Nick Abrahams | Speaker Profile
As the Global Leader of the Digital Transformation Practice for Norton Rose Fulbright, a professional services firm with over 7,000 employees, Nick Abrahams is at the front line of global business & innovation. He has advised many of the world’s largest companies on their digital transformation strategies, including how to seize the opportunities created by the mainstream adoption of digital assets and protocols like cryptocurrencies, decentralized finance, and non-fungible tokens.
Featured keynote topics
Nick Abrahams is happy to tailor a speech for your event. His most popular speeches are:
The Digital Asset Revolution
Web 3.0: Three Trillion Reasons to Learn More About Cryptocurrency & the Metaverse
The crypto market is now worth over US$3 Trillion. Skeptics dismiss it but, given the weight of smart capital flowing in and the ever-increasing legitimate use cases, this is a market that is going mainstream quickly. Visa, Mastercard, and PayPal all accept cryptocurrencies – in fact, you can even trade crypto via the CBA’s app. Superannuation funds are investing in crypto. Many companies are holding crypto assets on their balance sheets as part of a corporate treasury hedging/investment strategy. Even AT&T accepts phone bill payments in crypto, as do many other retailers. Crypto is going mainstream fast, and there are massive opportunities and threats for all organizations.
This session is perfect for leaders and aspirational leaders who are interested in how technology will impact the future of all industries. Nick de-mystifies these topics for mainstream audiences with some added humor along the way. Key take-always for those attending Nick’s session include:
- Summary of major mainstream use-cases for crypto, aka “Ten uses for crypto that don’t involve buying drugs on the dark web”. This will explain to the audience why we need to care
- A simple explanation of the key technologies involved. Not enough to build your own smart contract, but enough to sound smart at a dinner party
- Which industries are getting impacted fastest
- Simple strategies for how your business can benefit from the digital asset revolution
Smart Digital Transformation
The Future of Your Business is Digital or Doomed
Warren Buffett said that “digital transformation is a fundamental reality for all businesses today.” Digital transformation is the integration of digital technology into all areas of a business, fundamentally changing how you operate and deliver value to customers. It is how you modify or invent massively improved processes with a blend of people, processes, and technology. According to John Chambers, the legendary leader of CISCO, “At least 40% of all businesses will die in the next 10 years if they don’t figure out how to change their entire companies to accommodate new technologies.”
Nick leads the Digital Transformation Practice at the global firm Norton Rose Fulbright and has advised many of the world’s largest companies on their digital transformation strategies. This session is perfect for leaders and aspirational leaders who want to understand the main trends driving digital transformation and how they can apply these trends in their own businesses. This session can be tailored specifically to deal with how digital transformation is impacting any industry, e.g., financial services, health, energy, retail, property, construction, education, government, mining, etc.
Nick will provide strategic guidance, actionable insights, and a few laughs along the way. Key take-always for those attending Nick’s session include:
- Examples of companies that have successfully avoided oblivion by embracing digital transformation, e.g., Walmart
- Specific examples of companies in your industry that have achieved great results as a result of their digital strategies
- Understanding & managing the key enabler of digital transformation – data
- Simple explanations of the main technologies which facilitate digital transformation
- Winning at “The Innovation Dating Game” finding the right innovation partners and the right way to partner with them
Cyber-security
The Winnable War
Nick Abrahams has written one of the highest-selling Australian books on cybersecurity, Big Data, Big Responsibilities. He has advised over 200 companies on how to prepare for and respond to cyber attacks, including negotiating with ransomware attackers. He has the experience to help your organization win the cybersecurity war.
2021 marked a massive increase in hacking and ransomware attacks. Many companies were hit hard and—for the first time ever—we saw companies fail as a result of cyber attacks. This is an issue for everyone in the organization, not just the IT Department. One of the key determinants of whether your organization can survive an attack is proper preparation. As the saying goes, “When you fail to prepare, you prepare to fail.”
In this session, Nick, using many real-life examples and proprietary research, provides insights to all members of the organization on the key issues they need to know to protect the organization, themselves, and their families. All conveyed in non-technical language peppered with humor. Some takeaways include:
- Why cybersecurity is the number one risk issue in most organizations
- How do the hackers do it – some are smart, others just get lucky
- What has been the impact on organizations and employees
- What is the real impact on your reputation as a result of a cyber breach
- Many of the biggest breaches could have been stopped easily by people outside the IT Department
- Six key issues to consider before paying a cyber ransom
- Terrible tales of identity theft & how to avoid it
- How to protect yourself and your family
Testimonials
“Nick gave a great after-dinner speech on Technology, the Future & Leadership at our New Partners Conference. He tailored his presentation for this event and hit some perfect messages that really resonated for the audience. We have had a number of people comment on how great they thought the speech was. Nick has an insider’s understanding of the world of technology and innovation. His speech was funny, fast-paced, and insightful, as well as being motivating for our people. Happy to recommend Nick.”
– Gary Wingrove, CEO, KPMG Australia
“Nick kicked off our senior leadership off-site with a well-crafted session on future trends and innovation strategies. It was a great start for our event.”
Andrew HortonGlobal CEO, QBE Insurance
“Nick took the time to understand what we were looking for and delivered a keynote which was perfectly tailored for our audience. He gave us actionable insights and plenty of laughs.”
Sally SinclairCEO National Employment Services Association
Speaker background
Nick created the world’s first AI-enabled privacy chatbot and was a category winner in the Financial Times Asia-Pac Innovator of the Year Awards in 2020. Separate from NRF, he is the co-founder of Australia’s leading online legal service, LawPath, which has over 250,000 users and was recognized in the 2020 Deloitte Fast 50 as one of Australia’s fastest-growing companies.
He is a director of: the Vodafone Foundation; the Sydney Film Festival, and global genomics research leader, the Garvan Foundation. In December 2020, he stepped off the board of ASX300 software company Integrated Research after six years. He is the author of two Amazon best-selling books Digital Disruption in Australia and Big Data, Big Responsibilities.
Nick Abrahams is a futurist. But Nick’s real-world business experience makes him very different from other futurists. Nick doesn’t just read about trends, he lives them every day in his various roles. His knowledge gained from being at the front line of global business means his presentations have a currency and a credibility that is hard to match.
Nick’s profile as a global executive, media commentator, and best-selling author gives him the ability to engage not only a large conference audience but also to provide meaningful guidance to smaller leadership groups or boards.
Whether it is an auditorium, board room, or virtual event, Nick aims to:
Inform … people about what is happening in the real world
Equip … each person with an action plan and, importantly
Entertain … as we know learning works best when enjoyed.
This last point is a key differentiator for Nick as: he was a professional standup comic; he wrote and appeared in his own TV show, and he appeared in a film with Woody Allen. Nick speaks at over 40 live/virtual events globally each year bringing his unique blend of hands-on insight and humor to audiences.
Organizations and event organizers can confidently hire this speaker to conduct keynotes and workshops about future trends across a diverse range of topics and in the following formats:
| Format | Description |
|---|---|
| Advisory calls | Discussion with your executives to answer specific questions on a topic, project or subject of choice. |
| Executive coaching | One-to-one coaching and mentoring session between an executive and the selected speaker. Topics are mutually agreed upon. |
| Topic presentation (Internal) | A presentation for your internal team based on a mutually agreed topic with content supplied by the speaker. This format is designed specifically for internal team meetings. Maximum 25 participants. |
| Webinar presentation (Internal) | Webinar presentation for your team members on a mutually agreed topic, including question time. Internal replay rights included. Maximum 100 participants. |
| Webinar presentation (External) | Webinar presentation for your team and external attendees on a mutually agreed topic. Question time and external replay rights included. Maximum 500 participants. |
| Event keynote presentation | Keynote or speaking engagement for your corporate event. Topic and content can be customized to event themes. Includes one-on-one question time and participation in other event sessions if required. |
Book this speaker
Contact us to inquire about booking this speaker for a keynote, panel, or workshop, or contact Kaelah Shimonov at kaelah.s@quantumrun.com
