Mr. Raza Abbas is fortunate to have spoken as a keynote speaker and facilitated impactful workshops at eminent career development forums across the globe and nationally. He earned excellence at training sessions in United States, Canada, Brazil, Oman, Spain, Germany, Uzbekistan, Philippines, Japan, South Korea, China, Poland, South Africa, Indonesia. He has trained, inspired 50,000+ professionals and youth in diverse industries, i.e., banking, insurance, media, textiles, healthcare, development, and higher education. With humility and gratitude, he was nominated for Pakistan's Highest Presidential civil award: Pride of Performance. Since 2017, he has represented Pakistan at the UNESCO-APEID flagship meeting on Entrepreneurship Education in the Asia region. Global recipient of multiple career development international awards from eminent global career development associations: National Career Development Association -NCDA and Asia Pacific Career Development Association-APCDA. He serves on the IAEVG Board.

Bryan Dik, PhD, is a vocational psychologist and professor of psychology at Colorado State University, and also holds an Extraordinary Professor appointment at North-West University in South Africa. Bryan’s scholarly work focuses on calling and vocation in career development, meaning and purpose in the workplace, and the intersection of faith and work. He has published four books (including Redeeming Work and Make Your Job a Calling) and is co-creator of the PathwayU career assessment platform. He lives with his wife Amy and their four sons in Fort Collins, Colorado, USA.

Eman Ghandour is a community leader and career practitioner with experience in refugee settlement and youth support, supporting people into education, employment, and community life in Aotearoa New Zealand. She is the founder and director of Khawat, a platform focused on empowering migrant and refugee women through mentorship, employment pathways, and community-led initiatives, bringing both lived experience of migration and applied expertise in capability-building and social inclusion.

Ngāti Hako, Ngāti Rāhiri-Tumutumu, Tuhoe iwi affiliations. Trudy Harrison is the National Lead for He Whai Taumaru | Leaving to Learn at Te Aho o Te Kura Pounamu (Te Kura), New Zealand’s state distance education provider. She leads the design and implementation of innovative, future-focused learning approaches that connect ākonga to real-world experiences, pathways, and opportunities.

Associate Professor Deirdre Hughes OBE specialises in careers, employment, and skills policies at international, national, and regional levels. In 2012, she was awarded an Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Her Majesty the late Queen Elizabeth II for services to European lifelong guidance. She is Co-Founding Director of CareerChatUK, a pioneering UK award-winning AI chatbot tech company focused on enhanced career exploration for young people and adults. Deirdre also leads dmh associates and is an Associate Professor at the University of Warwick's Institute for Employment Research (IER), England. She is the Founding Director of the International Centre for Guidance Studies (iCeGs) at the University of Derby (1998–2008). Deirdre was a former Chair of England's National Careers Council (2012–2014) and a UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES) Commissioner. She is a Vice-President of the International Association for Vocational and Educational Guidance (IAEVG) and a Legacy Fellow, UK Career Development Institute (CDI). Deirdre was previously Series Co-Editor of the International Symposia Series for the British Journal of Guidance and Counselling (2015–2021). Deirdre has co-edited three Routledge books published in 2024 on Decent Work and Sustainability, Migration and Wellbeing, and Art That Tells the Truth: Creative Methods in Guidance and Counselling. She has written and co-authored over 100 academic and professional publications. She works closely on research, policy and practice matters with Dr Chris Percy, Co-Founder of CareerChatUK. She is a Co-Investigator contributing to a Nuffield Foundation-funded project at the University of Warwick IER - Trialling an assessment protocol for LLM-powered careers advice (2026–2027). She has advised Cedefop, the OECD, ILO, ETF and governments within and outside of the UK on all-age careers support systems. Contact: Deirdre Hughes Email: deirdre.hughes3@btinternet.com Websites: CareerChat (UK) Ltd - https://cicichat.co.uk/ dmh associates - https://dmhassociates.org/ Warwick IER - https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/ier/people/assocfellows/

Dr Glenys Ker is an Associate Professor at Capable NZ, Otago Polytechnic, and a highly experienced career development practitioner with over 25 years of practice in the field. She has worked across tertiary education, private practice, and organisational settings since 1996. Glenys brings an integrated professional identity as both educator and career practitioner. She has extensive experience working with high-performance athletes, including many years as an Athlete Advisor with High Performance Sport New Zealand. She now focuses on supporting athletes to gain formal qualifications through the Independent Learning Pathway (ILP) management programmes, helping them recognise, articulate, and apply the capabilities developed through high-performance environments. She has played a key role in the development of the Independent Learning Pathway (ILP), an innovative model enabling practitioners to achieve formal qualifications grounded in their professional practice. Her work focuses on supporting individuals to critically reflect on and gain recognition for their learning through experience. Her research and scholarship focus on the recognition of skills, knowledge, and experience developed through sport, and how these can be transferred into other professional contexts. She is particularly interested in supporting athletes to understand and articulate these capabilities, alongside exploring how athletes learn and make explicit their leadership and management capabilities through engagement in the ILP. https://www.nzrpa.co.nz/our-team/management/fiona-brading Fiona Brading Personal Development & Career Services Manager New Zealand Rugby Players Association (RPA) Fiona Brading brings extensive experience in personal development, career transition, and recruitment, supporting athletes through times of change. She empowers athletes to clarify their priorities, explore their interests, and turn ideas into practical, confidence-building action. Her approach is strongly person-centred and action-focused, grounded in meeting individuals where they are at, while providing clear direction and momentum. Her background includes recruitment and career coaching roles in both New Zealand and the United Kingdom, supporting people through career change and into new employment. Fiona holds a Bachelor of Science with a double major in Sport & Exercise Science and Psychology, a Graduate Certificate in Career Development, and a Master of Professional Practice. She is also a Professional Member of the Career Development Association of New Zealand and a member of the Careers and Transition Education Association of New Zealand, which underpins her structured, evidence-based approach. A natural connector, Fiona is known for her ability to link athletes with relevant networks, opportunities, and resources that support their next steps.

Melita Long, from Careers on Purpose, is an experienced Career and Executive Coach based in Melbourne, who has coached and trained 3,500+ clients since 2003, including 20 years in her own private practice. Her expertise spans university and government career roles, outplacement, recruitment, Human Resources, training, and corporate marketing across the private and public sectors, in Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and Germany. She worked as a Career Consultant at Melbourne Business School coaching MBA, executive and senior executive MBA students with their career transitions and progressions. She currently provides executive career coaching for MBA students at Macquarie Business School in Sydney, works as an Outplacement Consultant, and delivers training for universities across Australia, as well as private practice. Naturally values-driven, curious, and empathetic, Melita enjoys helping people feel more satisfied, confident, and successful in their jobs and careers aligned with their values, strengths and potential. She applies narrative, constructivist, self-determination and chaos theories to her career practice. Melita teaches people pragmatic steps to identify and quantify their work achievements and define their value in their resumes, LinkedIn, cover letters, personal branding, and interviews. She helps individuals to identify and plan new careers, progress their current career, gain new jobs or promotions, negotiate better salaries and conditions. Melita has gained a lot of experience working with neurodivergent clients over the years and understands how to effectively support them in their careers. She applies an empathetic, strengths-based approach to help neurodivergent people recognise their unique value propositions and achieve successful careers. Melita is a Professional member of Career Development Association of Australia (CDAA), President of CDAA Victoria. She set up the CDAA Victoria Community of Practice and runs the CDAA Private Practitioner Community of Practice. Melita regularly contributes to CDAA articles, webinars, expos and conferences, is an active participant in the Melbourne Career Expo and mentored 15 career practitioners over the years. She is passionate about promoting the value of the career development profession in Australasia and globally. Melita has a Graduate Certificate in Career Development, Bachelor of Commerce in Marketing, Bachelor of Arts in Modern Languages, Certificate IV in Training and Assessment, and is certified in MBTI, Harrison, Strong and Strengths modalities. She also speaks German and Spanish fluently and is learning French. 1. Professional Member, CDAA 2. Professional Member, Asia Pacific Career Development Association 3. Registered Career Development Practitioner (RPCDP), CICA 4. Member, IAEVG 5. Member, Association for Coaching

Beth has a long history in the careers profession, starting at the Employment Service working with assisting youth into jobs. From here she embarked on working with Careers NZ working with schools and ACC and long term unemployed clients. A stint in the UK saw Beth working with Connected an organisation that worked with students in schools and working in a drop-in centre helping youth into work. While working for Connected she was seconded to the Probation Service assisting people into work who had been incarcerated. Upon returning to NZ Beth worked at Rangitoto College in North Auckland, and Green Bay High School in West Auckland as a careers advisor while completing her Masters in Education. Needing a change of scene Beth worked for a year for MyMahi an online platform assisting young people with their career decision making and then for Hanga-Aro-Rau a workforce development council where Beth helped schools connect with industry. Beth currently works at St Dominics Catholic College in Henderson, as a careers educator. This involves teaching careers lessons to all Year 11 and 13 students as well as individual appointments with students. She is on the Careers and Transition Education Executive group, helping organise professional development for career advisers across Tāmaki Makaurau. Beth is passionate about pathways straight into employment for young people and is currently working on her EdD on employer engagement in education with Year 10 students to help with their aspirations and subject decision making. Beth is also on the Youth Employability Aotearoa Stewardship group where her passion lies in educating employers around the value of youth employees and connecting education providers with employers. Beth resides in West Auckland and loves the outdoors walking with her two dogs. Equally going away in her 'mid-life crisis' campervan is another interest of hers. Beth is very excited to have the possibility of presenting at this conference as she is a keen academic and loves to present ideas and discuss best practice in this careers area which is her passion.

Deirdre Pickerell, PhD, CPHR, CCDP, is an accomplished career development specialist, educator, and organizational leader with more than 30 years of experience advancing complex, sector‑wide transformation initiatives. With graduate degrees in educational leadership and human development, and a doctorate in human and organizational systems, she brings a rare blend of strategic insight, systems thinking, and deep expertise in people‑centred change. Her work consistently bridges research, practice, and implementation—ensuring that innovative ideas are not only designed well, but adopted, sustained, and measurably effective. A defining thread throughout Deirdre’s career has been her commitment to strengthening career development systems, supports, and cultures within organizations. She has worked extensively with employers to embed career conversations, internal mobility supports, and employee‑centred development practices directly into the workplace—ensuring that workers have access to meaningful career development provided and supported by their employers. Her doctoral research explored career development as a key driver of employee engagement, reinforcing the strategic value of integrating career development into organizational life. Deirdre has led major organizational and digital transformation projects across the career development and employment services ecosystem. She has guided teams and stakeholders through new ways of learning, working, and delivering services, integrating core elements of change management, learning and development, implementation and integration, and evaluation and impact analysis. Her leadership is grounded in collaboration, clarity, and a commitment to building capacity across systems—not just within individual organizations. She has developed practitioner training programs, tools, and resources; designed innovative programs and services; and conducted influential research that has shaped the evolution of the career development field. Most recently, Deirdre led the launch of the Career Development Professional Centre, a national centre of excellence supporting career development, workforce development, and employment services professionals. She has also contributed to the advancement of national professional standards, including serving as an exam item writer and member of the National Certification Technical Working Group, and continues to support certification through her roles as a structured interview assessor and member of the Standards Council. Her ability to integrate strategy, technology, human behaviour, and organizational career development has made her a key contributor in modernizing systems across the career development landscape.

Sam’s work is in “mirroring alternate futures”; guiding and coaching clients to advance in business and their chosen careers. A private career practitioner since 1995, an NMIT & AUT lecturer since 2007, Sam is a member of CATE, APCDA, NCDA, CDANZ (Fellow), with M.Mgt, DipCareerDev, and CertAdultTeaching qualifications.