SAGE Seminars 19Nov

The Security & Government Expo (SAGE) Seminars bring together the leading minds in government security, infrastructure protection, and policy making. Our sessions are designed to tackle the most pressing challenges facing the ACT and national security landscapes today.

Event Essentials & Registration

Operational Schedule

09:00 — Registration & Welcome Coffee
10:00 — Seminar 1 - Presenter Andi Glynn
'Security in Plain Sight: Seeing the Forest and the Trees'
11:00 — Seminar 2 - Presenter Dr Tony Murney
'Pushing Facility Security Past the Point of Failure'
12:00 - 13:00 — Networking Luncheon
13:00 — Seminar 3 - Presenter Michael Cohen
'Australia's approach to the US alliance'
14:00 — Seminar 4 - Presenter Matthew Curtis
'Protecting What Matters: Security, Resilience and Risk'
15:00 — Seminar 5 - Presenter Dr Mark Golsby
'Better Practice Security Management and Improving Security Education'

Attendee Logistics

The ACT Chapter events are hosted at premier institutional venues across Canberra. We ensure high-level security protocols and professional catering for all full-day sessions. Private parking is typically available for registered attendees. For the Gala Dinner and Awards, formal attire is required. Government training sessions follow a professional business standard.

No registration required for these seminars

Matthew Curtis

Protecting What Matters: Security, Resilience and Risk

Matthew is an experienced strategic adviser with a career spanning diplomacy, national security, governance, risk, emergency management and business continuity.

Following approximately 20 years in the Australian Foreign Service, Matthew moved into consulting and has since worked across both the public and private sectors. His career has included senior roles within global consulting firms, leadership positions in smaller advisory businesses and, more recently, his role as Principal of Curtis Incorporated Pty Ltd, a multidisciplinary strategic advisory consultancy.

Matthew has led and contributed to complex engagements involving national security, policy development and implementation, industry regulation, legal and litigation matters, negotiation and organisational risk. His work is underpinned by extensive experience in stakeholder engagement, relationship management and advising organisations operating in complex and sensitive environments.

He has also contributed significantly to the broader security profession, including through leadership roles with the Australasian Council of Security Professionals and Security Professionals Australasia.

Drawing on decades of experience across government, consulting and the security profession, Matthew brings a broad strategic perspective to security, governance and risk, with a particular focus on helping organisations navigate complex issues and make well-informed decisions.

Dr Mark Golsby

Better Practice Security Management and Improving Security Education

Mark Golsby is Director, Security Governance and Assurance at Sydney Metro, the NSW Government authority delivering Australia’s largest public transport project.

He began his career with the Australian Federal Police in airport policing, diplomatic and consular protection and the Railway Squad, later becoming an Inspector and establishing a security analysis unit within the Protective Service. In private practice, he has delivered security and risk management projects for organisations including the Sydney Opera House, Hobart International Airport, the Parliament of the Northern Territory and Australia’s leading art galleries and museums.

A former Director with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Mark has worked in risk management for international development and trade projects. He helped develop and deliver Australia’s first graduate and undergraduate security management degrees at Edith Cowan University, developed Australasia’s first physical security standard for fixed transport infrastructure, and contributed to revising the Intergovernmental Agreement on Surface Transport Security.

Mark holds a Master of Science from the University of Leicester and postgraduate qualifications in cyber security, international business administration and public sector management. An ASIS International member since 1991, he was the first Australian to earn the Certified Protection Professional designation in 1996 and the first Australian to receive the Don Walker Memorial Security Executive Award in 2024. He has also received a New South Wales Premier’s Citation and the National Emergency Medal for transport emergency coordination during the 2019–20 bushfires. In 2025, he received a senior security executive scholarship from IE University Business School in Madrid. He has since completed a PhD in security and risk management and is an Adjunct Fellow in Security Studies at Macquarie University.

Introducing the

SAGE Presenters

Michael Cohen

Michael is Academic Director and Associate Professor at the Australian National University’s National Security College, where he specialises in international security with a particular focus on the Indo-Pacific.

His research examines nuclear weapons proliferation, international alliances, interstate conflict, coercion and deterrence, political leadership and foreign policy decision-making. His regional expertise includes the Korean Peninsula, South Asia, China, the United States and the Australia–United States alliance.

Michael was a Partners Across the Globe Fellow at the NATO Defence College in Rome from 2022 to 2023 and previously served as Convenor of the National Security College’s PhD program. Before joining ANU in 2018, he held academic positions at Macquarie University and the University of Southern Denmark, and was a visiting scholar at Columbia University’s Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies.

He is the author of When Proliferation Causes Peace: The Psychology of Nuclear Crises and co-editor of North Korea and Nuclear Weapons: Entering the New Era of Deterrence. His research has also appeared in leading international security and international relations journals, and he regularly provides media commentary on national and international security issues.

Michael holds a Bachelor of Economics with First Class Honours from the University of Sydney and a Master of Arts and PhD from the University of British Columbia. He brings more than two decades of teaching and research experience across Australia, Canada and Denmark, with a particular interest in how leaders make decisions under conditions of uncertainty, risk and strategic competition.

Australia's approach to the US alliance

Dr Tony Murney

Tony has extensive experience across government, policing and international organisations, including roles with the Commonwealth Parliament, ACT Policing, the Australian Federal Police International Deployment Group and the United Nations.

He has served three tours in Afghanistan and two in Somalia, holding a number of senior international policing and security positions. These have included Chief Technical Adviser on Police Professionalisation in Kabul and Deputy Commissioner of the United Nations integrated Police Team in Mogadishu.

Tony is a committed advocate for international police development and reform, with a strong interest in civil liberties, proportionate security, policing and good government. He speaks and writes regularly on these subjects and has contributed to public policy discussions and submissions relating to policing, national security and counter-terrorism legislation.

Tony holds a PhD in Anthropology and undergraduate qualifications in regional development. He is also a Director of Civil Liberties Australia, where he leads its Watch Over Policing & Security program.

His career brings together practical experience in policing, international security, government and security policy, with a particular focus on balancing effective security measures with civil liberties and appropriate responses to risk.

Pushing Facility Security Past the Point of Failure

Andi Gynn

Security in Plain Sight: Seeing the Forest and the Trees

Andi is a protective security and risk management professional with experience across government, Defence and industry, specialising in protective security governance, personnel security, cyber security assurance and Defence security frameworks.

She is the Founder of the Development of Industry Security Centre of Excellence and Director and Chief Security Officer of Servare Consulting. Her experience includes supporting organisations with Defence Industry Security Program requirements, ICT security accreditation, personnel vetting and broader governance, risk and compliance activities. She has also worked across cyber security, multinational insurance programs and complex organisational risk environments.

Andi is a CMMC Registered Practitioner, qualified Vetting Analyst and Certified Project Officer, and holds a range of qualifications and certifications across cyber security, government security, export controls and risk management. She also serves as Secretary of the Queensland Chapter of ASIS International and leads the Defence Industry Security Community of Practice, reflecting her strong commitment to developing security capability across Australia’s defence industrial base.

Drawing on her experience across protective security, vetting and organisational risk, Andi will explore the relationship between risk and personnel security, including the importance of understanding people-related vulnerabilities, applying proportionate security controls and building effective personnel security practices into broader organisational risk management.