With the 2025 Federal Election looming, ACS brought together heavyweights from business, recruitment, cybersecurity, research, venture capital, and education for an exclusive, high-impact conversation in our Barangaroo offices. The focus was two urgent challenges Australia can’t afford to ignore: skills and commercialisation.
This wasn’t just another roundtable. It was a chance to cut through the noise, surface fresh thinking, and bring clarity to complex policy debates. The two pieces of analysis below capture key insights from the discussion and will drive ACS’s advocacy during the next term of government.
Australia's R&D investment is below the OECD average, productivity is flatlining, and great ideas too often get lost in the gap between lab and market. We need to turn these trends around or else get left behind.
Australia’s patchwork skills and certification systems are a needless bottleneck for productivity and tech adoption. A unified skills framework could be a win-win-win for business, workers, and government.
This panel tackled how Australia can stay ahead in a fast-changing labour market. Speakers discussed ways to modernise training, sharpen policy, and better connect education with industry needs to ensure our workforce is ready for what’s next.
Patrick leads a team focused on harnessing the potential of the education and training system to impact learners and employers in these industries. His career includes a 30-year tenure in the British and Australian Armies, with operational deployments to the Balkans, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Following his military service, Patrick was employed by Deloitte and later led the planning and delivery of the Invictus Games in Sydney in 2018 as the CEO.
Melinda has extensive experience in public policy, economic strategy, and business leadership to her role at CEDA. Prior to joining CEDA, she held senior positions at the Business Council of Australia, including Deputy Chief Executive. She has also served as a Commissioner with the Productivity Commission and worked as a senior economist at both the Reserve Bank of Australia and Invesco. Melinda is a Non-Executive Director of Australian Unity and Co-Chair of Reconciliation Australia.
Steven oversees Microsoft's operations across Australia and New Zealand. He ensures the company meets the needs of its customers and the more than 10,000 partners and independent software vendors that sell or build on the Microsoft platform in Australia and New Zealand. Steven is also a member of the NSW Skills Board, contributing to the development of strategies to ensure the state's workforce has the necessary skills for the future. Prior to joining Microsoft, Steven held senior leadership roles at IBM, including Vice President of Software for IBM Asia Pacific.
Cherie heads up a range of initiatives focused on developing highly differentiated, sector-leading microcredentials and programs, with curriculum co-created with industry and focused on the emerging up-skilling needs of the workforce. She is a member of the NSW Digital Skills & Workforce Compact and the Business Council of Australia Skills, Education and Migration Committee. Cherie is also a Non-Executive Director of MEGT (Australia) Ltd, and Board Advisor to the Future Skills Organisation.
Jenny has been working in recruitment for over 17 years and is part of the senior leadership team for Hays NSW and Hays Technology ANZ. Specialising in technology recruitment across the Newcastle, Central Coast, Hunter, and greater NSW regions, Jenny and her team recruit technology and project professionals at all levels and across all industries for both private and public sector clients. Jenny is particularly passionate about collaborating with industry groups and connecting technology professionals to exciting programs of work in the local region.
Scarlett is the founder of Longitude Advisory, an independent tech advisory firm serving organisations across Australia. With over a decade of experience as a CTO, software developer, and at industry level, Scarlett specialises in helping boards and executives of growth companies leverage technology to enhance operations and drive growth. Scarlett focuses on the diversity and capability of Australia's technology workforce in her volunteer work on committees and groups, including as a board director at the Australian Information Security Association (AISA).
Australia’s innovation system is brimming with potential but faces critical barriers to scale and impact. This panel unpacked what’s holding us back, from funding gaps to fragmented support, and explored bold ideas to turn research and ingenuity into real-world outcomes.
Hugh is a Professor of Mechanotric Engineering whose pioneering work on probabilistic methods for robotics has helped autonomous vehicles deal with the uncertainty inherent to interacting with the physical world. In 2018, Hugh was appointed as NSW’s first Chief Scientist and Engineer, a role that sees his office provide independent advice to government, support research programs, and develop the state’s industrial capabilities.
Jane's work focuses on fostering collaboration between researchers, industry, and government to drive innovation and address societal challenges. With a background in science communication and public policy, she has held leadership roles at institutions such as the Australian National University (ANU), where she served as Vice-President of Engagement and Corporate Affairs.
Roy is a renowned expert on innovation policy and business education who has held senior roles in academia, government, and industry both in Australia and abroad. he has chaired numerous government bodies and contributed to major national reviews, including the Prime Minister’s Manufacturing Taskforce and Innovation and Science Agenda. He currently serves on the boards of CSIRO, the SmartSat CRC, and the Port of Newcastle, and chairs the Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing (ARM) Hub.
Phil leads the Feed 10 Billion People Challenge at Main Sequence, the venture capital firm founded by Australia's national science agency, CSIRO. Serving as the chairperson for companies co-founded by Main Sequence, Phil oversees the strategic outcomes and purpose for Eden Brew, Samsara Eco, v2food, and RapidAIM, and as a director to Nourish Ingredients, Coviu Global, Q-CTRL, and Maxwell Plus, among many others.
Mic is an entrepreneur, inventor, and composer who proudly builds novel technology on the picturesque land of the Gimuy Yidinji and Yirikandji people in Far North Queensland. Mic’s latest venture, Rainstick, is a pioneering effort to improve crop yields using Variable Electric Field stimulation to emulate the effects of lightning. Rainstick combines ancient wisdom with the the bleeding edge of scientific endeavour and innovative business practices.
Charlie leads Asia-Pacific early-stage venture capital firm Investible whose teams in Sydney and Singapore supports a global portfolio of innovative companies. With over 12 years of experience in venture capital, private equity, and sovereign investment, his work has spanned four continents—Australia, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and the United States—across sectors including fintech, deep tech, edtech, cleantech, and broader tech and media.
