Hosted by Engineer Australia's College of Leadership and Management Queensland & Queensland Engineering in Innovation Committee.

This panel discussion will look at digital disruption and the foresight and planning required for engineers in a future that includes AI ML and Digital Twins. The panel will cover the standards, entrepreneurial skills, and how vital cross-collaboration across industry verticals like Asset Management, Construction, Manufacturing and Government agencies will be to achieve sustainable and innovative solutions for the future.

Panelists 

Don Sands

CEO, Synengo

The move to renewable resources for the world’s energy needs is inevitable – but it does not have to come at the expense of living standards. I am a strong believer that we can live well and do so in a sustainable manner.

This is why Don started Synengco in 2001. As an engineer he saw that we could use information to better predict how assets used in the production of energy were performing and to use this knowledge to improve efficiencies. This has had the flow-on effect of reducing excessive carbon emissions, reducing the cost of production and reducing downtime of critical assets.

Don assembled a team of talented programmers, mathematicians, analysts and engineers, and together they developed SentientSystem – a machine-learning engine for decision-support systems. SentientSystem now underpins a suite of tools to help industries and commercial entities manage their assets as the world transitions to renewable energy sources.

He is committed to reducing the financial and operational impacts on asset-rich companies by providing decision-support systems to maintain asset performance and inform critical strategic decisions in this era of change.

Wayne Gerard

CEO and Cofounder, RedEye

Wayne is Chief Executive Officer of RedEye, a Queensland (QLD) founded technology company with offices in Brisbane, US, New Zealand and Asia.

Redeye solutions are purpose built to help companies that own and operate critical infrastructure and large complex assets (asset owners) in the mining, oil & gas, power, water, transportation, healthcare and government sectors.

Wayne’s passion is to provide a better way of working for people who work in complex assets and critical infrastructure.

He sees this as a journey, so they try and find clients (people) who want to partner and work together longterm to create functionality that addresses real operating problems. Rome wasn't built in a day and trying to solve many of these operational problems out of the box doesn't really deliver.

Wayne is passionate about innovation and entrepreneurship, he believes this can be the cornerstones of Australia’s new economy creating long term, sustainable jobs and economic prosperity.

Louise Dudley, CompIEAust EngExec

CEO, Urban Utilities

Louise has been Chief Executive Officer of Urban Utilities since 2012, and prior to this, was the utility’s founding Chief Financial Officer.  

Preceding Urban Utilities’ formation, Louise held several senior management roles at Brisbane City Council, including Executive Manager Water Retail, where she helped facilitate Australia’s largest water sector transition that merged five local government water and sewerage businesses into Australia’s fourth largest water retailer (Urban Utilities).?

Prior to joining Brisbane City Council, Louise spent 17 years with leading accounting and advisory firm, KPMG.  

Louise currently serves as Chair of the Customer in Leadership Committee – a sub-committee of the Water Services Association of Australia (WSAA).  She is also a board director of WSAA and AWA (Australian Water Association) and?WaterStart. As well as being a Chartered Accountant, Louise holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Queensland, is a Graduate Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and is an Engineering Executive.