Dr Tony Bianco

Dr Tony Bianco is both a neuropsychologist and physiologist ….and is ideally suited to speak on our theme of It's Time. Tony is also leading futurist, speaker and author and founding President of the Da Vinci Institute, a leading futurist think tank based in Rome. The Institute offers valuable strategic advice to a diverse range of not for profit organisations as well as major global organisations and entrepreneurs and boasts clients such as Warren Buffett, Mark Zuckerberg and the late Steve Job.

Tony assists senior personnel to develop innovative game-changing strategies aimed at facilitating them to lead change as well as becoming fully engaged both in work and in life …in order to create what he calls their 'preferred future'. Tony also encourages leaders to inspire, imagine and innovate …as well as not only creatively manage their time …but also their energy. He also maintains that successful fully engaged leaders in the 21st Century will need to be nimble, creative and collaborative in order to excel.

Tony has a PhD in Psychophysiology and a Masters in Business Leadership and Neuropsychology from Cambridge University in the UK. His bestselling book entitled 22nd Century Mega Leading depicts how leading, partnering, disrupting, influencing, networking as well as innovative thinking will evolve over the next century.

Dr William DeJean

For over 20 years, Dr. William DeJean has inspired and re-inspired individuals and organisations for the important work they do. His work has helped thousands of people around the world reach their optimal potential.

Dr. DeJean started his career as a high school teacher, inspiring students to become the first in their families to attend university. For his successes, he received numerous recognitions, including being selected Teacher of the Year among 26,000 teachers in San Diego County. Dr. DeJean, who holds a Doctorate in Education, brings many lenses to the schools he works with. He has taught at universities in the United States and Australia, he is an internationally recognized researcher, he consults across a range of social service and community organisations, and he is a sought-after keynote speaker, including appearances at TEDx Canberra, and the Young Minds Conference.

His book Unleash Learning is now available.

Remo Giuffre

Remo Giuffré is a thinker and creative strategist with a long track record as an entrepreneur, retail merchant and brand builder. He founded the iconic REMO General Store in 1988; and the General Thinking network in 2001. He also enjoys a long and ongoing association with the TED Conferences in New York, and, since 2009, has been Licensee & Director for TEDxSydney, an annual flagship TEDx event which has become the leading platform for the propagation of Australian ideas, innovation and creativity to the rest of the world.

Prior to founding REMO, he worked as a lawyer in Sydney with the global firm Baker & McKenzie and then as a consultant to a number of communications businesses located in both Australia and the US. He was the Director of Branding & Strategy at frog design in Silicon Valley from 1997, and later the resident Brand Strategist at pioneering online developer Organic in New York.

Remo earned combined Commerce and Law degrees from the University of New South Wales, and an MBA with top honours from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business in New York; majoring in marketing, organisational behaviour and communications management.

Although not formally trained as a creative director; he has been dreaming, designing and doodling for much of his life, best exemplified by his “RemoGram” visualisations. 

Remo lives in Bondi very near the beach with his wife Melanie and a small black dog named Pearl. He has two children: Lola (22) and Roman (18). He has a sauna and swims every day at the Bondi Icebergs pool.

Murat Dizdar PSM

As the NSW Department of Education Deputy Secretary, School Operations and Performance, Murat is responsible for over 2,200 primary, secondary and special schools. With a clear focus on people and a commitment to students being at the centre of all decision making, Murat is driving a culture of change to individualise school improvement for ongoing system improvement in NSW.

Murat has been a key contributor to the development of vibrant, sustainable and inclusive school communities throughout his career. This includes time as Principal of Punchbowl Boys High School and Yuzyil Isil International High School in Istanbul, Turkey, as a Senior Principal across Punchbowl and Belmore Boys High Schools, in senior executive roles in Granville and South Western Sydney and most recently as the Executive Director of the Ultimo Operational Directorate.

In recognition of his outstanding contribution to educational leadership, Murat was awarded the Australian College of Educators' Alan Laughlin Perpetual Award in 2015 and the Australia Day Public Service Medal in 2016. Murat is also: an adjunct professor in the School of Education, Western Sydney University, a member of the University of Sydney's Alumni Council, Teacher Education Advisory Board and STEM Teacher Enrichment Academy, an alumni of the Australian and New Zealand School of Government Executive Fellows Program and a graduate of the Public Service Commission Delivering Business Results Executive Leadership Program.

Education is his life's passion and he champions the work of highly effective school leaders to achieve a 'level playing field' for all public school students in NSW so that every student, every teacher and every school can improve every year.

Michelle Montgomery

Michelle Montgomery has served the education and community services sectors in Australia and overseas for more than 15 years as a youth worker, teacher, school counsellor and trauma informed education specialist. 

In 2014, Michelle was awarded the Premier’s Masterton Homes Teaching Scholarship for Special Education. This scholarship enabled Michelle to study in the USA in 2015 and 2016 with leading academics and educators implementing best practice in trauma informed education. She has ongoing connections with world experts, and practical understanding of how to implement sustainable cultural change in schools. She works as both a school-based practitioner and consultant, and is completing PhD research in trauma informed education.

Michelle brings a valuable combination of sound academic knowledge and practical understanding of how to implement trauma sensitive practices in schools. Michelle regularly provides training and support to organisations across NSW seeking to understand and implement trauma informed care, and speaks at international, national and regional conferences.

Louka Parry

Louka is the Director of Programs at Education Changemakers and is one of Australia’s most exciting emerging education thinkers and doers, with a track record of leading dramatic improvements in challenging school settings. He brings expert knowledge in school leadership, new teacher support and organisational culture to the EC crew.

Louka represents the new generation of education leaders as an individual who has traveled to every continent on the globe, learned five languages fluently (including the Indigenous Australian languages Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara), graduated with two Masters degrees in applied linguistics and education, (studying one of them under John Hattie at Melbourne University) and studied at Harvard University all before he was thirty.

Louka has matched these achievements with six years of experience as a teacher and leader, being promoted to Principal at only 27 years old in 2012 for which he was named South Australian Inspirational Public Secondary Teacher of the Year. Louka has spoken and worked with diverse audiences across Australia and the globe including AITSL, Federal Treasury, SVA, BETT, NARIS, Leading Educators Across the Planet, Education We Want and Microsoft.

Aaron Tait

Aaron is the co-founder and Director of Innovation of Education Changemakers, and brings the radical thinking element to EC that helps us to stand out from other players in the global professional learning landscape. His ability to draw upon out of the box ideas and challenge education audiences to trial new concepts is globally recognised and is well illustrated in EC’s recently published book ‘Edupreneur: Unleashing teacher led innovation in schools’ of which Aaron was the lead author.

Aaron draws upon lessons from a diverse career that has seen him serve for seven years as a decorated Australian military officer, run a secondary school for street-children in a Tanzanian slum, run an orphanage in Kenya, and graduate from three Masters degrees in strategy, international relations and development, with the third, from Cambridge University.

Aaron is the co-founder and former CEO of Spark* International, and now the CIO of YGAP, an organisation that has accelerated hundreds of high impact entrepreneurs across six countries who have dramatically changed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people living in poverty in Africa and the Asia Pacific. Aaron has spoken with audiences including TED, Do Lectures, AITSL, Microsoft, ACEL, HSBC, AFL PWC and Sankalp.