Artificial intelligence is reshaping the foundations of business and society, transforming how we manage money, verify identity, navigate truth, and structure work. This event brings together leading voices from finance, technology, and academia to examine the opportunities and risks emerging across these four critical domains.
The program opens with a keynote from Rob Moore, Co-Founder and CTO of MakerX, offering a strategic lens on the future of AI-driven change. A panel discussion will follow, delving into real-world applications and implementation challenges. Explore AI’s impact on financial systems, evolving approaches to identity and trust, the complexities of managing information integrity, and the transformation of operations and the workforce.
Rob Moore — CTO, Co-founder of MakerX
Rob Moore is the Co-founder and CTO of MakerX, an R&D studio recognised in Deloitte Tech Fast 50, AFR Most Innovative Companies, and Best Workplaces Top 100.
Rob is a serial entrepreneur at the AI frontier, co-founding MakerBOS (world's first AI-native business operating system) and QRX (AI-generated QR codes with 5x engagement rates and 850,000+ codes created). Rob has led and delivered complex software projects and orchestrated culture change across many industries for startups and multi-nationals alike, including high impact projects for Algorand Foundation, Telstra, Bankwest, EventsAir, iiNet, Bunnings, Mineral Resources Limited, and Curtin University. Rob was formerly the Global Delivery Innovation Lead and a Principal Consultant for Telstra Purple, a 2000-person technology professional services company. Rob combines executive business acumen, high-performance cultural leadership and team-building, and deep technical expertise to drive innovation and business transformation outcomes for complex products, companies and industries.
Lenka Bednarikova — Head AI & Advanced Analytics at Australian Retirement Trust
Lenka is a digital and AI strategist who’s never met a complex problem she didn’t want to solve - or at least turn into a Miro board masterpiece. As the Head of AI & Advanced Analytics at Australian Retirement Trust, she’s known for leading teams who build intelligent systems that actually make sense and create true business impact (and occasionally make people say “wow”). With over a decade of experience in digital transformation, data & AI strategy, and Agile delivery, Lenka blends systems thinking with a collaborative style that makes working with her feel less like a project and more like an adventure.
Staci Warden — CEO, Algorand Foundation
Prior to joining the Algorand Foundation as its CEO, Staci Warden ran the Global Market Development practice at the Milken Institute, where she led its work on capital market development and innovative finance. Prior to Milken, she spent eight years at JPMorgan, where she ran the public sector practice for EMEA (London) and worked in sovereign debt capital markets (New York). Before JPM, Staci led the two microcap markets at the Nasdaq. Earlier in her career, She was the founding COO of the Center for Global Development, and an international economist at the U.S. Treasury Dept and the Harvard Institute for International Development. Staci speaks widely and writes on the promise and practical implications of blockchain and related Web3 technologies, and provides ministerial-level advisory on capital market development and financial inclusion. She served as the Board Chair of the Rwandan Capital Markets Authority for seven years and has held a range of other BOD and advisory board appointments.
Moderator — Imogen Crump, Editor of Pursuit and Research at the University of Melbourne
Imogen Crump is a journalist and editor with around 30 years’ experience in news organisations including the BBC and ABC with a focus on public service journalism. She’s now at the University of Melbourne as editor of the research news website, Pursuit. Throughout her career she has covered conflict in the Middle East, riots, terrorist attacks, presidential elections, coups, Olympic Games and research discoveries. She has a particular interest in the evolution of AI and its impact on the media, public discourse and political debate. She is a regular editorial contributor to ABC Breakfast News.
