2025 Judges

Gary Smith

Chair, Communications Compliance

Gary Smith is currently the independent Chair of Communications Compliance Ltd. Prior to this role, he spent more than 30 years as a senior regulatory manager and telecommunications executive with Optus and the industry regulator AUSTEL. His work was guided by the view that competition, regulation, and industry coordination can and should drive better consumer outcomes.

Gary was a director of Communications Alliance for more than 15 years and was the 2021 Communications Ambassador. He was also engaged in the governance of the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman scheme for a decade.

Prior to his telecommunications career, Gary worked in public policy and research roles, including with the Victorian Parliament, Victorian Treasury, and the Reserve Bank of Australia. He studied economics and econometrics at honours level.

Grahame Lynch

CEO and Editorial Director, Communications Day

Grahame Lynch is the CEO and founder of Decisive Publishing, which has published Communications Day since 1994 and held the CommsDay Summit since 2001. He was the group editorial director of Advanstar Communications, which published America’s Network and Telecom Asia magazines, between 1997 and 2001. He has also contributed to the Australian, the Sydney Morning Herald, Telecom TV and other media outlets. He was recently awarded IT Media Pioneer in the Samsung IT Media Awards 2025.

Malcolm Alder

Principal, GHD

Malcolm Alder works on strategy projects around the world with GHD, a global consulting firm that focuses on providing digital solutions in asset-intensive industries. He was previously a consulting partner at KPMG and started his career with Deloitte. During his career, Malcolm has worked with clients across all points of the business life cycle in Australia, Canada, Malaysia, China, New Zealand, Singapore and the UK as an adviser and investor. He has been a Board member of an ASX-listed media company and was listed on The Australian IT’s, ‘Top 50 Most Influential People in Technology’.

Mark McDonnell

Chairman, McDonnell Communications Research Pty Ltd

Mark McDonnell has an extensive background in the telecommunications, IT and media industries with a career encompassing government policy advice, business analysis, management consultancy, investment banking and stockbroking. For the past 40 years he has been actively involved in assessing trends and developments in the communications industry, and valuing listed companies in this sector. Mark is currently Executive Chairman of Advanced Fire and Electrical, Sydney based electrical contractors specialising in building re-wiring including both electrical and telecommunications connections, and leading new services such as electric vehicle charging.

Michael Malone

Non-Executive Director, Seven West Media, Jumbo Interactive, Health Engine

Michael Malone founded iiNet Limited, an ASX listed telecommunications company in 1993 and continued as CEO until his retirement in 2014. He went on to co-found Diamond Cyber Security in 2015. Michael is currently a director of ASX list companies Seven West Media and Jumbo Interactive, as well as Health Engine. He has previously served on Autism West (as founder and Vice Chairman), .au Domain Administration (as a founder and Chairman), Superloop (as director and Chairman), WiseTech (as director and Chair of Audit), and several others. Michael has received a number of prestigious industry recognitions including Australian Entrepreneur of the Year, Communications Alliance Ambassador and is a holder of the Telecommunications Society Charles Todd Medal. He is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, the Australian Institute of Management and the Australian Computer Society. Michael has a Bachelor of Science (Mathematics) and a post graduate Diploma in Education both from the University of Western Australia.

Michelle Lim

Michelle Lim has 24 years of regulatory and commercial experience in the Australian and overseas telecommunications markets. She has been actively involved in championing regulatory reforms and competition policy for open, innovative and diverse industries to continually improve economic and consumer outcomes. She has significant experience in complex multilateral and bilateral agreements.

Michelle is currently involved with consulting engagements. Her prior roles include; Chair of Commpete, the Industry Alliance for Competition in Digital Communications and Director of Communications Alliance. She has contributed as a member to many Government and regulator committees and working groups. Michelle is the President of Telsoc, the Australian telecommunications learned society. She was MC of recent CommsDay industry events.

She holds both a Bachelor of Business and Bachelor of Arts in International Studies from University of Technology Sydney, and a Macquarie Graduate School of Management Diploma. Michelle has also completed the Australian Institute of Company Directors program.

Mohammad Chowdary

Founder and CEO, Long Street Advisors

Mohammad Chowdhury leads Long Street Advisors, an advisory and investment firm focused on supporting meaningful digitisation. Mohammad considers how connected technologies impact Society, Economy, Government and Nation, and serves clients around the world. He has 30 years experience in the connectivity and digital industries, and worked across 80+ countries, having worked at Vodafone Group, IBM and PwC.

Mohammad is a Visiting Fellow at University of Technology, Sydney, a Council Member of the Australian Institute of International Affairs, is based in Melbourne. Border Crossings, a memoir of his journey with identity, was published in 2021.

Paul McCann

Managing Director, McCann Consulting International Pty Ltd

Paul McCann is Managing Director of McCann Consulting International Pty Ltd. He has over 40 years network planning & development experience in telecommunications both in international and domestic arenas. Prior to returning to consulting in 2012, Paul spent over 8 years with Verizon in Asia Pacific, driving growth of Verizon’s network across Asia by developing & implementing plans delivering major operational cost reductions and improved service performance. Paul is now managing his own consulting business, specialising in development in the Pacific Region, where the core business focus is on “connectivity” with expertise spanning all aspects of planning and development for Satellite, Submarine cable and Domestic access technologies and business. Paul is well known for his personable nature, his rapport with customers and his ability to deliver on time.

Professor Ray Owen

Head of Telecom Research Unit, Faculty of Engineering and IT, University of Technology Sydney

Ray Owen is a leading expert in network resilience, telecommunications infrastructure, and digital modelling, with over 30 years of experience spanning industry, research, and governance.

He earned a PhD in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the University of Birmingham (UK) in 1995, where his research focused on modelling high-frequency acoustic scattering from rough surfaces. He also holds a Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical and Electronic) from King’s College London (1992).

Currently, Ray is a Professor at the Faculty of Engineering and IT at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), where he leads the UTS Telecom Research Unit, managing contracts with telecommunications companies across Australia and internationally. His research and commercial expertise cover telecommunications resilience, fixed-line networks, wireless networking, and network modelling. He is also the Director of the Australian National Telecommunications Resilience Centre, spearheading efforts to strengthen the robustness of national and global telecom infrastructures.

Beyond academia, Professor Owen is an equity partner at Tech Audit Partners, a U.S.-based consultancy specialising in network resilience and audits for governments and enterprises. He also provides high-level consultancy on network outages, their causes, and recovery strategies for major management consulting firms.

His extensive 35-year industry career includes leadership roles such as: Chief Technology Officer at nbn; Managing Director at Nokia Australia & New Zealand; General Director at Motorola Vietnam; and multiple R&D leadership positions.

With a distinguished track record of innovation and technology leadership, Professor Owen continues to shape the future of telecommunications resilience and infrastructure worldwide.

Renee Bowker

Executive Chair, Telco Together Foundation

Renee Bowker co-founded Telco Together Foundation in 2012. Renee leads the organisation in creating collaborative industry-wide initiatives to address some of the social challenges of living in an increasingly connected world. With two main streams – Small Change Big Change focuses on building resilience in young Australians, whilst the Industry Impact Hub helps develop industry responses to issues like modern slavery in telco supply chains and domestic violence.

Renee has a passion for giving back to the community and creating greater social impact wherever possible. She supports her local community as a Board member of the Southern Mornington Peninsula Bendigo Community Bank – and recently co-founded Seed + Spark Retreats, running transformational breathwork and meditation retreats locally and in Nepal.

Sabiene Heindl

CEO, Energy Charter

Sabiene Heindl is the CEO of the Energy Charter, a pioneering coalition of energy organisations united by a shared passion for putting customers and communities at the heart of the energy transition. With a proven track record of driving transformational change, Sabiene brings a wealth of experience from senior leadership roles in energy, telecommunications, media and legal sectors. Sabiene is also the Australian Equality Initiative Ambassador for the energy sector.

Previously serving in the CEO Office at Energy Consumers Australia, Sabiene has consistently championed innovative, human-centred solutions. Her academic credentials include an Executive MBA from Brown University (USA) and IE Business School (Spain), a BA in Laws (First Class Honours), and a BA in International Business. In 2024, she was awarded the International Woman of Distinction Award in Equality in Energy Transition.

With a strong background as a corporate lawyer and a deep commitment to people-driven outcomes, Sabiene is passionate about shaping the future of energy through purpose-driven leadership and inspiring decision-making that creates meaningful impact for all.