Gillian Triggs
Assistant Secretary-General, Assistant High Commissioner for Protection, UNHCR

Ms Triggs was appointed to the role by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres in August 2019 after a long history of service to human rights and the refugee cause globally. Formerly, President of the Australian Human Rights Commission, Ms Triggs now oversees UNHCR’s protection work for millions of refugees, internally displaced and stateless people.

In October, Ms Triggs outlined the massive impact of the global pandemic on the world’s refugee population – which, at 80 million refugees and others forcibly displaced and stateless, is now at unprecedented levels. Ms Triggs said the pandemic has made very clear that we “cannot longer exclude people on the basis of their legal status. The future must be one of inclusion and shared responsibilities”.

Darian Stibbe

Executive Director, The Partnering Initiative

Driven by a passionate belief in the power of collaboration to achieve prosperous, inclusive and sustainable business and society, Darian has for the last 16 years worked extensively with the United Nations, companies, NGOs, and governments with one aim: to drive the use of robust, effective partnerships for sustainable development worldwide.

John Thwaites
Co-Chair, Leadership Council, UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN)

John is Co-Chair of the Leadership Council of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) launched by the UN Secretary General to provide expert advice and support to the development and implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals. He is also a Professorial Fellow, Monash University, and Chair of the Monash Sustainable Development Institute, ClimateWorks Australia and Melbourne Water.

Kylie Porter
Executive Director, Global Compact Network Australia

Kylie is the Executive Director of the Global Compact Network Australia (GCNA); the Australian Local Network of the United Nations (UN) Global Compact. As a sustainability expert and business leader, holding particular expertise in delivering responsible business and corporate responsibility strategies, guiding businesses on reputation risk management for environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues and policy development and implementation across thematic areas such as the climate change, modern slavery, human rights and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Leanne Smith
Director, Whitlam Institute

Leanne is an international human rights lawyer by training, with a Masters in Public Policy from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton. Leanne has worked in the Australian judicial system, for the Australian Human Rights Commission, in the international NGO sector, regional human rights organisations, as an Australian diplomat (DFAT) and in various roles for the United Nations in New York and in the field, most recently as Chief of Policy and Best Practices for UN Peacekeeping Operations.  She is a visiting fellow at the ANU Asia-Pacific College of Diplomacy and the UNSW Australian Human Rights Centre, a member of the Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law Advisory Committee.

Dr Cathy Oke
Melbourne Enterprise Senior Fellow in Informed Cities at the Connected Cities Lab, Faculty of Architecture Building and Planning

Cathy has considerable international and local expertise in sustainable, resilient and liveable cities. Cathy’s research interests focus on the interaction between urban research, policy and practice for greater impact in cities. She is project leader of the SDGs Cities Challenge, and Senior Advisor to the Innovate4Cities program of the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy. Cathy is the First Vice President of Local Government’s for Sustainability (ICLEI) and is currently the Chair of the ICLEI World Secretariat Board and co-chair of the Cities With Nature Knowledge & Research Hub.

Dr Alexei Trundle

Research Fellow in Sustainable Urban Development, Connected Cities Lab and Future Cities Coordinator, Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute

Alexei’s current research focuses on the way that cities are contributing to the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, as well as urban climate resilience and adaptation planning in Pacific Small Island Developing States. Alexei is a Scientific Advisor to the UN-Habitat Cities and Climate Change Initiative in the Pacific region and was previously a Visiting Scientist at the United Nations University in Bonn, Germany.

Victoria Thom
Partnership Broker and Trainer

Victoria is an accredited Partnership Broker and Trainer and an Associate of The Partnering Initiative. She is a senior leader with over twenty years’ international experience across the corporate, government, and not-for-profit sectors as a social innovation strategist, partnership broker, trainer and facilitator. Victoria specialises in analysing the business/society landscape to understand risks and opportunities, define solutions and implement them through collaborative approaches. She established Synergy2030 to enable social innovation and collaboration, within and across sectors, toward the 2030 agenda for sustainable development.

Tanya Hosch​
Executive General Manager ‑ Inclusion and Social Policy, AFL
UNAA Goodwill Ambassador for the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

Tanya has a long and distinguished history in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander policy, advocacy, governance and fundraising. Before joining the AFL as the first ever Indigenous person and the second woman in its Executive ranks in 2016, Tanya was the Joint Campaign Director of the Recognise movement for constitutional recognition.

Michael O’Neill

Senior Manager, Strategic Projects, Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning

Michael is a Certified Environmental Practitioner currently tasked with sharing Victoria’s expertise to create thriving, liveable cities and places with a particular focus on the state’s water management and governance frameworks. Michael has over a decade’s experience in the water, environmental, planning, policy and built environment sectors. Michael is currently leading the Victorian Government’s CivVic Labs challenge which is utilising Victoria’s start-up sector to measure Victoria’s liveability through the Sustainable Development Goals.

Steve Gawler
Regional Director, ICLEI Oceania

Steve joined ICLEI in 2008 as Director International Programs and was based in Jakarta for seven years coordinating climate change and disaster risk reduction programs. During this time Steve established the ICLEI Indonesia Office and managed projects funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, German Government and European Union.

More speakers to be announced soon