Global Speakers

Topic: How Safety Analytics Can Improve Driving Behavior and Reduce Transportation Accidents

Aaron is an experienced clinician (registered nurse) and a senior safety, quality and systems innovation leader. He is most naturally drawn to systemic and humanistic narratives to explain complex problem challenges. As a result, much of his work is characterized by a focus on human-centered design (at the micro level) and in uncovering systemic points of leverage (at the macro level) to tackle large issues in an honest, meaningful, data-enabled and sustainable fashion.

He brings a unique mix of deep technical skills to organizations: evidence-based design, human factors and ergonomics, complex systems science, co-creation techniques, data science and process optimization approaches.

Currently, Aaron is piloting a systems and safety improvement methodology (S2i) to ensure that patients have the best journey they can have in the health system.

Topic: Reflexive Simulation – Shifting Minds to Improve System

With a background in electrical engineering and general management, Alan has been delivering strategic health and safety programs and initiatives across large, multi-site organizations for the last 15 years. He has worked with a broad range of industries at local, national and regional levels. Alan is currently working in the rail infrastructure construction industry for the Level Crossing Removal Projects within the Victorian Major Transport Infrastructure Authority.

Topic & Safety Summit Roundtable: Level Crossing Authority – The KnApp – Creating a Learning Industry

Andrew acts for national professional services firms, food manufacturers, the education sector and Local Government and a range of other businesses. He chairs and speaks at Master Classes across Australia on topics ranging from safety law, performance management, managing mental health, wellbeing, industrial relations, investigations and return to work. He was the editor-in-chief and principal author of the national safety magazine, ‘Health & Safety Consultant’, a monthly publication and was previously the editor and principal author of the ‘OH&S Handbook’.

Safety Summit Roundtable: Building Predictive Analytical Tools Within Workplace

Chan Sinnadurai is the Head of HSSE for EnergyAustralia and a member of China Light and Power’s Global HSSE Leadership Team. He has a BA (Psy), MA (International Relations) and a MBA.

Chan is directly responsible for the HSSE performance for EnergyAustralia, one of Australia’s largest generator and retailers of electricity. The role includes HSSE governance of gas and coal fired power stations across Australia, and the domestic and commercial installation of batteries, solar and smart meters. In his current role, Chan has significantly improved EnergyAustralia’s HSSE leading and lagging performance through improvements in culture, management systems and HSSE leadership.

Chan joined EnergyAustralia as the Manager, Business Services for EnergyAustralia New South Wales and had managerial responsibility for Safety and Environmental performance, Commercial Services, Compliance and Business Support.

At the conference, Chan will focus on working towards zero harm, safety culture and safety leadership.

Prior to joining EnergyAustralia, Chan was with the Australian Regular Army, Tenix Defence (Australia’s largest defence contractor) and Delta Electricity (formerly Australia’s largest generator of electricity).

Topic: How EnergyAustralia Achieves Zero Harm and Safety Leadership

Chien Aun Chan (M’10) received the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from The University of Melbourne (UoM), VIC, Australia, in 2010. In 2011, he joined the Centre for Energy-Efficient Telecommunications, UoM, where he was involved in developing new modeling and energy-efficient techniques for cloud applications and mobile services. Since 2017, he has been a Research Fellow with the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, UoM, where he is involved in developing novel smart wearable systems, big data network analytics, mobile edge computing systems, and energy-efficient next-generation networks and cloud services. His research interests include Internet of Things, green communications and networking, big data network analytics, cloud applications and services, network service virtualization, mobile wireless networks, and optical networks.

Topic: UOM Innovative Invention: Wearable Technology to Monitor Employee Fatigue, Suggest Rest Periods, and Sending Alerts When People Were in Close Proximity to Moving Equipment – All in Real Time

With over 30 years of industry experience, Gary has built a broad portfolio of Risk, HSE, Asset Management, Engineering and Commercial experience primarily through a series of challenging assignments in the oil and gas industry. Gary’s background is in the field of  Mechanical Engineering.

More recently, Gary acted at the Chief Operating Office for Lattice Energy before taking up his current role of General Manager RAC and Process Safety in Origin’s Integrated Gas.

Topic: Learning from Origin Energy’s Incident Investigation Redesign – An Innovative Approach to Safety Examination

As a highly driven and passionate Chartered Health and Safety professional, Lisa has over eighteen years’ experience in the construction industry ranging across multiple industry sectors both in Europe and Australia.

An experienced change and engagement leader practicing the art of working differently, Lisa has demonstrated her ability, confidence and passion to drive large scale safety improvement programs including Next Gear and the Mental Health and Wellbeing agenda. Her experience includes designing and delivering communication strategies; delivering over fifteen Australia Hub wide campaigns focused on risk mitigation; and raising awareness and creating maximum engagement among staff, workforce and supply chain partners.

In her current role, she is responsible for developing the strategic HSE goals for the function and the hub in conjunction with the Director and the HSE leaders, and delivering the implementation of the strategy, ensuring that innovative solutions and programs deliver improved performance.

Keynote: Laing O’Rourke’s Journey to Becoming One of Australia’s Safest Companies & Winner of National Safety Awards of Excellence

Maria has over 15 years experience within the legal arena, working on large scale construction projects & litigation matters including General Counsel for Daikin.

Maria came to Patrick originally as the Lawyer for the $480 million redevelopment of the Port Botany terminal and then moved into the position of Deputy General Counsel for the Asciano group. During this time Maria led the Change Management team in the implementation of the Asciano CRM Dynamics system before transferring to Patrick as the General Manager of HR, IR & Safety.

Maria has a Bachelor of Economic & Law from the University of Sydney & completed her Executive MBA with AGSM.

Chief Safety Officer Panel: How to Sustain a Safety Culture With Employee Voice and Leadership

Michael joined WorkSafe in April 2017. Michael oversees WorkSafe’s prevention strategies for Construction, Major Hazard Facilities, Mines, Agriculture and Health sectors.

Michael comes to WorkSafe with an extensive background in health & safety leadership gained predominantly in Aviation working at both the Air Traffic Control authority – Airservices Australia and the Qantas Group. Michael has also held safety leadership roles within the Metropolitan Fire Brigade (MFB), Telstra and the Department of Sustainability and Environment.

Along with a strong stakeholder focus gained from his dealings with various workplace parties including Boards, unions and workers, Michael has a passion for developing and implementing innovative prevention strategies to improve health and safety performance; particularly in high risk complex environments.

Chief Safety Officer Panel: How to Sustain a Safety Culture with Employee Voice and Leadership (Panelist)

Michael Nathan is a Mechanical Engineer at WorkSafe Victoria. He has been with the Authority for over 13 years. Michael previously worked in the automotive, steel and fast moving consumer goods industries.

Topic: Reducing Workplace Injuries on Mobile & Heavy Equipment Accidents

As a Principal in ABG Intl, Monica developed a methodology for cyber security education, assessment, training and awareness, taking companies to the next level of cyber resilience. Monica’s understanding of cyber security, IT and commercialization of security products is extensive and she is a sought out speaker at conferences and by journalists.

Monica is a regular guest speaker at webinars & conferences. She is the main publisher of a weekly Cyber Security Newsletter which covers regulatory changes, cyber governance aspects, significant hacks around the world and ways to protect the organization or personal details, advice on urgent upgrades (which includes contributions from a technical team).

She is currently a Director at Australian Health and Science Institute – a college that trains students in the jobs of the future.

Topic: How IoTs Are Now Used to Monitor Hazardous Environment and Locate Workers in Emergencies

Nathan has developed an extensive track record of devising, implementing, and delivering deep-tech companies, products, departments, cultures & ecosystems in both academic & commercial settings; many with successful exits. His expertise is in making fundamental insights in human-robot/machine interactions and building robotics beyond those plugged onto standard human practices – but building robotics that elicit and submerge into behaviors inducing dramatically better realizations.

Nathan’s achievements include being named as “one of the top ten young scientists in the US & Australia” in 2011, along with a number of awards for his innovation & entrepreneurship outcomes, several highly competitive grants, being honored as 1st named co-chair on Australia’s 2018 Robotics Roadmap released by Australia Centre for Robotic Vision, Australian Research Council & the federal government.

He is the named lead inventor on multiple revenue-generating patents – he has devised, implemented & delivered over 30 revenue-generating commercial products, including the acclaimed, multi-award winning, highly sticky & sustainable Toolbox Spotter. He recently founded a robotics & AI-based spinoff company from his future robotics program in Laing O’Rourke Engineering Excellence Group, and has held various academic appointments at universities such as Stanford and University of Technology Sydney centered on his ability to induce sticky, sustainable & viral adoption of high-tech innovation since 2011.

Nathan wants to make the world a better place – tech is his vehicle.

Topic: Toolbox Spotter – AI-equipped Field Hard Computer Vision System for Real-time Hazard Detection

Nikki is a passionate professional with over 25 years experience in Safety, Health, Environment and Quality in various industries within Australia. With a technical background and qualifications in Applied Chemistry and OH&S, significant experience in auditing, training and development, risk management and incident investigation, Nikki demonstrates a collaborative, holistic and integrated approach to finding effective solutions for issues faced by organizations in delivering projects or services.

As a motivational leader and someone who positively influences change, Nikki inspires her teams and peers to achieve goals and supports them to develop their potential. Her goal is to ensure that the management systems put in place to achieve Safety Health Environment and Quality outcomes are practical and add value for the project personnel and the organization.

Topic: How Predictive Analytics Can Transform Root Cause Incident Analysis and Reduce Workplace Injuries

Rachel Smith commenced her career as a Process Engineer with Melbourne Water at the Eastern Treatment Plant. Following a number of varied roles across Melbourne Water and beyond, Rachel returned to the Eastern Treatment Plant in a role focusing on Dangerous Goods and Major Hazard Facility management. Four years ago, after a career spent in Operations, Rachel moved to the Safety Team to bring a focus to Process and Asset Safety across all Melbourne Water sites. Rachel is currently Manager, Safe Assets & Innovation, with a portfolio including use of technology to improve safety.

Topic: Melbourne Water Case Study – How Melbourne Water Utilizes Immersive Virtual Reality Technology to Keep Personnel Safe in Hazardous Work Environments

Ross Stidolph retired at the end of 2018 as Director Dangerous Goods and Petroleum Safety with the WA Department of Mines and Petroleum. Since 2014, Ross held the statutory positions as the Chief Dangerous Goods Officer for WA and as the Minister’s delegate for Petroleum legislation in WA during the unprecedented growth in LNG and other Major Hazard Facility expansions during this time. Ross has also acted as the WA WorkSafe Commissioner including time as an executive Director and Deputy Director General in the Department.

Ross has over 35 years’ experience in the chemical, oil and gas, and Major Hazardous Industries with BP both in Australia and overseas. During this time, Ross has held executive positions with BP, Verve Energy (as COO) and since 2014 with DMP. Ross has extensive experience in both operational and executive management of Major Hazard Facilities including senior management roles spanning operational safety, engineering, maintenance and major projects.

A degree-qualified electrical engineer, Ross is a fellow of the Institute of Engineers (Australia). Ross, as the Director of Petroleum Safety and Dangerous Goods with the Department of Mines and Petroleum in WA, restructured and re-organized the Branch to address significant shortcomings in structure and organizational effectiveness.

Ross elected to retire in November 2018 upon completion of this significant effort and after nearly 40 years of serving the High Hazard industry sector where he still mentors and also consults on a part-time basis.

Ross is chairing this conference.

Tay Kay Yang holds nearly 20 years of experience in the oil and gas industry and have specialized in offshore shallow-water and deep-water projects. He commenced his career with Shell in 2010 as a project engineer and subsequently led in the delivery of the top tensioner riser at Sabah Shell Petroleum Company in Malaysia. Malikai is a deep-water tension leg platform installed in the Malikai oil field approximately 100 kilometers from Malaysia’s coast in the South China Sea. It utilizes a number of advanced deep-water technologies in order to unearth deep-water resources in a safe and efficient manner.

Topic: Shell Case Study – Goal Zero – Leveraging 3D Animation and VR Technology in Hazardous Work Environments