The Hon. Yasmin Maree Catley
Yasmin Catley is the Minister for Police and Counter-Terrorism, Minister for the Hunter and Member for Swansea.
The Hon. Emily SUVAAL MLC
Emily Suvaal is a Member of the Legislative Council and Parliamentary Secretary for Trade and Small Business.
Lord Mayor Dr Ross Kerridge
Dr Ross Kerridge became the 15th Lord Mayor of Newcastle in October 2024.
Sarah Kelly
We are delighted to have Sarah Kelly join us with Matt Syron from the Darkinjung Local Aboriginal Land Council, who will conduct the Festivals Welcome to Country.
Matt Syron
Matt Syron from the Darkinjung Local Aboriginal Land Council, who will conduct the Festivals Welcome to Country, his message emphasises the importance of building trust and understanding to advance reconciliation. Matt is also a former rifleman with the Australian Army.
Alex Brennan
Alex is passionate leader whose experience includes recruitment, start-ups, for-purpose organisations, and stonemasonry.
Zara Crichton
Zara Crichton is a global innovation leader who transforms ideas into valuable assets. She architects ventures and builds ecosystems for commercial success.
Renuka Rambhatla
Renuka Rambhatla, Co-Founder and Chief Compliance Officer at Metakosmos leads regulatory, medical, and quality frameworks for next-generation space technologies.
Bret Barton
Bret is a 42-year Defence sector veteran, now shaping Australia’s industry through senior leadership and advisory roles across Hunter Defence, HunterNet, the University of Newcastle, and Hunter IF.
Dr Jessica Allen
Dr Jessica Allen is currently leading the Electrochemical Engineering Laboratory at the University of Newcastle within the Newcastle Institute for Energy and Resources. Dr Allen is a Senior Lecturer in chemical engineering, 2021 Australian Research Council DECRA and current TRaCE Academic Enterprise Fellow.
Susan Conway MacDonald
Susan Conway MacDonald is a Senior Project Officer at the Hunter Joint Organisation.
Greg Illingworth
Greg is the CFO at NRN - National Renewable Network. NRN is building a platform for distributed energy through an innovative approach that removes the upfront costs associated with installing solar and storage solutions.
Pippa Smith
Pippa Smith is the Founder of Social Startup Labs, a specialist agency that helps launch new brands, products, and investment campaigns across Australia, and the UK.
James MacDonald
James MacDonald is the founder of NewyTechPeople, a community-driven recruitment agency expanding across the East Coast of Australia.
Claire Quigley
Claire is the Founder of Launchpad9, a boutique consultancy that exists to inspire and empower innovation that matters in established organisations that want to find more effective and efficient ways of achieving results and staying relevant.
Brandon Gien
Brandon is the Founder and Chair of Good Design Australia, Chair of the Australian Good Design Awards, and Executive Director of the Australian Design Council. He has spent the past 25 years passionately advocating for the value of good design to improve our social, economic, cultural and environmental quality of life.
Justin Bain
Justin Bain is the CEO of 3ME Technology. 3ME Technology’s vision is to be Australia’s leading off-highway electrification company and to make a substantive impact in Australia’s energy transition and national security.
Brett Thomas
Brett Thomas is a Director and COO at The Melt. The Melt provides a trusted and experienced hand for hardware startups to prove, prototype, pilot and produce. In addition to offering access to the prototyping facilities and technical specialists, they deploy capital through the early stage VC fund, Melt Ventures.
Clare Larkin-Sykes
Clare Larkin-Sykes is Co-Lead of New.E – the Hunter New Energy Cluster and Managing Director of Forelight Advisory. She is a strong collaborator and advocate of future resource and energy industries including the symbiosis of clean technology solutions to traditional processes and value chains.
Benji Prawer
Benji Prawer is the COO of PlasmaLeap Technologies. PlasmaLeap Technologies designs, manufactures and distributes the world's most advanced zero-emissions chemical reactors for hard to abate industries.