Judges

Rex Afrasiabi is a director of New Chapter Legal and Bond Property Lawyers, commercial and property law firms dedicated to helping clients achieve success within the framework of the law. Rex’s career spans diverse legal and business roles, including General Manager and Legal Counsel for a major manufacturing distribution company, Senior Solicitor for high-profile entrepreneurs on the BRW 1000 List, and counsel for government bodies and charitable organizations.

Known for his business acumen, Rex expertly guides clients through complex commercial litigation, business negotiations, and strategic growth initiatives. His clientele includes real estate moguls and business leaders, where he has been instrumental in helping both startups and large enterprises reach their goals.

He also co-hosts the business advisory show “Real Estate Renovators,” bringing together industry experts to discuss growth and strategy. His expertise is widely recognized, with features in Forbes, Times, Entrepreneur Magazine, and the Herald Sun, as well as appearances on numerous podcasts.

Outside of his professional pursuits, Rex values time with friends and family, especially with his two daughters, embracing the balance that family life brings to his career.

Sinthya is a Financial Accountant at BOC South Pacific (Linde), where she leads and manages the end-to-end financial complexities for the South Pacific islands. “The numbers don’t rule, they can inform, but it’s all about us as accountants inside companies having the deep understanding and skills to look at the past and present to help predict and shape the future.”

She is passionate, and a high calibre professional, recently got featured in “ Integrated Report FY23 of CPA Australia”, and was drawn to accounting as a profession, because it gives wider business exposures. She further leads multiple projects, protecting and serving the public interest by ensuring that investors and other stakeholders have materially accurate financial statements and other reliable information on which to base decisions.

Additionally, Sinthya is an Adjudicator for Australasian Reporting Awards, also as a Judge for Accountants Daily, Accounting Reporting Awards assessing annual reports using widely distributing criteria based on world best practices, and recognition of good reporting practices.

Jason is the Director of Broker Essentials and is Australia’s leading Mortgage Broker Mentor and sort after media commentator. In 2016 Jason foundered Broker Essentials and launched a training program for brokers after years of inquiries into the best practices and habits of a high-performance business.

Jason was named 2021 Mentor of the Year at The Adviser Better Business awards, 2021, APAC Entrepreneur of the Year 2021 - Financial Services, ABA 2020 Mentor of the year, and AMA 2020 Service provider of the year. He was the Managing Director of The Australian Lending & Investment Centre (ALIC) and has been instrumental in taking ALIC to the forefront of the mortgage brokering industry. In 2014,15,16 and 2017 ALIC was voted the top independent brokerage of the year by Mortgage Professional Australia, Australia’s best brokerage in 2014 & 15 at the Australian Mortgage Awards and MFAA in 2016 and 2018.

Jason has over 30 years’ experience in the finance sector, having worked in senior sales, distribution and management roles for ANZ and having provided financial advice and services on behalf of financial planning, equity trading platforms, private banking, lending and retail distribution brands.

More details can be found on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-back-broker-essentials/ and at Broker Essentials www.brokeressentials.com.au

Maria is a Senior Lecturer at the Business School UNSW Sydney and Fellow of CPA Australia. Maria’s research interests include integration of environmental, social and governance (ESG) dimensions in investment decision making including, disclosure of climate change information. She is a recipient of several Australian Research Council (ARC) grants with projects that examine the capital market implications of Integrated Reporting and use of environmental and social indicators to develop a valuation methodology for investment decisions. Maria also led a team to develop a built environment impact assessment framework that aims to unlock the value creation capabilities of sustainability reporting in the built environment sector. Maria teaches courses on climate change and sustainability to business students at UNSW. Maria is also a Director at the Australasian Reporting Awards and a member of the Chartered Accountants in Australia and New Zealand (CA ANZ). Maria has a PhD in Economics at the University of Sydney.

Linda Baxter is the Director, Continuing Professional Development and part of the senior management team at Leo Cussen Centre for Law. Having previously been in private practice followed by a regulatory investigative role, Linda also writes materials and trains legal practitioners in Ethics & Professional Conduct.

Dr Deborah Cotton is a senior lecturer in the Finance Discipline of the UTS Business School and has a PhD in Applied Finance for a thesis titled the Efficacy of Emissions Trading Schemes. Her teaching included investing and financial instruments for environmental, social and governance issues as well as impact investing. Deborah has been part of a number of successful research projects and grants at UTS including receiving funding from the 2024 UTS Strategic Research Accelerator scheme for the project; Achieving net-zero goals for corporations: Developing an evidenced-based decision making and benchmarking tool to achieving net zero goals for corporations. Recent research included topics covering gender diversity, carbon emissions, nature and motivations for charitable giving.

Jess is Australia’s leading real estate system and process coach. He is the founder of the Elite Agency Success System program. Jess works with business leaders to achieve peak performance through implementing effective systems and processes to both nurture teams and scale businesses.

Jess draws on his personal experience having built one of Australia's leading real estate businesses. He is the five time recipient of the Number One Ranked Regional Business across Victoria and Tasmania inside Australia’s largest franchise group. During his sales career with this group, he was ranked inside the top 2% of agents across Australia and New Zealand.

Jess has completed numerous leadership programs including the Harvard Leadership School program and is a Level One accredited human behaviour coach with the Coaching Institute.
www.jessdensley.com

I am the founder of The Dubs - the digital marketing and media agency for the finance sector globally.

My job is to oversee the agency's offices in London, Singapore and Sydney with an eye to further expansion.

I love being involved in our clients' strategies and make sure I find time to provide input and advice in this evolving process with them.

I'm also the publisher of our industry publication The Financial Marketer, which delivers the latest trends and leading insights on the issues facing marketers, comms teams and executives in the banking and finance world.

I make time each year to participate as a judge in industry awards as I believe it's important to contribute and am privileged to observe first-hand the best that's being developed by the industry.

Jason Goodacre has spent more than 25 years working in the finance industry, delivering stand-out customer experiences. As Customer Relationship Manager, Jason makes sure Loanworks fulfills service levels and continues to improve products and services to meet, and go beyond, client expectations.

Jason is the key local contact for all of Loanworks’ software, technology and outsourcing services clients, and is responsible for expanding and deepening those customer relationships. He also represents Loanworks at industry events, professional development days and conferences.

Prior to joining Loanworks, Jason was Sales Manager at Thomson Financial (now Reuters) for 11 years, and had previously served in a variety of business development roles for fintech companies, including with IRESS, Powerwrap and City Networks.

Jason holds a Certificate in Financial Markets from the Securities Institute of Australia and an RG 146 – Provision of General Advice from Kaplan Australia.

Adam is an award-winning mortgage broker turned fintech entrepreneur who’s passionate about making the home loan landscape a more level playing field for brokers and homeowners.

After 12 years as a broker, and frustrated with banks offering better interest rates to new mortgage customers while existing customers were being charged a ‘loyalty tax’ (a higher interest rate the longer they’re with the bank). In 2021, he launched Sherlok; powered by AI technology, Sherlok helps brokers retain clients by automating the repricing process and generating quality refinancing leads from their trail book. The AI technology predicts two things: when a client will leave a broker, and when a client is paying too much interest. Sherlok then automatically lowers the client's interest rate, potentially saving them thousands.

Sherlok’s mission is to put brokers and their clients first, and help everyone save money with a single click. It's a win-win situation: brokers' clients save thousands, the brokers keep the clients for longer, the aggregators retain larger loan books and have happy brokers, and the lenders keep their clients.

As a founding partner, I’ve always had a passion for helping like-minded business owners build better businesses. We give clients the clarity to understand where they are and what is achievable, the confidence to take action, and the coordinates so they can reach their goal sooner and safer. As Director of Personal Wealth Advisory, my primary focus is ensuring our subject matter experts across wealth advisory, superannuation, insurance, personal tax and lending work together to 'fuel your family's future'.

With 19 years’ experience in the real estate industry and a comprehensive understanding of NSW Property Management Legislation, Alexandra sets benchmark standards through a compassionate approach to private housing.
Real Estate Institute Community Service Award winner and multi customer service winner, Alexandra has proven her bespoke approach to Property Management can be successful for the landlord, tenant and those impacted by homelessness/domestic violence combined.
Alexandra is regularly asked to speak at industry events on how the private rental sector can work with service providers to minimise homelessness and fast track clients through domestic violence waiting lists into rental accommodation.

With 30 years an award-winning Global Brand Strategist, International Keynote, Thought Leadership Expert, Executive Management in Financial Services and a National and Global Awards Judge, Nicole has designed strategies for CommBank, CommSec, TikTok, Foxtel, Woolworths, Subaru, Electrolux, Yahoo, Mirvac and Telstra and shared the stage with Brené Brown, Seth Godin and Arianna Huffington.

I’ve specialised in commercial finance since the age of 19, working with

• CIT Group
• Dell Financial Services
• Hewlett Packard Financial Services
• Prospa

Then became a commercial finance broker specialising in cashflow and equipment.

Sascha Moore is a marketing specialist, who focuses on providing highly strategic, creative solutions – predominantly to the financial services and legal industries. Sascha has extensive experience in Australia and the United States with developing effective integrated marketing programs, and directing their implementation. She is now the Director of Create Design & Marketing, a boutique marketing communications agency that fuses solid strategy and powerful designs that directly resonates with a clients’ end markets. This approach creates a true connection: and connection drives results, deepens brand equity and furthers relationships. In addition to her professional obligations, Sascha is actively committed to educating brokers on how to enhance their business through incorporating smart marketing practices.

Professor Rahat Munir is the Head of Department of Accounting and Corporate Governance, Macquarie University Sydney. He is the Chairperson of Chair of Accounting and Finance Forum (CAFF) of all universities in Australia and New Zealand. He is also forensic accounting specialist with financial crime investigative and financial statement integrity skills. Prior to his academic journey he held several senior administrative positions in the banking sector besides continuing to pursue an active career in research. He is FCA (Chartered Accountants Australian & New Zealand), FCPA (Certified Practising Accountant Australia) and PhD from Macquarie University, Sydney.

He is internationally known for his expertise in curriculum development, innovative learning and teaching practices and accreditation, including AACSB and AMBA. Professor Munir has been instrumental in maintaining strong ongoing relationships with external stakeholders, including professional associations, universities and communities - Universities in China, Southeast Asia, South Asia and Europe. He has served on the panel for Faculty/Course Reviews of various Universities in Australia, New Zealand, Europe and the USA. With his strong engagement with industry, he leads Australia-wide most prestigious CFO Forum, Women Thought Leadership, Business Leaders Roundtables and Thinktanks.

He has written over 100 peer reviewed articles in top journals globally, books, book chapters, monographs, conference papers and commissioned reports, and over 50 publications for professional and lay audiences. Although the bulk of his research focuses on management accounting and controls, he has also published in important cognate areas such as education, CSR, corporate governance, corporate culture and research expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). He has conducted research in a wide range of industry (Big4 firms manufacturing, banking, airlines, and politics) and country contexts, especially in Asia with research in China, Indonesia, Pakistan, Malaysia, India and other countries. Professor Munir has delivered scores of invited/keynote presentations, and his expert opinions has been featured in radio, television, newspapers, newsletters, and web outlets worldwide. He has supervised to completion 20 research higher degree students and assessed scores of doctoral students’ thesis from Australian and international universities.

He is affiliated with several professional bodies including the Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, Professional Risk Managers International Association, USA, American Accounting Association, British Accounting Association, Canadian Accounting Association and European Accounting Association. Professor Munir serves on various high-level Committees and Advisory Boards. Professor Munir has also served on the TAFE NSW Higher Education Academic Board. He is also serving on the Education Board of the Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand. He has served as guest editor and referee/scientific program committee of various international journals, and organised conferences & workshops.

Professor Munir’s sustained excellence in teaching and research has been recognised through international awards, including Business/Higher Education Roundtable Award for excellence in accounting teaching collaborations and CPA Australia’s awards for achievement in academia. His contribution has also been acknowledged for his projects in 2015, 2021 and 2024 for the Wharton-QS Stars Reimagine Education Awards at the University of Pennsylvania in the Nurturing Employability Award category for the most innovative pedagogical approach to learning and teaching. He has served on the judging panel of the Momentum Media and Accountants Daily’s Australian Accounting and Australian Digital Technology, Women in Finance and 30 Under 30 Awards. Professor Munir's case study - The Ethics of Profit in the Australian Retail Industry was amongst the top 4 teaching cases globally by the Decision Sciences Institute, Washington DC for the ‘Best Teaching Case Studies Award’ competition.

With a firm footing in the financial sector in Zurich and New York, Carmen came to social finance organisation Good Return via a journey of running her own social purpose organisation. Heading up the partnerships team, Carmen is driven to build support for Good Return because of her own passion for social equity and justice and her connection to Good Return's mission. By working at Good Return she has seen first-hand the power of finance for Good, and is proud to represent a team of experts in the field who are breaking down barriers for women entrepreneurs and changing the financial system so more women and thrive and succeed. If you care about economic stability for all in Australia and our region and making sure marginalised communities can build resilient livelihoods for themselves and their families, then Carmen is the person to talk to. Carmen is an avid traveller off the beaten path, with 2 teenage sons and a penchant for Australian native flora and birds.

John’s extensive experience includes executive manager roles in banking for over 25 years. Focusing on the SME sector and with a thorough understanding of the borrowing process, he has helped brokers to obtain access to capital their clients need for growth. John is well known for delivering powerful workshops, breaking down the intricacies of business financials into simple concepts and language.

Brett is a second-generation mortgage stalwart, having been actively involved in the Mortgage & Finance industry for over 30 years after starting his career working at the family-owned lender Interstar (now Advantedge). He then went onto to run the Stargate Group where he pioneered outsourced mortgage processing services by creating the first BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) operation for Mortgage Brokers and was instrumental in introducing the first Mortgage Broker CRM Systems in the early 2000’s, used by over 5000 mortgage brokers prior to its acquisition by then ASX listed Rubik Financial Limited (RFL).

Brett set about using AI to build supportive systems for mortgage participants, building the first Responsible Lending platform at Opica Group, and now as founder & CEO of Docuscan Australia he is building industry leading platforms for Brokers, Lenders and Mortgage Professionals using his vast experience in the latest AI technologies to Eliminate Data Entry using Drag & Drop Data Capture and Document Fraud Detection solutions to facilitate digital customer acquisitions.

Brett also serves on the Board of an advisory services firm, a responsible lending technology firm, a new to market fintech lender specialising in loans to Australia’s front-line responders and has been an investor and advisor to lenders, aggregators and regulators in Australia and abroad.

With over 25 years of experience as a property valuer in New South Wales and Victoria, Gareth has valued more than 15,000 properties, encompassing a diverse range of asset types. From residential home units and industrial development sites to luxury harbour-front dwellings, working farms, and commercial properties, Gareth brings an unmatched breadth of expertise to every valuation.

A graduate of the University of Technology Sydney, where he earned a Bachelor of Land Economics in 1999, he is recognised as a Certified Practising Valuer and an Associate of the Australian Property Institute and is regularly called upon to provide expert evidence in a range of litigation matters. These qualifications underpin his commitment to the highest professional standards.

In addition to valuation, Gareth is a licensed Buyer's Agent with a proven track record of purchasing high-performing properties in every state and territory across Australia over the past decade. This dual expertise provides unique insights into property markets nationwide, blending analytical precision with strategic investment acumen.

Having collaborated extensively with lawyers, accountants, mortgage professionals, financial planners, and property developers, Gareth specialises in complex litigation matters. His experience includes being cross-examined as an expert witness and consulting with finance and accounting professionals on challenging taxation cases. This combination of technical expertise and strategic problem-solving has solidified their reputation as a trusted authority in property valuation and acquisition.

As Director of Encore Advisory Group, Mark is well known in the Advice industry and is a highly sort after trainer, educator and coach. Mark has worked with numerous mortgage broking and financial planning businesses enabling them to undertake the key important action of building a successful client advice practice, for the long term.

In 2017, after decades leading Wealth, Broking and Advice businesses, Encore was reimagined to better serve and prepare brokers and planners for the challenges and opportunities that lay ahead. Encore believes a better advice business means a better industry and therefore a better community.

Mark delivers practical, real-world solutions helping businesses navigate today’s complex environment whilst providing essential advice, helping to improve the quality and value of their business. This is achieved through partnerships with the right people and solutions thus enabling practices to deliver increasingly valuable advice to more clients.

Believing every Australian deserves advice on “both sides of the balance sheet”, Mark successfully built a mortgage broking business that partnered with over 200 financial planning practices and accounting firms, delivering advice services to over 5,500 Australian families a year.

Mark is known as a leading authority in bringing together Broking and Planning groups to deliver integrated “debt advice” and “broker planner” solutions. He is dedicated to this community as an SME owner himself. Mark is himself a consumer and advocate of Advice services and has led and steered advice businesses successfully through market, regulatory and consumer change and disruption for over 20 years.