his ability to deliver on time.

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Mark McDonnell

Mark McDonnell has an extensive background in the telecommunications, IT and media industries with a career encompassing government policy advice, business analysis, management consultancy, investment banking and stockbroking. For the past 35 years he has been actively involved in assessing trends and developments in the communications industry, and valuing listed companies in this sector.

Between 2000 and 2014, Mark was Senior Analyst in Telecommunications, Media and Technology at BBY Limited and also worked in the investment banking operations of the firm on various M&A and equity market listings for companies in the TMT sector.

'In the 1990s Mark was an industry consultant. His clients included Telstra, Optus, Telecom New Zealand, IBM, Ericsson, GE Information Services and many others. Mark was also the founding CEO of ASTRA, the pay television industry association.

In the 1980s Mark was employed in the policy division of the then Department of Posts and Telecommunications, and later gained regulatory and public inquiry experience in the then Australian Broadcasting Tribunal. He saw out that decade as a business analyst and manager of policy development for Aussat, the national satellite carrier.

Mark has a Master's degree in Applied Finance and Investment and is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

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John Stanton | Chief Executive Officer, Communications Alliance

John Stanton is a seasoned communications industry executive with over 20 years of experience.

From 2006-2009 John was Chief Executive Officer of ASX and NZX-listed telecommunications carrier, People Telecom. Under his leadership, People Telecom became profitable and was recognised as Australia's Best Regional Service Provider in the Australian Telecom Awards 2007. In early 2009 the Company was sold to M2 Telecommunications.

Prior to that John was an executive with Intelsat, the largest provider of fixed satellite services worldwide. Based in the UK from 2001-2005, he was President and Director of Intelsat Global Sales & Marketing and of the Data, Carrier and Internet Business Unit. John also spent two years in the US with Intelsat as Vice President of Sales and Marketing from 1999-2001.

John joined Telstra in 1992 as a result of the merger with OTC where he was Manager of Public Affairs. From 1992-1999 John held a number of roles with Telstra including Managing Director of Payphones and Card Services. From 1996-1997 he was also Chairman of the Intelsat Board.

In his early career, John worked as a journalist and as a press secretary with the Australian Government.

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Julian Thomas | Director, Swinburne Institute for Social Research and Professor of Media and Communications, Swinburne University of Technology

Julian Thomas is Director of the Swinburne Institute for Social Research and Professor of Media and Communications at Swinburne University of Technology. Julian researches media transitions, information policy and the history of communications technologies; his recent books are The Informal Media Economy (Polity, 2015); Amateur Media: Social, Cultural and Legal Perspectives (Routledge, 2013) and Fashioning Intellectual Property: Exhibition, Advertising and the Press 1789-1918 (Cambridge UP, 2012). Julian is a member of ACMA's Consumer Consultative Forum, and the Australian Research Council's Centre of Excellence in Creative Industries and Innovation.

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