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PETER FITZSIMONS AM

Peter FitzSimons is one of Australia’s most prominent and successful media and publishing identities. His busy professional life involves co-hosting the breakfast program on Sydney’s Radio 2UE, writing weekly columns for the Sydney Morning Herald and Sun Herald newspapers, appearing on Foxtel’s Back Page television show and, when time permits, authoring best-selling books.

For the past two decades, the much-traveled former Wallaby rugby international, who masters four languages, has interviewed some of the world’s most famous figures, including former US President George Bush, Mother Theresa and football great Diego Maradona.

Writing is his passion. He is the biographer of World Cup winning Wallaby captains Nick Farr-Jones and John Eales, former Federal Opposition Leader Kim Beazley, war heroine Nancy Wake, former Australian Test cricket captain Steve Waugh and magazine queen Nene King.

In 2001 he was Australia’s biggest selling non-fiction author with just under 250,000 sales. He duplicated that feat in 2004 with his book on Kokoda and had similar success in 2006 with his book on Tobruk.

On December 12, 2011 he entered the Guinness Book of Records for the World’s Longest Radio Interview – 24 hours with ABC Radio’s Richard Glover. This was to celebrate the release of his 24th book, about Antarctic explorer Douglas Mawson.

Peter appears courtesy of Celebrity Speakers

STEVE KEEN

Steve Keen is Professor of Economics & Finance at the University of Western Sydney, and author of the popular book Debunking Economics (2nd edition, Zed Books UK, 2011) and websites www.debtdeflation.com/blogs and http://www.debunkingeconomics.com/). Steve’s excellent communication skills were honed in his pre-academic career, which included stints as a school librarian, education officer for an NGO, conference organizer, computer programmer, journalist for the computer press, and economic commentator for ABC Radio National and Radio Australia.

Steve Keen has over 60 academic publications on topics as diverse as financial instability, the money creation process, mathematical flaws in the conventional model of supply and demand, flaws in Marxian economics, the application of physics to economics, Islamic finance, and the role of chaos and complexity theory in economics. His work has been translated into Chinese, German and Russian.

Since 1995, Steve’s main research focus has been the development of an alternative, empirically grounded theory, known as the “Financial Instability Hypothesis”, which argues that finance markets are inherently unstable. Steve’s book on this topic, Finance and Economic Breakdown, will be published by Edward Elgar (UK) in 2013.

Steve predicted the Global Financial Crisis as long ago as December 2005 and since November 2006 has published Debtwatch, a monthly report which explains the dangers of excessive private debt. This report, which is freely available on his blog (http://www.debtdeflation.com/blogs) has received extensive coverage in the Australian media and is reproduced by other noted commentators around the world, including Nouriel Roubini’s RGE Monitor (http://www.rgemonitor.com/) and Alan Kohler’s Business Spectator (http://www.businessspectator.com.au/).

Steve appears courtesy of Celebrity Speakers

KAREN SCHMIDT

Karen Schmidt describes herself as a workplace gardener who is on a mission to grow managers into engaging leaders. The seeds for her role as a speaker, workshop leader and facilitator were planted early in her career when she encountered disengaging managers and colleagues who were performing below their capabilities. In order to help people to not just survive but thrive at work, she made it her goal to grow herself into an employee engagement expert.

Along the way she experienced the workplace from the point of view of a staff member, manager, recruiter, contractor and consultant working in organisations of all shapes and sizes.

To add to her 20 plus years of practical experience she has formal qualifications in Human Resource Management and Adult Education and is the author of two books.

Today she works with current and future leaders across Australia, New Zealand and Asia in a diverse range of industries to help them create more engaging workplaces. Her clients include corporates, government departments, small business, professional associations, educational institutions and Not for Profits.

BRUCE SULLIVAN

Bruce is a relationship specialist and a proven performer in achieving results through people for over 24 years. His practical, hands on experience is based on working in both the community and business. He is a Husband to Gillian of 24 years, a Father to Hannah (13) and Declan (10) and he currently balances this with being a Director of six private companies.

Managing his own businesses since his teens, by age 24 he had established his own million-dollar network of businesses and he has an extended track record of working with a wide range of private and public organisations’, both in Australia and overseas.

Bruce has also worked with individuals, families and communities providing education and opportunities for personal improvement. It is this experience that has given Bruce a unique understanding of our ability to relate to one another in the workplace and at home. This is what sets his work apart and gives a very practical and timely insight into the human side of the corporate environment.

In 2007 Bruce was awarded the Keynote Speaker of the Year by the National Speakers Association of Australia. He was also presented with the Paul Harris Fellowship Award for his outstanding contribution to the Rotary Youth Leadership Award which is a Youth Leadership Program for up and coming leaders in the 18 to 25 year old category. Bruce has been presenting at this program for over 19 years.

“NIGEL”

Nigel is not only one of Australia’s best, most versatile entertainers, he also has an incredible memory. He can memorise and recall up to 350 names after a brief meeting. Most importantly, he has developed and refined theories and practical strategies that others can use to acquire the same skill. Both Today Tonight and the Midday show have been amazed and astonished by Nigel’s incredible abilities and you will too.

Nigel has a unique background; he’s a great comedian and award winning magician with three university degrees, including a current Masters of Business in Applied Finance.

As a Master of Ceremonies Nigel adds life and humour to events. He is very funny, spontaneous and also extremely professional. His light-hearted approach and energising personality ensure his audiences always have a great time.