John is Director of Marketing at Westfield, one the world's largest retail property owners. He has played a lead role in the development of Westfield online. John had previously held brand and marketing managerial roles for major global brands such as PepsiCo, Kimberly Clark and Wrigley. He led campaigns for these brands that won several awards including the Australian Advertising Effectiveness Award and the Cannes Lion Award. John is a member of the Australian Market & Social Research Society Client Advisory Board and has been a member of the Australian Research Awards judging panel. He holds a Masters in Management, a Bachelor of Business, and Certificate in Digital Marketing from ADMA.

Prior to joining the Financial review Ky was a journalist and producer at Sky News Business Channel. He has also worked as a journalist at SBS, and Marketing Communications Executive at Macquarie Bank.

He has interviewed Australia's top CEOs including Gail Kelly, Ralph Norris, Alan Joyce, Terry Davis and Andrew Forrest, directors such as David Gonski and Janet Holmes a Court, regulators such as Graeme Samuel and Tony D'Aloisio, ministers such as Lindsay Tanner and Chris Bowen, and international heavyweights such as the Director General of the World Trade Organisation, Pascal Lamy.

Ky has a Master's degree in Business.

Mark was appointed Executive General Manager Retail Development in March 2012. In his role Mark is responsible for driving Myer's omni-channel strategy which includes e-commerce, Loyalty and customer research (including MYER one), all parts of Myer's Information Technology, as well as the Program Management Office which has oversight of all major projects and capital expenditures within the business. His role consolidates the parts of the business that are developing and implementing new technologies and retail platforms, as Myer further progresses a leading omni-channel offer. Mark is a highly experienced career retailer most recently in the role of CEO at Spotlight. Previous to that he held the key position of General Manager Merchandise at Kmart and was Acting Managing Director in 2008 following the Wesfarmers acquisition. Mark started his retail career with Woolworths South Africa and has also held Senior Management positions at British Home Stores & Mothercare in the United Kingdom and later at Country Road in Australia.

Mark Hassell joined Virgin Australia airlines in January 2012 as General Manager Brand and Customer Strategy, a role where he will focus on supporting the business by developing the brand and tailoring the customer experience from start to finish.  

Mark joins Virgin Australia with more than 25 years of aviation and customer service experience.  His extensive career began in the United Kingdom, joining British Airways as a part time flight attendant.  He soon moved to a number of a senior management roles principally in the Brand, Product and Service Development; Alliance Marketing and leading Customer Service divisions. 

His last two roles at British Airways were Head of Inflight Service Experience, responsible for 15,000 flight attendants and Head of Customer Experience heading up worldwide ground and air product and service development, worldwide catering and supply chain, alliance marketing development and the worldwide lounge network. 

During Mark’s tenure at British Airways he was seconded to Qantas Airways in 2000, for more than six years where he headed up the Brand and Product Development division before taking responsibility for more than 7000 long and short haul cabin crew members across the airline’s fleet of aircraft.

Tim has extensive experience of intangible asset valuation, intellectual property transactions and value-based brand strategy. He has an MBA and is a Chartered Accountant, Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing and Fellow of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors. Tim advises the Australian Taxation Office on cases involving intangible assets. Other clients include leading brand owners, intellectual property lawyers and private equity firms in Australia, Asia, Europe and Japan.

He is a visiting lecturer at the University of Sydney, presenting a course on ‘Evaluation Marketing Performance’ for the Master of Marketing. Tim chairs the ICAA’s NSW Business Valuation Special Interest Group and is a judge on the AFA’s Advertising Effectiveness Awards and the AMSRS’s Market Research Effectiveness Award. Prior to joining Brand Finance’s UK office in 1998, Tim worked for the BBC, KPMG and founded an award winning media company in South Africa.

Launa was recently appointed as CEO of Billabong. She is also a non-executive director of Commonwealth Bank and sits on the World Retail Congress Advisory Board. Launa has a wealth of experience in the retail sector, previous roles include Managing Director of Target, where she increased sales by over $1billion and operating profit by 85%, and Managing Director of Officeworks.  Launa was Telstra Australian Business Woman of the Year in 2003. She completed an Advanced Executive Program at Wharton Business School, holds a Bachelor of Commerce Hons, and a Masters of Commerce in Strategy and Economics.

Paul is currently the global head of strategy, planning and innovation for Brambles Limited, Australia’s most geographically diverse business.  His responsibility area covers the groups businesses in 54 countries, US$8.0B in assets and approximately 17,000 people.

Brambles is a pooling solutions company specialising in the provision of reusable pallets, crates and containers, operating primarily under the CHEP and IFCO brands. These businesses primarily serve the consumer goods, fresh produce and general manufacturing sectors, as well as providing specialist solutions in the automotive, aerospace and chemicals industries.  Brambles operations are complex and capital intensive, managing more than 300 million pallets, crates containers, servicing more than 500,000 delivery and collection points, through more than 600 service centres world-wide. 

In addition, Brambles operates the Recall document and information management business, in more than 20 countries and serving many of the world’s largest financial and regulatory institutions.  Paul previously held the role of Group President, CHEP Asia Pacific and President, CHEP Australia.

Adrian Payne is Professor of Marketing at the University of New South Wales, and chairman of Brand Finance Australia. He specialises in CRM, Marketing Strategy, Customer Retention and Services Marketing. He is a frequent keynote speaker at public and in-company seminars around the world and has lectured at over twenty leading academic institutions around the world including: Darden School, University of Virginia; Northwestern University; INSEAD; IMD; London Business School; Oxford University; and Cambridge University. Adrian has practical experience in marketing, market research, corporate planning and general management. His previous appointments include positions as Chief Executive for a manufacturing company and he has also held senior company appointments in strategic planning and marketing. He is an author of fourteen books including the first text to be published on Relationship Marketing.