Invited Speakers
Invited Speakers
Doug Aberle FIEAust CPEng Managing Director Western Power
Doug Aberle is the Managing Director of Western Power, a business of more than 2,200 core staff and over 1000 contractors in over 29 sites. It is responsible for the distribution and transmission network which delivers power in the South West Interconnected System (SWIS). The business, which has an asset value of over $3 billion, provides access to the two competitive ends of the electricity industry, generation and retail, in a regulated environment that ensures quality of service and access to the network is fair and equitable.
Doug is a graduate of the Advanced Management Program at Harvard University. He is a Fellow of the Institution of Engineers Australia and a Chartered Professional Engineer. Doug is also a clinical member of the Australian Association of Relationship Councillors, is a College Member of Gestalt Australia and New Zealand and a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
Carl Binning Vice President Sustainability BHP Billiton
Carl Binning is Vice President Sustainability within BHP Billiton's Iron Ore Business and serves on its global executive. His team's responsibilities include the management of community and township issues, partnership with indigenous people and long term environmental stewardship.
Prior to joining BHP Billiton Carl Binning was Chief Executive of Greening Australia, the largest environment organisation in Australia. Greening Australia works at a grass roots community level to undertake practical environmental projects. Prior to this Carl was a principle research economist at CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems where his research was focused on designing economic incentives and institutions for sustainable natural resource management.
Carl has also worked as an environmental economist within the Commonwealth Government. In this period he participated in the Ecologically Sustainable Development process, the Council of Australian Governments Water Reforms and the development of Regional Forest Agreements. Carl has been a farmer and is a proud father of 3 boys.
Professor Paul Greenfield AO FTSE HonFIEAust CPEng Vice-Chancellor The University of Queensland
Professor Paul Greenfield has recently taken up the position of Vice-Chancellor of The University of Queensland. He was previously Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Professor of Chemical Engineering at The University of Queensland. Prior to 2001, Professor Greenfield was Deputy Vice- Chancellor (Research) and Director of the Graduate School.
He has a Bachelors degree with Honours and a PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of New South Wales and a Bachelor of Economics from The University of Queensland. Awarded the Chemeca Medal in 1995, he is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (FTSE), the Institution of Chemical Engineers, UK (FIChE) and an Honorary Fellow of the Institution of Engineers, Australia (FIEAust, CPEng). He was awarded an Order of Australia (AO) in 2006.
Professor Greenfield has extensive experience as a Board Director and is currently a Director on a number of Company Boards. He has also consulted and worked widely with industry on arange of projects spanning biochemical engineering, wastewater treatment and waste and environmental management, as well as economic evaluation of projects (particularly in the biotechnology and environmental fields). His interests lie in biotechnology, environmental management and R & D management and commercialisation.
Barry Lake FIEAust CPEng Senior Principal Consultant, Advanced Solar-Thermal Project Manager, WorleyParsons Power
Barry Lake is an electrical engineer and a Senior Principal Consultant with WorleyParsons. For the past 10 months he has been the Project Manager for the advanced solar-thermal project. advanced solar-thermal is a WorleyParsons EcoNomics ™ initiative to produce utility scale solar-thermal power stations tailored to the Australian environment and market.
Barry is a Fellow of Engineers Australia and a Chartered Professional Engineer. He has over thirty years experience in the electricity industry spanning the areas of power generation, power transmission and distribution and electricity utilization. He has worked in the electricity industry in Queensland, NSW, Northern Territory, Western Australia and New Zealand. Barry is now applying this long and wide experience to the introduction of very large scale solar power stations into Australia
After many years implementing power generation solutions which use fossil fuels, Barry is making his own enthusiastic contribution to producing an answer to the climate change dilemma through renewable energy generation.
Bill Lawson AM FIEAust CPEng Principal, Sinclair Knight Merz
Bill Lawson is a Civil Engineer and a Principal of Sinclair Knight Merz with 37 years professional experience across a wide technical and social spectrum. Within SKM, Bill currently holds a key role in developing the Company’s role in the Indigenous sector. Bill is also the Chairman and founding Director of the now national ‘not for profit’ Beacon Foundation which works to find wholly new and improved ways of overcoming Youth Unemployment and its many debilitating effects. Beacon is funded largely by the private sector from which SKM is the longest serving supporter and sponsor. Bill is thus able to combine his Beacon work with his role within SKM’s marketplaces. This unique position sees Bill active throughout Australia on a mix of Beacon and SKM tasks with current particular interests in both the Kimberley and the Pilbara. Bill has been widely recognised for his service to both Engineering and young Australians having been awarded a Centenary Medal in 2001, named as Engineers Australia’s ‘Professional Engineer of the Year’ in 2003 and made a Member of the Order of Australia in 2006. In 2007, Bill was named as one of Australia’s ‘True Leaders’ by the Financial Review’s ‘Boss’ magazine.
In his Paper to the 2008 Perth CELM conference, Bill will focus on the potential role of Technologists providing leadership in ‘social engineering’ of Australia’s current, pressing social challenges. He will encourage people with technical knowledge and skills at all levels to consider their application and use on significant social issues in local communities. Bill will illustrate his Paper with current, working examples from Beacon and SKM projects across Australia.
Andy LeMessurier Non-Executive Director, Benthic Geotech. Member of the Advisory Council of EWB, WA Chapter
Andy is a member of the recently-formed Advisory Council for the Engineers Without Borders (EWB) WA Chapter.
After graduating from Oxford University with both an MA in Engineering Science and a D.Phil, and joined a highway construction project in Saudi Arabia and a year later joined Shell to design oil and gas platforms working in the UK, Holland and Brunei.
After 10 years with Shell, Andy made the move to Perth joining Wholohan Grill and Partners, (the entity that eventually became WorleyParsons) where he remained until 2004 helping to build the skills and capabilities of the oil and gas division in WA.
In addition to his involvement with EWB, Andy now undertakes a number of part-time roles including being a non-executive Director of Benthic Geotech Pty Ltd, a provider of offshore geotechnical services to the global oil and gas industry.
Andy will talk about Engineers Without Borders Australia which works with disadvantaged communities to improve their quality of life through education and the implementation of sustainable engineering projects.
Shireane McKinnie FIEAust CPEng EngExec Head of Electronic Systems Division & Head of Engineering Defence Materiel Organisation
Shireane McKinnie is the Head of Electronic Systems Division in the Defence Materiel Organisation. This division is responsible for acquiring and supporting electronic systems in the areas of Electronic Warfare, Communication and Command Support and Surveillance and Control Systems. In addition to the core functions of the Division Shireane is also the Head of Engineering for the Defence Materiel Organisation. For the three years prior to this position, Shireane was Head of the Electronic and Weapons Systems Division which acquired and sustained electronic and weapon systems for the Australian Defence Force.
In 2007 Shireane was listed by Engineers Australia as one of the Top 100 Most Influential Engineers in Australia.
Peter Meurs FIEAust CPEng Managing Director, WorleyParsons
Peter Meurs currently holds the position of Managing Director at WorleyParsons, and in that position has direct responsibility for our Australian and New Zealand operations. These operations include 6,700 professionals in 53 offices.
Peter is also responsible for Economics™, the WorleyParsons range of services and technologies that profitably embed environmental, social and financial sustainability into project delivery, across the asset lifecycle. The EcoNomics™ approach mirrors Peter’s experiences in delivering enhanced performance and creating value in partnerships, alliances and sharing risk and reward with our customers. His long involvement and expertise in complex process businesses enable him to understand and incorporate customers’ needs into our EcoNomics™ solutions.
Peter Meurs has been a key contributor to the growth and development of WorleyParsons since joining the company in 1988. During this time, Peter has functioned in project management and company development roles including establishment of the foundations of the process business, the establishment and growth of alliance and integrated services contracts in Hydrocarbons and Minerals & Metals and the development of the New Zealand business.
With a Bachelor Degree in Mechanical Engineering and a Fellow of the Institution of Engineers Australia, Peter is also a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
Helen Pedersen Lead Structural Engineer, Calibre Projects
Helen is a Lead Structural Engineer in the mining industry and Fellow of Engineers Australia. Engineering has provided a varied and interesting career with both design and site roles in a variety of locations including Melbourne, Sydney, Gove near Cape Arnhem in the Northern Territory, Lihir Island in the remote east of New Guinea, Kalgoorlie, Port Hedland, Newman, Tom Price (getting into the more exotic locations!) and her home town of Perth.
Her current role is Lead Structural Engineer on the Brockman 4 development, a new Rio Tinto iron ore mine in the Pilbara. In this role she leads a team of Engineers working within a large multidiscipline team to design the structures necessary for support of the processing equipment.
Helen is very active in mentoring, graduate development and training. She can share some golden rules to remember in the transition to leadership.
Tonia Swetman Chief Executive Officer, Western Australian, Community Foundation
Tonia's extensive background spans a variety of corporate, government and community environments in regional and metropolitan WA, which in her current role as Chief Executive Officer for the Western Australian Community Foundation provides relevant experience for the Foundation to build strong partnerships with WA communities to support their long-term financial sustainability.
This experience, along with her communication expertise and formal qualifications in the discipline of economics, have established Tonia as a leader assisting organisations to adopt ground breaking approaches within the industry and community interface. She is a strong advocate of the practice of corporate social responsibility.
Prior to taking up the position of Chief Executive Officer at the Foundation, Tonia was Director of the Kwinana Industries Council, an incorporated business association with membership drawn from WA's premier industrial precinct, the Kwinana Industrial Area.
This followed several years living and working in the Pilbara in positions with a strong economic and community focus including working in the area of productivity enhancement and community relations on the Woodside Energy North West Shelf Expansion.
She also successfully established and led a consultancy business that specialised in community consultation and industry facilitation in their corporate social responsibility endeavours, and spent eight years in senior management positions with the Pilbara Development Commission.
During this period, Tonia was also a Director on the Board of the Dampier Port Authority and a member of Pilbara Homecare's Board of Management.
Tonia is currently a Director on the Board of the Heart & Lung Foundation of Western Australia.