Arca Credit Summit 2026 Agenda

See here for Preliminary Agenda!

Speakers

  • Amanda Johnstone is a visionary technologist and celebrated global futurist shaping of humanity in the age of artificial intelligence. Recognised by TIME as a Next Generation Leader, honoured by The CEO Magazine as Start-Up Executive of the Year, named a Top Voice of AI by LinkedIn, and in the Top 16 AI Influencers by Salesforce, Amanda stands at the forefront of the 5th Industrial Revolution; where technology, ethics, and human potential converge.

    As the CEO of Transhuman Inc., a technology company she Founded in 2014, Amanda pioneered conversations and technical builds around neuroscience, AI ethics, and human behaviour long before they became mainstream. Her work has redefined how emerging technologies influence the way we think, connect, and evolve. Her inventions in suicide prevention technology have reached over 80 countries and assisting over 20,000 vulnerable people to get mental health peer support in real time, while her emotionAI innovations and artificial intelligence leadership continue to inform governments, Fortune 500 companies, and global think tanks on the urgent need for responsible innovation and scale. Her delivery: empowering, easy to digest and exciting!

    With patents in complex human–machine symbiosis, psychology and social connection, alongside her role advising Sovereign Australia AI, Amanda is a champion of digital responsibility, self-sovereignty and national sovereignty. She is one of the most compelling voices on dopamine-driven engagement loops, digital addiction, and cognitive polarisation, helping the world build resilience in an AI powered era.

    Her entrepreneurial spirit sparked early. At just 17, she co-founded retail chain Sebachi, one of Australia’s first e-commerce stores, guided by mentorship from Cotton On founder Nigel Austin. Now, at 39, she continues to blend creativity with foresight, travelling across the world to work with her internal team, advise leaders, inspire audiences, and explore the world’s cultural and technological frontiers. You’ve seen her on stages for Universal Music, YPO, Allianz, Rohde & Schwarz, Google, Kellogg’s, SAS, Optus, Zoom, the Australian Government and Stanford and as an ambassador for brands including Salesforce, Plaud, Paco Rabanne, TIME, Selfridges and Docusign.

    Amanda is also a passionate advocate for the arts, specifically the intersection of creativity and technology (STEAM) and is an angel investor. Her tech education show “Talk Nerdy to Me” reached tens of millions of listeners, with over 300,000 subscribers. She’s and a trusted advisor to programs such as Startmate (since 2025), The Timeout Suicide Prevention Retreat (15 years) and Tech Ready Women Academy (9 years). With an unmatched ability to “see around corners,” she empowers organisations and individuals to not only adapt to the future but to shape it with courage, empathy, and vision.

  • Justin is the Group Chief Executive Officer and the entrepreneur behind ClearScore. The ClearScore Group is now one of the leading consumer financial businesses globally helping over 26 million people on four continents.

    Outside of ClearScore, Justin is Chair of The Money Charity and a Non-Executive Director at the CMA.

    Justin has had a varied career building fast moving and valuable branded franchises for big companies and as an entrepreneur. His early career started with Procter & Gamble and then moved into consulting with WPP. Justin then joined Deutsche Bank in retail e- ventures moving to work in Corporate Finance. From 2006 to 2009 Justin was Chief Marketing Officer for Capital One in Europe running all market facing initiatives.

  • Marnie Baker AM is a highly accomplished financial services leader with more than 35 years’ experience across banking, superannuation, trustee services, financial planning, insurance and funds management. Two-thirds of her career has been spent in executive leadership roles.

    Marnie recently concluded her tenure as CEO and Managing Director of Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, one of Australia’s most trusted financial institutions and a top 100 ASX-listed company. During her time with the Bank, Marnie held a range of executive roles including Chief Customer Officer, Chief Information Officer, Group Treasurer, Executive Corporate Resources and CEO of Sandhurst Trustees.

    Marnie has also played an active role in shaping Australia’s financial services ecosystem through a number of national industry bodies. Marnie was an inaugural Director of NPP Australia, Deputy Chair of the Australian Banking Association, a member of the Mastercard Asia Pacific Advisory Board and a member of the Business Council of Australia.

    Marnie is a Member of Chief Executive Women, the Australian Society of Certified Practicing Accountants and the Australian Institute of Company Directors, and a Fellow of the Governance Institute of Australia and the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment.

    Marnie currently serves on the Monetary Policy Board of the Reserve Bank of Australia and as a Non-Executive Director of Australian Retirement Trust, Regional Australia Institute, FinTech Australia and Sport and Life Training (SALT). Marnie is also the Chair of La Trobe University’s Bendigo Regional Advisory Board.

    A lifelong regional Australian, Marnie brings a distinctive perspective to national conversations and is a strong advocate for the critical role regional communities play in Australia’s growth and long-term prosperity.

    A La Trobe University graduate, Marnie holds a Bachelor of Business and was honoured as a Distinguished Alumni Award recipient in 2020. In 2025, Marnie was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for significant service to the financial and banking sectors.

  • Oriel Morrison is one of Asia-Pacific’s most recognisable business journalists and a leading communication expert.

    She is a highly regarded professional presenter, MC, and moderator, known for her ability to bring clarity, authority and insight to high-profile events around the world.

    Oriel is the Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of APAC Network. Prior to launching the platform, she spent over a decade anchoring CNBC’s flagship shows Squawk Box and Street Signs, which aired globally. Her work has taken her to the world’s premier business events, providing live coverage and in-depth reporting on finance, markets, and geopolitics.

    Over her 20+ year career in business and financial news, Oriel has interviewed some of the world’s most influential leaders including former U.S. President Bill Clinton, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde, Disney CEO Bob Iger, former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, and numerous corporate heavyweights.

    Before CNBC, she held senior presenting and reporting roles at Bloomberg Television and Radio, the Nine Network, Sky Business News, and Channel 7.

  • Katherine is a barrister at Andrew Wells Chambers in Adelaide. She accepts briefs nationally in a broad range of civil matters, with particular expertise in consumer credit, financial services and trade practices law. Prior to the Bar, Katherine worked as a solicitor for a Melbourne-based financial services firm. Her practice focussed on regulatory enforcement and investigations and advising on complex compliance issues. Katherine has also previously worked as a lawyer/investigator at ASIC and as Director of Policy and Campaigns for a large community legal centre in Melbourne that specialised in consumer law, debt and insurance matters.

  • Neva Skilton is a senior ombudsman with the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA). She is an experience financial services lawyer, with extensive experience in and banking and finance disputes, consumer protection and alternative dispute resolution. Neva has extensive expertise across a broad range of banking products and services and is recognised for her leadership in resolving complex and significant disputes.

    Neva joined AFCA’s predecessor scheme, the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) as a case manager and has since held a number of senior positions, including team manager, adjudicator, ombudsman and senior ombudsman. Appointed to the senior ombudsman role in 2021, she combines decision-making responsibilities with a broader strategic and management function, contributing to organisational leadership, policy development, stakeholder engagement and the continual improvement of AFCA’s dispute resolution framework. Neva provides strategic input on emerging issues affecting the financial services sector and supports the delivery of fair, independent and effective outcomes for consumers, small businesses and financial firms.

    Before joining FOS, Neva practised as a solicitor at a leading commercial law firm, specialising in general insurance and commercial litigation.

  • David Lacey is the inaugural Chief Scams Officer at the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA), where he leads the development of a world‑first, multi‑party external dispute resolution framework for scams as part of the Government’s Scams Prevention Framework. In this role, he is responsible for expanding AFCA’s jurisdiction to address complex scam complaints involving banks, telecommunications providers and digital platforms, helping deliver fair, accessible and effective outcomes for consumers and firms.

    David brings extensive experience across cyber security, identity protection and dispute resolution, with a strong commitment to supporting individuals impacted by scams. He is the founder and former CEO of IDCARE, Australia and New Zealand’s national identity and cyber support service, where he built a leading, human‑centred model to assist victims of identity crime and cyber incidents. His career spans senior executive roles across government and industry in cyber and identity security, law enforcement and national security.

    In addition to his executive leadership, David is an academic and researcher specialising in cyber security, human behaviour and online deception. He has published widely on scams, fraud and cyber risk, with a particular focus on the human impacts of deception‑based harms. He is deeply passionate about improving outcomes for those affected by scams and identity crime, bringing a strong focus on fairness, transparency and community impact to his work at AFCA.

  • Luci Ellis is Chief Economist for the Westpac Banking Group. She was previously Assistant Governor (Economic) at the Reserve Bank of Australia from December 2016 until October 2023. Prior to that, Luci was Head of Financial Stability Department at the RBA for eight years, spent two years on secondment at the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland, and held several other senior positions at the RBA over a three-decade career in central banking.

    Luci holds a PhD from the University of New South Wales, a Masters in Economics degree from the Australian National University and a first-class Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) degree from the University of Melbourne.

  • Carly Kind commenced as Australia’s Privacy Commissioner in February 2024 for a 5-year term.

    As Privacy Commissioner, she regulates the handling of personal information by entities covered by the Australian Privacy Act 1988 and seeks to influence the development of legislation and advance privacy protections for Australians.

    Ms Kind was previously the inaugural director of the UK-based Ada Lovelace Institute, a research institute focussed on the ethical and societal impacts of data and AI.

    She has worked with the European Commission, the Council of Europe, numerous UN bodies and a range of civil society organisations.

    Ms Kind has a Masters of Science, International Relations (Hons) from the London School of Economics, a Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice, and a Bachelor of Arts (International Relations) (Hons) and Bachelor of Laws from the University of Queensland.

  • Jessica is a government relations and public affairs professional with deep experience across complex policy, regulatory and stakeholder environments. With a strong foundation in law and public policy, she brings a nuanced understanding of regulatory reform and the strategic levers that drive it.

    She has advised companies, industry associations and not-for-profits across financial services, healthcare, natural resources, and technology, and has worked on major parliamentary inquiries, negotiations and reviews requiring sophisticated stakeholder engagement and strategic positioning.

    At Delta Advisory, Jessica supports clients navigating complex environments, developing regional and national strategies, government relations campaigns, and tailored public affairs programs. She is known for translating complex policy and regulatory challenges into clear, actionable strategies aligned with client objectives and government priorities.

    She holds a Bachelor of Laws and a Bachelor of Social Science (International Relations) from Macquarie University, graduating with Honours.

  • Dr Kylie Moore-Gilbert is the author of the remarkable memoir The Uncaged Sky, which details the 804 days she spent as a political prisoner in Iran. An expert in Middle East history and politics, Kylie travelled to Iran to take part in an academic conference, only to face arrest at the airport on her way home to Australia. Interrogated for months by Iran’s feared Revolutionary Guards, Kylie was ultimately convicted of espionage in a shadowy trial presided over by the country’s most notorious judge, and received a ten year prison sentence.

    Held for a year in solitary confinement, Kylie was pushed to her limits by extreme physical and psychological deprivation. Her only lifeline was the covert friendships she made with other inmates inside Tehran’s Evin prison, whom she communicated with through air conditioning vents and by hiding secret letters in an outdoor exercise yard. To survive, Kylie began to fight back. Multiple hunger strikes, co-ordinated protests and a daring escape attempt led to her transfer to an isolated desert prison called Qarchak to live among convicted criminals. On 25 November 2020, after more than two years of struggle, Kylie was finally released in a high-stakes three-nation prisoner-swap deal, laying bare the complex game of global politics in which she had become a valuable pawn.

    Kylie Moore-Gilbert has authored several influential academic papers and has contributed expert commentary to a number of media outlets, including the ABC, the BBC, Sky News, SBS, the Age, the Australian, the Times, the Independent, Voice of America, and Iran International. In addition, Kylie has provided advice to Australian government agencies and the Australian Defence Forces, and has lent her voice to a variety of human rights initiatives, including as a speaker to the 2021 Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy and as a board member of Hostage Aid Worldwide. Following her release from prison, Kylie has been a vocal advocate for human and women’s rights in Iran, and has campaigned in support of other victims of arbitrary detention around the world.

  • Anna Nitschke is the Assistant Secretary of the Consumer Data Branch at Treasury. In this role she leads work on a range of data and digital policy issues including credit reporting, the Consumer Data Right and digital identity. Anna’s work spans key issues at the intersection of data, technology, and consumer policy, including the operation of credit reporting frameworks, the strategic direction of the Consumer Data Right, digital identity and the evolution of open data frameworks.

    Prior to joining Treasury, Anna worked in a range of financial regulation and policy roles at APRA and the RBA. She holds a Bachelor of Economics (Hons) and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Western Australia.

  • Ben Scott is Head of Industry, Government and Relationship Management at the Australian Financial Crimes Exchange (AFCX), where he leads engagement with private sector organisations, regulators and law enforcement to strengthen collaboration against financial crime, fraud and scams. With more than a decade of experience spanning financial crime intelligence, compliance, analytics and public-private partnerships, Ben has held senior roles at AUSTRAC, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, HSBC and AFCX. A qualified lawyer, he is passionate about advancing intelligence-sharing initiatives, regulatory reform and cross-sector collaboration, and is a regular contributor to industry forums, research and thought leadership focused on preventing and disrupting financial crime.

  • Melanie Cochrane is Group Managing Director, Equifax Australia and New Zealand. She leads the delivery of insights fuelled by differentiated data, analytics, Artificial Intelligence and cloud technology to empower consumers and customers to live their financial best.

    Appointed to the role in May 2021, Melanie is responsible for solutions spanning Consumer and Commercial Risk, Fraud Prevention, Identity, Verification and Ratings, across a range of industries including financial services, telecommunications and utilities, automotive, property and construction, insurance, retail, professional services and government.

    Leading a diverse business that plays a pivotal role in the A/NZ economy, Melanie is passionate about ensuring a strategic focus on innovation, driving customer value, responsible AI and championing financial inclusion.

    With over 30 years in Financial Services, Melanie has led businesses across Australia, Asia and the US. She is passionate about customer advocacy and has led large scale global digital transformation programs, new disruptive digital payments and third-party partnerships. Throughout her career, she has championed and driven diversity and inclusion initiatives, focusing on developing talent and an inclusive culture.

    Prior to joining Equifax, Melanie held the role of General Manager, Merchant Services American Express for the Asia Pac region. Previously, she led the Corporate Payments Business for APAC and the Global Digital Servicing Transformation Program. She also served on the Board of American Express Australia Ltd.

    Originally from the UK, Melanie completed her Business Studies degree at Brighton University, and is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

  • Barrett is a senior data science and risk analytics leader with over 20 years’ experience specialising in credit risk and scoring across Australia, New Zealand and Asia. He has partnered with more than 100 consumer and commercial credit providers, helping organisations apply advanced analytics to drive stronger decisions, improved performance and better customer outcomes. Barrett has held senior leadership and practitioner roles across analytics and credit functions, with responsibility for end‑to‑end risk portfolios.

    At Experian A/NZ, Barrett leads the development and governance of all mathematical models, including consumer, commercial and transaction risk scores, and oversees advanced transaction categorisation capabilities. He also drives Experian’s local research agenda and is a recognised industry thought leader, presenting regularly at major forums in Australia and internationally. In 2023, he presented three research papers at the global Credit Scoring and Credit Control Conference. Barrett holds degrees in Pure Mathematics and Business Administration and has been named one of Australia’s Top 25 Analytics Leaders by the Institute of Analytics Professionals of Australia.

  • Darren is a senior leader in Experian’s Credit Risk Consulting team, with extensive experience in credit risk, data-led decisioning and analytics.

    With nearly 20 years’ experience across banking, financial services and fintech, Darren has worked across credit risk, modelling, fraud, collections and data-led lending strategies. He works closely with clients to understand their challenges and translate complex data and analytics into practical strategies that support better, more confident credit and customer outcomes.

    Darren is a well-known voice across the credit industry and brings a strong understanding of the practical challenges facing lenders as credit decisioning evolves. He is a regular contributor to industry discussions and is known for his thought-provoking questioning, as well as his knowledgeable and engaging approach to complex credit risk topics.

  • Fiona Guthrie AM is CEO of Way Forward Debt Solutions, a not-for-profit organisation that helps people experiencing long-term financial hardship regain control of their finances. She has worked in consumer advocacy and financial hardship for more than 30 years.

    Before joining Way Forward, Fiona was CEO of Financial Counselling Australia for almost 15 years. She currently serves on the boards of the Queensland Competition Authority and Mortgage Stress Victoria, is a member of ASIC's Consultative Panel and chairs the ACCC's Consumer Consultative Committee. Fiona was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in 2017 for significant service to the community through social welfare and financial counselling.

  • James is a credit risk specialist with extensive knowledge in the areas of credit policy design, decision automation, predictive modelling and machine learning applied to credit risk management and other business applications. He was the designer of the CreditorWatch Business Risk Index.

    As a co-founder of Open Analytics and through his experience leading big-4 banks’ credit analytics teams, James has supported a wide range of creditors of all shapes and sizes to optimise risk-reward outcomes throughout the credit lifecycle.

  • Christine is the National Manager of Compliance for Nissan Financial Services Australia & New Zealand (Automotive Lending Solutions) with more than 20 years of experience in regulatory compliance across the financial services sector.

    Throughout her career, Christine has developed and led compliance frameworks designed to support strong governance, regulatory adherence, and risk management across complex financial services environments.

  • Kris White is a senior collections and operations leader with more than 20 years of experience across financial assistance, collections, recoveries and operational delivery.

    Her career has included senior leadership roles across organisations including Macquarie Group, Commonwealth Bank, Baycorp and Credit Corp, where she has led large teams, remediation and transformation programs, operational change and business growth.

    Kris brings a deeply practical view of collections. She understands what happens when strategy meets the frontline: when a beautifully designed process has to work for thousands of customers, fit within available capacity, be understood by employees and still deliver the intended commercial and regulatory outcome.

    Her particular strength is connecting people, process, governance and technology to create operating models that work in practice rather than simply on paper.

    Kris is also a co-founder of Qurioux Solutions and Women in Credit Risk and Collections (WiCRC), where she continues to support the development and visibility of leaders across the industry.

  • Sacha Close is the Founder and Managing Director of Qurioux Solutions and co-founder of Women in Credit Risk and Collections.

    With more than 20 years of experience across Experian, Equifax, Commonwealth Bank, Westpac, Accenture and consulting, Sacha has worked across almost every part of the credit risk and collections ecosystem: strategy, policy, decisioning, hardship, operations, analytics, technology, compliance, controls and large-scale transformation.

    Her work increasingly focuses on what happens in the spaces between those disciplines.

    Who owns the business decision? Who translates it into system logic? Who determines whether the strategy is working? Who can change it? And what happens when the objectives of the team housing a capability do not perfectly align with the outcome that capability is meant to deliver?

    Sacha specialises in making those complexities visible and helping organisations turn them into practical operating models, technology designs, governance and delivery plans.

  • Jason is a risk professional with over 29 years’ experience. Jason was the Chief Risk Officer ANZ Australia for twelve years. In this role Jason covered Op risk and compliance, commercial, retail lending, Loan Mortgage Insurance, Suncorp risk integration and Digital risk. Prior to that Jason was Head of Retail Risk for ANZ in New Zealand for three years, and before that performed a number of roles including Head of Retail Risk for GE Money over 10 years with responsibilities across markets including NZ, Australia, and Asia. Jason also has significant risk management experience in the telecommunications sector.

  • Joe is the Chief Risk Officer at Athena Home Loans. Joe has worked in the Financial service sector for 25 years holding a number of Senior Risk/Credit/Technology related Roles in both the domestic and offshore environments. Joe has deep experience in managing large operational teams with a key focus on driving technology and managing change to the benefit of the consumer and working with regulators and key stakeholders to achieve that aim. As the CRO for Athena Home Lending he is leveraging the power of data to allow efficient/effective operations and business decisioning in the Credit domain.

Workshop Facilitators

  • Max has spent over a decade studying what actually gets people more of what they want in negotiations. Not what works in theory, but what shifts real outcomes in everyday moments. After coaching over 1,200 professionals and advising major Australian organisations on multimillion-dollar deals, he distilled everything into one course: Mastering Negotiations with Behavioural Science.

    Rooted in how the human brain works and how we make decisions, Max’s approach doesn’t ask you to act like a perfectly rational person. It helps you see how people really behave under pressure and gives you the tools to negotiate with confidence.

  • Everyone is a negotiator. 

    Every time you have a conversation with someone and you want something, you're negotiating.

    The reality is, though, that no one ever really teaches us how to negotiate. Not at school. Not at university.

    The good news?

    You can practise negotiation just like anything else.

    And with the explosion of all things digital and AI, there’s never been a better time to get better at the things that make us uniquely human.

    In this workshop you’ll learn 3 practical tools you can use immediately in your next negotiation.

  • Warren Woolhouse is a financial markets executive who builds with AI. He is leading global regulatory reporting transformation at Macquarie, which involves accurate transmission of billions of data points across fields and lifecycles. He has designed and deployed in-house agentic tooling for data quality and exception management, now reusable as an analytical platform.

    Warren has twice presented at the ISDA/AFMA Derivatives Trading Forum in Sydney and engages actively with regulators and industry on the evolution of transaction reporting frameworks. He holds a Master of Business (Applied Finance) and a dual Bachelor's degree in Information Technology and Commerce..

  • Move past the basics of using AI (this workshop is NOT going to show you how to use Chat GPT to draft a document) and see what's possible when you put it to work. This hands-on workshop shows how Claude Code can be used to build practical tools - solving everyday problems with working solutions you can apply directly to your own role. No coding experience required.

  • Corey Irlam is Deputy CEO of Council on the Ageing (COTA) Australia and has more than 15 years’ experience advocating for older Australians across financial services, superannuation, social security, aged care and consumer policy.

    Corey brings a strong consumer perspective to financial services policy, with a particular focus on financial inclusion, vulnerability, equitable access to credit and ensuring products and services work effectively for people as they age. He represents COTA Australia on a range of industry and consumer advisory forums, including with the Australian Banking Association and the Customer Owned Banking Association, and sits on customer councils with CBA, NAB and Westpac.

    His work focuses on bringing lived experience into policy and product design, and on improving the way financial institutions identify and respond to the changing needs of older customers.

  • Katrina is an experienced professional with a rich background in the youth sector. Katrina was appointed to the role of CEO and Director of the Financial Basics Foundation in 2011.

     With a career spanning over three decades, Katrina has cultivated extensive experience in both government and not-for-profit organisations. Her leadership and advocacy in senior roles during this period underscore her unwavering dedication to the well-being and empowerment of young people

  • Jane Monica-Jones is a Financial Wellbeing Expert, Author, Teacher and Speaker who has been at the forefront of the financial therapy movement.

    With extensive experience in both psychology and finance, Jane helps individuals and organisations understand the emotional and psychological aspects of money. Her work combines evidence-based therapeutic techniques with practical financial strategies.

    Through her platform Capabilite, bestselling book, courses, and speaking engagements, Jane has helped thousands of people transform their relationship with money and achieve lasting financial wellbeing.