Park yourself at the forefront of automotive marketing ideas

Jane runs the Australian and NZ operations of Standard Media Index, a global provider of real time advertising expenditure data, a business she co-founded in 2009. A former media editor of The Australian, Jane’s background is in media, having been a business journalist specialising in the sector for 15 years.

Media remains Jane’s passion, although these days she’s focused on SMI’s business development, working with SMI’s media Agency partners to continually improve the data product.

Jane has a BA (Journalism) and a Graduate Diploma in Applied Finance and Investment.

Dr. Marco Hecker has over 18 years of experience in successfully implementing strategies, achieving market share increase and increasing brand awareness as well as the realization of substantial cost reduction.

He delivers sustainable benefits for his clients by developing best in class insight-driven transformation programs especially around Sales/ Marketing, Customer Relationship, and Partnership Management across the automotive ecosystem.

As a member of the China Consulting Executive Committee, Marco is driving the Clients and Industry focus of Deloitte in China.

Before joining Deloitte, Marco worked in a leading consulting firm as Partner and Director of Automotive & Industrial Equipment.

A Global Leader with a passion for change and innovation. Over 20 years of global automotive experience at General Motors with specific emphasis in Sales Operations, Brand Building and Customer Experience enabled through technology solutions. A track record of success in a range of geographies (North America, Europe, Asia, Middle East and Africa) bringing new ideas to help drive results.

Since moving to Asia 7 years ago, I have led regional Marketing & Customer Experience teams for GM International based in Shanghai, as well as Singapore. Upon arriving in Australia, I drove the Holden brand transformation post manufacturing as Executive Director Marketing.

Currently, I am working at AGL leading electric vehicle strategy and partnerships. In parallel, I also continue to be an EnergyLab mentor to help support start-ups in this space.

I am a Montreal, Canada native and permanent resident of Australia (my family loves Melbourne). I hold an MBA from the New York Institute of Technology. Personal interests include ice hockey, skiing, rugby union, triathlon, cycling, youth sports and international travel.

Tom has enjoyed a broad career working in London, New York and Sydney in brand led, high growth, innovative consumer goods companies.

He has held varied roles across Finance, Marketing, Strategy, Operations and Sales in a number of different sectors: Investment Banking (technology focus), Alcoholic Drinks, Apparel, Consumer Technology and now Automotive/Transport.

Tom joined GoGet as CEO in July 2018 and is extremely excited to be part of an Australian scale up that is at the heart of the shared mobility revolution (learn more at www.goget.com.au).

Previously, he had a fantastic stint at Dyson where he played a key role in growing the Australian and New Zealand business by 3x in five years

His focus is building and developing high performing teams in dynamic, consumer focussed, purpose driven businesses.

Daniel has over 15 years’ marketing experience with a proven track record delivering strong business results across a range of industries including automotive, insurance and comparison services. Daniel currently heads up the marketing department for Suzuki Australia as National Marketing Manager, having held this role since September 2014.

Within marketing, he has a passion for driving new business, advertising effectiveness and brand building. Over the past decade, Daniel has been instrumental in managing brand launches for Medibank, iSelect, with the highly successful Mr iSelect brand platform and currently, Suzuki Australia’s For FUN’S sake brand revamp.

Adrian is a partner in the Creative, Brand & Media business at Deloitte. The business is structured to supercharge creative problem solving capabilities across the entire firm while also directly managing clients creative requirements.

Adrian’s creative work has been recognised over 700 times at global and local award shows, including 60 Cannes Lions. He has also been a jury member Cannes, New York Festivals and for the World Advertising Research Centre.

Prior to Deloitte Adrian was Managing Director of the highly decorated McCann Melbourne, recipient of multiple agency of the year titles at some of the world’s most prestigious creative festivals.

Sally Kiernan is Marketing Director for Brand at IAG, Australia’s largest insurance company, where she leads brand management for all IAG brands, including flagship brand NRMA and CGU.

Sally is a passionate strategic executive with an accomplished track record, a Masters of Business and a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. Over 17 years hands on experience in marketing and leadership roles, from start-ups to multi-national organisations, Sally has held key roles for major brands including Pandora Radio, Foxtel, Fairfax, Yahoo!, Vodafone and UBank.

Highly experienced in general management and all marketing disciplines, with particular expertise in customer acquisition and retention, brand strategy and harnessing the potential of the ever-changing digital environment.

Sally is a Sydney girl born and bred, married and proud mum of two (…or four if your include the dog and the fish!)

Amanda Leaney is the General Manager Marketing, Subaru Australia, a role she has held since April 2017.

Before this, Amanda climbed through the ranks, being steadily promoted within the organisation from:

• National Retail Advertising Manager (2005 – 2007)
• National Product Training Manager (2007 – 2010)
• National Advert a ising Manager (2010 – 2011)
• National Digital and Network Marketing Manager (2011 – 2014)
• National Marketing Manager (2014-2017)

Prior to joining Subaru, Amanda worked in London as a Communications Coordinator for the Department of Health after her Marketing and Communications roles across various automotive retail companies, including Subaru Australia’s parent company, Inchcape Automotive Retail.

Amanda is a passionate marketer with a deep understanding and experience across the full breadth of marketing functions.

With 20 years automotive experience, Amanda is inspired by the endless possibilities for consumer engagement, the excitement of impending change within the industry and a love of consumer insights.

Whilst achieving record results at work, Amanda’s personal time is spent with her precious son, Oliver, and husband, Matt, and counts paddle boarding, surfing, oil painting and photography amongst her hobbies.

Bio coming soon…

Nick Connor has over two decades’ experience inspiring teams and enabling growth in the automotive industry.

Prior to being appointed Managing Director of Volvo Car Australia in early 2018, he managed Volvo’s operations in the UK where he led a 60 per cent sales increase in one of Volvo’s biggest markets outside Sweden.

He has served as CEO of Sweden’s Polestar, Volvo’s wholly owned electrified performance brand, and was previously Volvo Cars’ Vice President in charge of the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region based in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Adam has built a career making the complex simple and the simple compelling. He honed his craft with a range of local and international clients including Telstra, Microsoft, Verizon, Commonwealth Bank, General Motors, JP Morgan Chase, Allianz, SAP, News Corp & Optus.

During his time in the US he served as Executive Vice President, Strategy – a period where he developed a fascination for Customer Experience, the nuanced nature of international marketing and universality of brilliant creative.

A passionate supporter of continuous education and talent development, Adam is the current President of the International Advertising Association & member of the global IAA board. A father of three, he wouldn’t be without health cover and is a regular in ER.

Adam is President of the International Advertising Association, Australia.

Will spent his first 10 years in advertising at London’s legendary Lowe Group. He came to Sydney in 1993 and set up Mojo Direct and was a founding partner of M&C Saatchi.

Will has deep experience in financial services, software and Telecommunication.

Will opened Lavender’s doors in 1997 with a vision to create a customer centric agency with a collaborative culture.

‘The customer is our true north’ remains the inspiration for CX Lavender’s 80-strong team.

CX Lavender’s end-to-end service trilogy covers: Data Stewardship, CX Creation and CX Technologies.

Over the past 12 months, Lavender has refined CX Insitu—an in-housing model enabling clients to shape hybrid teams.

CXTX is a separate pure play technology company, launched by Lavender, in February this year. The company’s first product enables marketers to in-house email creation.

Tim Washington is the CEO and founder of JET Charge, the largest electric vehicle charging infrastructure deployment specialist in Australia. Working with most of the vehicle OEM brands in the market with an EV, JET Charge has helped manufacturers introduce these vehicles to market. Tim is also the co-founder of Chargefox, the largest charging network in Australia. Chargefox is building Australia’s first ultra rapid charging network across the country with charging speeds to full in as little as 15 minutes.

Tim actively participates in the industry, and is the Chairperson of the Electric Vehicle Council, the peak industry body for the sector in Australia.

Adam has built a career making the complex simple and the simple compelling. He honed his craft with a range of local and international clients including Telstra, Microsoft, Verizon, Commonwealth Bank, General Motors, JP Morgan Chase, Allianz, SAP, News Corp & Optus.

During his time in the US he served as Executive Vice President, Strategy – a period where he developed a fascination for Customer Experience, the nuanced nature of international marketing and universality of brilliant creative.

A passionate supporter of continuous education and talent development, Adam is the current President of the International Advertising Association & member of the global IAA board. A father of three, he wouldn’t be without health cover and is a regular in ER.

Adam is President of the International Advertising Association, Australia.

Mark Behr has led the Marketing teams of some of Australia’s most respected brands, across both automotive and financial services sectors. Notable brands include HSV, FPV, AAMI, Shannons, GIO, Apia and others. With a channel agnostic approach, Behr believes in building great brands while driving clear commercial outcomes. With experience both agency and client side, Behr has implemented successful strategies including innovative brand integration in key telecast properties, targeted re-marketing as well as building content platforms such as the Shannons Club, which generates more than 120,000 unique monthly visits and has over 100,000 members.

Matt Braid is an experienced business executive who has held leadership positions in several high profile organisations across the automotive, sport and not for profit sectors.

In 2018 Matt, together with investors formed the Australian Racing Group to establish and develop new motorsport categories in Australia. ARG was subsequently awarded the rights to establish the globally successful TCR Series in Australia and New Zealand, and has also developed the S5000 open-wheel category (Australia’s version of IndyCar) that will debut in September 2019.

Prior to launching ARG, Matt was Managing Director of Supercars until the end of 2017 after joining the business in 2015 to restructure its commercial operations. In addition to running the operations of the business, Matt also worked heavily on the transition of Supercars from a single category focus to a ‘whole of sport’ business.

Before joining Supercars, Matt was the Managing Director of Volvo Car Australia and New Zealand, where he successfully repositioned the brand, increased sales, improved customer satisfaction to become the top performing luxury car brand in Australia for customer satisfaction, and was recognised as the 3 rd most influential executive for the Volvo brand globally in 2013 by Appinions Inc.

Outside of his business endeavors, Matt is the inaugural Chairman of the Charlie Teo Foundation which raises funds for brain cancer research.

Adam has built a career making the complex simple and the simple compelling. He honed his craft with a range of local and international clients including Telstra, Microsoft, Verizon, Commonwealth Bank, General Motors, JP Morgan Chase, Allianz, SAP, News Corp & Optus.

During his time in the US he served as Executive Vice President, Strategy – a period where he developed a fascination for Customer Experience, the nuanced nature of international marketing and universality of brilliant creative.

A passionate supporter of continuous education and talent development, Adam is the current President of the International Advertising Association & member of the global IAA board. A father of three, he wouldn’t be without health cover and is a regular in ER.

Adam is President of the International Advertising Association, Australia.

Kirsty is a Founding Partner and the Managing Director of Cummins&Partners.

She started her career in Econometrics in London, found her way into various Strategy roles both agency and client side.

Kirsty was awarded Executive of the Year and Women of the Year in 2018 at a well recognised Women in Industry award.

She has a passion for Motorsport having spent time consulting in the Middle East on an FIA project at the Bahrain International Circuit and Formula One.

Peter Vogel is the CEO of Wavemaker Australia & New Zealand, a GroupM media agency.

Peter is a media and marketing professional with over 25 years of experience. He has worked as a Client, at a Creative Agency and in Media Agencies, across numerous international markets.

He started his career in the automotive industry in South Africa, where he was Marketing Manager at Audi. Subsequently he worked at Ogilvy and then founded a media strategy agency, Nota Bene. Peter spent 3 years in Asia as the APAC CEO of MEC. He has been in the Australian media industry for the past 11 years.

Peter auto-enthusiast and a Formula 1 fanatic. In his agency career he has worked with VW, BMW, Mercedes and Opel. Wavemaker has been Mitsubishi Australia’s media agency for over 48 years.

Born in Cambridge, England of Indian parents, Sudeep was whisked off to Australia at the ripe old age of 12 to start a new life in the former penal colony.

After graduating university in 1995, Sudeep joined Australia’s largest advertising agency, George Patterson Bates – in the mail room.

Since the mail room, Sudeep has held various agency positions at some of the best communications businesses in the world – BBH, Wieden+Kennedy, Droga5, 72 and Sunny and Publicis. His advertising career has spanned over 20 years – in all corners of the world, working in both strategic and senior management roles.

Sudeep returned to Australia in 2018, to join KPMG as Head of Brand Strategy – working in the rapidly expanding Customer Brand Marketing Advisory team, while also working in the firm’s Brand and Engagement team on the KPMG brand.

Over the years, Sudeep also filled the position of Chairman at the peak professional advertising body: The Communications Council. He has also been Chairman of the Australian Account Planning Group, juror for the inaugural Cannes Creative Effectiveness Lion and Chair of the Spikes Creative Effectiveness award.

Sudeep is an avid fan of electronic music, contemporary culture, F1 and a sneaker aficionado (his collection is currently 400 pairs strong). He is married with a 10 year old daughter, an 8 year old son and a 9 month old Labradoodle called Sola.

A Global Leader with a passion for change and innovation. Over 20 years of global automotive experience at General Motors with specific emphasis in Sales Operations, Brand Building and Customer Experience enabled through technology solutions. A track record of success in a range of geographies (North America, Europe, Asia, Middle East and Africa) bringing new ideas to help drive results.

Since moving to Asia 7 years ago, I have led regional Marketing & Customer Experience teams for GM International based in Shanghai, as well as Singapore. Upon arriving in Australia, I drove the Holden brand transformation post manufacturing as Executive Director Marketing.

Currently, I am working at AGL leading electric vehicle strategy and partnerships. In parallel, I also continue to be an EnergyLab mentor to help support start-ups in this space.

I am a Montreal, Canada native and permanent resident of Australia (my family loves Melbourne). I hold an MBA from the New York Institute of Technology. Personal interests include ice hockey, skiing, rugby union, triathlon, cycling, youth sports and international travel.

Brandon leads Facebook’s efforts to develop solutions that enable Automotive brands and dealerships connect with customers to drive sales, build brands, and create customers for life. A data-driven marketer, he spent the last three years on Facebook’s Marketing Science team where he conducted 700+ automotive research studies with the industry’s largest brands and developed strategies that drive brand impact, sales lift, and positive ROI. A rich industry experience spanning dealership promotions, Agency and Manufacturer roles help Brandon champion the industry at Facebook. 

Christine Wall is the Head of Marketing Science at Annalect. Annalect is the Data and Technology arm of Omnicom Media Group. By way of Omnicom, the Annalect team come from creative, media, public relations, direct response and other core marketing disciplines to offer solutions that solve marketing problems.

Before Annalect, Christine has worked with leading global brands and advertising agencies in a wide variety of industries (B2B and B2C: Automotive, Technology, FMCG, Healthcare, and Financial Services) and has in-depth knowledge and hands-on experience in econometrics, attribution, customer behavioural modelling, social media mining, site-side analytics, brand valuation and overall media performance assessment with on-going testing and optimization recommendations.

Christine is a passionate data storyteller, excited about the how the world of marketing is always changing, almost as quickly as the world of the automotive industry! She is constantly looking for new insights to best engage with customers.

Payam Zamani is an entrepreneur, philanthropist and investor. He is the founder, chairman and CEO of One Planet Ops, a hybrid tech firm that runs a suite of online technology and media businesses. The company’s mission is to support strong business ideas while at the same time building an ethos that helps improve society and gives back to communities. This philosophy is embodied in the company’s tagline, innovation x intention, to convey that good ideas and profitable businesses are not enough; to positively impact the world, we need to align all our efforts with the right intentions.

Zamani is a member of the Bahá’í Faith. In 1988, he arrived in America from Iran as a refugee fleeing religious persecution. Thrilled for the opportunity to receive a higher education, he put himself through college and in 1994 earned a B.S. in environmental toxicology from the University of California, Davis. Shortly after graduating, Zamani began his entrepreneurial journey founding and launching Internet-based businesses including Autoweb.com, the first online car buying service. In 1999, he helped to take the company public. The company’s market cap ultimately reached $1.2 billion.

Today, in addition to running One Planet Ops, Zamani currently serves or has previously served on the Board of Directors or Advisors to many technology-based startups, including The RealReal, SoulPancake, Wayfarer Entertainment, and BestMile. Payam is a mentor to many entrepreneurs, recent graduates and youth, especially those who have had to face oppression.

Together, Zamani and his wife, Gouya, support the Tahirih Justice Center, a national nonprofit that works with immigrant women and girls who are fleeing violence. They also support the Equal Justice Initiative, which recently opened a monument and a museum in Montgomery, Alabama honoring the lives of African-Americans who were the victims of lynching after the Civil War.

In 2016, Zamani received the Tahirih Justice Center’s Hope Award. For Tahirih, his personal story of immigration is one in which inspires hope for individuals fleeing violence in search for new beginnings here in the US. In 2017, IranWire listed him as one of 50 Iranian-Americans you should know. In 2018, Manoto –a leading Persian broadcasting network –aired an inspiring talk he gave on the future of business and philanthropy that was broadcast to over 40 million people. He is also the recipient of 2018 Award of Distinction from the University of California at Davis. The Award of Distinction is the highest recognition presented by the school to individuals whose contributions and achievements enrich the image and reputation of the university and enhance its ability to provide public service.