Working together to empower women and progress industry.

Jessica Kahl is a Strategy Manager at Thames Water. She is an award-winning engineer, entrepreneur, diversity advocate, and 2021 Young Australian of the Year Shortlisted Nominee. Since entering the industry, Jessica has combined her creative leadership and engineering capabilities to make a difference to society through her work in master planning, resources, and infrastructure.

Outside of her day job, she is also passionate about increasing engagement and growth in STEAM to empower education, industry, and innovation. Jessica works closely with investment and collaborative partners, educational institutions, and students to guide positive outcomes which integrate STEAM learning and storytelling from industry leaders into engaging Dream Big Events. Jessica's impact in the diversity space has lead her to be recognised in the QBM’s Top 20 entrepreneurs under 40, in Engineers Australia's ‘100 engineers making a difference’ profile, and listing in “Engineers at the Pinnacle of the Profession”.

Dhugal Ford is Chief Operating Officer at Dream Big Australia, and co-founder of The Authenticity Co.  Dhugal is a commercially astute executive leader and People advisor. He has a unique background, having spent more than 23 years working in corporate and advisory roles with global, regional, and local organisations, across private and public sector. He has a passion for helping people navigate complex change and transformation, and a fascination for human behaviour, which he explains as the recipe for successfully delivering business outcomes through people.

Dhugal is highly collaborative and skilled in influencing across complex organisations and industries, to achieve results with a genuine and authentic style, focussed on creating an inclusive environment that brings the best contribution from a diverse group.

Sharyn Scriven is the General Manager Grid Investment at Energy Queensland, managing the optimisation of investments on Queensland’s electricity distribution network assets. For the past 25 years Sharyn has worked in large engineering-based utility businesses that have undergone significant evolutionary change. With extensive experience in developing strategy, delivering operational results, and managing risk, she has led transformational change across large teams to build capability and drive efficiency.

Sharyn is passionate about diversity and an advocate for the ongoing improvement in workplace environments and opportunities for women. In leading and embedding transformational change across large teams to build capability and drive efficiency, Sharyn has delivered exceptional business outcomes. Sharyn is MBA qualified, MCIPs accredited, and was awarded Asia Pacific Chief Procurement Officer of the Year 2012.

John Searls is the lead of Aurecon’s Asset Management & Performance Advisory business. With more than 25 years of experience leading transformational change at both the strategic and operations levels, he challenges the status quo, specialising in initiatives that design and drive fundamental change across asset intensive industries. He is passionate about supporting business to achieve financially, socially, and environmentally sustainable investment outcomes, not only during the formation stages, but right through an assets lifecycle and eventual transformation or closure.

He is also an active leader of inclusion and diversity. “Gender diversity is only one form of diversity, but a very important one for me. I have two daughters who deserve the opportunity to pursue any vocation that matches their strengths, without discrimination. And I have a son who deserves to benefit from a world rich in diversity”.

Darren Stanley is an experienced C-level executive and company director. He has led a number of Australia’s preeminent technology and service companies and he continues to invest his time helping with the growth of smaller companies and Not-For-Profit organisations. After a successful career as an officer in the military, Darren transitioned to business, where he continued to develop and refine the arts of building teams and 'leading with purpose'. Darren has built long-term, sustainable capability into the companies which he has led, helping them to achieve profitable growth, increased profiles, and legacies. An expert at merger and acquisition activities, Darren has a track record of creating positive cultural change and bringing divided stakeholders together with an inspiring vision for change.

As a business leader, Darren has led a number of highly successful graduate programs and fostered the development of programs which supported the development of our youth and diversity in the workplace. He is passionate about the development of Australian talent and intellectual property.

For over 10 years, Adriana has built a distinguished career in executive assistance and HR management leadership. Her experience spans multinational companies in Brazil, with the last four years focused on the dynamic international technology market.

Adriana's impressive portfolio includes leading the Latin American operations of a tech recruitment startup for Microsoft partners, followed by launching a successful project dedicated to training professionals in Microsoft technologies across Latin America and Europe. Most recently, she established and led the Brazilian operations of a global technology company based in Ukraine.

A passionate advocate for women in the technology sector, Adriana has played a key role as the company's ambassador in Brazil, organising events, mentoring programmes and talks aimed at empowering women in the tech sector.

In addition to her professional achievements, Adriana is the mum of two beautiful children who inspire her daily motivation and determination.