Park yourself at the forefront of automotive marketing ideas

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.

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.

Mel officially joined Optus in November 2016 and leads the team for all customer-facing marketing and engagement. A self-confessed tech-freak, she is renowned for creating impact for brands with bold and ambitious campaigns in complex and challenging environments.

Mel has extensive global experience working across a range of brands and sectors with executive roles both client and agency side. Most recently she spent 4 years as Global Head of Brand for Vodafone in London and has previously led brands such as Absolut Vodka, the British Army, Nestle and Fujitsu. Mel has lived and worked across Europe, Asia Pacific, the U.S and the Middle East.

Mel has been a guest lecturer at London School of Economics; a contributor to Fast Company Magazine and a mentor to various U.S-based start-ups.

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.

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.

Bio coming soon…

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.

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.