Hugh Bradlow – Keynote Speaker

Hugh Bradlow is globally recognised as a thought leader in telecommunications and was elected as the joint 2009 Australian Telecommunications Ambassador of the Year, named by Global Telecom Business as one of the most 100 most influential telecommunications executives in the world and Smart Company designated him as one of the 12 most influential people in Australian ICT.

Bradlow recently retired from his 22-year career at Telstra after working as Chief Technology Officer, Head of Innovation, Chief Scientist and Director of Telstra Research Labs, where he was responsible for evaluating the emerging technologies that impact Telstra’s future business and as a result, gained a business and media reputation as a “futurist”.

Hugh Bradlow is now President of the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering, Australia’s peak body for technologists and engineers which acts as a ‘think tank’ to advocate for the development and adoption of technology in Australia. The Academy elects the best minds in technology to its Fellowship and then commits them to developing strategies which will turn Australia into a world leading technology economy.

Bradlow is a graduate in electrical engineering from the University of Cape Town in 1973 and received the D.Phil. degree for research in experimental nuclear physics from the University of Oxford. He has also attended the Stanford Executive Program. Bradlow is an Emeritus Professor of the University of Wollongong, a Professorial Fellow of the University of Melbourne, and a recipient of a Centenary Medal from the Commonwealth of Australia.

Hugh Bradlow has been a company director for a number of innovation-based entities, including Silicon Quantum Computing Pty Ltd, Allen & Buckeridge, Seed Stage Ventures Board of Directors, Telstra R&D Management Pty Ltd (Executive Chair), Wollongong Uniadvice (Pty) Ltd, Telecommunications Society of Australia and IEEE Communications Society Board of Governors amongst others.

During his career at Telstra he has given over 400 presentations, being in high demand as a speaker on technology topics and innovation. His insights into the future are based on applying a deep understanding of emerging technologies to thought experiments about how consumers and businesses will use these technologies once they become mainstream.

Before joining Telstra in September 1995, Hugh Bradlow was Professor of Computer Engineering at the University of Wollongong in Australia and Professor of Electrical Engineering (Digital Systems) at the University of Cape Town.