Preparing for Change: Data Driven Decision Making
 
CQUniversity
 
Deakin University
 
RMIT
 
University of Wollongong
 
Fabio Braga, Cloud Solution Architect - Data Platform, Microsoft
Fabio Braga is a passionate data architect with over 20 years of experience in Microsoft data solution architecture design, implementation, optimisation and support of mission critical environments, such as banks, government, water and energy companies, superannuation and finance industry.

With knowledge and experience in data solutions, software development and infrastructure support, he is able to develop end-to-end solutions to achieve the client’s need both on premise and in the cloud. His previous roles as pre-sales consultant, delivery architect, Microsoft trainer and most recently as Cloud Solution Architect at Microsoft.

Fabio holds a Bachelor degree in Computer Science and several Microsoft certifications. As Microsoft Official Trainer, he has delivered over 2,500 hours of Microsoft Official Courses on SQL Server and .NET. Continuous learning has always been part of his career and, just as important to acquire knowledge, it is to share it.

He has developed a solid IT career built upon discipline, pro-activity, leadership, organisation and creativity. New challenges have always motivated him to keep learning and sharing knowledge with all teams that he has worked with.
 
Michelle Brooke, Program Manager, Pilbara Group
Michelle Brooke is a senior member of the Pilbara Group team with over 25 years of experience in the military, public, and consulting sectors. Michelle coordinates and delivers the Higher Education consultancy services within Pilbara Group and has spent nearly 20 years building, implementing and maintaining cost models for a range of clients both here in Australia and in the United States.

Michelle has worked with a number of VCs, DVCs, Deans and CFOs regarding the use of transparent data in the academic decision making process.
 
Rod Colledge, Solution Architect, Microsoft
As a data platform thought leader passionate about data-driven digital transformation, Rod believes in discovering and unlocking the latent value of data. Fraud detection, predicting customer churn, optimizing maintenance schedules and determining hospital patients' likely infection risks; these are just some of the examples of using data to meet compliance requirements, increase profits, lower costs and improve care outcomes.

Rod works with his clients to design and implement Data Analytics & Artificial Intelligence solutions that address their industry-specific challenges and market opportunities.

Rod's areas of expertise include;

* On-Prem, Cloud and Hybrid data platform design, development and performance optimization

* Data Warehousing with both traditional SQL Server and MPP architectures including Parallel Data Warehouse and Azure SQL Data Warehouse

* Data governance, ETL and data pipeline management with SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS), Azure Data Factory and Azure Data Catalog

* Semantic modelling and aggregation with SQL Server and Azure Analysis Services (SSAS) using both Multidimensional and Tabular implementations covering MOLAP, ROLAP, In-Memory and Direct Query designs

* Power BI and SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) for dashboarding, reporting and enterprise collaboration

* Cloud-based big data architectures using Azure Databricks, HDInsight clusters (Hadoop, Hive, Spark, Kafka, Storm and HBase) and native Azure PaaS Services including Event Hubs, Stream Analytics, Data Lake and Azure Machine Learning

* Advanced Analytics including predictive modelling with Azure Machine Learning, Cognitive Services and Bot Framework

* Intelligent Edge solution architecture with Azure IOT Edge

* Team leader and mentor for large-scale, full life-cycle enterprise database implementations from requirements and design through development, client acceptance and production implementation
 
Andrew Faulkner, Chief Software Architect, Pilbara Group
Andrew is Pilbara's chief software architect and designer of the ACE modeling application. Andrew also developed the methodology for both the Historical University Management Model and the University Predictive Model and has extensive experience implementing both solutions. Andrew is also responsible for driving the benchmarking analysis for university clients.
 
Adam Gallard, Business Analyst, Pilbara Group
 
Chris Grange, Chief Operating Officer, Australian National University

Mr Grange has been the Chief Operating Officer at the ANU for over 6 years.

He has been responsible for the financial transformation of the ANU, including the execution of some of the largest financial transactions ever undertaken by any Australian university.

Mr Grange previously held a similar role at the University of Wollongong for 8 years and has over 30 years of experience in university administration, finance and human resources. He is one of the most experienced and long standing professional managers in the Australian university sector with a record of major achievements in a variety of contexts.

Mr Grange holds a Bachelor of Arts (NSW) and Master of Commerce (Finance) from the University of Wollongong.
Notably, he has been an advocate of activity based costing, using it for decision making for almost 20 years.
 
Julie Hare, Freelance, Journalist (Higher Education)
 
Julie Hare is a freelance writer, editor and consultant with particular expertise in higher education.

Julie was for seven years the higher education editor of The Australian, during which time she earned a reputation for being a journalist of utmost integrity, understood nuance and was fair and objective.

She is currently working as a freelancer and consultant with a range of clients, including a twice weekly blog for UK media start-up Wonkhe, the Australian Financial Review, The Australian, the Qantas magazine, the Group of Eight, among others.

Previously, at KPMG, she took on a new role with a mandate to develop brand recognition and trust for the national education team by writing articles and developing events that were fresh, challenging and thought provoking to both policymakers and practitioners in the post-secondary education space.

Julie is the winner of numerous awards for journalism and am regularly asked to speak at conferences, seminars and summits.
 
Emily Lait, Technology Strategist, Microsoft
Emily's role supports Higher Education across QLD and NSW, looking at the digital strategies across Universities, for areas such as IT, Teaching & Learning, Research.

Supporting an inclusive and safe working environment is important. Over the years she has managed culture initiatives to help create a healthier working environment. These initiatives have ranged from work events, morning teas, after work social events, to charitable and fundraising events to support donations to outside charities and not-for-profit organisations.

Her primary work interests are cloud services (Azure, Microsoft365, Dynamics), network engineering, unified communications, and business and customer engagement.
 
Matt McDonough, Faculty General Manager, Faculty of Arts and Education, Deakin University
Matt McDonough GCertEBL, B. Bus (Acc) VU, CPA is our Master of Ceremonies for the conference. 
 
Matt has over 20 years’ experience in varied accounting, finance and management roles starting as a Business Services Accountant in an international chartered accounting office and then moving into the private sector as Financial Controller for Flight Centre Limited (Corporate).

Matt is currently Faculty General Manager at Deakin University, the most senior professional staff member in the Faculty Arts and Education. This portfolio is responsible for over16,000 students and over 500 staff in 3 large multi-disciplined schools. The role also oversees the operations of the Institute of Koorie Education, Alfred Deakin Institute and the Centre for Humanitarian Leadership.

Matt is a member of the University Senior Management group and a member of the Deakin Capital Portfolio Board. Matt is also a member of the Deakin University Graduate Certificate of Education Business Leadership teaching team and received a Vice Chancellors award for Teaching excellence in 2015.

Matt is a current board member and Fellow of the Association for Tertiary Education Management (ATEM) and the chair of the Higher Education Finance Conference.

In 2012 Matt was recognised for his achievements by winning the Australian ATEM Award for Excellence in Financial Management.
 
 
Lea Patterson, Chief Executive Officer, Pilbara Group
 
Professor Alan Pettigrew, Special Adviser to the Provost, University of Sydney BSc (Hons) PhD FAICD
Professor Pettigrew has held senior academic and executive appointments at the Universities of Sydney, Queensland, and New South Wales. He was Vice-Chancellor and CEO of the University of New England from 2006 to 2009. From 2001 to 2005 Professor Pettigrew was the inaugural CEO of the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) of Australia.

Professor Pettigrew has served on many Australian Government and other committees and he was an adviser to the Chief Scientist of Australia (2010-2014). He has actively contributed to national policy discussions on research and higher education. Professor Pettigrew was a Professorial Fellow of the L.H. Martin Institute at the University of Melbourne from 2010 to 2018 and has served as a consultant on international higher education and research training projects supported by the World Bank, the OECD and the Swedish International Development Agency. He has been engaged as a consultant by the NHMRC and the Australian Research Council as well as by eleven Australian universities advising on leadership, management and research strategy.

Professor Pettigrew has been a member of the Council of the QIMRBerghofer Medical Research Institute in Brisbane, Queensland since 2011 and is Chair of the Board of the Illawarra Health and Medical Research Institute, a joint initiative of the University of Wollongong and the Illawarra-Shoalhaven Local Health District. He currently serves as a Special Adviser to the Provost at the University of Sydney and is also a Vice-Chancellor’s Representative on Research School Reviews at the Australian National University.