Speakers

Hon. Scott Morrison served as the 30th Prime Minister of Australia from 2018 to 2022,
As Prime Minister, Mr Morrison successfully led Australia through the global COVID 19 pandemic.

Under Mr Morrison’s leadership Australia had the third lowest COVID fatality rate in the OECD
while Australia’s economy outperformed all G7 and almost all OECD economies, making it one of
the most effective public health and economic responses in the world.

As Prime Minister, Mr Morrison was the architect and founder of the AUKUS trilateral defence
agreement between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States. He was a founding member
of the Quad leaders dialogue with Indian PM Modi, Japanese PMs Suga and Kishida and United
States President Biden. As PM, Mr Morrison also completed numerous other diplomatic, trade and
defence agreements, including the first post Brexit free trade agreement with the UK, the first ever
bilateral defence forces reciprocal access agreement with Japan and the first ever comprehensive
strategic partnership agreement with ASEAN.

Domestically, Mr Morrison steered the Australian economy to its lowest unemployment rate in almost
50 years, balancing the federal budget before the pandemic hit and returning it to a structural surplus.

He ensured Australia remained one of only nine countries in the world to maintain a AAA credit
rating from all major international credit rating agencies.

Prior to becoming Prime Minister, Mr Morrison served as a Cabinet Minister for five years, including
three years as Federal Treasurer (2015-2018) as well as Minister for Immigration and Border
Protection, where he designed and implemented Australia’s highly successful border protection
policy, Operation Sovereign Borders. Mr Morrison served on both the National Security Committee
of Cabinet and the Cabinet Expenditure Review (Budget) Committee for eight years, and as the
Member for the electorate of Cook in the Australian House of Representatives from 2007 to 2024.

As Prime Minister, Mr Morrison was awarded the honour of Chief Commander of the United States
Legion of Merit by President Trump, The Jerusalem Prize by the World Zionist Council and the
inaugural Grotius Prize for International Relations from UK Policy Exchange.

Mr Morrison is now non executive Vice Chairman of US geo-political advisory firm, American
Global Strategies, non executive Chairman of Space Centre Australia and Principal of his own
Australian based consulting firm, Triginta Advisory. He also serves on several global strategic
advisory boards in the private sector as well as the International Democracy Union, the Center for a
New American Security and the Hudson Institute China Center.

Mr Morrison holds a Bachelor of Applied Science with Honours in Economic Geography from the
University of New South Wales, in Sydney, where he graduated in 1990. In 2024 Mr Morrison’s
Christian memoir, Plans for Your Good, was published by Harper Collins. Mr Morrison is married to
Jenny, they have two teenage daughters and live in Sydney, Australia.

Lieutenant General Susan Coyle enlisted as a soldier in the Army Reserves in 1987 before completing a Science degree at the Australian Defence Force Academy and graduating from the Royal Military College in 1992 into the Royal Australian Corps of Signals. She was appointed to Chief of Joint Capabilities Group in July 2024, becoming the first female to lead a warfighting and operational domain.

Lieutenant General Coyle has worked at the tactical, operational and strategic level in a variety of command and staff appointments. She has commanded at every rank, including Commander Forces Command, Commander Joint Task Force 633 (CJTF633), Commander 6th Brigade, Commander Task Group Afghanistan and Commanding Officer 17th Signal Regiment. She has seen operational service as the J6 Communications on Operation CITADEL, and Officer Commanding 104th Signal Squadron on Operation ANODE, Deputy Commander – Afghanistan, transitioning into Deputy Commander JTF 636 on Operation SLIPPER / Task Group Afghanistan on Operation HIGHROAD, and CJTF633 on Operation ACCORDION. Key staff appointments include Head Information Warfare, Director Workforce and Behaviours - First Principles Review, Director Soldier Career Management – Army, Director of Studies Land at the Australian Command and Staff College, Military Assistant to the Deputy Chief of Army and Aide-de-camp to Commander Australian Theatre.

Lieutenant General Coyle holds post-graduate qualifications in a Master of Strategic Studies from the United States Army War College, a Master in Organisational Development and Strategic Human Resource Management from the University of New England, and a Master of Management in Defence Studies from the University of Canberra. She is an alumnus of the Harvard Advanced Management Program.

Lieutenant General Coyle was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for Commander Joint Task Force 633, a Distinguished Service Medal as Deputy Commander JTF 636 / Commander Task Group Afghanistan on Operation SLIPPER / HIGHROAD, and a Conspicuous Service Cross as Commanding Officer 17th Signal Regiment. She has also received a Chief of Joint Operations Command Commendation as Officer Commanding 104th Signal Squadron on Operation ANODE, and a Commander Australian Theatre Commendation as Staff Officer to the Commander Australian Theatre Joint Intelligence Centre. Whilst posted to the United States, she received the U.S. Army Commendation Medal as the 11th Signal Brigade Satellite Engineer.

Susan is married to Mark, an Engineer in the Army, and together they have three wonderful and mostly charming millennials – Jessica, Susie, and Jack. Her hobbies include attending musical theatre, reading anything and travelling anywhere.

James Palmer MEM, CompIEAust, EngExec
Founder, Space Centre Australia/Palm Branch Group/SpaceOz

As the founder of Space Centre Australia, James has over 20 years’ experience as a Chartered Engineering Executive Leader. 
James began his career as a submariner in the Royal Australian Navy. 
During this time, he gained extensive experience in engineering vehicles to withstand hostile conditions, both deep underwater and in space.
As CEO and Owner of Space Centre Australia, James specialises in project management, engineering, environmental science, land management, and
of course, space systems. James’ educational achievements include a Master of Philosophy from the Queensland University of Technology, a Master of Business Administration 
from the University of South Australia, and a Master of Engineering Management from Southern Cross University.

Lisa is an experienced business leader with a strong commitment to further enable the growing Australian space sector to thrive.

Lisa and SIAA’s Leadership Team are harnessing the increasing amount of attention, interest, and desire to partner with our Australian space industry, due to our innovative industry and universities, geographical advantage, and the world’s largest space event IAC 2025 Sydney, bringing 10,000+ of our global space community from over 100 countries to Australia.

Lisa was previously part of the Executive Leadership team and Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) and at two high growth companies, and her experience spans technology, telecommunications, financial services, automotive, and travel including brands such as amaysim (Optus), Tyro, CMC Markets, Hyundai, Tourism Tasmania, Volvo, and LG.

Lisa serves on the Board of Engineers Australia, Australia’s national engineering body, who champion their 120,000+ members, providing resources, connections, and growth for high-value work in our communities. In addition, she is the Founder and Director of 10 Pieces, an environmentally sustainable travel initiative, and part of University of Technology Sydney’s advisory to Advanced MBA students.

An avid learner, Lisa converted her Master of Business in International Marketing into an MBA, is a Graduate of the AICD’s Company Director Course, and was selected to be a part of The Marketing Academy, and served on their Alumni Council for over three years. In 2024, Lisa was awarded the Engineering Executive (EngExec), a credential that recognises pre-eminent individuals in executive positives who have shown exceptional leadership and talent and presents an opportunity to play a significant role in shaping the future of the Australian engineering profession.

Anntonette Dailey is a chartered engineer and brings more than 15 years senior executive capability, working across multiple Government agencies, not for profit and consultancies.

Anntonette was recently the Executive Director at the Australian Space Agency, having commenced as part of the inaugural leadership team in 2018 and was responsible for managing its operating environment, managing stakeholders and was instrumental in the establishment of the Australian Space Discovery Centre, publishing the first three whole of Government State of Space Reports, the financial controller and management of the public affairs, outreach and parliamentary activity.

Anny has always had a soft spot for the space sector, attending space camps at school, presenting to Parliament on the need for better space coordination. She is also a major supporter for developing the current and future STEM workforce. Her leadership and passion were recognised by AFR as one of Australia’s 100 most Influential Women and as young graduate of the year by the University of Technology, Sydney.

As a mother to Skye (6) and Flynn (1), Anny enjoys caravanning, renovating, rugby union and car racing.

Dr Joni Sytsma is an aerospace engineer hailing from the USA who, as a recent citizen of Australia, is committed to building innovative technologies within our country. Dr Sytsma has over 16 years’ experience in the research, development and commercialisation of extremely complex aerospace systems where combined interactions of hardware, software and physics are the defining value-add.
As the Chief Technology Officer (iLAuNCH), Dr Sytsma leads the program’s research portfolio in space, satellites, rockets, hypersonics and advanced manufacturing and materials.
Joni was most recently Chief Technology Officer at Department 13 in the counter unmanned aerial systems field. Joni began her career with a decade of developing cutting edge aerospace systems at the United States Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). In her time at AFRL, Dr Sytsma led research and development teams to design and optimise aerospace technologies and develop academic concepts into fully tested systems.

Dr Sytsma moved to Australia to join the Hypersonic International Flight Research Experiment (HIFiRE) program with Defence Science and Technology (DST) group. She then joined Gilmour Space Technologies as Head of GNC to work on software stack development, performance simulations and design optimisations.

Preetham Akula, CEO and founder of Akula Tech, a deep tech start-up specializing in the space sector, draws from his aerospace engineering background to drive innovation. Fuelled by a profound passion for space tech, he established Akula Tech to pioneer advancements in the industry.
Akula Tech's unique value proposition stems from our next-generation satellites, equipped with adaptive intelligence, enabling them to learn and improve the mission operations over time. Our satellites are also manufactured using novel materials and advanced manufacturing techniques, making the production faster and cost efficient.

Gary Hale is the Director for the National Resilience & Security Program Office, or NRAS for short, and Chief Security Officer (CSO), appointed at Curtin University. This role is charged with building a resilient University that drives sustainable world-class science and innovation partnerships, including the development of nationally significant sovereign capability for Australia. This includes management of Foreign Risk, the Defence Industry Security Program (DISP), as well as growing the Defence and Space research portfolio in partnership with our government and industry stakeholders.

Michael Jones has over 30 years’ senior management experience as a CEO, Company Director, Investment Banker, Corporate Advisor, Test Pilot, Sports Administrator and Business mentor/advisor. Following a distinguished military career as an Experimental Test Pilot, Mr Jones held several senior positions as CEO of the Aerospace Group, Raytheon Australia and Smart Communication Group. Mr Jones also completed several senior advisory and technical appointments with Boeing, Airbus, IPTN/CASA and Alenia Aeronautica. Mr Jones was the founder and inaugural CEO and Chairman of ASX listed airline Regional Express (ASX: REX). Mr Jones has also sat on numerous public, private and not for profit Boards. Michael also co-founded and was Managing Partner of investment banking company Canterbury Hill Advisory for 14 years, completing over $2 billion in transactions and has filled temporary CEO or Principal Advisor to the Boards of companies in the Airline, Agricultural, Marine, Manufacturing, Logistics, Professional Sport, Resources, Property, Medical Services, Software and Financial Services industries. Before joining ELA in 2021, Mr Jones filled CEO and Chief Strategy Officer roles with large logistics business AWH and Virgin Australian Airline respectively. Michael Jones joined ELA in 2021 and since that time has: restructured the company, completed Series A and B capital raises, steered the development of the Arnhem Space Centre and the issue of the first Launch Facilities Licence and Launch Permit for Australia’s first ever commercial Space launch and NASA’s first ever launch from a commercial spaceport. ELA owns and operates the Arnhem Space Centre (ASC) at 12 degrees south of the equator, the world’s most advanced multi-user commercial spaceport, having achieved three NASA space launches in 15 days in 2022. ELA has agreements with ‘new space’ launch providers from USA, Europe and Asia and expects to be soon booked out for the next five years. Mr Jones is a highly distinguished graduate of the Royal Military College Duntroon and the Empire Test Pilots' School UK. He is a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society, a Member of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots and a member of Financial Services Institute of Australasia. An Olympian as Director of Sailing at the Beijing Olympics, past Chairman of the Americas’ Cup Challenger Committee and CEO of Brumbies professional rugby team Mr Jones also continues to have a passion for, and parallel career in elite sports management. Mr Jones has a Bachelor of Arts (Economics) from the University of NSW, a Master of Applied Science (eqv) from Cranfield University, a Grad Dip of Applied Finance (Investment Banking) from the Securities Institute of Australia, and a PhD from the Sorbonne Paris.

James completed his PhD (2007) at the University of Queensland (UQ) and a post-doctoral fellowship at UQ’s CCRE-Spine. This training has enabled a successful academic career evidenced by being a CI/PI/Collaborator/Consultant on over $30M in research funding and more than 200 peer-reviewed publications. He is currently the Director of the Kolling Institute and the Academic Director of Allied Health and Public Health in the Faculty of Medicine and Health at the University of Sydney and the Northern Sydney Local Health District. The primary focus of his interdisciplinary work uses high-resolution imaging techniques to quantify altered spinal cord anatomy and whole-body skeletal muscle degeneration as potential markers of recovery following a traumatic injury. He co-founded the MuscleMap Consortium: a data-driven open-sourced methodology to iteratively enhance the efficacy of Artificial Intelligence models tailored for the analysis of MRI datasets, worldwide. With collaborative support of, James and colleagues are creating the world's leading well-being index towards driving better terrestrial & extra-terrestrial health outcomes for all.

Professor Melissa de Zwart, Professor Space Law and Governance, University of Adelaide
Melissa is the Deputy Director and a Chief Investigator of the ARC Centre of Excellence in Plants for Space and Professor, Space Law and Governance, Andy Thomas Centre for Space Resources, at the University of Adelaide.
Melissa is a prominent legal researcher, working in the areas of commercial and military uses of outer space, encompassing both domestic and international space law. She has worked closely with the Australian space industry, including previously serving as Deputy Director and Board Member of the Space Industry Association of Australia, as well as on the successful bid team for the 2025 International Astronautical Congress to be held in Sydney. She has published widely on all legal and regulatory aspects of the space environment and contributed extensively to reviews and reforms of the regulatory framework. Melissa is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law and a Member of the International Institute of Space Law.

Aleksandar Deejay is the Executive Director of the Australian Centre for Space Governance (ACSG) and a visiting fellow at the School of Regulation and Global Governance (RegNet) at ANU. He researches the human, community, and state-level impacts of satellite application and governance.

Professor Alan Duffy is the Pro-Vice Chancellor of Flagship Initiatives at Swinburne University of Technology, bringing together diverse research teams with industry and government stakeholders to undertake transformative programmes in Flagship sectors of hydrogen, renewable technologies, AI, space and aerospace, MedTech and health innovation. He was the inaugural Director of the Space Technology and Industry Institute at Swinburne, finding ways to use space and AI to help companies and communities on Earth. His research background in computational astrophysics saw Alan model universes on supercomputers to understand how galaxies like our Milky Way form within vast clouds of dark matter. He is trying to find this dark matter as a Chief Investigator in the $35M ARC CoE for Dark Matter Particle Physics and SABRE, the world’s first dark matter detector in the Southern Hemisphere, at the Stawell Underground Physics Laboratory at the bottom of an active gold mine in Victoria. Alan is also the cofounder and CEO of mDetect, a spin-off company from his dark matter research, that uses particles from space to scan through rock for mineral exploration, identification of structural weaknesses in tailings dams, and subsidence/air gaps below critical infrastructure.