Lyn Lewis-Smith CEO BESydney

Lyn Lewis-Smith is CEO of BESydney and leads a global team of professionals spanning Europe, North America and Asia who are charged with securing global meetings of strategic, economic and social benefit to Sydney, Australia. The organisation works across sectors which include infrastructure, technology, professional services, advanced manufacturing, education and health. Lyn has led transformation globally, passionately advocating for Australian business, scientific and cultural achievements on the world stage and received the Destination International’s Humanitarian Award for her co-authored and published research with UTS: Determining Business Events Legacies beyond the Tourism spend. 

 An experienced non-executive director, Lyn is a Fellow of the UTS, Adjunct Professor and Co-Chairs the University of Technology Sydney Business School Advisory Board, Director of Destinations International, Committee for Sydney and the Women’s Resilience Centre.

Eamon Waterford CEO Committee for Sydney

Eamon’s career has spanned the social, economic and urban needs of Sydney.

He started his career working side-by-side with people experiencing long-term homelessness in Penrith and Blacktown to understand their challenges, and undertook the first Homelessness Street Count in the Western Parkland City.

Prior to joining the Committee as CEO, Eamon was the Chief Strategy Officer of the Department of Enterprise, Investment and Trade, sitting on the Executive of the Department and leading strategic projects across the Investment, Industry and Trade, Arts and Culture, Sport, Tourism and Hospitality and Racing sectors.

Before this, Eamon was Deputy CEO and Policy Director at the Committee for Sydney, Director of Policy for Youth Action NSW, the peak body for young people and the services that support them across NSW, and worked in social services including UnitingCare and Marist Youth Care.

As the Committee’s Policy Director, Eamon delivered more than 40 reports, including work on Density Done Well, Benchmarking Sydney’s Performance, the Sandstone Mega-Region and Safety After Dark.

Eamon is also engaged in broader Sydney society as a member of the Monkey Baa Theatre Company board, and previously served as a Board Director of the NSW Council of Social Services (NCOSS), Sydney Community Foundation, and Sydney Alliance.

Julinus Jeffery Jimit CEO Sabah Tourism Board

• With Ernst & Young LLP for more than 12 years
• With STB for more than 10 years
• Chartered Accountant by profession
• Certified Train the Trainer
• Responsible to initiate and develop Sabah Rural and Community Based Tourism since 2014

Meaghan Ferrigno Senior Vice President, Chief Data and Analytics Officer Destination Canada

Meaghan Ferrigno is Destination Canada’s Chief Data and Analytics Officer (CDAO), a role which positions Destination Canada as an Insight Driven Organization, curating industry data to optimize both supply- and demand-side decisions.

She leads Destination Canada’s data strategy to help maximize the competitiveness and resilience of the Canadian tourism sector, making good information and analysis broadly available to tourism partners, businesses, local communities and government.

From her past roles, Meaghan brings an exceptional range of expertise in data-enabled competitive strategies and business agility. She is a certified CPA, CMA who holds an MBA in Management Technology from SFU’s Beedie School of Business as well as PMP and agile designations.

One of her most important and current priorities at Destination Canada is to build and launch the Canadian Tourism Data Collective, in partnership with Statistics Canada, other major data providers, and many industry businesses. This national platform harnesses the power of tourism data, to generate a source of long-term collaborative advantage, drive innovation for Canada's hosting economy, empowering decision-makers across public and private sectors.

Meaghan joined as the Crown corporation’s CDAO in August of 2021.

Todd Babiak CEO Brand Tasmania

Todd Babiak is CEO of Brand Tasmania. He made the switch from place branding and economic development consulting, with Story Engine and Places are People, where he had worked with clients in North America, Latin America, Europe, Africa, and Australia. Why did he move to Tasmania, to join his former client as CEO? He had never implemented a strategy before, and he was inspired to understand why people didn’t always take action on his “brilliant advice.”

Now he gets it.

See tasmanian.com.au and toddbabiak.com.