Leading insights from industry experts

The 2025 ASFA Conference will feature an exceptional lineup of speakers, including global thought leaders, top economists, influential policymakers, and industry pioneers.

With a focus on “shaping the future of retirement,” the speakers will share their perspectives on the future of retirement planning, emerging trends in policy and regulation, sustainable investment strategies, and the role of technology in creating more secure and inclusive retirement systems.

Stay tuned—our speaker lineup will be announced in the coming months, with the full program launching in August 2025.

Brad Jones

Assistant Governor (Financial System), Reserve Bank of Australia

Simon Kuestenmacher

Director and Co-founder, The Demographics Group

Daniel Mulino MP

Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services

Alex Robson

Deputy Chair, Productivity Commission

Jess Wilson

Tech Entrepreneur

Person Name

Primary Title, Organisation name

Person Name

Primary Title, Organisation name

Person Name

Primary Title, Organisation name

Person Name

Primary Title, Organisation name

Person Name

Primary Title, Organisation name

Brad_Jones

Brad Jones

Assistant Governor (Financial System), Reverse Bank of Australia

Sessions

Keynote 8 – Navigating the energy transition: opportunities, investor strategies and policy needs

Dr Brad Jones is Assistant Governor (Financial System) at the Reserve Bank of Australia and Deputy Chair of the Payments System Board. He oversees the RBA’s policy work in financial stability and payments, including the future of money and geopolitical risk.

Brad is a member of the Council of Financial Regulators, the Financial Stability Board and the Basel Committee for Banking Supervision, and Chair of the RBA’s Financial Market Infrastructure Review Committee. He is a graduate member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, a member of the Advisory Board of the Institute of Global Finance and a signatory to The Banking and Finance Oath.

Brad joined the RBA in 2018, serving as Head of International Department and then as Head of Economic Analysis Department. In the fifteen years prior to joining the RBA, Brad was a senior advisor at the International Monetary Fund in Washington D.C., held global macro research and investment responsibilities at Deutsche Bank in London and Hong Kong, and was a Fellow at the Cambridge University Judge Business School.

Simon_Kuestenmacher

Simon Kuestenmacher

Director and Co-founder of The Demographics Group

Sessions

Keynote 8 – Navigating the energy transition: opportunities, investor strategies and policy needs

Simon Kuestenmacher is a Director and Co-founder of The Demographics Group, which provides specialist
advice on demographic, consumer and social trends for business.

He presents on demographic and global trends that are shaping Australia today and into the future
and his presentations and quirky observations are enjoyed by corporate, government and industry
audiences alike.

Simon is a columnist at The New Daily newspaper and a regular contributor to The Australian newspaper; and he is also a media commentator on demographic and data matters.

Simon has amassed 600,000 global followers on social media, reaches over 35 million people every month and ranks as one of the world’s Top 10 influencers in data visualisation. If you can’t get enough of data that explains how the world works, make sure to follow him on Twitter or any of his other social channels.


Simon holds degrees in geography from leading universities in Berlin and Melbourne and worked
for several years as a business consultant with KPMG Australia.

Alex Robson

Deputy Chair, Productivity Commission

Sessions

Keynote 8 – Navigating the energy transition: opportunities, investor strategies and policy needs

Alex Robson commenced a 5-year term as a full time Commissioner and Deputy Chair of the Productivity Commission in March 2022.

Professor Robson has a broad range of experience in academia and the public and private sectors, most recently as Associate Partner at EY (Ernst and Young).

Prior to that, Professor Robson served as Australia’s Ambassador to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

He also served as Senior Economic Adviser and Chief Economist to the former Australian Prime Minister, the Hon Malcolm Turnbull, and has held a number of other positions, including Managing Director at FTI Consulting; Director at Deloitte Access Economics; Director of the Economic Policy Analysis Program at Griffith University; Lecturer in Economics at the Australian National University; and as a graduate economist at the Commonwealth Treasury in Canberra.

Professor Robson’s teaching and research has been in the fields of advanced microeconomics, game theory, public economics and public choice, law and economics, and macroeconomics.

Professor Robson holds a Bachelor of Arts (First Class Honours) from James Cook University and a Master of Arts and PhD in Economics from the University of California, Irvine, USA. His research has been published in several international journals, including Economic Theory, Public Choice, the Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance, and Economic Modelling. His law and economics book, Law and Markets, was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2012.

In addition to his role of Deputy Chair, Professor Robson is also working on the Creating a dynamic and resilient economy and Building a more skilled and adaptable workforce inquiries, and National Competition Policy analysis 2025 study.

Professor Robson leads the Productivity stream of work and co-leads the Industry and Trade stream of work at the PC.

Jess_Wilson

Jess Wilson

Tech Entrepeneur

Sessions

Keynote 8 – Navigating the energy transition: opportunities, investor strategies and policy needs

Jess Wilson is a real example of a small town girl turned globally recognised and awarded tech entrepreneur.

Starting her first business at 16 and second at 22 which she scaled into 130 countries and was a finalist contestant on China’s version of Shark Tank x The Apprentice ‘The Next Unicorn’ which aired to 15Mp/episode.

Jess has taken on industries ripe for disruption utilizing technology with millennial and Gen-Z markets at the forefront, establishing her as a leading voice in women leadership, innovation and emerging technologies.

More recently, co-founding Waves Tech Ventures a company which leverages emerging technologies to create impact. The first portfolio company, Women Making Waves is a tech company funding and scaling women’s rights law reform in Australia and the United States introducing a new demographic to philanthropy, working with law reform experts who have changed an accumulative 45+ laws and counting. WMW has collaborated with the likes of Google, Tiktok, Airbnb and partnered with the likes of Deepak Chopra’s The Chopra Foundation.

Jess has been pinned by Forbes as one of 1,000 entrepreneurs under 30 to change the world in the next 50 years, appeared on Smart Company’s 30 under 30 three times and toured as the opening keynote speaker for Tony Robbins, Tom Bilyue throughout their national tours and MC and interviewed Sir Richard Branson throughout his recent Australia visit.

Jess has featured in media publications such as Forbes, The Huffpost, Virgin, the front page of The Australian national newspaper, Vogue, Harper Bazaar, ABC, The AFR, Studio10 and CNN to name a few.

Previous speaking engagement clients include Forbes Australia, KPMG, Domain, Carsales.com,

Google, Airbnb, Law Institute of Victoria (LIV), YPO, PWC, Workato, SXSW, Newscorp, Jobs

Australia, Coffs Harbour city council to name a few.