Featured speakers

Greg Keith

As our CEO for the last 5 years, Greg has led the firm through the recent global pandemic and recession. We were one of the first firms to relocate our people to work remotely, to protect jobs by voluntarily agreeing to reduce our hours by 20% for 4 months, to support our clients and educate the wider community on government initiatives including JobKeeper and to set about creating a COVID-Safe environment which would protect and give confidence to our people and clients. Greg’s focus has been around CARE for our people, clients and community.

Greg Keith

Greg Keith

  • CEO, Grant Thornton Australia

Besa Deda

Besa Deda is the Chief Economist of the St.George Banking Group, which includes St.George, Bank of Melbourne, BankSA and RAMS. Besa has been in this role since 2008. As the Bank’s economic spokesperson, Besa is responsible for research on the economy and financial markets. She formulates views and forecasts on the outlook for the economy, interest rates and currencies and manages a team of economists. Besa gives regular presentations and often appears in the media reporting on economic conditions.

Besa Deda

Besa Deda

  • Chief Economist, St.George

Yan Wong

Yan is a Chartered Accountant and qualified lawyer with over 25 years’ corporate and international tax experience. Yan specialises in advising clients in the Food and Beverage sector particularly in respect of tax compliance, ATO risk reviews/audits, private ruling applications, legally privileged tax advice and documenting reasonably arguable positions. He works closely with other Professional Services (accounting, legal, financial advisory) firms to provide specialist tax technical advice as part of overall commercially driven solutions to client transactions.

Yan Wong

Yan Wong

  • Partner, Tax, Grant Thornton Australia

Hugh Riminton

Hugh is the national affairs editor with Network 10. He has an insider's view of federal politics as an influential reporter and commentator. He was formerly host of Ten's Meet The Press, he hosts SUNDAY EXTRA on ABC Radio National - and he’s one half of the popular politics podcast THE PROFESSOR & THE HACK, with Peter Van Onselen. He is involved in a number of charitable causes. He is a foundation board member of the veterans’ charity, Soldier On, and chairs the John Mac Foundation, which supports disadvantaged students.

Hugh Riminton

Hugh Riminton

  • National Affairs Editor, Network 10

Jacky Millership

Jacky has over 30 years’ consulting experience in international trade development and Government Program facilitation. She leads Grant Thornton’s B2G (Business to Government) team, which specialises in assisting business to fully leverage the very diverse range of grants and incentives available at both State and Federal level.

Jacky Millership

Jacky Millership

  • Partner, Innovation Incentives, Grant Thornton Australia

Sukvinder Heyer

Sukvinder has been advising in Research & Development (R&D) for over 20 years. Central to her approach is understanding your business and your needs related to the identification, preparation and support of your R&D claim. This includes timeliness of R&D tax compliance work whether you are a small company or large and supporting you through all phases of an ATO or AusIndustry review.

Sukvinder Heyer

Sukvinder Heyer

  • Partner, R&D, Grant Thornton Australia

Iain Kemp

Iain leads our national industry program at Grant Thornton Australia. He is an experienced audit practitioner and combines his technical skills with international experience, having worked in Johannesburg, Moscow and Sydney. Iain is known to be pragmatic and practical in his approach when advising clients.

Iain Kemp

Iain Kemp

  • National Managing Partner – Industry, Grant Thornton Australia

Matt Byrnes

Matt Byrnes is Grant Thornton’s National Head of Restructuring Advisory. He has developed strong skills in managing businesses in distress, and in negotiating the best possible outcome via a sale or workout strategy. Matt also has extensive experience in managing companies in receivership, liquidation and voluntary administration and is involved in numerous Investigating Accountant (IA) and limited scope reviews.

Matt Byrnes

Matt Byrnes

  • Partner & National Head of Restructuring Advisory, Grant Thornton Australia

Tianne Nagy-Jones

Tianne has over nine years’ experience in restructuring advisory and insolvency, having managed companies in Receivership, Liquidation and Voluntary Administration, as well as having lead on various complex legal matters in engagements. Accomplished in managing businesses in distress, stakeholder liaison and overseeing the appropriate work out, sale or wind down strategy through a formal insolvency process, Tianne has more recently also been involved in a number of advisory engagements, working with the client and their key stakeholders to achieve the desired outcome.

Tianne Nagy-Jones

Tianne Nagy-Jones

  • Director, Restructuring Advisory, Grant Thornton Australia

Neil Cooke

Neil leads the national Transaction Advisory Services team supporting private equity and corporate clients on acquisitions, divestments and listings across Australia. Neil is the Australian representative on the Grant Thornton International Transaction Advisory Services Strategy Committee and is the contact point supporting international and domestic clients making acquisitions in Australia. Neil has approximately 25 years’ experience in Corporate Finance and became a Partner in 2004.

Neil Cooke

Neil Cooke

  • Partner, Transaction Advisory Services, Grant Thornton Australia

Cyrus Church

Cyrus Church is a Director and Co-Head of Deal Execution at Neu Capital. Mr Church founded Neu Capital in 2015 after nearly eight years at Royal Bank of Scotland, finishing as a Director in their Global Restructuring Group. In this role, he was involved in the media, mining and infrastructure sectors, and ultimately led the divestment of RBS’ Australian, Singapore and Hong Kong loan portfolios and sale of the Indian retail bank. He was involved in transactions from $10m to $4.7b and across both debt and equity. Prior to working at Royal Bank of Scotland, he worked at ABN AMRO and ANZ in various roles.

Cyrus Church

Cyrus Church

  • Managing Director, Neu Capital

Holly Stiles

Holly is a Corporate Finance partner at Grant Thornton, specialising in M&A and capital markets, working across the Sydney and Brisbane markets. Holly works with businesses and their owners on their strategic plans, including acquisitions, fund raisings including Private Equity and planning and executing a succession event or sale of the business. Holly also has a capital markets specialism and, for over 15 years, has assisted Australian companies to achieve an IPO or dual listing on the AIM Market of the London Stock Exchange.

Holly Stiles

Holly Stiles

  • Partner, Corporate Finance, Grant Thornton Australia

Cameron Bacon

Cameron specialises in providing corporate finance services to a range of public and private companies and private equity funds. In this capacity he has undertaken a variety of buy-side and sell-side Merger & Acquisition (M&A) and Capital Raising advisory roles. Cameron has extensive M&A, divestment, fund raising, and cross border experience across a range of industry sectors including Food & Beverage, Private Equity, Financial Services, Retail, Manufacturing and distribution, Education and Real Estate & Construction.

Cameron Bacon

Cameron Bacon

  • Partner - Financial Advisory, Corporate Finance, Grant Thornton Australia

Dr Ian Norton

Dr Ian Norton is a specialist emergency physician and a global infectious disease expert with post-graduate qualifications in Surgery, International Health and Tropical Medicine. Ian was head of the WHO’s Emergency Medical Team (EMT) Initiative in Geneva from 2014-20. During this time, he led responses to Ebola, Diphtheria and Measles outbreaks as well as to earthquakes, cyclones, and war zones. Ian is the lead author of the current WHO Global Classification and Standards for medical teams deploying to disasters.

Dr Ian Norton

Dr Ian Norton

  • Founder and Managing Director, Respond Global

Madina Aziz

Madina has over 14 years’ experience in professional practice and has a diverse portfolio of clients ranging from dynamic mid-sized businesses to listed public companies. She is responsible for coordinating the audit approach and the seamless delivery of audit and assurance services to her clients. Madina has extensive experience in IFRS, USGAAP, internal controls and was a casual academic at the University of Technology of Sydney for over four years. She is also a regular presenter within the industry on technical and regulatory changes.

Madina Aziz

Madina Aziz

  • Parnter, Audit & Assurance, Grant Thornton Australia

Phillip Coorey

Phillip Coorey joined the Canberra press gallery in 1998 as the Chief Political Correspondent with Adelaide's The Advertiser. He spent 2003 and 2004 in the US as News Ltd New York correspondent and covered the 2004 US primaries and the presidential election. He was appointed Political Editor of The Advertiser upon his return to the press gallery in 2005. Coorey joined the Sydney Morning Herald in 2006 and was the paper's Chief Political Correspondent until late 2012 when joined Australian Financial Review. He is the paper’s Political Editor. He won the Paul Lyneham award for press gallery excellence in 2012 and 2013.

Phillip Coorey

Phillip Coorey

  • Political Editor, Australian Financial Review

Ian Renwood

Passionate about emerging technologies and their application to transform traditional operating models, Ian joined Grant Thornton in 2019 to lead the Technology Advisory offering in Sydney. In addition to 20 years as a management consultant, including over five years at IBM, Ian also advises on the Boards of two start-ups, and is a lead mentor at Stone & Chalk – providing strategic advice for tech start-ups.

Ian Renwood

Ian Renwood

  • Partner & National Head of Technology Consulting, Grant Thornton Australia

Catherine Graham

A curious fact-based strategist, Catherine has been designing data strategy for businesses globally for over 20 years. With experience in key categories: Government, Financial Services, Technology, Retail and Automotive she has honed key strategic best practice while continuing to innovate in her thinking. Catherine started her career in the UK building and running the first customer contact database for Volvo UK then relocated to Singapore to head up data services for a multinational Advertising Agency. She relocated again to Australia 16 years ago running CRM, Customer Experience and data strategy for a wide range of local and global companies.

Catherine Graham

Catherine Graham

  • Data Strategist and General Manager, APAC, Beyond Analysis

Senator Andrew Bragg

Andrew Bragg is a Liberal Senator for New South Wales. Prior to his election to Federal Parliament in 2019, Andrew was an author and accountant. Andrew started his career as an accountant at Ernst & Young and went on to work in senior roles at the Financial Services Council and the Business Council of Australia. His 2017 short book Fit for Service (Connor Court) offers a framework for 21st century trade policy for Australia. Following Andrew’s election to the Senate, he was elected Chair of the Senate Select Committee into FinTech and RegTech and is a member of the Senate Economics Committee and Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services.

Senator Andrew Bragg

Senator Andrew Bragg

  • Senator for New South Wales, Chair of Select Committee on Financial Technology and Regulatory Technology

Matthew Green

Matthew has over 14 years’ experience in providing IT risk management and advisory services across government and private enterprise. Matthew’s extensive IT risk advisory experience spans technology and risk advisory across strategy, governance, operations, service delivery and major projects. In working with his clients, Matthew has advised on IT assurance, SOX compliance, technology and platform selection, assessed major projects for ongoing viability, developed programs to ensure the security of data, built frameworks for business resilience and provided independent assurance over third party service provider processes and controls.

Matthew Green

Matthew Green

  • Partner, Technology Advisory, Grant Thornton Australia

Louise McCann

Louise McCann is a Non-Executive Director (NED) with a diverse portfolio including ASX, public and private firms across the technology, media, health, education, accounting, financial and professional services sectors. Louise is also Chairman of the CEO Institute for SME growth companies with revenues of $10m–$100m and mentors young entrepreneurs in the digital, technology and start-up companies.

Louise McCann

Louise McCann

  • Chair, Grant Thornton Australia

Chris Watson

Chris is a Partner within the Risk Consulting team and has over 25 years’ experience in investigations. Chris spent 12 years in the City of London Police where, as a detective in the crime scene investigation unit, Chris was responsible for building the computer crime unit. As part of this unit, Chris investigated a broad range of crimes covering fraud, blackmail, hacking and threats to kill. He worked closely with numerous Fraud investigation teams and the Dedicated Cheque and Plastic Credit Card Unit in London where he assisted in the investigation of major frauds and a variety of cheque and credit card crimes.

Chris Watson

Chris Watson

  • Partner, Risk Consulting, Grant Thornton Australia