Speakers

Andrew Barr MLA

Adrian Piani

Adrian Piani is an Environmental Engineer who has worked predominately in the water resources, environmental and infrastructure sectors.

In 2019 he joined the ACT Government as the ACT Chief Engineer where he provides strategic advice to government on infrastructure projects and supports the engineering cohort through the ACT Government Engineering Workforce Plan. He is a Chartered Fellow and Engineering Executive of Engineers Australia.

He is a proud Canberran and is passionate about the role that infrastructure plays in supporting our wellbeing and quality of life.

Malcolm Snow

Malcolm is one of Australia’s leading urban designers acknowledged for the breadth of his professional experience and advocacy for making better cities. With qualifications in urban planning and landscape architecture, he has led major city revitalization programs in Australia, Asia, and the United Kingdom both as a consultant and an advisor to all spheres of government. 

In a career spanning 48 years Malcolm has (with others) been the recipient of more than twenty-eight state and national level awards for design and management excellence including the Australia Award for Urban Design four times.

He has held senior executive roles in both the private and public sectors including numerous Board directorships. Before joining the City Renewal Authority as its inaugural CEO in mid-2017, Malcolm was a National Director of international consulting firm Urbis. He is the former Chief Executive of both the National Capital Authority in Canberra and South Bank Corporation in Brisbane and was for a decade, the Head of Design for the City of Melbourne.

John Dietz

John has a strong background in transformational leadership, corporate governance, public sector accountability, urban and suburban development and delivery of housing solutions.

He has extensive practical experience with a range of management methodologies used for cost, schedule, feasibility and status reporting. His understanding of effective corporate governance and program delivery techniques with public sector accountability, was advanced while responsible for the delivery of Defence Housing Australia’s (DHA) national land acquisition, development and construction program. From 2011 until recently, John was the General Manager of the Property Provisioning Group within DHA.

John has a passion for innovation. Prior to joining DHA John worked for Thales Australia where he was responsible for delivering a number of major, innovative, high profile technology programs. John’s experience prior to joining Thales was predominantly in software engineering.

John holds a Bachelor of Science and a Bachelor of Economics from the Australian National University. He has also completed a Graduate Diploma in Applied Finance and Investment from Securities Institute Education and holds a Half Masters in Project Management from the University of South Australia.

Greg Tallentire

Greg Tallentire is currently the Project Director for the renewal of the Commonwealth Avenue Bridge in Canberra, ACT. Prior to working for the National Capital Authority, has also assisted in the delivery of design and technical services projects on behalf of Transport for NSW, the NSW Governments lead transport agency and Sydney Metro, Australia’s biggest public transport project.

He has also worked on many major projects across the transport and infrastructure sector in Australia and the USA.

Greg holds a Bachelor of Science from the Australian Catholic University. He has also completed a Graduate Diploma in Project Management from the University of New England and holds a Masters in Science and Law from the University of Sydney.

Michael McGrath

Michael has over 45 years experience as a senior manager in the Commonwealth and ACT public
sector and in the private sector. As a civil engineer Michael has managed and delivered major projects internationally, nationally and within the ACT. He has a passion for providing health, housing and utilities infrastructure for
disadvantaged communities both internationally and within Australia. Michael specialises in the development and implementation of integrated delivery processes. While translating government policy into an effective delivery methodology, his collaborative approach has maximised community expectations and facilitated community self-determination, without compromising the delivery of the primary capital works outcomes.
As a Senior Director, Michael has managed the delivery of the capital works supporting the Land Release Program in the ACT while ensuring environmental, social and wellbeing priorities of Government are achieved.

Matthew Gygi

Matthew Gygi? is an experienced project manager with more than 20 years working across infrastructure, commercial, heritage, Defence, and healthcare sectors. Matthew has developed strong negotiation, problem-solving and relationship building skills through managing a variety of complex projects in Australia and the United States. He has extensive experience in program and project management, planning, contract management, quality control, cost estimation and planning, design management, value engineering and project delivery. While he has worked in many industries, Matthew has specialist knowledge in the health infrastructure space, having managed several projects with innovative and technical specifications in both regional and metropolitan settings. He recently managed the design and construction of Canberra’s Covid 19 Surge Centre. Matthew holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) and an undergraduate degree in civil engineering from the University of Utah.

Mehra Jafari

Mehra is the head of planning policy and urban analytics at national planning consultancy, Mecone. She has worked on some of Australia’s most complex and high profile planning and infrastructure projects in senior public and private sector roles.

Mehra specialises in the development of housing, employment and integrated land use and infrastructure strategies at state, regional and local scales. She works closely with all three tiers of government providing consulting and advisory services on land use strategy development and implementation.

Dr Therese Flapper

Dr Flapper is driven to deliver best for community infrastructure outcomes. Therese deploys many personal leadership attributes to bring about successful paths forward in very complex relationships across key stakeholders. This is founded on substantial and practical experience bringing infrastructure from policy and planning through to procurement and delivery across the full asset value chain. Therese has a depth and breadth of experience across the built environment. This includes its inter-connectedness, the broadest objectives (such as sustainability and community health) and the details (regulatory to design). From a strong base of projects in Local Government across NSW, QLD and VIC, to State Government, Utilities and the Commonwealth, Therese tracks projects to success across the regulatory framework.

Kevin Carrucan

Kevin has a 34-year career in transport design. Since joining Architectus in 2009 as an Associate Director Kevin has
brought his international experience and depth of knowledge to winning key transport and infrastructure projects. He
has built a talented transport team and in recognition of his abilities to win, develop and deliver multiple projects, and
was promoted to Principal in 2014. With Architectus becoming a national business in 2017, Kevin was appointed
Transport Sector Lead for NSW, ACT and QLD.
Kevin’s works at Architectus includes the design lead for Sydney Metro USDTS through the Stage 1 designs and NAC
Gate 1 approval process for Crows Next, Victoria Cross, Barangaroo, Pitt Street and Waterloo Stations, Capital Metro
Canberra for the Canberra Metro consortium, Gold Coast Rapid Transit for the GoldLinQ consortium, the Transport
Access Program 2 and 3 for Transport for NSW (TfNSW) and the private sector, Northern Beaches BRT The B-Line for
TfNSW, the Central to Eveleigh Plan with Urban Growth NSW, the Western Sydney Airport Rail Study for the Australian
Government and Sydney Metro Greater West, and the Paramatta Light Rail reference design for TfNSW.

Greg Harford

Greg Harford is the new Chief Executive of the Canberra Business Chamber, the peak body for business in the ACT. Although a new Canberran, Greg is keen to see the city thrive and prosper. He is experienced in leading peak advocacy bodies and has experience working in both business and government.

Dr Rod Katz

Rod has recently become chair of the ACT chapter of the Australian College of Road Safety
(ACRS). He is a member of the ACT Road Safety Board. The Board provides advice to the ACT
Government on road safety issues and, in particular, makes recommendations on grant
applications to the ACT Road Safety Fund. Rod had an early career in finance. This included a
period in banking and then for TNT Limited funding major transport assets. He went from there to
a masters in transport and a PhD (USYD) on modelling of demand for active transport. He was
president of the Bicycle Federation of Australia from 2002-2005. In recent years he has worked as
a consultant and for not-for-profit organisations involved with road safety including the Amy Gillett
Foundation. His personal company, Advanced Professional Education P/L convenes professional
development conferences. He is committed to Vision Zero - no fatalities or serious injuries as a
result of road crashes - a commitment shared by the ACRS.

Obelia Tait

Gary Henighen

Gary is a highly motivated designer with experience in the design, coordination and realisation of large, complex and critically acclaimed architectural projects.

Gary has designed and delivered significant high rise multi-unit residential projects, Built to Rent, Over Station Developments, Education and Commercial mixed used projects.

With almost 20 years professional experience gained in the UK and Australia, Gary has led many major projects through all stages from design competitions to site delivery phases. 

He specialises in residential mixed-use towers and transit-oriented precincts with a keen interest in urban renewal and the sustainability and resilience of our future precincts and built form.

Irene Scott

Irene is a Senior Principal Engineer with 26 years’ experience in bridge design and verification. Irene has been a Team Leader on various large Alliance and Design & Construct projects in ACT, NSW and Victoria. Her experience includes large span concrete balanced cantilever bridges, incrementally launched bridges as well as precast girder, steel bridges and strengthening of existing bridges. She graduated from Sydney University with the University Medal and is the General Manager for the Bridge and Structures Team for pitt&sherry. As a Bridge Code Committee member and Director of ACRS, she is passionate about bridges and how they contribute to the community.

Ben Byrnes

Ben is a highly experienced professional with over 25 years of expertise in structural design drafting and modelling for the Built Environment. Throughout his career, he has worked for industry-leading consultancies such as ARUP, SMEC, and Aurecon, where he played a crucial role in enhancing coordinated design processes. Recognising the potential for efficiency gains in construction and design, Ben is focused on coordination and automation in the industry. He excels in producing and streamlining workflows that leverage the full power of digital delivery methods, utilising his deep understanding of both traditional CAD tools and the latest BIM software.

At VinZero, Ben remains at the forefront of drafting and relevant software packages. He provides advanced support to our customers, successfully implementing and deploying technology tools. Additionally, as an Autodesk Certified Instructor, he delivers training programs, utilising tools that track, measure, and report on professional development progress, leading to measurable improvements in employee knowledge.

Steven Glover

Steve is a highly accomplished engineering and construction management professional with more than 30 years’ in the civil construction industry. His extensive background working on transport infrastructure upgrade projects for predominantly government clients helps shape his approach to winning and delivering major infrastructure projects in ACT and NSW. Steve maintains a focus on risk management strategies and developing innovative solutions to optimise delivery outcomes for clients anc communities alike. Steve is currently leading the design management of the John Gorton Drive Extension and Molonglo River Bridge Crossing for BMD, working with ACT Government to maximse design and construction methodologies, innovation and local engagement.

Shane Martin

Maddison Fisher

Maddison lives and breathes embodied carbon combining building industry experience with a materials engineering background to navigate this emerging field.

As a project manager, and a materials and data specialist, Maddison leads the analysis and research of carbon in construction materials at the Footprint Company, TSA. She is experienced in the assessment of embodied carbon in all stages of the construction lifecycle, with an exceptional understanding of the calculation processes behind the assessment.

Michael Hopkins

Michael Hopkins is the Chief Executive Officer of the Master Builders Association of the ACT, responsible for leading Canberra’s construction industry as it delivers $7 billion of infrastructure in the nation’s capital over the next 5 years.

With qualifications in urban planning and business, Michael has a passion for leading the building and construction industry towards a net-zero built environment.

Michael also holds non-executive director roles with the OzHelp Foundation, a mental health foundation established to support the construction industry, and Master Builders Insurance Brokers, a construction industry specialist insurance broker.

Dr Saeed Banihashemi

Anna Chauvel

Anna Chauvel is a Co-founder and Director of PLACE Laboratory. She is passionate about the built environment and in particular the glue that holds it all together - the public realm. She has extensive experience in designing major public spaces and has created a practice focussed on delivering engaging and contemporary places for PEOPLE. She believes the design of our public places is about enriching our lives by allowing people to interact and participate in a creative and exciting urban environment. It's all about people, nature, and the complex interactions of urbanity. Anna was the project lead for the development of the Gender Sensitive Urban Design Framework and Implementation Toolkit.

Richmond Henty

Richmond Henty is a Senior Project Manager in the Urban Team of Infrastructure Delivery in Transport Canberra City Services (TCCS). He is an experienced senior architect with over twenty years of local, national, and international design experience. Through his passion of architecture, sustainability, and urban design, he has developed a creative and innovative design approach, combined with excellent management skills.

Richmond is the Project Manager for the Gender Sensitive Urban Design Framework and Implementation Toolkit, representing a joint agency initiative including TCCS, Major Project, City Renewal Authority and Suburban Land Agency.