Arca Credit Summit 2026 Agenda

Agenda Coming Soon!

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.

  • 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.

  • Joanne Edwards has more than 25 years’ experience in banking, consumer finance and fintech, specialising in credit risk, operational risk, compliance and customer operations. She has held senior leadership roles with Commonwealth Bank and Wisr, where she served as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Risk and Data Officer, leading risk strategy, governance, regulatory compliance and operations across the lending businesses. Joanne has extensive experience designing customer lifecycle frameworks spanning responsible lending, hardship, collections, complaints, fraud and financial crime, and has led various regulatory and operational transformation programs.

    Current Role: Founder & Director, Edwards Risk Advisory Pty Ltd, providing strategic risk, governance and operational consulting to financial services companies and fintechs across Australia.

  • 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.

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.

  • Imagine losing out on a deal - not because you said the wrong words - but because the other side’s irrational brain was working against you.

    That’s the reality of most negotiations.

    The good news?

    You can flip it.

    By understanding 3 simple behavioural negotiation tools you can be more likely to get what you want:

    1. System 1 & 2 Thinking: Most negotiators don’t get what they want simply because they overload the other side’s "slow" brain. You’ll learn how to take cognitive biases and emotions into account.

    2. Anchoring: The first offer sticks. Learn how to set the psychological benchmark of a negotiation to get the edge without losing the other side's trust.

    3. "Yes, and": A conversation technique from Improv will help you keep the conversation open and steer it in a positive direction - no matter what the other side says.

    Objectives:

    • Explore what makes people act the way they do

    • Unpack the influences and characteristics of negotiations in general, from a behavioural science perspective

    • Apply what we’ve learned to the context of the credit industry with live negotiation role-plays

  • 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.