Biographies
Australia’s role in a global environment: Broadband and the Digital economy
Key Facilitators:
Host: Harrison Young, Chairman, NBN Co
Harrison is chairman of NBN Co Limited, the government business enterprise charged with building the national broadband network, and of Better Place (Australia) Pty Ltd, which is creating the infrastructure to support electric vehicles. He is also a director of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia and of the Bank of England.Harrison spent the bulk of his business career at Morgan Stanley, where he specialized in helping financial institutions and their regulators. At last count he had done business in twenty countries and advised twelve governments. As a senior officer of the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation from 1991 to 1994, he oversaw the resolution of 266 banks. On leaving government service, he spent nine years in Hong Kong and Beijing, where he was chief executive of China International Capital Corporation, Morgan Stanley’s joint venture investment bank, and subsequently vice chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia. He retired in 2007 after four years as chairman of Morgan Stanley Australia.
After graduating from Harvard in 1966, Harrison worked briefly as a reporter for The Washington Post, was a captain in the U.S. Army Special Forces and began his business career as a corporate lending officer at Citibank.
Harrison is married to Kirsty Hamilton, a former radio, television and on-line journalist. Their son, Angus, is 15. They live in Melbourne, of which Kirsty is a native, where Harrison serves as deputy chairman of Asialink and of the Asia Society AustralAsia Centre. He is also a director of the Financial Services Volunteer Corps in New York. Harrison recently became an Australian citizen. His hobbies are writing and giving dinner parties.
Master of Ceremonies: Kee Wong, Managing Director, e-Centric Innovations
Kee Wong is the founder and the Managing Director of e-CentricInnovations Pty. Ltd, a management and technology consulting company that provides strategic advice and systems integration services in e-Business and IT for large enterprises and government in Australia, New Zealand, US and South East Asia.Kee has experience in both business and IT in large multinational organisations such as Hewlett Packard, Lotus and IBM; government organizations such as CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology as well as Small Medium Enterprise such as Synergy Software and e-CentricInnovations (which he founded in 1999).
Kee is a national Board member (Director) of the Australian Information Industry association (AIIA) and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (MSO). He is also an IT Industry Ambassador for the Starlight Children Foundations' IT Fund for Kids, a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD) and member of the Australian Institute of Management (AIM).
Keynote Speaker Biographies:
Senator the Hon. Stephen Conroy, Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy
Senator the Hon Stephen Conroy was appointed Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Digital Productivity in September 2010. He is also Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate.Stephen has a broad range of portfolio responsibilities, not least the National Broadband Network, the largest nation-building infrastructure project in Australian history, and the enabling foundation for our digital economy. Other responsibilities include Australia’s digital television switchover, our national broadcasters the ABC and SBS, media policy, community broadcasting, e-security and cyber-safety, radiofrequency spectrum and Australia Post, among other things. Digital Productivity is an exciting new addition to his portfolio responsibilities.
Passionate about media and communications and about engaging with industry to foster innovation and growth, Stephen has had active involvement in the communications portfolio for ten years - first as Senate representative for shadow communications spokesman Lindsay Tanner and then as shadow communications minister until the November 2007 federal election. Stephen was reappointed Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy after the August 2010 federal election.
Stephen was appointed as a Senator for Victoria for the Australian Labor Party in 1996. Previously he was an industrial officer and superannuation officer for the Transport Workers Union Victorian Branch from 1992 to 1996, a ministerial adviser to Victoria’s Minister for Industry from 1990 to 1992 and an assistant adviser to the Speaker of the House of Representatives from 1988 to 1990.
From 1986 to 1987, Stephen was an electorate officer for the Federal Member for Canberra, consultant to the Minister for Science and Minister assisting the Minister for Industry, Technology and Commerce and electorate officer for the Minister for Home Affairs. He worked for the Metal Trades Industry Association from 1984 to 1986.
David Thodey, Chief Executive Officer, Telstra
Mr Thodey became Chief Executive Officer and an executive director on 19 May 2009.Mr Thodey joined Telstra in April 2001 as Group Managing Director of Telstra Mobiles. He was appointed to the position of Group Managing Director Telstra Enterprise and Government in December 2002 and was responsible for the company's corporate, government and large business customers in Australia, TelstraClear in New Zealand and Telstra's International sales division.
Before joining Telstra, Mr Thodey was Chief Executive Officer of IBM Australia/New Zealand and previously held several senior executive positions in marketing and sales with IBM across Asia Pacific.
He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology and English from Victoria University in New Zealand. Mr Thodey attended the Kellogg Post-Graduate School General Management Program at Northwestern University in Chicago.
Mike Quigley, Chief Executive Officer and Director, NBN Co
Michael Quigley joined NBN Co after a distinguished 36-year career at the French telecommunications giant, Alcatel. After starting his career in research and development, he took on progressively more senior executive positions including President and Chief Executive Officer of Alcatel USA.
In 2003, Mr Quigley became President of Alcatel's Fixed Communications Group in Paris, responsible for infrastructure products, including network switches and optical communications systems. In 2005, he was appointed Alcatel’s President and Chief Operating Officer, overseeing 55,000 staff and operations in 130 countries.
Mr Quigley was educated at the University of NSW and graduated with a Bachelor of Science majoring in Mathematics and Physics, and a Bachelor of Engineering in Telecommunications.
Dr Tim Williams, Director of Consultancy, Publicani, UK, Author - Connecting Communities report
Prior to this, Tim was managing director for Navigant Consulting Public services in London where he built a team of 25 working on housing, regeneration, local government and education projects. He is acknowledged as one of the UK’s leading housing and regeneration specialists. in 2003 Tim was named as the UK’s regeneration Personality of the year.Tim was special advisor to the rt Hon David Miliband when he was a Cabinet minister for the department for Communities and local Government. uniquely, he then advised all subsequent housing and regeneration ministers until June 2010. Having also been an advisor on regeneration in Wales, Tim remains the only person ever to have been a special advisor for ministers in both England and Wales. He is currently advising the welsh education minister on the reform of the education system in the Principality. Tim has also advised the current London mayor on the new design guide for London, the Chief executive of the Homes and Communities Agency on the start-up process for the organisation with it’s £5 billion budget and the CEO of lend lease Europe on the Olympic legacy.
Tim was a founding associate member of the UK Prime minister’s delivery unit headed up by sir Michael Barber. He has also been involved in a ministerial review of public services in Wales.
In 2007 Tim chaired an inquiry for the UK’s Housing Corporation into the design of affordable housing in Thames Gateway which was published as ‘the Williams report’. in 2008 he chaired a ministerial task and Finish group which led to the creation of the Centre for regeneration excellence Wales. Tim is soon to be appointed a visiting professor at the university of Cardiff in recognition of his contribution to urban regeneration.
Tim was Chief executive of the Thames Gateway London Partnership between 1998 and 2003, when the Gateway, Europe’s biggest urban regeneration program, become a national priority.
Tim has had a weekly column in regeneration and renewal for ten years and is now a regular blogger. He is a regular public speaker in the UK and has been a keynote speaker for the Australasian Housing institute. For three years to 2001 he had a weekly column in the Scotsman and has been a regular broadcaster in English and Welsh.
Tim was born in south Wales and was educated at Peterhouse Cambridge, university of Cardiff, Merton Oxford and the inns of Court school of law. He has a doctorate in history, a teaching certificate in English and has been called to the Bar from the inner temple. Coming from a mining village in ‘old’ south Wales and having worked in regeneration in Cornwall and east London, Tim is passionate that public policy ensures a level playing field for all.
Married to Michelle, who comes from New south Wales, Tim is also a father to Elinor aged 5. They have homes in Manly and Hackney, East London.
Hiroki Kuriyama, Head of Corporate Strategy, NTT, Japan
Hiroki Kuriyama joined NTT, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation, in April 1985. Mr Kuriyama has been responsible for design and implementation of the Medium-term Management Strategy of the NTT group since 2003. The strategy targets both fixed and mobile super-broadband development and NGN (Next Generation Network) deployment, and it emphasizes IP-based platform and application services creation and IT services development in the global market. The goal of the strategy is accelerated transformation of the NTT group towards IP-based solution provider on the global arena.Prior to this engagement, Mr Kuriyama held several managerial positions in marketing, business planning and human resource management.
He holds a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Tokyo, and Master of Business Administration from the Wharton School of University of Pennsylvania.
Datuk Badlisham Ghazali, Chief Executive Officer, Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC), Malaysia
Datuk Badlisham Ghazali was appointed as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC) in January 2006. As the CEO, Badlisham provides the leadership to drive the organisation in translating the Government’s vision of transforming the nation into a Knowledge-based Economy through the MSC Malaysia initiatives.Apart from the vision to empower lives through ICT, Badlisham’s mission for MSC Malaysia is not limited to just encouraging the growth of ICT companies but also to position Malaysia as a global ICT player.
Badlisham believes in a bright future through ICT and is keen on promoting ICT among children and students, encouraging them to take up ICT as a career of choice.
He is also a member of the Ministry of Education’s Cluster School Advisory Board and the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation’s National Science Centre Advisory Board.
For his vast experience and knowledge in the ICT industry, Badlisham was also appointed as an Adjunct Professor with the Multimedia Faculty of Limkokwing University of Creative Technology since February 2008.
Prior to his appointment in MDeC, Badlisham was with the new Hewlett-Packard in Malaysia for 18 years where he was the Director and Country General Manager of HP Technology Solutions Group (TSG) – managing the overall business and profitability of the company’s two business groups; HP Services and Enterprise Products.