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speaker

Dr Fiona
Kerr

Founder and director of The NeuroTech Institute

Profile

Dr Fiona Kerr is a globally recognised thought leader in human connectivity and synchronization, partnering with technology and leading future-ready, resilient organizations. She is the founder of the NeuroTech Institute & FOCUS, which consults globally on finding human-centric solutions to emerging, complex problems, often combining neuroscience, emerging technology and ethical practice.

Fiona advises a wide range of sectors and industries on building adaptive people, organisations and systems (including law, banking/finance, medicine, defence, education and the arts). Combining forty years working internationally in a range of industries, with diverse qualifications in complex systems engineering, cognitive neuroscience, psychology and anthropology, she offers unique insights into how to shape and lead your changing environment; what remains the same, and ways to maintain strategic control of technologization.

In 2024 Dr Kerr also became the Director of AIR, the Applied Integrative Research arm of MindChamps Holdings Pty Ltd in Singapore, to address knowledge gaps in how digital tools and human proximity impact the cognition of learning and virtual knowledge delivery, and to further work on building complex thinking skills at all ages from infants to CEO's.

That same year Fiona was made a Fellow of ATSE (Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering) in recognition of being “at the forefront of shaping a future that is technology powered and human centred - her trailblazing research working with the US DOD debunked the assumption that humans exhibit the same level of complex and moral decision-making when interacting with trusted autonomous systems as they would with another human in close proximity.” The findings on how human interaction impacts complex problem-solving is relevant for decision makers everywhere including CEO’s, strategists, teams, experts, doctors, policy makers, educators or first responders.

Fiona was chosen as a thought leader for the Innovations of the World Australian series, and her company as one of the most innovative SME’s. She is a member of Sir Richard Branson's 100% Human at Work group, an ambassador for WINN (Women in Innovation), was a finalist for SA’s Australian of the Year in 2018.

Voted one of the top five speakers in Australia in 2020, Fiona speaks internationally and appears regularly on media including Catalyst, Insight, Ockham’s Razor and Radio National. She holds a number of board and honorary academic roles, and advises a range of sectors including robotics, health, aging and education, Finland's national AI program, and Defence (USA and Australia).

Expertise
Talking Points

How Technology Sculpts Us

Changing Our Minds: How great leaders rewire our brains

The Neuroscience of Creativity

The Rise of the Robot Nurse: The role of Technology in Health and Ageing

AI: Friend AND foe

The Law of Increasing Returns: Why a human connection matters

The Neuroscience of Leading a Resilient Organisation: Building better brains for business

Human-Technology Interaction: The Impacts of Technology on Human Cognition and Communication

The neurophysiology of how humans shape each other during face-to-face interaction is altered by the use of technology in various ways, both good and bad. Understanding this allows us to use technology as a true enabler, and choose when it is not the best solution.

Building a Human-centric Technologised Healthcare Future

Medicine is being constantly transformed by amazing new technology from nanobots to telehealth. Human interaction and empathy increases healing, trust, hope, patient compliance and even medical decision making, so balancing the use of tech with human interaction is the key.

Leading Flourishing, Adaptive Organisations

The neural duet between brains can happen individually and at scale. In organisations, it facilitates trust, collaboration, communication, shared values and even complex problem solving, resulting in an adaptive, resilient and flourishing organisation.
Media
Feedback
Fiona Kerr is a mesmerising speaker and a delight to work with. The moment that she takes the stage, she captivates the audience. Her knowledge is accessible and she makes complex subject matter and terms easy to digest by providing relevant analogies, stories and images for the audience to reference. After her keynote and workshops at Wired for Wonder in 2014, I received incredible feedback from the audience who simply adored Fiona and her talk about how we are all wired for wonder. Even months later, people are referencing Fiona's talk and the material - a sure sign that she is not only an excellent speaker, she is also a brilliant educator. I have already asked Fiona to speak again at Wired for Wonder 2015 and will continue to look for opportunities to engage her as a keynote speaker. Wired For Wonder

Firstly, can I again say a very sincere and hearty thank you for your contribution to the CBA LBB conference on Monday. You were incredibly well received - the standout - so well done and, again, many thanks. I'm sure the team would be thrilled to engage you again. I hope you had a pleasant flight back, , delightful to work with you, you really brought a different focus to a banking conference and in the process provoked some great insights and conversations (oh, and in passing, you ruthlessly crushed your opponent in the debate :-))

Commonwealth Bank

On behalf of the team I would like to thank you very much for speaking at our conference at Randwick last Thursday. You shared a lot of fascinating information which supported our conference themes of embracing change, and encouraging idea generation, creativity, resilience, and innovation. You gave the audience and our business some great techniques to adopt to continue to improve our performance. We are looking forward to referring back to the content to absorb it further! There is genuine anticipation of your book being published. The conference was a great success and we continue to receive a lot of positive feedback, including in relation to your session so thank you very much for joining us and helping to make it a great event.

Macquarie Bank
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