16 September, 8:00 am – 10:00 am (AEST) : Sydney

The Australian Access Federation (AAF) invites you to participate in our Sydney roundtable breakfast session to explore the challenges and opportunities in Trust and Identity for research and higher education. The aim of the session is to exchange ideas that can inform future roadmaps and strategies for the sector.

The roundtable is a part of the CAUDIT Spring Members Meeting and the AHECS 2025 Cybersecurity Summit, and we encourage all Sydney based senior leaders and experts in the higher education and research sector to attend.

The roundtable will bring together leading representatives to consider how trust and identity is evolving in our sector and shape its future.

Guest panel

• Charlsey Pearce: Chief Executive Officer, MortarCAPS Higher Learning Data Standard
• Greg Sawyer: Chief Executive Officer, CAUDIT
• Dima Postnikov: Head of Identity Strategy and Architecture, connectID, AusPayPlus 
• Karl Sellmann: Chair AHECS (Australian Higher Education Cybersecurity Service)
• Tracy Baylis: Head of Operations and Strategy, AURIN
• John Scullen: Head of Trust and Identity Strategy and Futures, Australian Access Federation,
• Margie Jantti: Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Australian Access Federation

Who should attend

• CIO’s and CISO’s in the higher education and research sector
• National Research Infrastructure leaders
• AAF project partners and collaborators

Upcoming Roundtables

This is the first in a series of roundtables for the higher education and research sector, which we will be hosting in other states soon, so please sign up for the AAF Newsletter to receive information on upcoming events.

Please reach out to [email protected] if you have any queries.

Event details

• Where: PARKROYAL Parramatta, Sydney
• When: Tuesday, 16 September
• Time: 8.00am to 10.00am (AEST)

Please register your attendance by using this registration link.

Places are limited, please register as early as possible.

For CAUDIT Spring Members Meeting attendees, please register for catering purposes.

Meet the guest panellists

Charlsey Pearce is CEO of MortarCAPS, a not-for-profit driving the MortarCAPS Higher Learning Data Standard (MCDS), supported by over 75 institutions across Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. She collaborates with peak bodies and tech partners to help the sector shape its own data future. The MCDS streamlines student records and reporting by providing a common, scalable structure that supports interoperability across systems.

Karl Sellmann is the Chief Information Security Officer at Flinders University and Chair of AHECS, where he leads efforts to strengthen cyber security across the higher education sector. With experience spanning higher education since 2007 and prior leadership roles in industries such as defence, retail, and logistics, Karl is a strategic technology leader known for driving digital transformation and fostering innovation. He is a strong advocate for building collaborative ecosystems that connect academia and industry to address emerging digital challenges and support secure organisational growth.

Greg joined CAUDIT as Director, Cybersecurity in January 2020 and was appointed Chief Executive Officer in April 2022. He brings over 25 years of experience in the higher education sector, having held various technical and leadership roles at the University of Sydney and UNSW Sydney. Prior to this, Greg served 11 years in the Australian Army, specialising in electronics, radio communications, and cypher, including a UN deployment in Cambodia. Greg holds a Master of Business Technology and is a 2018 graduate of the CAUDIT Leadership Institute.

John is the Head of Trust & Identity Strategy and Futures at the Australian Access Federation. He is responsible for helping to adapt AAF’s services to meet stakeholder needs in a rapidly changing external environment. With 25 years’ experience in the higher education and research sector, John has a strong track record of successfully delivering large, complex projects and in developing innovative approaches to business and technology solutions.

Tracy is Head of Operations & Strategy at AURIN and a non-executive Director at ACRI, with over a decade of experience in research infrastructure. A graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, she has led governance initiatives across the research and not-for-profit sectors. Since 2019, her focus has been on digital research infrastructure, including AURIN’s strategic collaboration with the AAF to enable secure access to curated data for thousands of researchers. She now leads efforts to expand access to sensitive and commercial data for industry partnerships.

Meet the Chair

Deputy CEO of the AAF, Margie is well known in the sector, holding significant leadership roles, including Director Library Services University of Wollongong (UOW), former Chair of the Council of Australasian University Librarians (CAUL), former member and Chair of the ORCID Governance Group, former Board Director of the AAF, Board Director of CAVAL, and member of the Cambridge University Press Australian and New Zealand Advisory Board.