Business Leaders Forum

Damien has over 26 years’ experience in the financial services sector. He has a strong focus on developing and executing strategy, particularly around growth and sales. Most recently, Damien was the country head of BlackRock Australia, responsible for managing $45 billion of assets on behalf of clients. Prior to this, Damien was BlackRock’s Head of Account Management, overseeing sales, marketing and product efforts across institutional and retail channels. Damien’s career has also included roles at Merrill Lynch Investment Management, Barclays Global Investors and Citibank. Damien is a Queenslander and prior to his career in financial services he represented Australia in rugby union. Damien is a member of CEDA State Advisory Council (October 2012) and was a member of the Financial Services Council Investment Board Committee (December 2012-December 2013). Damien was appointed as Independent Director of Queensland Rugby Union in April 2013 and is a member of the Queensland Government’s inaugural Ministerial Health Infrastructure Advisory Council, appointed 17 December 2013. In March 2014, Damien became a member of the Queensland Government’s Trade and Investment Executive Roundtable.

Lyndon has enjoyed a highly successful international opera career, along with success as an actor, writer and director. Currently, Lyndon is the Artistic Director of Opera Australia, the country's largest and busiest performing arts organisation, with over 600 performances a year, including two main-stage opera seasons in Sydney and Melbourne.

Steve Sargent is President and Chief Executive Officer of GE Australia and New Zealand. He is responsible for all GE operations across energy, water, oil and gas, locomotives, aviation, healthcare and financial services in the region. Australia and NZ is one of GE’s largest and fastest growing global markets. Since joining GE Capital in 1993 in New York, Steve has held several global leadership positions spanning the US, Europe and Asia. In 1999 he became Chief Quality Officer for GE Capital globally and then President and CEO for GE Commercial Finance, Europe. He returned to his home town of Sydney, Australia in 2003 to lead GE Capital Australia & New Zealand becoming President and CEO GE Capital Asia Pacific in 2009. In 2008, Steve was appointed a Vice President and Officer of the General Electric Company. He is the first Australian to be appointed to this position.

Major-General John Cantwell (retired) shares his unique leadership insight focusing on how leadership in extreme contexts and military lessons can be applied in the commercial workplace. John Cantwell retired from the Australian Army in early 2012 after a unique career spanning almost 40 years. Starting as a private soldier he rose through the ranks to become a Major-General. Along the way he was a tank commander, Commanding Officer of the Royal Military College at Duntroon, Commander of a brigade of around 3000 troops, the Deputy Chief of the Army, and most recently he was the Commander of all Australian forces in Afghanistan and the wider Middle East area of operations. By describing his military leadership and drawing on similarities in the commercial world, Major-General Cantwell hopes to show the business community that extreme contexts do not always mean extreme discipline and gruff personalities

Jane Diplock discusses the lessons of the Global Financial Crisis and the role of markets in determining the future shape of the global economy, in particular the carbon and other commodities markets like oil, gas, food and water, which she says are necessarily focused on sustainability. Ms Diplock asserts that companies are now required to report on the social, environmental and governance aspects of their enterprise in a holistic, integrated way and that the International Integrated Reporting Committee has assembled a stellar group of international standard setters to address this. She will discuss this reporting framework as the way forward for business