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Lee Hickin

Executive Director

National AI Centre

Lee has over 30 years’ experience in the technology industry, having been in technical, sales and business development roles. Most recently he was the CTO for Microsoft ANZ and then lead the Asia region for Microsoft’s global Responsible AI team.


Lee has worked across the UK, Asia, and Australia, before joining the Federal Government. In addition to his time at Microsoft, Lee led the Internet of Things team for Amazon Web Services in Asia Pacific, he was a CISSP security architect with RSA Security and worked at both Tivoli and IBM as a software engineer.


During his time in industry, Lee has supported Governments around the world as an independent contributor; having been a member of the Singapore AI-Verify Board and a founding member of the NSW AI Assurance Committee.


Today Lee leads the Australian National AI Centre (NAIC), with a mission to enable and support Australian Industry and society in its adoption of and acceleration through AI technology and services. He has a clear focus on the need for consistent and appropriate responsible safety mechanisms to support AI, balanced with the need to empower Australians with the confidence and trust in the positive and transformative potential of AI.


Lee brings the importance of technical understanding combined with the need for clear and unambiguous language as we help shape a future where AI will be a powerful enabler of productivity, growth and society broadly.

SESSIONS

Day 2

9:20

Keynote Panel: Balancing innovation, trust and workforce impact

  • Lessons from government and industry on piloting and scaling AI responsibly

  • Building trust and transparency through clear guardrails on ethics, privacy and data use to accelerate adoption

  • Leading the culture shift and redefining HR’s role in an AI-augmented workforce, with practical steps to build AI literacy and curiosity across teams

  • Ensuring a fair workforce transition through reskilling, transparency and trust-based leadership to minimise anxiety and resistance

  • Navigating regulatory, legal and workforce risks without slowing down innovation or business outcomes


Lucy Poole, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Strategy, Planning and Performance, Digital Transformation Agency

Lee Hickin, Executive Director, National AI Centre

Nick Martin, Special Counsel, Wotton + Kearney

Shruti Ganeriwala, CHRO, Unilever ANZ & APAC

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Phone: +61 2 8378 4334
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