Keynote Speakers
Varsha Devi Balakrishnan
Head of Student Insights and Strategy – Voyage
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Varsha Devi Balakrishnan
Varsha Devi Balakrishnan is a dynamic leader in the international education sector, combining deep expertise in research with innovative approaches to address complex challenges. Recognised globally as the 2024 PIEoneer Emerging Leader of the Year and the 2023 IEAA Tony Adams Rising Star, she has pioneered The Social Source, an AI-driven platform revolutionising data and sentiment analysis. Her work has influenced key stakeholders, including policymakers, university leaders, and industry stakeholders, driving impactful change across the sector.
With a proven track record of delivering consultancy-driven solutions, Varsha excels in managing client relationships and integrating quantitative and qualitative research methodologies. Drawing on her experience as a former international student, she brings an empathetic and authentic perspective to her work, ensuring that student voices are heard and drive decision-making. Her dedication to innovation, strategic thinking, and client-centric outcomes has established her as a trusted voice, consistently transforming insights into actionable strategies for organisational growth. Varsha is currently the Head of Student Insights and Strategy at Voyage.
Jon Chew
Chief Insights Officer – Navitas
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Jon Chew
Jon Chew is one of world’s leading market analysts in international education. He is Chief Insights Officer at global higher education provider Navitas and brings in-depth expertise on global trends in education, built on the rigorous analysis of a wide range of external and in-house datasets. His work is informed by an up-to-the-minute industry perspective developed collaboratively with a global network of stakeholders, policy-makers and experts. Prior to joining Navitas, Jon spent 10 years in management and economic consulting. Jon was the recipient of the IEAA Excellence Award in Professional Commentary in 2022.
Mark Mayor
Chief Insights Officer – Navitas
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Mike Mayor
Mike Mayor is Senior Director, Global Scale of English at Pearson. On leaving university, Mike worked as a teacher of English in France before entering the world of publishing as a lexicographer. Mike joined Pearson in 2003 and headed up the Longman dictionaries list until his move to the Global Scale of English in 2013. In this role, Mike works with coursebook and assessment teams to ensure that the Global Scale of English underpins all elements of the Pearson English Journey. Mike has a BA in French Language and Literature and a Masters in English and Applied Linguistics from Cambridge University.
Phuong Tran
Manager of Assessment from – Monash College
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Phuong Tran
Phuong Tran is Manager of Assessment from Monash College. She specialises in educational assessment and measurement. Phuong has extensive experience in assessment and rubrics development, validation and benchmarking, language teaching, curriculum development and management, and teacher training. Her current interests are transition education and quality assessment design in the face of generative artificial intelligence.
Workshop Speakers
Frances Baxter
Executive Director – Value Learning
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Frances Baxter
Frances Baxter is an intercultural educator who has designed and facilitated learning programs for business, volunteers, students, and educators across Australia and in a diverse range of countries worldwide. Over the last decade she has designed and managed government funded projects including the Australia-Indonesia Youth Exchange Program for DFAT, and the Victorian Young Leaders Programs to China, India and Indonesia on behalf of the Victorian Department of Education, Global Competence for IES Abroad for University students in Japan. Fran is a qualified administrator of a range of intercultural assessment tools including the Intercultural Effectiveness Scale, Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI), GlobeSmart, Global Competence Inventory(GCI)and the Inclusive Behaviours Inventory (IBI)
Marcela Lapertosa
Director of Education – Value Learning
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Marcela Lapertosa
Marcela Lapertosa is a Cross Cultural Psychologist with a passion for fostering intercultural understanding. Marcela is also an intercultural facilitator and trainer who has travelled the world providing intercultural learning training and coaching to students, host families, volunteers, executives, and educators. Marcela led the development of multiple intercultural learning curricula to enhance study abroad experiences including the AFS Global Competence Certificate (GCC), a blended learning program for 18+ study abroad participants. Over the last few years Marcela has been an advocate for Global Citizenship education organising and speaking at several conferences around the world. She is on the executive team for the World Council on Intercultural and Global Competence and she is a former faculty at the Summer Institute for Intercultural Communication and is also a certified administrator of the Intercultural Development Inventory.
Christopher Newcombe
Strategic Lead, Academic Language Development Office of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) – The University of Queensland
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Chris Newcombe
Chris is an academic language and learning specialist at The University of Queensland, where he leads strategic initiatives to enhance academic communication and critical thinking skills among international and domestic students. With a diverse background in English language education and student services, Chris works in partnership with faculties to embed language development into curricula and assessment. He is currently leading cross-faculty projects focused on embedding language specialists within academic programs, enhancing academic skills at the program level and developing training for academic staff in adoption of inclusive teaching practices for international students.
Christopher Nuttel
Academic Manager – The University of Queensland
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Chris Nuttal
Chris Varney is Founder and Chief Enabling Officer of I CAN Network Ltd.
I CAN Network Ltd is Australia’s largest Autistic-led organisation with 83 Autistic staff and 3,000 young people engaged in its group mentoring programs.
Chris was inspired to start I CAN from the support his family, schools and mentors gave him, which he shared in his TEDx ‘Autism – How My Unstoppable Mother Proved the Experts Wrong’.
Chris has a background in children’s rights. Chris spent 11 years with World Vision Australia and World Vision International where his roles included Youth Ambassador, VGen Co-Director and Manager of Youth Supporters. VGen
was instrumental in achieving commitments to fair-trade from big chocolate companies.
In 2009 Chris was Australian Youth Representative to the United Nations. In this role Chris successfully campaigned for the closure of the Magill Training Centre and created Dear
Kevin: a book of 789 handwritten letters by children and young people given to then-Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.
In addition to I CAN, Chris is National Patron of the Australian Association for Special Education and Chair of the Victorian Disability Advisory Council.
