David Bartlett
Former Tasmanian Premier leading the world in science, tech and innovation
As the premier of Tasmania between 2008 and 2011, David Bartlett has been instrumental in shaping the state throughout his professional career.
Widely regarded for his huge reforms in the Tasmanian education system, David is also proud of his dedication to pioneering advancements in renewable energy and high-speed telecommunications. His work would later be recognised by The Australian, naming him one of Australia's Top 50 most influential people in technology.
David’s unique expertise stems from his prolific career in IT and telecoms prior to his political journey. This gave him a competitive edge as the state premier, as David was able to switch on the first non-Telstra owned optic fibre backbone in Tasmania, develop the first broad scale Fibre-To-The-Premises brownfields roll out, and champion Tassie to becoming the first National Broadband Network location.
Since his career in politics, David continues to work with regional economies around the country, as well as with different national industry sectors and communities. He hopes to implement practical strategies to maximise economic and social renewal through the use of new digital technologies.
As co-founder and chairman of Asdeq Labs, David builds enterprise mobility solutions, with a new venture into expanding operations into the US. He is also a Director of PlaceSpeak International, a company delivering the world’s first geo-social consultation platform for government and industry. To add to his already-impressive list of titles, David was recently been appointed as Non Executive Chairman of TasmaNet, a telco, data centre and cloud services provider focused on rapid growth.
David’s prolific experience in both politics and technology make him a highly-engaging public speaker. He is able to deliver unique insights into discussions around broadband, commercialization, tech and digital futures.
With a career built around speaking to audiences, David’s captivating speaking style is sure to keep audiences engaged and inspired for the future of tech innovation.