Conference Speakers

Jessica Ridley is a media commentator and TV journalist regularly showcased on Nine’s Today Show. Prior to this, she was on Channel 7’s Sunrise breakfast show as the Sydney correspondent, also working on 7NEWS Australia across finance, real estate, consumer, health and entertainment news.

Having worked in Australia’s largest TV and radio newsrooms for more than a decade, Jessica has developed a reputation as a highly engaging and versatile journalist with solid skills in live television and breaking news. She’s covered major events including the COVID-19 pandemic, elections, floods, bushfires and high-profile court cases.

She has been afforded access to the most powerful players in Australian politics and business, regularly interviewing government policy makers and corporate decision makers.

More recently, Jessica has redirected her skills to training corporate spokespeople on how to deal with the media and share their unique stories through compelling video content and communications, through her company By The Way Media. Away from the spotlight, Jessica is a busy mum and passionately supports other women at the crossroads of parenthood and ambition. She’s enthusiastic about fitness, music, good food and good wine.

Margy Osmond is CEO of the Tourism & Transport Forum and Australia’s most prominent voice advocating for the tourism, transport and aviation sectors.

Margy is part of the newly established Trans-Tasman Seamless Travel Group, leading industry efforts to introduce critical border reforms across the Tasman, and working towards delivering on the Australian and New Zealand Prime Ministers’ commitment to seamless travel. She is also the co-Chair of the Tourism Group of the Australia New Zealand Leadership Forum (ANZLF), which has long been advocating for a more seamless passenger journey.

Previously, she was CEO of the Australian National Retailers Association (ANRA), the NSW Chamber of Commerce and Sydney Chamber of Commerce and has served on a wide range of boards across tourism, sport, theatre and major events, including most recently, Sydney WorldPride and SkillsEQuipped.

Alicia has almost 20 years of airport experience at Cairns Airport having worked across commercial, aviation development and operations. As commercial lead, Alicia delivered many firsts for Cairns Airport including walk through duty free and covered car parking products. Alicia now leads all operational aspects at Cairns Airport including terminal operations, security and aerodrome operations including liaison with government and regulatory bodies. She also sits on a number of national committees with industry and government.

Amy has nearly 30 years’ experience in the aviation industry across both airline and airport operations.

Amy is passionate about enhancing customer experience and is a strong advocate for accessibility. With a focus on collaboration and engagement across diverse teams, Amy has successfully managed daily airport operations and led the delivery of a diverse range of projects and initiatives related to security, terminal operations, customer experience and quality assurance.

Amy holds a Masters in Aviation and Bachelor of Management (Marketing)

Dr Bojana Spasojevic is an interdisciplinary tourism and air transport management researcher and Lecturer in Aviation Management at Griffith University, Australia. Her research uses stakeholder engagement theory as a problem-solving framework. Apart from her research work in stakeholder engagement and air route development, Spasojevic’s research expertise includes passenger/tourist behaviour, travel confidence and air travel emission. Her recent work in the passenger experience area uses innovative technology with the aim of revolutionising passenger survey practices.

Cameron joined APAC in 2023. As Revenue and Distribution Manager Ground Transport he is responsible for the yielding strategies of Melbourne Airport’s 24,000 car parks. Cameron has 14 years experience in the Hotel Accommodation sector bringing a customer first focus to his role. Cameron has worked across multiple markets in Revenue Management roles within Luxury & Apartment Hotel brands. Prior to joining Melbourne Airport Cameron worked in the Healthcare sector where he led a team focused on digital healthcare delivery.

Carly is all about working through complex problems and developing implementable solutions. She is a natural problem solver, organiser and motivator and has been using these skills to onboard every airport in New Zealand who uses the OneReg platform.

With an MA in Public Policy and Management, she continuously looks to improve processes through innovative solutions and ensuring there is a strong evidence base makes her jump for joy!

Cindy Varnier is a Principal Consultant with 15 years’ experience spanning both operational management and consulting services. She is part of AECOM’s Sustainability & Resilience Practice and has been working with airports across Australia and Asia Pacific to build their resilience to the physical effects of climate change in response to global decarbonisation shifts. Cindy has conducted numerous climate change and broader resilience assessments for large infrastructure projects, connecting the findings of technical studies to enterprise-wide strategy, risk and planning.

Claire Donnellan is a respected industry expert with over 30 years of experience in aviation across regional and international airlines and airports. She is an MBA and IAP designated and certified human-led design thinker and a former inhouse operations manager and customer experience practitioner. Her experience ranges from developing customer strategies and conceptual operations to undertaking stakeholder engagement activities. She combines an empathetic understanding of customer and aviation operations, to help shape and/or peer review experience and operational concepts across all stages of project development lifecycles. Her focus is to support organisations as they implement and apply their customer-related commitments and practices to major projects, foster team alignment and build capability and corporate practices. This ranges from regional to major airports, national and global industry associations, commercially driven assets, and inclusivity-focused not-for-profits. Claire currently supports multiple businesses and associations in an advisory capacity as they set and realign corporate strategies.

Dan Parsons is part of Wisk’s South-East Queensland team working on network & infrastructure development. With over 15 years of experience as an aviation safety and airport operations professional, Dan has worked as an airport consultant, regulator and operations manager in Australia, New Zealand and Qatar. Dan has also worked in international standards and education role with a focus on airport management and development.

Jared has over 12 years’ of experience within the sector across regional, major and capital city airports along with two and half at the peak industry body, the Australian Airports Association. In his role as General Manager Operations & Service Delivery, Jared and his team are responsible for the safe and efficient operation of Gold Coast Airport across the airfield, terminal, security and emergency planning function along with ensuring a high level of service to all passengers, customers and stakeholders.

Johan commenced employment with ARRB (now NTRO) in 2021 as a pavement engineer in the Asset Performance group. He has over 13 years’ experience with a strong focus on pavement construction, design and management.

Prior to moving to Australia, he worked in South Africa on several major road projects as a resident engineer and project manager. His technical on-site experience laid a strong foundation of skills that transferred into the consulting industry of pavement engineering. At his core he is a pavement engineer, and his exposure to all aspects of pavement engineering from design to asset management has given him a holistic view of the industry both internationally and locally.

The NTRO has provided the opportunity to work with cutting edge technology to solve complex asset management and pavement engineering problems. Johan has applied his experience across the transportation industry, working on unique projects such as an Assurance System for the Rural Fire Service in NSW and recently a project on small and rural airports across Western Australia using iPAVE data. This project focusses on next generation technology being applied to the analysis of airport pavement assets. One aspect of this research project is the ability to calculate Pavement Classification Ratings (PCR) from Traffic Speed Deflectometer (TSD) data.

Johan has an honours degree in Civil Engineering and a master’s degree in Transportation from the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa.

Matt excels in simplifying complex challenges. As a business transformation specialist, he’s overseen multi-million-dollar organisational change for various enterprises over 30-years in various CFO roles. He understands what drives efficiencies and growth, and how to best harness a company’s resources. Matt co-founded Lime Intelligence in 2009, and is now specialising in leveraging cutting-edge technology to transform complex data into actionable insights. Matt’s passion for innovation and excellence is driving his vision for working with airports to achieve genuine data-driven cultures.

Nathan is the National Business Group Lead for Asset Performance with NTRO. Nathan is an Infrastructure Specialist with over 20 years’ experience as a Manager, Civil Engineer, and Designer. He has previously held positions as a Technical Director and the Manager several departments both as a client and service provider. He has also held the position of Airfield Facilities Manager and resident Civil Engineer at Melbourne Airport, where he was responsible for all airside civil assets.

Patrick Keogh is a Principal Consultant of AvLogix Solutions with over twenty years’ experience in the aviation industry. His particular focus is designing and implementing automation systems for baggage handling, cargo and parcel freight systems.

Patrick is a Chartered Professional Engineer in Australia and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation as well as a registered Project Director with the Australian Institute of Project Managers. Key projects include major baggage handling systems for Western Sydney, Sydney KSA, Melbourne, Adelaide and Gold Coast Airports.

Phil joined ISS following careers in the Australian Defence Force and Australian Border Force (ABF). Phil’s experience includes roles responsible for the ABF’s strategy; capability; and senior operational commands; regional lead in the Pacific for the Department of Home Affairs; and Senior Advisor to the Minister for Home Affairs. Also a member of Industry Skills Australia’s Aviation Strategic Workforce Planning Committee, Phil has extensive experience across aviation operations, government engagement and regulatory enforcement.

Raechel Paris is the Executive General Manager, Governance at BAC, leading a multi-disciplinary team that includes Sustainability. Raechel is responsible for driving BAC’s Sustainability Strategy, covering all facets of BAC’s operations. Raechel has worked in multiple industries including legal advisory, professional services, technology, transportation and infrastructure, and in both the public and private sector.

Ryan is responsible for all operational and commercial activities of the aviation business at BAC, including airfield and terminal operations, commercial agreements, business development and marketing.
Ryan has more than 20 years’ experience in the aviation industry with airlines and airports, including Melbourne Airport, Virgin Australia and as CEO of contract aviation group Cobham Australia.

Dr Navie, has more than 30 years scientific experience in plant ecology, weed biology, plant taxonomy and plant identification. Dr Navie is one of Australia’s most highly regarded botanists and has been Principal Scientist at the IVM Group for the past 10 years.

Simon is CEO/MD of Eagle Aviation Consulting, with 40 years’ experience and expertise in Airport business transformation and optimisation, including first-ever New Zealand customer self-service kiosk product programme. Over the past 20 years, he has provided expert advice and analysis in the Middle East/Central Asia regions on airline and airport performance.

He has led aviation planning and airport performance projects in Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Cambodia, Central Asia, and NZ/Pacific Islands for Civil Aviation, governments, airports, airlines, and investors.

Steven Harding is the Chief Executive Officer for the Shire of East Pilbara, which is Australia’s largest Local Government, and spans 372,571sq km. As CEO for three years has Civil Engineering qualifications, and MBA and Legal qualifications.

Steven has also presented numerous technical presentations in China, India, Malaysia, Singapore and Australia on the subject of water, wastewater, methane capture and carbon. He has also served on State Government Advisory Committees and represented Australia on trade mission delegations.

Todd Chapman is the principal of Leading Edge Management Consulting and works with organisations who need support and expertise going through complex change and transformation. Todd leverages proven systems and personal skills honed in more than 25 years of working in senior roles within Australia’s most successful airlines.