Expert industry panel

Jessica Irvine is one of Australia’s most respected economics and finance commentators, noted for her ability to explain complex ideas in an easy-to-understand and often amusing way.

A veteran of 17 federal budgets, today she is senior economics writer for Nine Entertainment’s newspapers, including The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. Her popular Sunday column and digital newsletter “Money with Jess” puts the ‘personal’ back into personal finance, sharing candid details of her own budgeting and investing journey in a bid to help readers engage with and understand their own finances.

Jessica has an honours degree in Economics (Social Sciences) from The University of Sydney and is the author of two books: “Zombies, bananas and why there are no economists in heaven” and “The bottom line diet”.

Rob Lockhart

Financial Educator – Westpac’s Davidson Institute

Rob has helped thousands of people and organisations improve their financial confidence through delivering Davidson Institute short courses and webinars. His career started almost 40 years ago working with a mid-tier accounting firm. From there he moved into banking and has worked with people and organisations.

As a CPA grounded in the realities of finance, he brings a unique insight and understanding to the numbers behind our lives.

Jen Dalitz joined the WiBF executive team following a 25-year career in both line roles in banking and as a management consultant with global and boutique firms. Her operational experience spans retail banking, business banking, wealth management, insurance, compliance and risk management; and she has led major customer strategy and change programs for many of Australia’s largest and most respected financial institutions including NAB, CBA, IAG, Westpac and MLC Insurance.

A CPA and CA qualified finance professional, Jen also holds an MBA from the AGSM, is a Graduate of the Company Directors Course with the AICD and serves on a number of boards, and is an IECL accredited Executive Coach.

Outside of her corporate experience, Jen is an internationally recognised commentator on issues relating to gender diversity and women in leadership; but her real strength lies in bringing people together to deliver outcomes. With this in mind, she is working to activate the WiBF vision to grow the talent pipeline of professional women in the industry by engaging with members and key decision makers – male and female – to tackle the big issues of how to attract, retain and develop the best female talent.

Kantar Speakers

Carolyn Reid

Head of Qualitative

Carolyn is a highly regarded qualitative research leader combining curiosity, co-creation and empathy with science. She uses brand and communications, strategy and concept testing, NPD and gender research to deliver powerful marketing insights to address everything from customer experience, brand strategy and innovation to creative development and commerce.

Carolyn brings human understanding to every business challenge, to help transform brands through behaviour change, innovation, ideation and cultural insight. Illuminating the moments that matter, she provides unmatched access to insight about people’s lives, relationships with brands and cultural contexts.

Ryan France

Head of Brand and Strategy

Ryan leads the brand division for Kantar Australia and has been with the company in Australia since 2012 following a 7-year tenure with Kantar in Japan. He ensures Kantar’s global brand thought leadership and experiences benefits clients locally.

Ryan is passionate about the impact of fact-based decision making and works with organisations across numerous categories to help navigate the intangible terrain of branding to drive business growth.