Dr. Robert Kay Co-Founder & Director Incept Labs

Dr. Kay is co-founder and director of Australian education consulting firm Incept Labs. He believes our current education system is failing children not for the ‘usual reasons’, but because it is preparing our kids for last century, not the one we’re in. It fails to account for new and fast-expanding roles, the disruption of automation and AI in the workforce, and much more. Incept Labs conducted research that showed only 8-15% of Australia’s teachers are teaching the way we need. He believes a major change from the traditional ‘three Rs’ (reading, writing, arithmetic) to the ‘three Es’ (experience, emotion and evidence) is required for Australia’s future generations to compete globally.

He was formerly the Head of Strategic Innovation at Westpac Banking Corporation; a Senior Lecturer in Information Systems and Organisational Development at the University of Technology Sydney; and, a research analyst at Bovis Lend Lease. He has also been commissioned to undertake multiple studies of senior leaders. These include a study on CEOs’ perspectives of Organisational Resilience; a world first comparison between public and private sector leaders in relation to innovation; and, an examination of the circumstances under which good governance leads to better performance, commissioned by the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

With a career that has continuously moved between industry and academia, Robert is also a sought after speaker, having been a keynote at the last two Australian Institute of Company Directors conferences. His presentations use an innovative combination of video and storytelling to illustrate complex ideas in simple and practical ways. Robert holds a 1st Class Honours Degree in Systems Thinking and a PhD on the application of biological systems theories to improving organisational learning and resilience.