[ { "id": "TS0001", "image": "/images/2025/speakers/zhamak-dehghani.jpg", "name": "Zhamak Dehghani", "position": "Founder and CEO Nextdata", "youtube": "https://youtube.com/@dataengbytes", "bio": "Zhamak has been a guiding voice in the data world, known globally for her work in defining and leading the Data Mesh movement. Her thinking has shaped the way many of us approach data architecture, and her influence continues to inspire teams and organisations around the world.", "linkedin": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/zhamak-dehghani/", "link": "/speakers/zhamak-dehghani", "cities": [ "Sydney" ], "roles": [ "keynote" ] }, { "id": "TS0005", "image": "/images/2025/speakers/olena-kutsenko.png", "name": "Olena Kutsenko", "position": "Staff Developer Advocate at Confluent", "youtube": "https://youtube.com/@dataengbytes", "bio": "Olena is a Staff Developer Advocate at Confluent and a recognized expert in data streaming and analytics. With two decades of experience in software engineering, she has built mission-critical applications, led high-performing teams, and driven large-scale technology adoption at industry leaders like Nokia, HERE Technologies, AWS, and Aiven. A passionate advocate for real-time data processing and AI-driven applications, Olena empowers developers and organizations to use the power of streaming data. She is an AWS Community Builder, a dedicated mentor, and a volunteer instructor at a nonprofit tech school, helping to shape the next generation of engineers. As an international speaker and thought leader, Olena regularly presents at top global conferences, sharing deep technical insights and hands-on expertise. Whether through her talks, workshops, or content, she is committed to making complex technologies accessible and inspiring innovation in the developer community.", "linkedin": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/olenakutsenko/", "link": "/speakers/olena-kutsenko", "cities": [ "Sydney", "Melbourne" ], "roles": [ "keynote" ] }, { "id": "TS0006", "image": "/images/2025/speakers/lena-hall-2.png", "name": "Lena Hall", "position": "CEO at Droid AI", "youtube": "https://youtube.com/@dataengbytes", "bio": "Lena Hall is an expert in practical AI adoption, data engineering, cloud and pragmatic architecture, driving strategic AI integration at scale combined with extensive experience leading large, high-performing technical teams. She is the Founder and CEO of Droid AI, where she helps businesses get real results from AI, defining Data + AI strategies, integrating LLMs into complex systems, connecting AI solutions with custom data and business tools, and optimizing outcomes through proven and innovative architectures. Lena has 15+ years of deeply technical background as a solution architect, technical leader in large-scale data, analytics, machine learning, and cloud computing. Prior to Droid AI, Lena worked as Head of Developer Experience, North America at Amazon Web Services and Director of Big Data at Microsoft. She frequently shares practical knowledge on her YouTube channel (youtube.com/@lena-hall) and at industry conferences as an international keynote speaker.", "linkedin": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/lena-hall/", "link": "/speakers/lena-hall", "cities": [ "Sydney", "Melbourne" ], "roles": [ "keynote" ] }, { "id": "TS0007", "image": "/images/2025/speakers/kamesh-sampath.jpeg", "name": "Kamesh Sampath", "position": "Lead Developer Advocate, Snowflake", "youtube": "https://youtube.com/@dataengbytes", "bio": "Veteran tech innovator with over 20 years in the trenches. As an author and developer advocate, Kamesh is on a mission to demystify data and cloud technologies. Kamesh is passionate about helping developers push boundaries and create the impossible. With a track record of crafting enterprise solutions across diverse industries, Kamesh brings battle-tested insights to the dev community. Let's code the future together.\n\nKamesh is a contributor to Open Source projects for more than a decade and contributed/contributing to projects:\n- k3d\n- Tektoncd, Knative\n- Minikube\n- Apache Camel-K\n- Wolfi OS", "linkedin": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/kameshsampath/", "link": "/speakers/kamesh-sampath", "cities": [ "Sydney", "Melbourne" ], "roles": [ "keynote" ] }, { "id": "TS0008", "image": "/images/2025/speakers/lester-martin.jpg", "name": "Lester Martin", "position": "Lead Developer Advocate, Starburst Data", "youtube": "https://youtube.com/@dataengbytes", "bio": "Lester Martin leads the DevRel function at Starburst. He is a seasoned developer advocate, trainer, blogger, and data engineer focused on data pipelines & data lake analytics using Starburst, Trino, Iceberg, Hive, Spark, Flink, Kafka, NiFi, NoSQL databases, and, of course, classical RDBMSs. Check out Lester's blog at https://lestermartin.blog.", "linkedin": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/lestermartin/", "link": "/speakers/lester-martin", "cities": [ "Sydney", "Melbourne" ], "roles": [ "keynote" ] }, { "id": "TS0002", "image": "/images/2025/speakers/joe-reis.jpg", "name": "Joe Reis", "position": "Co-author of Fundamentals of Data Engineering", "youtube": "https://youtube.com/@dataengbytes", "bio": "Joe Reis, a seasoned data professional with over two decades of experience, is a globe-trotting author and speaker. Known as a \"recovering data scientist,\" his expertise encompasses data engineering, architecture, and machine learning.\n\n He is highly sought-after as a keynote speaker at major data conferences worldwide, advising and investing in innovative data product companies. Additionally, he contributes regularly to his personal blog and Practical Data Modeling, and hosts popular data podcasts like \"The Monday Morning Data Chat\" and \"The Joe Reis Show.\" In his spare time, Joe is passionate about authoring new books and articles, continuously striving to push the boundaries of the data industry.", "linkedin": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/josephreis/", "link": "/speakers/joe-reis", "cities": [ "Sydney", "Melbourne" ], "roles": [ "keynote" ] }, { "id": "TS0003", "image": "/images/2025/speakers/juan-sequeda.jpeg", "name": "Juan Sequeda", "position": "Principal Scientist & Head of AI Lab at data.world", "youtube": "https://youtube.com/@dataengbytes", "bio": "Juan Sequeda is the Principal Scientist at data.world. He ...", "linkedin": "https://linkedin.com/in/juansequeda/", "link": "/speakers/juan-sequeda", "cities": [ "Sydney", "Melbourne" ], "roles": [ "keynote" ] }, { "id": "TS0004", "image": "/images/2025/speakers/zoe-steinkamp.jpg", "name": "Zoe Steinkamp", "position": "Senior Developer Advocate at Clickhouse", "youtube": "https://youtube.com/@dataengbytes", "bio": "I'm Zoe Steinkamp, a Developer Advocate at ClickHouse, with a strong foundation in front-end software engineering. My mission is to empower developers by enhancing their experience with ClickHouse's high-performance database and real-time analytics capabilities. I also have a growing interest in data science. In my spare time, I love to travel and tend to my garden. Let's connect on LinkedIn—I'm eager to exchange insights and knowledge at both virtual and in-person events!", "linkedin": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/zoe-steinkamp/", "link": "/speakers/zoe-steinkamp", "cities": [ "Sydney", "Melbourne" ], "roles": [ "keynote", "facilitator" ] }, { "id": "RS0001", "image": "/images/2025/speakers/kirk-mower.jpeg", "name": "Kirk Mower", "position": "Data Manager at Solstice Energy", "youtube": "https://youtube.com/@dataengbytes", "bio": "Kirk has been working in the IT sector in Australia for over 25 years. He has worked in various roles across Australia in realms of data management and application development in private industry and government. Kirk has developed a number of successful data-driven applications such as spatial (mapping) and data set integration applications used across the mining and resources sectors worldwide. Kirk has witnessed the evolution of data stacks and data access across a number of business fields over the course of his career and he has deep experience in integrating disparate data sets. Most recently he is working at Solstice Energy in Tasmania where he has built a next-generation data stack that delivers large efficiency advantages over the competition. Originally from California, Kirk completed his undergraduate degree at the University of California at Berkeley.", "linkedin": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirkmower/", "link": "/speakers/kirk-mower", "cities": [ "Sydney" ], "roles": [ "speaker" ] }, { "id": "RS0002", "image": "/images/2025/speakers/anthony-oflaherty.jpeg", "name": "Anthony O'Flaherty", "position": "Head of BI & Analytics, RACT; Tasmanian State Chair Geospatial Council of Australia", "youtube": "https://youtube.com/@dataengbytes", "bio": "Anthony O'Flaherty is Head of Business Intelligence & Analytics at the Royal Automobile Club of Tasmania (RACT). In this role, he leads the organisation's data strategy, focusing on enhancing member and community experiences through advanced analytics. Beyond his responsibilities at RACT, O'Flaherty holds the position of Tasmanian Chair for the Geospatial Council of Australia. In this capacity, he advocates for the geospatial profession, fosters industry collaboration, and contributes to policy development. He has also been appointed to the Tasmanian Spatial Information Council (TASSIC), representing GCA members. O'Flaherty's career encompasses significant roles in both public and private sectors, including managing data and analytics at TasWater. His academic background is diverse, with qualifications in science, leadership, project management, technology and geographic information systems (GIS). This multidisciplinary expertise underpins his proficiency in location intelligence, business intelligence, and aligning data systems with organisational objectives.", "linkedin": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonyoflaherty/", "link": "/speakers/anthony-oflaherty", "cities": [ "Sydney" ], "roles": [ "speaker" ] }, { "id": "SP0016", "name": "Arpita Agarwal", "position": "Staff Solutions Engineer at Confluent", "bio": "Arpita Agarwal is a Staff Solutions Engineer at Confluent with a strong experience in enterprise software and startup environments, all of which have been acquired. She specializes in architecting and developing AI/ML algorithms, building scalable data pipelines, and delivering enterprise-grade products. Her expertise lies primarily in real-time event streaming at scale, leveraging high-performance platforms such as Apache Kafka. In her current role, Arpita partners with customers across the ANZ region to design and implement event-streaming platforms, utilizing Confluent's cutting-edge technologies to drive business impact.", "linkedin": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/aragarwal/", "link": "/speakers/arpita-agarwal", "cities": [ "Sydney" ], "image": "/images/2025/speakers/arpita-agarwal.jpeg", "tagline": "Real-Time Financial Crime Detection: Architecting Streaming AML (anti-money laundering) Pipelines for Instant Insights", "roles": [ "speaker" ] }, { "id": "RS0003", "image": "/images/2025/speakers/siddhant-agarwal.png", "name": "Siddhant Agarwal", "position": "Developer Relations Lead APAC, Neo4j", "youtube": "https://youtube.com/@dataengbytes", "bio": "Siddhant Agarwal is a seasoned DevRel professional with over a decade of experience building and scaling developer ecosystems globally. Currently leading Developer Relations across APAC at Neo4j and a Google Developer Expert in Gen-AI, Sid is known for his unique ability to tell powerful stories through technology—translating complex ideas into compelling narratives that resonate with developers. With his signature \"Local to Global\" approach, he turns grassroots innovation into global impact. Previously at Google managing flagship developer programs, he has shared his technical expertise at diverse forums worldwide, fueling inspiration and innovation. Know more at meetsid.dev.", "linkedin": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/sidagarwal04/", "link": "/speakers/siddhant-agarwal", "cities": [ "Sydney", "Melbourne" ], "roles": [ "speaker", "facilitator" ] }, { "id": "RS0004", "image": "/images/2025/speakers/jake-kerr.png", "name": "Jake Kerr", "position": "Senior Analyst, Digital and AI Practice at Versent", "youtube": "https://youtube.com/@dataengbytes", "bio": "Jake is a Senior Analyst based in Melbourne as part of Versent's Digital and AI Practice. Jake has been building and experimenting with Gen AI since it burst onto the mainstream a few short years ago.", "linkedin": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/jake-kerr/", "link": "/speakers/jake-kerr", "cities": [ "Melbourne" ], "roles": [ "speaker" ] }, { "id": "RS0005", "image": "/images/2025/speakers/raul-bermejo.jpeg", "name": "Raul Bermejo", "position": "Senior Data Engineer, Digital and AI Practice at Versent", "youtube": "https://youtube.com/@dataengbytes", "bio": "Senior Data Engineer based in NSW and has been with Versent as a member of the Digital and AI Practice for almost 3 years. Raul is deeply passionate about Gen AI and its application to solving real world challenges.", "linkedin": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/raul-bermejo-059b94208/", "link": "/speakers/raul-bermejo", "cities": [ "Sydney" ], "talk_title": "Gen AI Governance", "talk_summary": "Autonomy in the Agentic Era", "roles": [ "speaker" ] }, { "id": "RS0006", "image": "/images/2025/speakers/carine-oliveira.png", "name": "Carine Oliveira", "position": "Engineering Manager - Easygo", "youtube": "https://youtube.com/@dataengbytes", "bio": "Carine Oliveira is an engineering leader with over a decade of experience turning complex systems into scalable solutions. She started her tech journey early on as a system analyst while still at university, later evolving into software engineering and ultimately finding her passion in data.\nToday, she leads a data engineering team at Easygo, where she's responsible for designing and scaling modern data platforms across global products like Kick and Stake. With a hands-on background in software development, cloud infrastructure, and data, Carine bridges technical depth with strategic thinking. She's particularly passionate about building resilient systems, enabling cross-team collaboration, and growing strong engineering cultures.", "linkedin": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/carineoliveira/", "link": "/speakers/carine-oliveira", "cities": [ "Melbourne" ], "roles": [ "speaker" ] }, { "id": "SP0018", "name": "Suneeta Mall", "position": "Head of AI Engineering at Harrison.ai", "bio": "As Head of AI Engineering at Harrison.ai, Suneeta leads teams developing breakthrough AI solutions that transform healthcare delivery across radiology and pathology. She is the author of 'Deep Learning at Scale' (O'Reilly), and has a track record of deploying AI systems serving millions of patients worldwide. Suneeta is passionate about technical excellence, responsible innovation, and building diverse teams.", "linkedin": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/suneeta-mall-a6a0507/", "link": "/speakers/suneeta-mall", "cities": [ "Sydney" ], "image": "/images/2025/speakers/suneeta-mall.jpeg", "tagline": "Head of AI Engineering", "roles": [ "speaker" ] }, { "id": "RS0007", "image": "/images/2025/speakers/harpreet-singh.jpeg", "name": "Harpreet Singh", "position": "Staff Software Engineer at Rokt", "youtube": "https://youtube.com/@dataengbytes", "bio": "Harpreet Singh is a Staff Software Engineer at Rokt in Sydney, where for the past eight years he's built and scaled core platform services. With over 12 years in infrastructure and platform engineering—ranging from Kubernetes service meshes to real-time data pipelines—he has driven the development of resilient, globally distributed platforms. He rolls up his sleeves for everything from edge-platform design to cost-efficient custom auto scaling solution. When he's not building platforms, you'll find him on the cricket pitch.", "linkedin": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/harpreet-singh-50995461/", "link": "/speakers/harpreet-singh", "cities": [ "Sydney" ], "roles": [ "speaker" ] }, { "id": "RS0008", "image": "/images/2025/speakers/john-giles.jpeg", "name": "John Giles", "position": "Principal consultant at Country Endeavours", "youtube": "https://youtube.com/@dataengbytes", "bio": "John Giles is an independent consultant, with a passion for seeing ideas taken to fruition. Commencing in IT in the late 1960s as a developer, the last few decades have focussed on data modelling, from the project level through to the enterprise level. Data integration has been an increasing focus of his clients, leading to quality-at-speed delivery of \"Data Town Plans\" to something like 20 organisations. \n\nWhile John is primarily a practitioner, his pragmatic focus is backed up by a solid appreciation of the underlying theory, having presented internationally, and published widely, including in his three books, the latest being \"The Data Elephant in the Board Room: Driving Data Integration from the Enterprise-wide Data Town Plan\".", "linkedin": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-giles-data/", "link": "/speakers/john-giles", "cities": [ "Melbourne" ], "roles": [ "speaker" ] }, { "id": "RS0009", "image": "/images/2025/speakers/avinash-idnani.jpeg", "name": "Avinash Idnani", "position": "Sr Engineering Manager at Rokt", "youtube": "https://youtube.com/@dataengbytes", "bio": "Avinash Idnani is a Senior Engineering Manager at Rokt, where he leads the ML platform and real-time infrastructure group. His teams have built foundational systems including a bespoke feature store, deep learning pipelines, a custom model serving platform, and standardized Kubeflow-based training workflows—powering both ad decisioning and personalization at scale. Prior to Rokt, Avinash was a Tech Lead at Meta, where he worked on core initiatives in Ads Infrastructure, operating one of the world’s largest real-time distributed systems across Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger. He brings over 15 years of experience across ad tech, ML systems, and high-performance financial infrastructure.", "linkedin": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/avinashidnani/", "link": "/speakers/avinash-idnani", "cities": [ "Sydney" ], "tagline": "Leading ML Platform and Operations at Rokt", "roles": [ "speaker" ] }, { "id": "RS0010", "image": "/images/2025/speakers/michael-markieta.jpeg", "name": "Michael Markieta", "position": "Lead Solution Architect, Starburst Data", "youtube": "https://youtube.com/@dataengbytes", "bio": "Michael leads the Solution Architecture practice in the APJ region for Starburst. He brings over a decade of experience ranging from roles as a OpenShift Black Belt at Red Hat, bootstrapping startup co-founder and CTO, and Customer Engineer at Google.", "linkedin": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelmarkieta/", "link": "/speakers/michael-markieta", "cities": [ "Sydney", "Melbourne" ], "roles": [ "speaker", "facilitator" ] }, { "id": "SP0011", "name": "Marcel van Vliet", "position": "Principal Data Engineer at Tracksuit", "bio": "Marcel van Vliet is a veteran data leader with a passion for building pragmatic, human-centric data solutions that drive real impact. Currently Principal Data Engineer at Tracksuit, Marcel plays a key role in shaping the data foundations behind one of the most beautifully crafted, always-on brand tracking platforms in the market. With over a decade of experience across startups, enterprises, and consulting, Marcel's superpower lies in bridging the strategic with the technical. He has built and led high-performing data teams at companies like Tradify, Pushpay, and LIC, driven digital transformation from the ground up, and delivered modern data platforms that don't just scale — they evolve. Prior to Tracksuit, Marcel served as Managing Consultant at Altis Consulting, where he delivered mission-critical projects for clients including NZTE, Southern Cross Travel, and Partners Life, guiding them through modern data stack adoption with precision and care. Whether he's building pipelines, rolling out metrics for C-level decision making, or redesigning legacy platforms, Marcel leads with curiosity, clarity, and a touch of dry wit.", "linkedin": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/nzdataguy/", "link": "/speakers/marcel-van-vliet", "cities": [ "Sydney" ], "image": "/images/2025/speakers/marcel-van-vliet.jpeg", "tagline": "Principal Data Engineer", "roles": [ "speaker" ] }, { "id": "SP0012", "name": "Kaarthik Andavar", "position": "Intermediate Data Engineer at Tracksuit", "bio": "Kaarthik Andavar is a data engineer by day, AI tinkerer by night, and a full-time advocate for making complex data feel simple and accessible. Currently building at Tracksuit, he specializes in crafting intuitive, AI-powered data experiences—whether it's natural language chatbots that speak fluent SQL, or contributing to the Streamlit framework. Armed with a Master's in Applied Data Science from the University of Canterbury and a B.Tech in Electrical Engineering from Amrita University, Kaarthik has journeyed through the data science trenches at Laybuy, Stats NZ, Freightways, and JUCY Group. Along the way, he's developed machine learning models, NLP pipelines, and forecasting systems that live in the real world. With side projects in Streamlit, Snowflake and ChatGPT - Kaarthik is on a mission to bring human-friendly AI interfaces to the data world.", "linkedin": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/kaarthik-andavar/", "link": "/speakers/kaarthik-andavar", "website": "https://www.k01.dev", "blog": "https://www.k01.dev/blog", "cities": [ "Sydney" ], "image": "/images/2025/speakers/kaarthik-andavar.jpeg", "tagline": "Intermediate Data Engineer", "roles": [ "speaker" ] }, { "id": "SP0019", "name": "Prerna Tiwari", "position": "Senior Solutions Engineer at Confluent", "bio": "Prerna Tiwari is a Senior Solutions Engineer at Confluent, working with enterprise customers across Financial Services, Healthcare, Government & Public Sector. With over 16 years of experience in the technology industry, Prerna has extensive expertise in cloud migration, legacy modernizations, regulatory compliance and governance, cybersecurity enhancement, integration and interoperability, middleware, and APIs, EDA. Prerna is passionate about helping customers solve problems using data streaming architecture, guiding them from concept to pilot to production-ready solutions by aligning products with customers' strategic goals and desired outcomes.", "linkedin": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/prerna-tiwari/", "link": "/speakers/prerna-tiwari", "cities": [ "Melbourne" ], "image": "/images/2025/speakers/prerna-tiwari.jpeg", "tagline": "Building the better solution", "roles": [ "speaker", "facilitator" ] }, { "id": "SP0013", "name": "Unni Krishnan", "position": "Data Engineer at Block", "bio": "Unni Krishnan is a Data Engineer at Block and has been working on building distributed data systems optimised for scale and efficiency. He holds a PhD in information retrieval, and is passionate about search, data storage, and retrieval techniques.", "linkedin": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/unnikrishnanta", "link": "/speakers/unni-krishnan", "cities": [ "Melbourne" ], "image": "/images/2025/speakers/unni-krishnan.jpeg", "tagline": "Data Engineer at Block", "roles": [ "speaker" ] }, { "id": "SP0014", "name": "Yikai Gong", "position": "Data Engineer at Block", "bio": "Yikai is a Data Engineer at Block and has been working on building Data Engineering platforms and pipelines. He holds a PhD in Big Geospatial Data processing on Distributed Systems.", "linkedin": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/yikai-gong-76458057", "link": "/speakers/yikai-gong", "cities": [ "Melbourne" ], "image": "/images/2025/speakers/yikai-gong.jpeg", "tagline": "Data Engineer at Block", "roles": [ "speaker" ] }, { "id": "SP0015", "name": "Satish Pamarthi", "position": "Senior Data Engineer at Block", "bio": "With more than a decade of experience, I'm a Senior Data Engineer fueled by curiosity and driven to solve complex data delivery challenges through continuous learning.", "linkedin": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/satish-pamarthi-95b12310/", "link": "/speakers/satish-pamarthi", "cities": [ "Melbourne" ], "image": "/images/2025/speakers/satish-pamarthi.jpeg", "tagline": "Data Engineer at Block", "roles": [ "speaker" ] }, { "id": "SP0031", "name": "Somy Ayazi", "position": "Senior Software Engineer at Atlassian | Microsoft MVP", "bio": "Somy Ayazi is a Senior Software Engineer at Atlassian and Microsoft MVP with over 13 years of experience in software engineering and team leadership. She currently leads engineering teams focused on AI and machine learning solutions, including the JSM Virtual Agent project. Previously, she held leadership roles at Telstra Purple and Kloud Solutions, where she specialized in Azure solutions, SharePoint integration, and cross-functional team building.\n\nSomy is passionate about AI and community building, serving as co-host of The Global AI Podcast and co-organizer of the APAC AI Community User Group. She holds a Master's degree in IT Management from the University of Sydney and is certified in Microsoft Azure AI Fundamentals and Power Platform. With expertise spanning from .NET development to cloud-native solutions, Somy brings a unique perspective on how AI is transforming workplace collaboration and productivity.", "linkedin": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/somy-ayazi/", "link": "/speakers/somy-ayazi", "cities": ["Sydney"], "image": "/images/2025/speakers/somy-ayazi.jpeg", "tagline": "Senior Software Engineer at Atlassian | Microsoft MVP", "roles": ["speaker", "panelist"] }, { "id": "SP0017", "name": "Phill Radley", "position": "Chief Data & AI Architect at Westpac", "bio": "Chief Data & AI Architect as Westpac since 2023, previous similar roles at Thoughtworks, Astra Zeneca and British Telecom. He is an intrapreneur adept at introducing pioneering data & AI technologies and approaches into complex enterprise data landscapes. He has covered everything from data strategy to data engineering and governance.", "linkedin": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/redshirts", "link": "/speakers/phill-radley", "cities": [ "Sydney" ], "image": "/images/2025/speakers/phill-radley.jpeg", "tagline": "Data, AI & Red Shirts !", "roles": [ "speaker" ] }, { "id": "SP0020", "name": "Andrew Foad", "position": "Data Modeller & Creator of Hook", "bio": "Andrew Foad is a seasoned data modeller with over 35 years of industry experience, including 15 years specialising in data and analytics. He is the creator of the Hook approach to data warehousing—a modern methodology designed to simplify integration, improve agility, and align data models with core business concepts. Andrew brings deep expertise in enterprise data architecture and is passionate about bridging the gap between business understanding and technical implementation.", "linkedin": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-foad/", "link": "/speakers/andrew-foad", "cities": [ "Melbourne" ], "image": "/images/2025/speakers/andrew-foad.jpeg", "tagline": "Reimagining data warehousing for the modern enterprise.", "roles": [ "speaker" ] }, { "id": "SP0021", "name": "Patrick Cuba", "position": "Snowflake Solution Architect", "bio": "Influential Data Vault innovator and modeller specialising on all things Snowflake Data Cloud, Solution Architecture, Data Architecture and Business Architecture.", "linkedin": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrickcuba/", "link": "/speakers/patrick-cuba", "cities": [ "Sydney" ], "image": "/images/2025/speakers/patrick-cuba.jpeg", "tagline": "Snowflake Solution Architect", "blog": "https://patrickcuba.medium.com", "roles": [ "speaker" ] }, { "id": "CT0001", "image": "/images/team/peter-hanssens.jpg", "name": "Peter Hanssens", "position": "Founder DataEngBytes", "bio": "I am the founder of DataEngBytes and 6 data engineering meetups as across Australia and New Zealand as well as the Sydney Serverless meetup. I am both the Principal consultant and founder of Cloud Shuttle, a data cloud engineering consultancy based in Sydney, Australia. Ive been recognised as an AWS Serverless Hero for my community work. I am passionate about the intersection of serverless and data engineering. In my spare time, I coach my sons soccer team and enjoy family holidays to various ski fields around the world.", "linkedin": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterhanssens/", "roles": [ "organiser", "core organiser", "facilitator" ], "cities": ["Sydney", "Melbourne", "Auckland", "Perth"] }, { "id": "CT0002", "image": "/images/team/mohammed-alim.jpg", "name": "Mohammed Alim", "position": "Senior Marketing Coordinator", "bio": "I am a dedicated marketer specialising in content marketing, relationship management, and community events. With a masters degree from the university of Melbourne, I leverage my expertise in communication, market research, and brand management to excel in my role. Outside of work, I enjoy watching sports like F1, football, and cricket, and spending time gaming on my Playstation.", "linkedin": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/mohammedalimcs/", "roles": [ "organiser", "core organiser" ], "cities": ["Sydney", "Melbourne", "Auckland", "Perth"] }, { "id": "ST0001", "image": "/images/team/sydney/simon-aubury.jpeg", "name": "Simon Aubury", "position": "Sydney organiser", "bio": "", "linkedin": "", "roles": [ "organiser" ], "cities": ["Sydney"] }, { "id": "ST0003", "image": "/images/team/sydney/gargi-ahluwalia.jpeg", "name": "Gargi Ahluwalia", "position": "Sydney organiser", "bio": "", "linkedin": "", "roles": [ "organiser" ], "cities": ["Sydney"] }, { "id": "ST0004", "image": "/images/team/sydney/PaulinaPakos.jpeg", "name": "Paulina Pakos", "position": "Sydney organiser", "bio": "", "linkedin": "", "roles": [ "organiser" ], "cities": ["Sydney"] }, { "id": "ST0005", "image": "/images/team/sydney/clive-astbury.jpeg", "name": "Clive Astbury", "position": "Sydney organiser", "bio": "", "linkedin": "", "roles": [ "organiser" ], "cities": ["Sydney"] }, { "id": "MT0002", "image": "/images/team/melbourne/ChoonyinYeap.jpeg", "name": "Choonyin Yeap", "position": "Melbourne organiser", "bio": "", "linkedin": "", "roles": [ "organiser" ], "cities": ["Melbourne"] }, { "id": "MT0004", "image": "/images/team/melbourne/LydiaWang.jpeg", "name": "Lydia Wang", "position": "Melbourne organiser", "bio": "Software Developer at Cash App", "linkedin": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/lydia-wang-73b9a8122/", "roles": [ "organiser" ], "cities": ["Melbourne"] }, { "id": "MT0005", "image": "/images/team/melbourne/HelenTian.jpeg", "name": "Helen Tian", "position": "Melbourne organiser", "bio": "Machine Learning Engineer at Cash App", "linkedin": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/helen-tian-10782a118/", "roles": [ "organiser" ], "cities": ["Melbourne"] }, { "id": "AT0001", "image": "/images/team/auckland/emily-melhuish.jpeg", "name": "Emily Melhuish", "position": "Auckland organiser", "bio": "", "linkedin": "", "roles": [ "organiser" ], "cities": ["Auckland"] }, { "id": "AT0004", "image": "/images/team/auckland/EduardoRabelo.jpeg", "name": "Eduardo Rabelo", "position": "Auckland organiser", "bio": "", "linkedin": "", "roles": [ "organiser" ], "cities": ["Auckland"] }, { "id": "PT0001", "image": "/images/team/perth/jonathan-neo.jpeg", "name": "Jonathan Neo", "position": "Perth organiser", "bio": "", "linkedin": "", "roles": [ "organiser" ], "cities": ["Perth"] }, { "id": "PT0002", "image": "/images/team/perth/ash-smith.jpeg", "name": "Ash Smith", "position": "Perth organiser", "bio": "", "linkedin": "", "roles": [ "organiser" ], "cities": ["Perth"] }, { "id": "PT0003", "image": "/images/team/perth/zainab-maleki.jpeg", "name": "Zainab Maleki", "position": "Perth organiser", "bio": "", "linkedin": "", "roles": [ "organiser" ], "cities": ["Perth"] }, { "id": "SP0033", "name": "Anima Acharya", "position": "Data Engineer", "bio": "Anima Acharya is a Data Engineer based in Sydney, passionate about building scalable and reliable data pipelines that drive real business value. With a strong emphasis on automation, testing, and deployment, she bridges the gap between data engineering and DevOps - bringing modern software development practices into the data space.\n\nAnima focuses on incorporating CI/CD principles, version control, and automated testing into data workflows to improve trust, reduce errors, and enable faster, more reliable delivery. She enjoys speaking at tech meetups and conferences and is an active member of women-in-tech communities, advocating for diversity and knowledge-sharing in data.", "linkedin": "", "link": "/speakers/anima-acharya", "cities": ["Sydney"], "image": "/images/2025/speakers/anima-acharya.jpeg", "tagline": "Data Engineer", "roles": ["speaker"] }, { "id": "SP0022", "name": "Yash Sharma", "position": "Senior Engineering Manager at Atlassian", "bio": "Yash is a Senior Engineering Manager at Atlassian with over a decade of experience in building data platforms and leading high-impact platform teams. Yash specializes in designing scalable systems and driving platform strategy that empowers hundreds of developers and accelerates product delivery at Atlassian.", "linkedin": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/yash360/", "link": "/speakers/yash-sharma", "cities": ["Sydney"], "image": "/images/2025/speakers/yash-sharma.jpeg", "tagline": "Manager of Platforms and People - both Highly Performant", "roles": ["speaker"] }, { "id": "SP0038", "name": "Sam Harley", "position": "Principal Solutions Architect at Elastic", "bio": "Sam Harley is a Principal Solutions Architect at Elastic, bringing over a decade of expertise in designing and implementing enterprise-scale data solutions. Based in Sydney, Sam specialises in helping organisations harness the power of search and analytics technologies to drive business transformation.\n\nWith a proven track record across leading technology companies including Databricks, MongoDB and Stax, Sam has architected solutions for some of APJ's largest companies, from innovative startups to Australia's Big 4 banks. His expertise spans modern data architectures, financial services innovation, and scalable system design.", "linkedin": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/samharley/", "link": "/speakers/sam-harley", "cities": ["Sydney"], "image": "/images/2025/speakers/sam-harley.jpeg", "tagline": "Principal Solutions Architect", "roles": ["speaker"] }, { "id": "SP0023", "name": "Jaswanth Manigundan", "position": "Engineering Manager at Culture Amp", "bio": "Jaswanth Manigundan is an Engineering Manager at Culture Amp, known for his knack for cultivating innovation and building things right. While he might playfully admit to a past life where he was, shall we say, \"a prolific introducer of new features...and occasionally, their quirky side effects\" as a fresh graduate, that experience ignited a lifelong passion! Now, he's dedicated his career to ensuring that products are not just built fast, but built with a robust, unshakeable foundation.\n\nJas thrives on turning ambitious ideas into tangible realities, and he's a wizard at rapid prototyping and fearless experimentation. His extensive background in both mobile and web development along with his strong experience in test automation means he truly understands how to accelerate development while baking in quality from the ground up. This unique blend of experience led him to create the company's very own AI and MCP Playground – a dynamic space where the entire team can quickly explore, innovate, and test the boundaries of what's possible with AI, all while keeping those \"quirky side effects\" firmly in check. He's here to share how you can embrace experimentation, build confidently, and maybe, just maybe, learn from a bug or two.\n\nAnd when he's not busy prototyping the future, Jas loves nothing more than stepping onto a stage to share his learnings and failures, and spark new ideas within the wider tech community, proving that even a past \"bug whisperer\" can become a quality advocate for all!", "linkedin": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/-jaswanth/", "link": "/speakers/jaswanth-manigundan", "website": "https://jaswanth.foo/events", "cities": ["Melbourne"], "image": "/images/2025/speakers/jaswanth-manigundan.jpeg", "tagline": "Engineering Manager @ Culture Amp", "roles": ["speaker"] }, { "id": "SP0037", "name": "Steven MacLeod", "position": "Founder at Occam.Works", "bio": "I've spent 30 years doing autopsies on more than 1000 information systems in order to learn how to avoid the pitfalls of system failure. I currently have my own software company called Occam.Works which is the outcome of that research.", "linkedin": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevenmacleod", "blog": "https://medium.com/@occam.works", "website": "https://www.occam.works", "link": "/speakers/steven-macleod", "cities": ["Sydney"], "image": "/images/2025/speakers/steven-macleod.jpeg", "tagline": "Steven is an outspoken veteran on the ills of the data world.", "roles": ["speaker"] }, { "id": "SF0001", "name": "Prashant Yadav", "position": "Principal Architect, Data Engineering, Applied Field Engineering Office, Snowflake", "bio": "Prashant Yadav is Principal Architect, Data Engineering, Applied Field Engineering Office at Snowflake. He brings extensive expertise in Snowflake's AI capabilities and enterprise data solutions.", "linkedin": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/prashant-yadav-snowflake/", "link": "/speakers/prashant-yadav", "cities": ["Melbourne"], "image": "/images/2025/speakers/prashant-yadav.jpeg", "tagline": "Principal Architect, Data Engineering", "roles": ["facilitator"] }, { "id": "SF0002", "name": "Arpit Bhardwaj", "position": "Senior Solution Engineer, Snowflake", "bio": "Arpit Bhardwaj is Senior Solution Engineer at Snowflake. He brings deep expertise in Snowflake's AI capabilities and enterprise data solutions.", "linkedin": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/arpit-bhardwaj-snowflake/", "link": "/speakers/arpit-bhardwaj", "cities": ["Melbourne"], "image": "/images/2025/speakers/arpit-bhardwaj.jpeg", "tagline": "Senior Solution Engineer", "roles": ["facilitator"] }, { "id": "SF0005", "name": "Travis Murphy", "position": "Sr Product Marketing Manager & Evangelist - ANZ, Snowflake", "bio": "Travis Murphy is Sr Product Marketing Manager & Evangelist - ANZ at Snowflake. He brings deep expertise in Snowflake's AI and ML capabilities for the ANZ market.", "linkedin": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/travis-murphy-snowflake/", "link": "/speakers/travis-murphy", "cities": ["Sydney", "Melbourne"], "image": "/images/2025/speakers/travis-murphy.jpeg", "tagline": "Sr Product Marketing Manager & Evangelist - ANZ", "roles": ["facilitator"] }, { "id": "SF0006", "name": "Rishu Saxena", "position": "Principal Architect, Machine Learning & Applied Field Engineering Office, Snowflake", "bio": "Rishu Saxena is Principal Architect, Machine Learning & Applied Field Engineering Office at Snowflake. He brings deep expertise in Snowflake's AI and ML capabilities for the ANZ market.", "linkedin": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/rishu-saxena-snowflake/", "link": "/speakers/rishu-saxena", "cities": ["Sydney", "Melbourne"], "image": "/images/2025/speakers/rishu-saxena.jpeg", "tagline": "Principal Architect, Machine Learning", "roles": ["facilitator"] }, { "id": "SP0030", "name": "May Hu", "position": "Senior Data Analytics Engineer at Pet Circle", "bio": "May Hu is a Senior Data Analytics Engineer at Pet Circle who took an unconventional path into tech—starting her career as an accountant before pivoting into data. After going back to university to complete a Master of Data Science, she built her career across the full data stack: from analytics to modelling to engineering.\n\nHer experience across the entire data lifecycle gives her a unique perspective on how teams collaborate (or don't), and a deep empathy for the pain points of every role—from analyst to stakeholder to engineer. She's passionate about building systems that work not just in theory, but in the messy reality of business.", "linkedin": "", "link": "/speakers/may-hu", "cities": ["Melbourne"], "image": "/images/2025/speakers/may-hu.jpeg", "tagline": "Senior Data Analytics Engineer", "roles": ["speaker"] }, { "id": "SP0024", "name": "Geoffrey Huntley", "position": "Software Engineer", "bio": "Geoffrey Huntley is a software engineer with expertise in modern software development practices and the evolution of programming paradigms. He focuses on helping teams navigate the transition to AI-assisted development and large language model integration.", "linkedin": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/geoffreyhuntley/", "link": "/speakers/geoffrey-huntley", "cities": ["Sydney", "Melbourne"], "image": "/images/2025/speakers/geoffrey-huntley.jpeg", "tagline": "Software Engineer", "roles": ["speaker"] }, { "id": "SP0029", "name": "John Uiterwyk", "position": "AI Consultant, Researcher, and Engineer at Ab Initio", "bio": "At Ab Initio, John leads research, prototyping, and development of AI systems, focusing on metadata driven, data platform agents. John is a software, data, and AI/ML engineer, architect, and thought leader, with broad experience across industries including telecommunications, finance, digital media, education, sports, government.", "linkedin": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnuiterwyk", "link": "/speakers/john-uiterwyk", "cities": ["Sydney", "Melbourne"], "image": "/images/2025/speakers/john-uiterwyk.jpeg", "tagline": "Ab Initio - AI Consultant, Researcher, and Engineer", "roles": ["speaker"] }, { "id": "SP0025", "name": "Nigel Quinlan", "position": "Data Engineer, Data Product Enablement at MYOB", "bio": "As a Data Engineer in Data Product Enablement at MYOB, I am responsible for empowering teams and customers with robust, scalable data products. My work centres on building and optimising data infrastructure that enables seamless access to high-quality, governed, and actionable data across the organisation.", "linkedin": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/nigelquinlan", "link": "/speakers/nigel-quinlan", "cities": ["Melbourne"], "image": "/images/2025/speakers/nigel-quinlan.jpeg", "tagline": "Assistant to the consulting detective in PI data", "roles": ["speaker"] }, { "id": "SP0026", "name": "Mangesh Jathar", "position": "Senior Data Engineer and Analytics Consultant", "bio": "Experienced Senior Data Engineer and Analytics Consultant with a demonstrated history of working in the information technology and services industry.", "linkedin": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/mangesh-jathar-32922138/", "link": "/speakers/mangesh-jathar", "cities": ["Melbourne"], "image": "/images/2025/speakers/mangesh-jathar.jpeg", "tagline": "Consulting detective in PI data", "roles": ["speaker"] }, { "id": "SP0027", "name": "Eric Lin", "position": "Principal Support Engineer - Technical Lead at Snowflake", "bio": "Eric started as a software engineer, both frontend and backend, for about 10 years and landed in the SQL technical support field over the last 9 years, specialising in Hive, Impala, and now Snowflake.\n\nAt Snowflake, his duties include helping support engineers troubleshoot complicated SQL performance issues, overseeing the APAC and global technical support team, developing tools and processes to improve the efficiencies of the support operations, as well as enhancing stronger relationships between the support team with the Snowflake internal teams and external customers.", "linkedin": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericlin05/", "blog": "https://ericlin05.medium.com/", "link": "/speakers/eric-lin", "cities": ["Melbourne"], "image": "/images/2025/speakers/eric-lin.jpeg", "tagline": "Performance Matters", "roles": ["speaker"] }, { "id": "SP0028", "name": "Guang Xu", "position": "Data Platform Lead at New Aim", "bio": "I am a Data Professional with a Ph.D. from Monash University. Since transitioning from academia to industry in 2019, I have worked on data projects with Google, Australia Post, National Australia Bank, and RealEstate.com.au. Currently, I lead the engineering platform team at New Aim, Australia's largest B2B e-commerce platform that delivers to more than 60% of Australian households. I focus on platform architecture and machine learning engineering to drive next-generation e-commerce solutions.", "linkedin": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/xu-guang/", "link": "/speakers/guang-xu", "cities": ["Melbourne"], "image": "/images/2025/speakers/guang-xu.jpeg", "tagline": "Data Platform Lead | Kaggle Expert | Ph.D. in Geospatial Information Science", "roles": ["speaker"] }, { "id": "SP0032", "name": "Kanishka Mohaia", "position": "AI/ML Specialist", "bio": "Kanishka Mohaia is an AI/ML specialist with expertise in machine learning and artificial intelligence applications. Details to be updated.", "linkedin": "", "link": "/speakers/kanishka-mohaia", "cities": ["Sydney"], "image": "/images/2025/speakers/kanishka-mohaia.jpeg", "tagline": "AI/ML Specialist", "roles": ["speaker", "panelist"] }, { "id": "SP0034", "name": "Tas Rohila", "position": "Technology Leader", "bio": "Tas Rohila is a seasoned technology leader with nearly 20 years of experience building high-impact software products across mobile and full-stack platforms. He currently specializes in native app development using declarative UI, while also leading cross-functional teams through the full software development lifecycle — from architecture and delivery to optimization and scaling.\n\nTas' career spans across continents — from his roots in India to his current base in Australia. His global perspective has shaped a pragmatic, product-focused approach to engineering leadership, with a strong emphasis on technical excellence, developer productivity, and user-first design.\n\nHe is passionate about leveraging emerging technologies, particularly Generative AI, to elevate how teams design, build, and ship digital products. From building real-time messaging platforms to integrating scalable backend systems and driving AI-powered developer workflows, Tas brings a unique blend of hands-on expertise and strategic vision.\n\nAt the intersection of engineering, innovation, and leadership, Tas is a vocal advocate for using technology not just to build better products — but to build better teams. He frequently mentors upcoming tech leaders and is currently exploring the future of human-AI collaboration in software development.", "linkedin": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/tasvir-rohila/", "twitter": "rivsat", "link": "/speakers/tas-rohila", "cities": ["Melbourne"], "image": "/images/2025/speakers/tasvir-rohila.jpeg", "tagline": "Build smart. Live global. Stay two steps ahead.", "roles": ["speaker"] }, { "id": "SP0035", "name": "Darren Wood", "position": "Principal Solutions Engineer", "bio": "Darren is a Principal Solutions Engineer at Neo4j and has been seen for the past 10+ years drawing nodes and relationships on every whiteboard in sight! He has worked in a variety of customer facing roles over a long career centered mainly around either moving, processing or storing data. More recently he has been helping Neo4j customers leverage graphs for digital twins, fighting fraud and building more accurate, secure and explainable Generative AI applications.", "linkedin": "", "link": "/speakers/darren-wood", "cities": ["Sydney"], "image": "/images/2025/speakers/darren-wood.jpg", "tagline": "Principal Solutions Engineer, Neo4j", "roles": ["facilitator"] }, { "id": "SP0036", "name": "Samko Yun", "position": "Senior Solutions Engineer", "bio": "Samko Yun, Senior Solutions Engineer at Neo4j, brings extensive consulting experience across finance, retail, education, and other industries to explore how graph databases can power sophisticated recommendation engines. Through practical case studies and real-world examples, Samko demonstrates how to leverage Neo4j's native graph capabilities to capture complex relationships between users, products, and content that traditional databases struggle to represent.", "linkedin": "", "link": "/speakers/samko-yun", "cities": ["Sydney"], "image": "/images/2025/speakers/samko-yun.jpg", "tagline": "Senior Solutions Engineer, Neo4j", "roles": ["speaker"] }, { "id": "CF0003", "image": "/images/2025/speakers/james-gollan.jpeg", "name": "James Gollan", "position": "Solutions Engineering Manager ANZ at Confluent", "youtube": "https://youtube.com/@dataengbytes", "bio": "James Gollan is the Solutions Engineering Manager ANZ at Confluent, with over 5 years of experience helping organizations set data in motion. He specializes in Apache Kafka, Flink, and event streaming architectures, working with industry leaders to build real-time data solutions. James has extensive experience in solutions engineering and has been instrumental in helping customers across Australia and New Zealand implement streaming data platforms.", "linkedin": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesgollan/", "link": "/speakers/james-gollan", "cities": [ "Sydney", "Melbourne" ], "roles": [ "facilitator" ] } ]