The Consortium on Digital Economy’s 2025 Conference

03/17/2025 08:55 am 03/18/2025 05:00 pm Australia/Melbourne The Consortium on Digital Economy’s 2025 Conference

The Digital Lab at Monash Business School, in collaboration with The Initiative on Digital Competition at USC Marshall, are proud to jointly host our insightful annual conference at Monash University’s Caulfield campus.

The Consortium is a collaborative research network on the digital economy, bringing together researchers from leading Asia-Pacific business schools, including the Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business, Hong Kong University, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Korea University, Monash University, the National University of Singapore, Seoul National University, Tsinghua University, the University of Southern California, the University of Tokyo, and Yonsei University.

Day 1 of the conference will feature research presentations on topics such as artificial intelligence, data and privacy, digital platforms, digital transformation, and competition and tech sector regulation.

Day 2 will feature a keynote speech by Gina Cass-Gottlieb, Chair of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), as well as two panel discussions on competition enforcement and regulation as well as pro-growth innovation policies.

The panels will feature representatives from regulatory bodies across the Asia-Pacific, leading consulting and law firms, industry associations, and international and local companies.

Keynote speaker

Gina Cass-Gottlieb, Chair, ACCC

Ms Cass-Gottlieb commenced her 5-year appointment as Chair of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) on 21 March 2022.

Before joining the ACCC, Ms Cass-Gottlieb was a senior and founding partner of Gilbert and Tobin’s competition and regulation team. Ms Cass-Gottlieb has over 25 years' experience advising on a large number of merger, competition and regulatory matters in Australia and New Zealand. She is widely recognised as one of Australia’s leading competition and regulatory experts.

Ms Cass-Gottlieb was appointed by the Commonwealth Treasurer to the Reserve Bank of Australia’s Payments System Board in 2013. She was re-appointed in 2018 and again in 2023 for a further 5 year term. The Payments System Board is the regulator of access to payment systems. Ms Cass-Gottlieb was appointed to the Financial Regulator Assessment Authority in September 2021. For 10 years she was also a director on the board of the Sydney Children’s Hospitals Foundation.

Ms Cass-Gottlieb has received numerous accolades from Chambers Asia Pacific, Legal 500 Asia Pacific, Who’s Who Legal, Lawyers Weekly Awards, Beaton Client Choice Awards and Best Lawyers Australia, for her competition and legal expertise.

She holds Bachelor of Economics and Laws degrees from the University of Sydney. Ms Cass-Gottlieb was a Fulbright Scholar at UC Berkeley from 1986 to 1987, majoring in US competition law, constitutional law, financial institutions regulation and securities regulation.

Ms Cass-Gottlieb is the first female Chair of the ACCC since it was established as an independent statutory authority in 1995.

Panel members

Stephen King, Commissioner, Productivity Commission

Dr Stephen P King commenced a 5-year term as a full time Commissioner with the Productivity Commission in July 2016. Dr King was reappointed for a further 5-year term as a part time Commissioner in January 2022. He was recently a Professor of Economics at Monash University in Melbourne where he also held the position of Dean of the Faculty of Business and Economics from 2009-2011.

Prior to joining Monash, Dr King was a Member of the ACCC, where he chaired the Mergers Review Committee. Previous roles include, Professor of Economics at the University of Melbourne and a Professor of Management (Economics) at Melbourne Business School.

Dr King’s main areas of expertise are in microeconomic theory, competition economics, regulation and industrial organization. His research has been published widely, including articles in major international economics journals.

Dr King is a Professor of Practice at Monash University, a member of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia, a lay member of the High Court of New Zealand. He has a PhD in Economics from Harvard University. He received the Distinguished Public Policy Fellow award from the Economics Society of Australia in 2021 for his contributions to economic policy.

Dr King is currently a Commissioner for the Harnessing data and digital technology and Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Agreement Review inquiries.

Douglas Rathbun, Chief Economist, the Commerce Commission (New Zealand)

Mr Rathbun has experience in economic consulting and working in industry, legislation and policy setting, and litigation.

He worked at the US Department of Justice’s regulatory and policy centre (the Office of Legal Policy) and  its Antitrust Division, working in close coordination with key executive branch functions such as the Office of White House Counsel and the Office of Management and Budget. He also worked at the United States Senate and in the US judiciary; and in-house at Meta Platforms.

Mr Rathbun’s areas of expertise include intellectual property, privacy, competition and regulation, and public/administrative law. He has a PhD in economics (game theory and I.O.) and a degree in law (Juris Doctor).

Alex Robson, Deputy Chair, Productivity Commission

Alex Robson commenced a 5-year term as a full time Commissioner and Deputy Chair of the Productivity Commission in March 2022.

Professor Robson has a broad range of experience in academia and the public and private sectors, most recently as Associate Partner at EY (Ernst and Young). Prior to that, Professor Robson served as Australia’s Ambassador to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

He also served as Senior Economic Adviser and Chief Economist to the former Australian Prime Minister, the Hon Malcolm Turnbull, and has held a number of other positions, including Managing Director at FTI Consulting; Director at Deloitte Access Economics; Director of the Economic Policy Analysis Program at Griffith University; Lecturer in Economics at the Australian National University; and as a graduate economist at the Commonwealth Treasury in Canberra.

Professor Robson’s teaching and research has been in the fields of advanced microeconomics, game theory, public economics and public choice, law and economics, and macroeconomics.

Professor Robson holds a Bachelor of Arts (First Class Honours) from James Cook University and a Master of Arts and PhD in Economics from the University of California, Irvine, USA. His research has been published in several international journals, including Economic Theory, Public Choice, the Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance, and Economic Modelling. His law and economics book, Law and Markets, was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2012.

Cecilia Chiu, New Aim

Cecilia Chiu is the co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer of New Aim, with more than 15 years experience in e-commerce and online marketplaces.

Cecilia has played a critical role in developing New Aim’s business-to-many (B2M) e-commerce model, which stands unique in the Australian market. Harnessing market research and data to guide digital strategy, Cecilia has contributed to New Aim’s success in procurement, channel expansion and integration.

With New Aim since the beginning, Cecilia has been directly responsible for managing budgets of more than $200 million, while guiding on financial planning, marketing, product development and sourcing.

In 2009, Cecilia introduced the dropship model to Australia, which has since become a launching pad for some of Australia’s largest retailers and many more small businesses.

In 2012, Cecilia harnessed her learnings and launched Dropshipzone, with the goal of expanding the Australian e-commerce ecosystem. It’s her mission to empower more Australian SMEs to start and scale through e-commerce. She has since grown Dropshipzone into Australia’s leading B2B retail marketplace. In 2024, Dropshipzone offers nearly 100,000 products with 3,000 active retailers.

New Aim was ranked among the Financial Times’ Asia-Pacific High-Growth Companies in 2020, 2021 and 2022, and Australian Financial Review’s Fast 100 in 2018 and 2019.

Cecilia holds a Bachelor of Science specialising in business administration and management from University of Bradford, England. She also has her Masters in Professional Accounting from RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia.

Michael Coutts,  Senior Counsel, ANZ

Michael is a Senior Legal Counsel at Uber. He is the Head of the Consumer, Operations and Competition legal team. Michael has over 10 years of experience in advising on competition and consumer law across Australia and the UK, both in private practice and in-house environments.
He holds an LLM (Global Competition & Consumer Law) from the University of Melbourne, where he was awarded the Raynes Dickson Memorial Exhibition for academic excellence.
Michael also holds a Masters of Philosophy from the University of East Anglia, where his thesis examined the implications of pricing algorithms for merger control regimes. A paper based on his thesis was published in the Journal of Competition Law and Economics.

Rhys Davis, Co-CEO and Co-Founder of InvestorHub

Rhys Davis is the Co-CEO and Co-Founder of InvestorHub, a platform transforming how public companies engage with their shareholder base.

He co-founded the company in 2017 as Fresh Equities, initially focused on capital raises for sophisticated investors. Recognising the need for better shareholder engagement, he led the company’s pivot to InvestorHub in 2023, expanding its focus to helping listed companies build stronger relationships with retail investors.

Previously serving as Chief Product Officer, Rhys has driven InvestorHub’s growth, securing $9 million in Series A funding and driving expansion overseas to the UK. Before founding InvestorHub, he held leadership roles in product and engineering, including as CTO at Vericus and at SenSen Networks, working on AI-driven solutions.

Rhys holds a Masters of Philosophy in Robotics and Control Engineering and degrees in Mechatronic Engineering and Computer Science from the University of Melbourne. His expertise in technology, capital markets, and product innovation has positioned InvestorHub as a leader in modern investor engagement.

Alice Bailey, Senior Economist, Business Council of Australia

Ms Bailey has been at the Business Council of Australia since 2021 working on a range of economic, policy and advocacy issues. She leads the BCA's competition policy work including engaging on the Australian government's reform of merger laws and the proposed digital competition regime.

Alice has wide-ranging experience traversing both public and private sector roles including in regulated entities, economic consulting and industry. She has also been privileged to serve in advisory roles to state and federal ministers including to former Australian Treasurer, the Hon Joe Hockey and former Communications Minister, the Hon Mitch Fifield.

Alice holds a Bachelor of Economics, Bachelor of Commerce majoring in Finance and a Graduate Diploma in Applied Law from the University of Queensland.

Justin Mining, Competition Policy Lead of Google (Asia Pacific)

Justin Mining is Google's lead for Competition Policy in the Asia Pacific. He joined Google in 2021 and is part of the team that leads Google's Government Affairs and Public Policy work on competition issues globally. He engages closely with stakeholders across Government and industry in the APAC region on competition policy that promotes consumer choice and innovation in the digital economy.

Prior to joining Google, Justin had a broad range of experience across competition issues having practised as a competition lawyer in the private sector and serving as a competition policy adviser to the Australian Government.

Justin has a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) and a Bachelor of Arts (Politics and International Relations) (BA) from the University of NSW. His academic background and experience across the private and public sectors enable him to offer unique perspectives on competition law and policy.

Program

Organised by

Initiative on Digital Competition at USC Marshall and Digital Lab at Monash Business School.

Event Details

Date:
17 March 2025 at 8:55 am – 18 March 2025 at 5:00 pm
Venue:
The Pavilion - Level 8, Building H, Monash University Caulfield campus
Categories:
Digital Lab; General

Description

The Digital Lab at Monash Business School, in collaboration with The Initiative on Digital Competition at USC Marshall, are proud to jointly host our insightful annual conference at Monash University’s Caulfield campus.

The Consortium is a collaborative research network on the digital economy, bringing together researchers from leading Asia-Pacific business schools, including the Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business, Hong Kong University, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Korea University, Monash University, the National University of Singapore, Seoul National University, Tsinghua University, the University of Southern California, the University of Tokyo, and Yonsei University.

Day 1 of the conference will feature research presentations on topics such as artificial intelligence, data and privacy, digital platforms, digital transformation, and competition and tech sector regulation.

Day 2 will feature a keynote speech by Gina Cass-Gottlieb, Chair of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), as well as two panel discussions on competition enforcement and regulation as well as pro-growth innovation policies.

The panels will feature representatives from regulatory bodies across the Asia-Pacific, leading consulting and law firms, industry associations, and international and local companies.

Keynote speaker

Gina Cass-Gottlieb, Chair, ACCC

Ms Cass-Gottlieb commenced her 5-year appointment as Chair of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) on 21 March 2022.

Before joining the ACCC, Ms Cass-Gottlieb was a senior and founding partner of Gilbert and Tobin’s competition and regulation team. Ms Cass-Gottlieb has over 25 years' experience advising on a large number of merger, competition and regulatory matters in Australia and New Zealand. She is widely recognised as one of Australia’s leading competition and regulatory experts.

Ms Cass-Gottlieb was appointed by the Commonwealth Treasurer to the Reserve Bank of Australia’s Payments System Board in 2013. She was re-appointed in 2018 and again in 2023 for a further 5 year term. The Payments System Board is the regulator of access to payment systems. Ms Cass-Gottlieb was appointed to the Financial Regulator Assessment Authority in September 2021. For 10 years she was also a director on the board of the Sydney Children’s Hospitals Foundation.

Ms Cass-Gottlieb has received numerous accolades from Chambers Asia Pacific, Legal 500 Asia Pacific, Who’s Who Legal, Lawyers Weekly Awards, Beaton Client Choice Awards and Best Lawyers Australia, for her competition and legal expertise.

She holds Bachelor of Economics and Laws degrees from the University of Sydney. Ms Cass-Gottlieb was a Fulbright Scholar at UC Berkeley from 1986 to 1987, majoring in US competition law, constitutional law, financial institutions regulation and securities regulation.

Ms Cass-Gottlieb is the first female Chair of the ACCC since it was established as an independent statutory authority in 1995.

Panel members

Stephen King, Commissioner, Productivity Commission

Dr Stephen P King commenced a 5-year term as a full time Commissioner with the Productivity Commission in July 2016. Dr King was reappointed for a further 5-year term as a part time Commissioner in January 2022. He was recently a Professor of Economics at Monash University in Melbourne where he also held the position of Dean of the Faculty of Business and Economics from 2009-2011.

Prior to joining Monash, Dr King was a Member of the ACCC, where he chaired the Mergers Review Committee. Previous roles include, Professor of Economics at the University of Melbourne and a Professor of Management (Economics) at Melbourne Business School.

Dr King’s main areas of expertise are in microeconomic theory, competition economics, regulation and industrial organization. His research has been published widely, including articles in major international economics journals.

Dr King is a Professor of Practice at Monash University, a member of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia, a lay member of the High Court of New Zealand. He has a PhD in Economics from Harvard University. He received the Distinguished Public Policy Fellow award from the Economics Society of Australia in 2021 for his contributions to economic policy.

Dr King is currently a Commissioner for the Harnessing data and digital technology and Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Agreement Review inquiries.

Douglas Rathbun, Chief Economist, the Commerce Commission (New Zealand)

Mr Rathbun has experience in economic consulting and working in industry, legislation and policy setting, and litigation.

He worked at the US Department of Justice’s regulatory and policy centre (the Office of Legal Policy) and  its Antitrust Division, working in close coordination with key executive branch functions such as the Office of White House Counsel and the Office of Management and Budget. He also worked at the United States Senate and in the US judiciary; and in-house at Meta Platforms.

Mr Rathbun’s areas of expertise include intellectual property, privacy, competition and regulation, and public/administrative law. He has a PhD in economics (game theory and I.O.) and a degree in law (Juris Doctor).

Alex Robson, Deputy Chair, Productivity Commission

Alex Robson commenced a 5-year term as a full time Commissioner and Deputy Chair of the Productivity Commission in March 2022.

Professor Robson has a broad range of experience in academia and the public and private sectors, most recently as Associate Partner at EY (Ernst and Young). Prior to that, Professor Robson served as Australia’s Ambassador to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

He also served as Senior Economic Adviser and Chief Economist to the former Australian Prime Minister, the Hon Malcolm Turnbull, and has held a number of other positions, including Managing Director at FTI Consulting; Director at Deloitte Access Economics; Director of the Economic Policy Analysis Program at Griffith University; Lecturer in Economics at the Australian National University; and as a graduate economist at the Commonwealth Treasury in Canberra.

Professor Robson’s teaching and research has been in the fields of advanced microeconomics, game theory, public economics and public choice, law and economics, and macroeconomics.

Professor Robson holds a Bachelor of Arts (First Class Honours) from James Cook University and a Master of Arts and PhD in Economics from the University of California, Irvine, USA. His research has been published in several international journals, including Economic Theory, Public Choice, the Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance, and Economic Modelling. His law and economics book, Law and Markets, was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2012.

Cecilia Chiu, New Aim

Cecilia Chiu is the co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer of New Aim, with more than 15 years experience in e-commerce and online marketplaces.

Cecilia has played a critical role in developing New Aim’s business-to-many (B2M) e-commerce model, which stands unique in the Australian market. Harnessing market research and data to guide digital strategy, Cecilia has contributed to New Aim’s success in procurement, channel expansion and integration.

With New Aim since the beginning, Cecilia has been directly responsible for managing budgets of more than $200 million, while guiding on financial planning, marketing, product development and sourcing.

In 2009, Cecilia introduced the dropship model to Australia, which has since become a launching pad for some of Australia’s largest retailers and many more small businesses.

In 2012, Cecilia harnessed her learnings and launched Dropshipzone, with the goal of expanding the Australian e-commerce ecosystem. It’s her mission to empower more Australian SMEs to start and scale through e-commerce. She has since grown Dropshipzone into Australia’s leading B2B retail marketplace. In 2024, Dropshipzone offers nearly 100,000 products with 3,000 active retailers.

New Aim was ranked among the Financial Times’ Asia-Pacific High-Growth Companies in 2020, 2021 and 2022, and Australian Financial Review’s Fast 100 in 2018 and 2019.

Cecilia holds a Bachelor of Science specialising in business administration and management from University of Bradford, England. She also has her Masters in Professional Accounting from RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia.

Michael Coutts,  Senior Counsel, ANZ

Michael is a Senior Legal Counsel at Uber. He is the Head of the Consumer, Operations and Competition legal team. Michael has over 10 years of experience in advising on competition and consumer law across Australia and the UK, both in private practice and in-house environments.
He holds an LLM (Global Competition & Consumer Law) from the University of Melbourne, where he was awarded the Raynes Dickson Memorial Exhibition for academic excellence.
Michael also holds a Masters of Philosophy from the University of East Anglia, where his thesis examined the implications of pricing algorithms for merger control regimes. A paper based on his thesis was published in the Journal of Competition Law and Economics.

Rhys Davis, Co-CEO and Co-Founder of InvestorHub

Rhys Davis is the Co-CEO and Co-Founder of InvestorHub, a platform transforming how public companies engage with their shareholder base.

He co-founded the company in 2017 as Fresh Equities, initially focused on capital raises for sophisticated investors. Recognising the need for better shareholder engagement, he led the company’s pivot to InvestorHub in 2023, expanding its focus to helping listed companies build stronger relationships with retail investors.

Previously serving as Chief Product Officer, Rhys has driven InvestorHub’s growth, securing $9 million in Series A funding and driving expansion overseas to the UK. Before founding InvestorHub, he held leadership roles in product and engineering, including as CTO at Vericus and at SenSen Networks, working on AI-driven solutions.

Rhys holds a Masters of Philosophy in Robotics and Control Engineering and degrees in Mechatronic Engineering and Computer Science from the University of Melbourne. His expertise in technology, capital markets, and product innovation has positioned InvestorHub as a leader in modern investor engagement.

Alice Bailey, Senior Economist, Business Council of Australia

Ms Bailey has been at the Business Council of Australia since 2021 working on a range of economic, policy and advocacy issues. She leads the BCA's competition policy work including engaging on the Australian government's reform of merger laws and the proposed digital competition regime.

Alice has wide-ranging experience traversing both public and private sector roles including in regulated entities, economic consulting and industry. She has also been privileged to serve in advisory roles to state and federal ministers including to former Australian Treasurer, the Hon Joe Hockey and former Communications Minister, the Hon Mitch Fifield.

Alice holds a Bachelor of Economics, Bachelor of Commerce majoring in Finance and a Graduate Diploma in Applied Law from the University of Queensland.

Justin Mining, Competition Policy Lead of Google (Asia Pacific)

Justin Mining is Google's lead for Competition Policy in the Asia Pacific. He joined Google in 2021 and is part of the team that leads Google's Government Affairs and Public Policy work on competition issues globally. He engages closely with stakeholders across Government and industry in the APAC region on competition policy that promotes consumer choice and innovation in the digital economy.

Prior to joining Google, Justin had a broad range of experience across competition issues having practised as a competition lawyer in the private sector and serving as a competition policy adviser to the Australian Government.

Justin has a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) and a Bachelor of Arts (Politics and International Relations) (BA) from the University of NSW. His academic background and experience across the private and public sectors enable him to offer unique perspectives on competition law and policy.

Program

Organised by

Initiative on Digital Competition at USC Marshall and Digital Lab at Monash Business School.