AI Governance Programme Custodians of AI Gallery
Where AI Governance Begins
AI is being governed right now and these are the people stepping up to do it. We’re proud to celebrate these professionals came from legal, risk, healthcare, financial services, the public sector and beyond. They didn’t just take part in our AI Governance, they built a foundation. A shared language for AI governance. The confidence to ask the right questions. And the authority to take a seat at the table where AI decisions are made.
Meet the Custodians of AI
Johnathan Hunter
AI Governance and Legal AI Advisor, Director at Laero
Jonathan Hunter has spent more than 25 years as a General Counsel, he is a co-founder of the Tech Council of Australia and now works to close the gap he sees in most organisations: AI deployed long before it was ever governed. As Director at Laero, he helps organisations build AI Management Systems aligned to the international standard ISO/IEC 42001, and helps in-house legal teams choose the right AI platforms with no vendor allegiances.
An AI Governance Practitioner certified through TechDiversity Academy, Jonathan pairs that credential with independent legal AI research through Laero, and is currently building an AI Management System for a client in a regulated industry. His conviction is a straightforward one: governance cannot be an afterthought bolted on once AI is already in use. Whether the task is building AI governance that genuinely works for an organisation or selecting a legal AI tool that fits, that is the work he comes in to do.
Alice Footer
Founder and AI Governance Practitioner
Alice joined the programme as one of 12 women sponsored by AWS, wanting to look beyond what AI can do and understand how it should be governed. She believes accountability, transparency and fairness are what earn people’s trust in the technology shaping their lives.
As the founder of FromBeyond.co, a digital legacy platform she started at 16, Alice helps families preserve the voices, stories and memories of the people they love. Because the platform handles some of the most personal data there is, she is making trust, consent and care part of its foundation from day one, rather than something added later.
Laura Malcolm
AI Governance Practitioner
Laura Malcolm is an executive business and technology leader and a member of Chief Executive Women, with a career spanning enterprise technology, transformation and leadership. A newly Certified AI Governance Practitioner, she came to the programme seeing governance not as a constraint on AI, but as the thing that lets an organisation use it with clarity and confidence.
For Laura, AI governance is not just the domain of governments, boards and senior leaders. It is for anyone who wants to see AI used safely, responsibly and effectively. It gives people the approach, the tools and the common language to frame how AI is used, along with the questions to ask to weigh its risks, benefits and broader impacts. She sees it as a fundamental skill for every leader, one that protects an organisation and, done well, becomes a genuine competitive advantage.
Monique Esplin
Partner Sales Leader, NZ at AWS
AI Governance Practitioner
Monique Esplin is Partner Sales Leader for New Zealand at Amazon Web Services, a fast-paced technology innovator known for her energy and her appetite for learning. Rather than take the programme on her own, she brought a strong cohort of AWS colleagues and partner-network organisations through it alongside her, in the belief that AI governance is something a whole team builds together, not a task for one person to carry back alone.
Monique is candid that she expected governance to be dry and found the opposite. She came away seeing AI governance as essential to innovation rather than a brake on it: the discipline that makes innovation safe, sustainable and inclusive. It is a perspective she now carries into how she works with the partners and customers navigating the responsible adoption of AI.
Amber Weightman
Tech, People & Product Leader
Amber is a technology leader and advisor whose experience spans software engineering, legal technology, AI implementation, organisational leadership and strategy.
Having overseen AI-driven business process transformations and the delivery of AI-enabled products, she is interested in the practical challenges of governing emerging technologies in ways that are both effective and human-centred.
Through the AI Governance Diverse Practitioners Programme, Amber is expanding her AI governance expertise through exploring how diverse perspectives can strengthen decision-making, accountability and trust in AI systems and processes. She is passionate about bringing together technical, legal, regulatory, organisational and human considerations to support responsible and sustainable innovation.
Anitha Vallabh
General Manager – Data & AI
Anitha Vallabh is a Data & AI Leader with over two decades of experience in enterprise transformation across Australia and globally. She has championed data governance from the ground up educating senior leaders and colleagues on why data deserves to be taken seriously. Now, with AI in the hands of almost everyone, that voice needs to be louder than ever.
Every time she looks deeper into AI governance, a new complexity emerges. Governance is not a future problem or someone else’s mandate; it belongs to all of us, right now. She joined the program to not just think about the hard questions, but to ask them with the diverse voices shaping the AI systems that shape our world.
Clare Menzies
Strategic Partnership Manager
Clare Menzies is a Strategic Partnership Manager with over 15 years’ experience in senior roles in the Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) sector. She has a unique blend of senior account management (National Sales Manager role) & supply chain management, along with a Business Development focus. She had developed a wealth of experience in domestic and international logistics functions.
As AI becomes central to how government and enterprise make decisions, she wanted to make sure she understands the rules of the road. AI governance isn’t just a technical conversation; it should matter to all of us.
Kitty O’Brien
Head of Product at Genomical, a genomic information management system.
Kitty completed Module 1, and brought a rare combination of forensic DNA analysis, software development, and laboratory information management to the world of genomic health technology. Her hands-on experience gives her a unique perspective on what it means to develop technology securely and responsibly.
Kitty brought a lens of responsible use to the AI governance conversations. Her background working with genomic data gives her a first-hand understanding of what it means to work with sensitive data where integrity and ethical practice aren’t optional extras, but fundamental to the work.
