In-Person

Melbourne CIO Community

Executive Summit

10 November 2026 | Crown Conference Centre, Melbourne

10 November 2026
Crown Conference Centre, Melbourne

Collaborate with your peers

Get together with Melbourne's top CIOs to tackle shared business challenges and critical priorities facing your role today. Participate in this one-day, local program with peer-driven topics and interactive discussions with your true C-level peers.

Join your peers to discuss the most critical issues impacting CIOs today:

Lead Strategic Technology Alignment to Establish an AI Operating Model

Manage Costs Strategically to Maximize Business Value

Elevate Cybersecurity as a Core Driver of Business Value, Resilience and Growth

Melbourne CIO Governing Body

The Governing Body Co-Chairs shape the summit agenda, ensuring that all content is driven By CIOs, For CIOs®.

Governing Body Co-Chairs

Frank De Sa

Premier Retail
CIO

Tracey Evans

Virtus Health
CTO

Martha O'Sullivan

Wesfarmers Health
GM Technology

What to Expect

Interactive Sessions

Hear from CIO practitioners and thought leaders on how they're solving critical challenges impacting your role today in Keynote sessions, and join smaller, interactive discussions with your peers in Breakout and Boardroom sessions.

Community Networking

Make new connections and catch up with old friends in casual conversations during dedicated time for networking designed to better acquaint you with your Melbourne CIO community.

Peer-to-Peer Meetings

Connect with like-minded peers in a private, one-on-one setting through Peer-to-Peer Meetings. You will be matched with peers in your community based on your shared interests and priorities.

Agenda

10 November 2026

08:30 - 09:00  Registration & Breakfast

09:00 - 09:45  Keynote

Simplification as Strategy — Reshaping Operating Models and Technology Estates

Mark Gay headshot

Mark Gay

Group Executive, Technology

Australian Unity

As organisations accelerate AI adoption, strengthen cyber resilience and modernise legacy environments, many are discovering that complexity itself has become the greatest barrier to transformation. The next generation of technology leaders will differentiate not by adding more technology, but by simplifying technology estates, streamlining operating models and creating the foundations for resilience, agility and sustainable growth.

Join this session with Mark Gay, Group Executive, Technology, Australia Unity he shares his vision on:

  • Reduce complexity to accelerate transformation
  • Redesign operating models for greater accountability and execution
  • Simplify technology estates to strengthen resilience and scalability


09:45 - 10:15  Break

11:00 - 11:30  Networking Break

11:05 - 11:25  Peer-to-Peer Meetings

Peer-to-Peer Meetings

Connect with like-minded peers in a one-on-one setting through Peer-to-Peer Meetings. You will be matched with peers in your community based on your shared interests and priorities.

11:30 - 12:15  Breakout Session

Explore Cyber Resilience and Recovery with Rubrik

Niraj Naidu headshot

Niraj Naidu

Head of Sales Engineering & Regional CTO (ANZ)

Rubrik

Join this session to explore one of the community's top priorities this year: cyber resilience and recovery. Gain insights into key challenges, emerging approaches, and practical applications to help you navigate what's next.

11:30 - 12:15  Executive Boardroom

Data Exposure in the AI Era — Governance, Trust, and Cost

Alexis Rouch headshot

Alexis Rouch

CTO

Nuix

Access is no longer the problem. Every AI tool can open a document or summarise an email. The problem is that access without governance produces outputs that are unreliable, indefensible, and dangerous in regulated environments. 80 to 90% of enterprise data is unstructured, yet only 26% of data leaders able to use it confidently. With regulators and boards demanding greater AI accountability, governance and chain of custody are becoming non-negotiable.

Join this interactive session to discuss:

  • Closing the gap between AI accessing your data and producing defensible outcomes
  • Why do governance and chain of custody matter more than access?
  • Scaling AI across sensitive, unstructured data without creating regulatory exposure

12:15 - 12:55  Lunch Service

12:55 - 13:30  Keynote

Governed Enablement — Translating AI Risk into Board-Level Confidence

Heng Mok headshot

Heng Mok

CISO, APJ

Zscaler

AI is now a board-level priority - and a board-level risk - placing CIOs and CISOs in the spotlight to demonstrate active, measurable management of AI exposure. Organisations are translating governance into enforceable controls and transparent reporting, replacing stopgap blocking with runtime guardrails. What are strategies that CIOs and CISOs can take back to their own organisations to establish clear decision rights, provide actionable risk metrics, and foster confidence among executive sponsors and boards, all while enabling safe and scalable AI adoption?

Join this session to learn:

  • Establishing clear decision rights for accountable AI adoption
  • Replacing stopgap blocking with enforceable, runtime guardrails
  • Providing boards with transparent, actionable risk metrics

13:30 - 13:45  Break

13:45 - 14:30  Breakout Session

The CIO's New Mandate — Leading Transformation, Resilience and Growth

Andrew Haddad headshot

Andrew Haddad

CIO

AGL Energy

Rachael Sandel headshot

Rachael Sandel

Group CIO

Orica Limited

Matthias Hansen headshot

Matthias Hansen

Chief Digital, Data and Information Officer

Sonic Healthcare

As organisations face accelerating technological change, shifting customer expectations, and growing operational complexity, transformation has become a continuous business imperative. Today's CIOs are increasingly accountable for driving change while strengthening resilience, managing risk, and enabling growth. How can technology and security leaders create lasting business value in an era of constant disruption?

Join this session to explore:

  • Driving transformation as an organisational capability
  • Balancing innovation and modernisation with operational resilience
  • Aligning people, culture, and technology to accelerate change and deliver business value at scale

13:45 - 14:30  Executive Boardroom

Turning Operational Complexity into Coordinated Action

David Stanton headshot

David Stanton

Country Director - ANZ

Freshworks

AI has rewritten the technology leadership mandate. CIOs and CISOs must keep the enterprise available, secure and efficient while enabling AI-led transformation, productivity and innovation. Yet service, operations, asset, identity and knowledge often remain fragmented across systems, with people manually bridging the gaps. Adding more AI can accelerate individual steps without necessarily improving the end-to-end outcome.

This interactive session will explore how organisations can move from fragmented operations to coordinated action by:

  • Creating shared operational context across services, knowledge, people, technology, dependencies and risk
  • Coordinating action across teams, workflows and systems rather than stopping at recommendations or manual handoffs
  • Embedding governance into execution, including policy, permissions, approvals, human oversight and auditability

14:30 - 15:00  Networking Break

14:35 - 14:55  Peer-to-Peer Meetings

Peer-to-Peer Meetings

Connect with like-minded peers in a one-on-one setting through Peer-to-Peer Meetings. You will be matched with peers in your community based on your shared interests and priorities.

15:45 - 16:00  Networking Break

16:00 - 16:40  Keynote

Managing Costs Strategically Amid Rising Technology Complexity

Andy Rowsell-Jones headshot

Andy Rowsell-Jones

VP Distinguished Analyst

Gartner

With technology budgets under constant scrutiny and investment priorities continuing to expand, CIOs and CISOs face increasing pressure to deliver more value from every technology dollar. The challenge is no longer simply controlling costs, but making deliberate investment decisions that align spending with business priorities, optimise existing assets, and enable sustainable growth.

Join this session to explore:

  • Leveraging continuous cost visibility, disciplined vendor management and proactive resource allocation
  • Building a culture of accountability and innovation to identify inefficiencies and reinvest savings into strategic initiatives
  • Shifting the narrative from cost cutting to value creation by linking technology spend directly to measurable business outcomes


10 November 2026

We look forward to seeing you at an upcoming in-person gathering

Gartner cares about the health and safety of our community. If you are feeling unwell, please refrain from attending the conference. At this time, Gartner does not have any health-related requirements in place for attendance. Should this change, we will follow up with updated guidance.

Location

Your Community Sponsors

Global Thought Leaders

CISO Thought Leader

Key Sponsors

Program Sponsors

Community Program Manager

For inquiries related to this community, please reach out to your dedicated contact.

Denzil Fernandez

Sr. Community Program Manager

(04) 727 41540

denzil.fernandez@gartner.com