ACFE Sydney Chapter Inaugural Conference
On Thursday 29 September 2016, the ACFE Sydney Chapter held their inaugural one-day conference at the Macquarie Graduate School of Management. In attendance were anti-fraud professionals from public and private sector practices, university students studying the profession and members of academia.
Paul Jevtovic – AUSTRAC CEO
The conference commenced with a key note address by AUSTRAC CEO Paul Jevtovic, who set the tone for the day by speaking about the current state of the industry and AUSTRAC’s role as both a regulator and a partner to industry going forward. Alex Newton (Herbert Smith Freehills) followed with an insightful presentation covering human rights in business. Additional presentations by Ralph Tursi (Assistance Legal Attaché from the US Embassy in Canberra (FBI)) and Dr John Langdale (Associate Professor Macquarie University) provided attendees with insights into business and economic espionage and money laundering in the Asia-Pacific region respectively.
Following lunch, the conference split into two breakout sessions with attendees selecting the session that best fit their interests.
Stream A, focusing on intelligence, included presentations by:
- Matt McCarthy – Chief Inspector, Intelligence Directorate NSW Police, and Visual Analysis and
- Adam Marsden and Stefan Williams – Australian Federal Police.
Stream B, focusing on forensic evidence, included presentations by:
- Melinda Adam – Team Leader, Australian Federal Police, Criminal Asset Confiscation Team) and
- Dr John Selby (Cybercrime hub, Department of Accounting and Corporate Governance, Macquarie University).
Both streams concluded with a career panel, where panelists gave an overview of their roles and answered questions posed by attendees.
Panelist Discussion
Panelists from Stream A offered insights into becoming a commercial fraud examiner / fraud practitioner:
- Zach McAfee – Group Manager Integrity Risk, QANTAS and
- James Roberts – General Manager Group Fraud Management Services, Commonwealth Bank.
Stream B’s panelists provided insights into forensic consulting:
- Natalie Faulkner – Director Forensics, KPMG,
- Paul Curby – Partner Forensic, KordaMentha and
- Murray Lawson – Director Global Risk and Investigations, FTI Consulting.
The conference concluded with networking, drinks and canapes in the Macquarie University Art Gallery.
Networking Drinks
We would like to thank all speakers, panellists and attendees for their participation on the day. In addition, we would like to thank our host, Macquarie University, for their support in organising and running the event.
We have posted some more photos from the event below:
ACFE Sydney Chapter 
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