Learn. Evolve. Grow, Together.
The Line Up
The Global Safety Innovation Summit will feature 60+ international presenters, interactive workshops, case study presentations and much more.
Keynote Speakers
Sidney Dekker
Professor & Director, Safety Science Innovation Lab, Griffith University
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Sidney Dekker (PhD Ohio State University, USA, 1996) is Professor and Director of the Safety Science Innovation Lab at Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia, and Professor in the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering at Delft University in the Netherlands.
Sidney has lived and worked in seven countries across four continents and won worldwide acclaim for his ground-breaking work in human factors and safety.
A best-selling author, avid piano player and pilot, he has been flying the Boeing 737 for an airline on the side. He is a trained mediator and chaplain.
Lisa Lande
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Technical Lead Management and Capacity Building
Connect on: LinkedIn
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Dr. Lande, a licensed clinical and organizational psychologist with a Ph.D. in educational psychology, brings over 30 years of human and organizational factors experience and knowledge to bear within technical organizations, and half of these committed to the nuclear industry.
Currently, Dr. Lande works for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna, Austria, supporting Member States with a wide range of human capacity building needs as they embark, expand, and also decommission their nuclear power programmes.
As a human & organizational factors expert within the commercial, nuclear, high-hazard, and government sectors, Dr. Lande has coached, consulted, and developed current and future leaders around the world.
She has facilitated and implemented broad-based safety/security, organizational culture, resilience and change management initiatives for more than three decades, to measurable success.
Sahika Vatan
Director, Systems, Tools and Learning, Tesla
Connect on: LinkedIn
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In her current role with Tesla, Sahika is leading a global effort to build and deploy a Tesla EHSS data management system that has HOP principles as the core of its design.
Before Tesla, Sahika worked at Chevron for 13 years. In that role as a HOP advisor, she was responsible for the integration of Human Performance principles into existing Operational Excellence processes such as Incident Investigation and Learning, Managing Safe Work and Process Safety.
Sahika has experience in managing global human factors and ergonomic programs and developing and delivering Human Performance, Human Factors and Ergonomics training across the world.
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Todd spent 25 years at Los Alamos National Laboratory as a Senior Advisor for Organizational and Safety Culture. Los Alamos National Laboratory is one of the world’s foremost research and development laboratories; Dr. Conklin has been working on the Human Performance program for the last 15 years of his 25-year career.
It is in this fortunate position where he enjoys the best of both the academic world and the world of safety in practice. He speaks all over the world to executives, groups and work teams who are interested in better understanding the relationship between the workers in the field and the organization’s systems, processes, and programs.
Invited Speakers & Workshop Facilitators
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Diane is a graduate of Imperial College, London, with a career spanning BP businesses and functions including Exploration & Production, Refining and Chemicals, working in Belgium, Brazil and Egypt in operations and safety roles. In her positions related to Safety Culture and Human Performance, she refreshed the BP values, delivering cultural change to better enable safety performance. This included operationalizing a systems thinking approach by improving the way work is set up to reduce the possibility of mistakes and make work more effective.
Diane now focuses on education, mentoring and advocacy related to modernizing safety.
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DR. MARTHA ACOSTA was first called the “Godmother of HOP” on Dr. Todd Conklin’s Pre-Accident Investigation Podcast. Since the beginning of her HOP journey at Los Alamos National Laboratory, Martha has become an internationally regarded expert in human and organizational learning and performance. She is a Senior Moderator, who designs and delivers large-scale leadership programs, in Harvard Business School's Corporate Learning subsidiary, and has been a learning and development consultant to some of the best-known global corporations for over a quarter century. Her speaking, writing and research focuses on the emotional and cognitive aspects of safety and leadership. Martha holds leadership positions on both the Board of Visitors and Governors of St. John’s College and the Board of Directors of the Los Alamos National Laboratory Foundation. She earned a doctorate in Human and Organizational Learning from The George Washington University and a MBA in Organizational Behavior from Southern Methodist University.
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Bob Edwards is a Human & Organizational Performance Advocate and practitioner. His experience includes 6 years in the military, over 10 years as a design engineer, an owner of a design firm, a leader for maintenance and technical support teams and he has worked as a safety leader for the past 8 years. Bob takes his life work experiences and combines them with the Human and Organizational Performance (HOP) philosophies to help organizations learn how to better respond to failure and how to use HOP Learning Teams to gain better operational intelligence and to develop more effective, thorough and sustainable solutions to tough operational problems. Bob has led well over 200 Learning Teams for safety, quality, legal and operational events and has worked closely with Todd Conklin to develop a process to help facilitate Learning Teams. Bob has a BS degree in mechanical engineering from Tennessee Technological University and MS degree in Advanced Safety Engineering Management from the University of Alabama Birmingham.
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Andrea Baker started practicing and teaching HOP principles while working for one of the largest multinational industrial companies in the world. As an environmental, health and safety leader of manufacturing, assembly and distribution facilities, she worked through the complexity of adopting HOP principles from the ground up. In 2014, she began teaching HOP Fundamentals and Learning Teams around the US and anchoring the concepts in existing operating rhythms. She began extrapolating these strategies to a larger scale, and in 2015 became the HOP Senior Expert for the company's 300+ multi-sector locations in Europe. In 2018, Andrea stepped away from the company to help other organizations on their HOP journey. Andrea has worked with over 60 companies, across 9 industries, in 16 different countries, and has mentored individuals from every region of the globe. Andrea co-authored, “Bob's Guide to Operational Learning” to help organizations adopt Operational Learning practices, and co-hosts a podcast called “A HOP Podcast (with no name)”.
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David Provan, PhD, is the Managing Director of Forge Works and Safety Futures. He has more than 20 years of experience as a Safety Director across numerous safety critical industries. David is an Adjunct Fellow of the Safety Science Innovation Lab at Griffith University and is the co-host of the internationally popular ‘The Safety of Work’ podcast.
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Simon has been a champion of safe and effective front-line operations in oil and gas production, refining, drilling, operations and maritime transportation. He spearheaded the company-wide implementation of BP’s Human Performance (HP) strategy, ushering in a vital new perspective on managing process safety in operations. His expertise spans human factors (HF), leadership, culture, incident investigation, risk management, organisational learning, and situational awareness in major hazard industries, defence and emergency services. He is a Chartered Chemical Engineer and Psychology graduate, with a creative streak and a talent for explaining complex issues simply.
Simon has helped hundreds of companies through longstanding support of industry bodies, chairing two influential Human Factor committees. He has written and edited well-received industry publications, training and videos on human performance, human factors, safety leadership and learning. In 2022 he was elected as a Council Member to the Royal National Lifeboat Institution.
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Ivan Pupulidy is a Professor at the University of Alabama, Birmingham where he applies his experience and research to the Advanced Safety Engineering and Management Master of Engineering program. His courses, like his career, focus on risk and safety in complex systems and high-risk environments, such as wildland firefighting, aviation, military, and medicine. Ivan retired as a director from the U. S. Forest Service where he developed and implemented the Learning Review, which is a process designed to improve how large and small organizations respond to accidents and incidents. The Learning Review helped foster a learning culture in the USFS and was acknowledged during a presentation to the Obama Whitehouse where Ivan presented key concepts related to wildland firefighter safety and risk.
Ivan’s ability to integrate academic research with real world application comes from his varied life experiences, which have included work as a mine geologist, exploration geophysicist, and a U.S. Coast Guard pilot for rescue and law enforcement missions. Ivan served in the U.S. Air Guard and Air Force Reserves, where he flew the C-130 Hercules, including missions as a Modular Airborne Firefighting System (MAFFS) tanker pilot on wildland fires. He also served on active military operations for combat and humanitarian support in Iraq, Afghanistan and Central Africa.
Ivan earned a Master of Science degree in Human Factors and Systems Safety at Lund University, Sweden, under Professor Sidney Dekker. He completed his PhD in Social Science at Tilburg University, Netherlands. Check out Ivan’s new book, “Human & Organization Potential”, available on Amazon.
Liz Calcott
Person in Charge (PIC) WA Oil, Chevron
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I have a New Zealand Certificate in Electrical Engineering from Auckland Technical Institute NZ and a Post Graduate Diploma in Maintenance Management from Central Queensland University.
I have worked in the Oil and Gas Industry for more than 25 years starting as an Instrument Technician for a high-pressure gas transmission company in New Zealand. Since moving to Perth, Australia over 20 years ago I have worked in both the upstream and downstream side of the sector with the last 13yrs with Chevron Australia where I have had roles on both the Wheatstone and Gorgon projects. I am presently in a FIFO role as the Field Superintendent for WA Oil based on Barrow Island.
My career has seen me do the work, plan the work, lead the work, advise on the work, and now manage the work. This journey has taught me the power of understanding how the work is done, being able to engage directly with the workforce and the importance of listening to their ideas.
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Michael has a strong belief in the power of collaboration to address complex legal challenges. His approach, whether with his team, in partnership with clients, or among colleagues, reflects his commitment to fostering a culture of shared knowledge, empathy and excellence.
Michael is Australia’s leading health and safety lawyer with specialist expertise in regulatory investigations and environment, social and governance (ESG) issues. Michael provides strategic crisis management, proactive resilience and ESG advice to companies and Boards in Australia and globally. He has extensive experience responding to incidents, undertaking investigations, acting in inquiries, and advising on ESG systems, processes, policy, culture and leadership.
Michael proactively advises his clients on safety-related matters particularly work health and safety, anti-terrorism, product safety and security compliance issues including assisting in the development and implementation of compliance systems. He regularly investigates psychosocial incidents and workplace culture and proactively implements mental health and wellbeing programs.
Michael has spoken at United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) conferences including presenting to the General Assembly and being on the taskforce for the development of the Global Manifesto for Industrial Safety. He is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Health and Safety and, in 2019, Michael was awarded a lifetime achievement award by the Australian Institute of Health and Safety for his contribution to safety.
In addition to his extensive legal expertise, Michael is a thought leader on health and safety issues and an author of numerous books on ESG, Due Diligence, Mental Health at Work, Incident Investigations, Dealing with Regulators and the COVID pandemic. His books are frequently prescribed in universities, cited in academic literature and judgements, and are standard references for safety and legal practitioners.
Michael provides training to Boards and corporate leadership teams on safety due diligence, safety leadership, safety performance indicators, contractor management, risk management, mental health and ESG. His pioneering work on rethinking safety as capital, measuring the return on investment of safety and the Due Diligence Index – a new international standard for measuring safety performance, makes him uniquely placed to lead multidisciplinary projects on ESG improvements, reporting and performance measurement.
Michael has lectured at various tertiary institutions including the University of New South Wales, The University of Sydney, and Auckland University.
Prior to joining Hamilton Locke, Michael was a Partner at Clyde & Co, including as Australian Managing Partner from 2017 to 2022.
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Ms Counsell was appointed to the Executive Leadership Team with effect from 1 January 2017 and has responsibility for legal affairs. She joined BlueScope in 2014, following an international career extending over 25 years in partner and equivalent roles at leading global law firms.
Ms Counsell specialises in commercial law, major projects, infrastructure and project finance and has worked throughout Australia, Asia, Europe, Africa and the Middle East advising corporate, government and financial institution clients on various commercial matters, in particular foreign investments, development and strategic projects (including mergers and acquisitions), corporate law and governance, in a variety of industries including mining, resources, energy and defence.
Previously Ms Counsell held the position of General Counsel – Corporate at BlueScope and was responsible for the legal requirements of all strategic and development projects of BlueScope as well as all corporate head office legal requirements.
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After five years as the Chief Executive of Australian Steel Products, John has taken on an Executive Leadership advisory role as the Chief Technical and Development Officer. John is working closely with the MD and CEO to ensure the success of the capital development pipeline. He is also responsible for Health, Safety and Environment and Manufacturing Excellence.
In John’s 47-year career at BlueScope, he has held other Executive positions including General Manager Manufacturing and General Manager New Zealand and Pacific Islands
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Michelle leads the Dampier Ports and Marine team for Rio Tinto Iron Ore. In this role, Michelle is accountable for the safe operation of Rio Tinto’s Dampier Port assets and the Marine operations critical to the success of both the Dampier and Cape Lambert ports. In addition to this, ensuring that Rio Tinto is a respected community partner and operates as a good local is core to her role.
Michelle has been with Rio Tinto for 15 years and in this time has held several leadership roles across operational, corporate, and functional disciplines, including leading the People and Culture Strategy where she was accountable for delivering business-wide change aimed at creating a safe, respectful, and inclusive workplace within the Iron Ore business.
Michelle is passionate about making the mining industry as safe as possible. Leveraging her People and Culture work, she is building a learning culture in her teams and championing the way investigations and field time are approached so that we understand why people take the actions they do and make the safest way, the easiest way to get things done.
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Jodie works across Shell Australia's operational sites supporting leaders and teams to optimise work through a lens of human and organisational performance.
Jodie most enjoys her work when she's surrounded by people who are curious to learn, with empathy and self-reflection.
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Greg is an international award-winning author and qualified lawyer who has spent more than three decades specialising in safety and health management. Greg works with clients helping them to understand their responsibility for safety and health and develop processes to discharge those responsibilities.
In addition to being a lawyer, Greg has worked as the Principal Safety Advisor for an oil and gas company and as General Manager of Health and Safety in a transport and mining services company.
Greg holds various board positions and taught the Accident Prevention unit at Curtin University in Western Australia.
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I have over 15 years of experience as a safety professional, working in various industries such as mining, manufacturing, oil and gas. My main goal is to help organisations build risk capability, and improve their safety learnings and leadership.
I believe in using contemporary learning and reflection approaches to safety and staying up-to-date with the latest ideas in safety management. I work closely with senior leaders to build trust and create a positive culture throughout the organisation.
I am a graduate of Griffith University's Safety Science and Innovation Lab which has given me a strong foundation in the latest safety theories, which I apply to create healthier workplace cultures.
I'm all about teamwork and open communication. I think it's essential to empower employees to think about continuous improvement and excellence and contribute to a culture of learning within the organisation. I also believe that a positive workplace culture, where levity is encouraged leads to better safety outcomes
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Deirdre has been working as an executive HSE leader in high-risk industries for over 20 years, including manufacturing, oil and gas, mining, and construction.
She has a passion for organisational learning, human performance and enabling cultural change.
Deirdre has recently taken up the role of Global Group Head of HSE at SunRice Group to support their journey of continuous improvement.
Michael Cournane
Senior HSE Strategy, Risk & Performance Advisor, Powerlink Queensland
Connect on: LinkedIn
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Michael Cournane is a contemporary HSE professional with over 16 years of experience across a number of industries including utilities, manufacturing and facilities maintenance. Michael currently works as a Senior HSE Strategy, Risk and Performance at Powerlink Queensland implementing contemporary approaches and frameworks to HSE. Michael is passionate about making sure the stories from the workers are told to support operational improvement and safe work.
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Zoe started advocating for user-centred approaches to solve problems when she first graduated in human factors (HF) 20 years ago, and applied HF tools across rail, oil & gas, healthcare, mining, manufacturing and aviation industries. Zoe then spent 10 years as the lead HF / HOP advisor for Chevron Australia when the reality of day-to-day operations led to the integration of practical solutions involving those closest to the work to evolve the organization’s safety management, culture and approach to operational learning. This included educating and coaching leaders; involving workers in incident investigations; adapting language and design of safety practices; and implementing learning teams. Zoe now helps a variety of organizations and is keen to share learnings from successes and (many) failures along the way.
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Maeve is the Global HSE Culture Lead at Svitzer, a fully owned subsidiary of A.P Moller Maersk, the global integrator of supply chain logistics. She is a chartered safety practitioner (CMIOSH) and her expertise lies in the application of adaptive and resilient human performance principles to improve how organizations manage safety effectively. Maeve has previously been recognized for innovation for leading the IOSH PIPER Initiative connecting academic research capability to industry partners, and she is a member of the IOSH Performance and Development Committee. Her background is in consulting, academia and management in high-risk industries, built environment sector and manufacturing prior to joining Maersk in 2019.
Adam Johns
Head of Organisational Learning & Safety Innovation, KeolisAmey Docklands
Connect on: LinkedIn
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Adam works for KeolisAmey Docklands (KAD), franchise operator of the Docklands Light Railway in London, UK. Adam’s role at KAD is to cultivate a mindset and practice of continuous learning and improvement across all operations and engineering activities, both reactively and proactively, by learning from adverse events and normal work. He has implemented Learning Reviews and a Restorative Just Culture to enable this. Adam is passionate about improving how organisations learn, championing a culture of compassion, trust, psychological safety and open information sharing. Prior to joining KAD in 2020, Adam spent over a decade working in the aviation industry, holding safety positions at Virgin Atlantic Airways, the UK Civil Aviation Authority, and most recently Cathay Pacific Airways in Hong Kong, where he helped develop the innovative Operational Learning Review.
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Sue Bottrell, Director of ContractorSAFE, has worked in occupational health and safety and workers compensation for the past 18 years. She is a practicing lawyer and a suitably qualified OHS professional as defined by Worksafe Victoria (2008) and has qualifications in safety and law to master’s level. This combination of qualifications and experience sets Sue apart from all other OHS lawyers and safety professionals and puts her at the top of the safety profession. Sue is a legal and safety specialist in management of contractor safety. She has worked with over 300 businesses to improve safety and ensure effective management of contractor safety and is very vocal about the costly and ineffective practices currently being adopted by employers, and safety professionals, in this area. Sue regularly speaks and publishes on this topic and acts as an expert witness. She has also developed the modern approach to contractor safety management, The Four Pillars of Contractor Safety Management, which ensures effective and compliant prequalification, on boarding that correctly focuses on managing risk to contractors from Principal Contractor operations, effective real time monitoring and performance review of contractors to demonstrate due diligence, Her advice correctly reflects the High Court’s interpretation of duties owed by Principal Contactors, which the majority of other professional advice, both safety and legal, in this area does not. Her approach thoroughly manages legal liability while focusing effort on prevention. She is also a specialist in the application of the National Heavy Vehicle Law, and particularly under Chain of Responsibility obligations. She has worked hard within the transport industry to demystify that law and ensure its correct and effective implementation. She is also the AIHS representative for the current review of the Heavy Vehicle National Law being undertaken by the National Transport Commission. Sue was the first safety professional in Australia to become a Certified Chartered Generalist OHS Professional Member of the Australian Institue of Health and Safety and was awarded the honour of Fellow in 2019. She also served as AIHS Treasurer from 2009 – 2010 and as a National Board Member from 2013 – 2015 and is the current Chair of the AIHS Ethics Committee. She has been instrumental in the advancement of the safety professions standing in the community and the implementation of certification of safety professionals to ensure the community has access to qualified and competent safety advice.
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Kym is currently the Managing Director of a boutique consultancy, New View Safety, that partners with organisations to turn contemporary safety ideas into operational practices.
Kym is a passionate and future-state focused executive health and safety leader, holding a Masters in Safety Leadership from Griffith University, Masters in Applied Psychology (Organisational) and a Graduate Diploma in OHS from Murdoch University. She is an endorsed Organisational Psychologist.
Over the past 25 years, Kym has amassed significant experience working in safety leadership roles across a diverse range of industries, cultures and geographical locations including open-cut mining in Canada, through to offshore gas in the US, and a raft of sectors across Asia Pacific. Kym’s previous roles include as the Queensland Regulator for Workplace Health & Safety, Electrical Safety and Workers Compensation and as the Head of Health & Safety at Serco Asia Pacific and Urban Utilities. It was in this latter role that Kym and Professor Sidney Dekker produced the hugely successful ‘Doing Safety Differently’ documentary.
Taking a contemporary approach, Kym incorporates psychological principles and human centred methodologies with safety innovation and evidence-based research to drive transformation across the workplace, creating high reliability, operational excellence, and a positive workplace culture.
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Jeff is here because his safety career took a major turn in 2012.
Disappointed in the conventional answers after several high-profile workplace accidents, he began searching for something better and soon found it in the work being done by Hollnagel, Dekker, and others in the ‘new view’ space.
After a decade of learning and practice, his current work involves helping leaders question their basic assumptions, and helping organizations learn and improve by seeing everyday work differently.
Jeff co-authored the book “4D’s for HOP and Learning Teams”, instigated the first ‘Safety Differently Book Club’ meetings, and hosts the www.safetydifferently.com website.
Jeff lives in Vancouver Canada, and provides coaching, facilitation, and investigation services through www.qspleadership.com.
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Cam Stevens is the trusted voice for safety innovation, technology, and digital transformation; A chartered safety professional with an MSc in Human Factors, postgraduate studies in artificial intelligence ethics, and extensive experience in both safety and technology roles. Cam has supported more than 200 emerging technology deployments in high-risk enterprises across the globe.
As the CEO of boutique safety transformation consultancy Pocketknife Group and Founder of the Safety Innovation Academy, Cam is a world leader in digital safety transformation.
Cam Stevens is a well-established international keynote speaker on the intersection of safety and technology and an agent of change for the future of work.
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Aaron is one of Australia’s leading HSE recruitment consultants. He specialises in the search and selection of executive leadership and management positions within workplace health and safety.
Aaron is considered a trusted adviser, providing insights, guidance and advice. He helps shape careers, deliver business impact and influence broadly across the HSE profession.
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Tania was appointed Chief Executive Australian Steel Products in 2023. Prior to that, Tania was Chief Financial Officer for five years.
Tania leads all major operations in Australia including the Company's key operations at Port Kembla (NSW) and Western Port (VIC). She joined the Executive Leadership Team in 2016 with responsibility for the optimisation of investment returns from BlueScope’s global coated products assets, in addition to her role as Chief Financial Officer, BlueScope ANZ, which she held from May 2015.
Tania has also held the positions of Vice President, Corporate Finance and Strategy, Vice President, Strategy and Business Development, and finance leadership roles in Vietnam and Indonesia.
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Michael was appointed as the Global Head of Health, Safety and Environment for BlueScope in July 2023. Before that, Michael held multiple operational and customer-facing leadership roles for BlueScope across nearly 30 years of service, including stints in China, New Zealand, and Port Kembla.
Before his current role, Michael was Plant Manager at the Western Port facility in Victoria for 5 years and led a team of over 800 people. He accelerated innovation and digital transformation programs to improve operational efficiencies, led the capital investment strategy to support growth and drove a cultural shift to improve the employee experience. Most importantly, Michael championed a culture of safety and wellbeing always being front of mind, implementing high standards and embracing new ways of thinking and practices.
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John Wilkes is currently the Senior Director for Business Excellence working to build and apply Human and Organizational Performance concepts at Novavax.
He has more than 29 years of experience within the pharmaceutical and medical device industries at companies such as BioReliance, MesoScale Diagnostics, and AstraZeneca.
John’s experience was built through working in roles including manufacturing operations, operational excellence, quality systems, quality assurance, and quality control.
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Alex currently works as a Health, Safety and Environment Lead for Shell's flagship project- Prelude FLNG. Alex has an operations background, having worked on both onshore and offshore assets for the past ten years. As part of his role, Alex is responsible for the implementation of Human and Organizational performance across the asset.
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Brett has worked for BlueScope for 30 years in multiple countries right through their supply chain, but predominantly in manufacturing operations.
His safety journey has included several programs, but from 2019 he has taken a deep interest in the next stage of the Safety Evolution, and notably how to bring it to life in practice in the workplace.
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First and foremost, I am a scientist: a question-asking, data-interrogating, knowledge-seeking aficionado of understanding the unknown. I deal with complexity and make it simple; I propose theories and test them; I translate the abstract to the concrete and make it practical. And most of all, I enjoy doing all this with a team of people that share a passion for knowledge, creativity, and innovation.
My specialty is in advancing the science of safety through applied organisational research and developing measures to help companies diagnose challenges, track progress, and evaluate interventions.
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Beth’s expertise is in applying Resilience Engineering, High Reliability Organizations, Safety II, Human Performance.
Beth most recently led the transformation from traditional, behavior-based safety to “new view” Safety II as Director of Safety and Human Performance for Lewis Services.
Beth has advised on resilience and human performance at NASA and Department of Energy, including Los Alamos National Labs, and was Director of Human Performance at Calpine.
Beth is a mechanical engineer with post-graduate qualifications in cognitive science.
Nicole Malm
Health, Hygiene and Wellbeing Leader, BlueScope Australian Steel Products (AUS)
Connect on: LinkedIn
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Experienced Health and Safety Professional (over 14 years) with a passion for helping to create psychologically healthy and safe workplaces.
I have worked for a state regulator, in manufacturing, aviation and various industries.
I believe in the strength of working collaboratively to learn, grow and build capacity in our workplace.
Currently studying Bachelor of Arts (Psychology) and working to support the health and wellbeing of our people.
Dennis Hayworth
Ports Dampier Health & Safety Advisor, Rio Tinto (AUS)
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Dennis has a background in psychology and safety science, complemented by over a decade of hands-on experience in operational safety within the high-hazard environments of the oil, gas, and mining sectors. His recent work focuses on bridging the gap between theory and practice in the application of human and organisational performance principles in a key port operation for Rio Tinto’s iron ore business.
Dennis finds his greatest engagement in having nuanced discussions with both leaders and frontline team members about HOP. Observing their mindsets shift in real-time and subsequently hearing them advocate for HOP to others, without prompting, is particularly rewarding for him.
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Brent works in partnership with organisations in the commercial, government and education sectors providing practical advice to address health and safety risks and develop strategies to drive improvements in organisational learning.
Brent is well regarded as a safety coach and for taking organisations on a learning journey to understand how workers are seen as the solution, how to engage people and leverage their skills so that worker participation becomes a new way of running an organisation, where everybody benefits without replacing your existing health and safety system.
Brent is the project architect for New Zealand's most significant Court Ordered Project Order granted under the Health and Safety At Work Act, which is to develop, train and implement a Learning Teams framework for the maritime industry.
Davinia Finucane
Principal Advisor Investigation & Learning, Rio Tinto (AUS)
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Davinia has worked with Rio Tinto for nearly two decades with a range of experiences across health, safety and wellbeing. She is currently leading a global project aimed at improving the quality of incident investigations, with a focus on the impact that leadership and culture play in creating the conditions for learning.
What truly inspires Davinia is the pursuit of supporting Rio Tinto in its journey to becoming a learning organisation, where knowledge and safety converge to shape a thriving work environment and improve the felt experience for frontline teams.
Karen Bonenfant
Global Health & Safety Manager, BlueScope (AUS)
Connect on: LinkedIn
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Karen was appointed Global Health & Safety Manager for BlueScope Steel in 2018. BlueScope is an Australian international manufacturer and supplier of steel products and solutions across 16 countries.
Karen has worked in senior Health & Safety leadership roles for 14 years, leading a people-centred-approach to implement smart solutions and processes.
Her Masters in Supply Chain Management and previous 11 years in operational leadership roles (manufacturing, transport and logistics) has set her up for the work she does today.
At a global level, she influences continuous operational improvement, so organisations and people...
• learn how the work is done (vs how we think it is done)
• collaborate to make the work safer (and more efficient)
• feel valued at work (and have some fun too)
Susannah Berry
Senior Legal Counsel, BlueScope
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Susannah is a highly experienced BlueScope in-house lawyer, with technical expertise developed working for several years as a senior associate at a major Sydney law firm.
With more than 15 years working on the ground with the safety and environment teams at BlueScope, both in Australia and globally, Susannah is highly regarded for her hands-on approach and her ability to minimise unnecessary legal risk for her clients without compromising on safety objectives.
Susannah’s experience includes working at the highest levels of BlueScope to determine strategic responses to regulators following environmental incidents with plant-wide implications as well as significant safety incidents
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Paul assists clients with their health, safety, and environment legal risks and impacts. This includes working with clients to identify opportunities to proactively manage challenges, as well as being responsive to a crisis and minimising the consequences.
Paul is a sought-after advisor to a number of the world's largest companies, providing strategic advice to boards that help to shape their safety frameworks or to tactically manage their legal risks. His advice extends to international cross border health and safety, supply chain management, transport safety and environmental legal risk management.
During a crisis, investigation, or prosecution, Paul draws on his unique and extensive experience derived from his successful legal outcomes to provide insight and often much-needed judgement and advice in difficult circumstances.
Paul enjoys working with his Seyfarth colleagues both in Australia and internationally, and is energised by the tremendous depth of talent they offer.
Crista Vesel
Professor, Learning-based Safety and Human Potential, University of Alabama
Connect on: LinkedIn
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Crista Vesel is a human factors and communication specialist who focuses on the language of learning from both normal work and adverse events. She co-authored the new book, “Human & Organization Potential”, now available on Amazon. Crista also helped create the Learning Review, which replaced traditional accident investigation in the U.S. Forest Service and is now used around the world to understand and learn from the network of influences that surround work in complex systems. Her business, Dynamic Inquiry LLC, offer consulting services, Learning Reviews, and Language Reviews for organizations looking to increase safety through learning.
Crista earned her MSc in Human Factors and Systems Safety at Lund University, under Professor Sidney Dekker, and is currently pursuing her PhD in organizational leadership. Crista is an Adjunct Professor for the University of Alabama at Birmingham in the Advanced Safety Engineering and Management Master’s degree program, where she designed and teaches courses in Crisis Leadership, Communication in Safety Systems, and Applied Semiotics in Safety.
Josh Bryant
General Manager - People, Risk and Sustainability, Mitchell Services
Connect on: LinkedIn
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Josh has an extensive background working with the world’s largest global mining companies, gaining valuable experience in operational and strategic expertise. Currently the General Manager - People, Risk, and Sustainability for Mitchell Services, a leading drilling and mine services provider to the mining and exploration sector, Josh and his team are recognised for successfully integrating contemporary safety principles into their operations and leadership practices. Whilst this work has resulted in improvements in the management of critical risks, it has also improved Mitchell’s ability to genuinely learn and to improve the safety of work. Josh is an accomplished public speaker and reflects his commit to sharing his knowledge and experiences with the community.
Josh co-authored the book “4D’s for HOP and Learning Teams”, co-hosts the Brisbane Safety Differently book club, and in 2023 his team was awarded the Australian WHS Team of the Year by the AIHS (Australian Institute of Health and Safety).
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Andrew (Baz) Barrett helps senior health and safety leaders and their teams become more relevant, valued, and effective in their organisations.
A career health and safety pro, multi-degree qualified, and action-researcher, these days his impact comes through his coaching and organisational learning facilitation. He joins the dots between theory and practice, helping develop capability and enabling change.
Andrew is a sought-after keynote speaker and facilitator on Australian and international stages. He has been described as 'unbelievably inspiring', 'courageous, charismatic & refreshing', 'engaging, honest & challenging', 'a legend', 'making complex ideas understandable', and 'curious, influential, impactful'.
Steph O’Dwyer
Health & Safety Manager, Manufacturing, BlueScope (AUS)
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I have 20 years of experience in the health & safety field, initially with Nestle before moving to BlueScope where I have worked for the past 15 years in various health and safety roles ranging from supporting heavy manufacturing to downstream customer-facing businesses, project roles exploring new approaches to safety (in the early days of “safety differently”) and driving our approach to Health & Wellbeing across the Australian business.
At a time when I was honestly questioning my future in safety it was a relief to come across some new and refreshing critical thinkers and people up for challenging discussions in the safety space.
The constant challenge of learning (& un-learning), having great conversations, and seeing organisations willing to learn and grow is what gets me out of bed to go to work every day!
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Sarah embarked on her professional journey in politics, initially serving as a political fundraiser and later joining a lobbying firm in Sacramento.
Her transition into the steel industry came after completing her Master of International Business from the University of San Diego. Over her extensive 23-year tenure in the field, Sarah has contributed her expertise to various areas, including marketing, sales, business development, research and development, and continuous improvement, having attained Six Sigma black belt certification.
Notably, she spent three years in Australia overseeing sales and business development for BlueScope, catering to the needs of distribution and manufacturing customers nationwide.
Committed to fostering a secure work environment, Sarah passionately oversees a team of over 600 individuals, actively promoting their professional development and growth. In her interactions with customers and suppliers, Sarah prioritizes the cultivation of enduring relationships, aiming to consistently deliver innovative, high-quality products that inspire the creation of aesthetically pleasing and durable structures throughout the United States.
Drew Rae
Associate Professor School of Humanities, Languages and Social Science, Griffith University (AUS)
Connect on: LinkedIn
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Dr Drew Rae is an Associate Professor in the Safety Science Innovation Lab at Griffith University, where he teaches courses on research methods and safety engineering, and manages the lab’s research program.
Drew’s own research uses a mix of ethnography, field experiments and theory-building to investigate organisational safety practices. He is particularly interested in understanding the myths, rituals and bad habits that surround the work of managers and safety practitioners, and how this work influences front-line operations.
Drew co-hosts the Safety of Work podcast and is on the editorial board of the journal Safety Science.
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Ben is a safety professional and PhD candidate interested in complex sociotechnical systems, the incubation of major accidents, and the social construction of risk.
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Currently Verification and Validation Coach at Chevron’s Gorgon Facility.
I have worked in the Australian Oil and Gas Industry for the past 20 years, starting as a production trainee. Then, LNG Production Technician, Operations Representative for a new Offshore Hub, Turnaround Teams, LNG Start-Up Co-Ordinator, Campaign Maintenance, and now V&V Coach.
Zoe Nation introduced us to Human and Organisational Performance, then Jodi Linto ensured it became woven into the fabric of our programme and, it just made sense.
Now we have the privilege of time to look at how our systems influence how the work is planned, prepared, and executed. How safeguards become eroded as the work team navigates the complexity of the task and how the conditions that lead to a serious injury or fatality, also exist in our successful work.
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Mark Alston, Director of Investigations Differently, with over two decades of experience, has established himself as an innovative leader in investigations and risk management. He is known for his progressive approach, leveraging modern safety concepts to assist organisations in the reduction of risk.
Mark's engaging speaking style, which combines extensive industry knowledge with groundbreaking concepts, has made him a sought-after figure in discussions surrounding investigations and risk management.
With a strong operational background, his mission is to encourage organisations to adopt proactive data-driven processes, challenge conventional paradigms and embrace a more adaptable and resilient approach.
Mark Alston's extensive expertise spans global organisations in the mining, construction, government, defence, health and utilities industries and includes clients such as the Royal Australian Airforce, Mitchell Services, the Office of Industrial Relations, ABB, Perenti, Airservices Australia, NZ Corrections and LinFox.
Mark is a popular keynote speaker having presented at various conferences including the National Safety Conference, the 14th World Conference on Injury Prevention & Safety Promotion, the QLD Mining Industry Health and Safety Conference as well as numerous AIHS events.
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Cindy forged a career in occupational health and safety risk management across a range of industry types, including construction, mining, and oil and gas. With a large chapter of her professional HSE career spanning 17 years with Chevron Australia, she enjoyed HSE leadership roles within Major Capital Projects, Drilling and Completions, Supply Chain Management and Corporate HSE. When the organisation embarked upon its transformational journey to globally implement human and organisational performance, Cindy fostered capability within her team to operationalise the HOP principles and implement practical tools to deliver safety performance improvements for her customers and their respective business partners/contractors. Cindy is now a Safety Principal at BHP within the Corporate Group Safety Team and remains committed to identifying all opportunities to learn and improve, and to keep pace with evolving safety science research to influence better outcomes for frontline workers.
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Kurt is a highly accomplished, insightful & business focused safety executive offering over 20 years experience in a range of safety leadership roles in Engineering, Nuclear, Aviation, Defence, Electrical, Water, Rail and Construction.
His career is focused on high-risk industries with experience across varying business models and organisational risk profiles.
From shop floor to boardroom Kurt is an advocate of the application of risk management, and looking at work differently.
Leanne Harvey
Manager Health, Safety, Environment, Communities, Rio Tinto (AUS)
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Across the last 15 years, Leanne Harvey has worked in a range of HSEC leadership roles across Rio Tinto Iron Ore’s FIFO and residential operations; and in her current role leads the HSEC team for Iron Ore’s Rail Division.
With her deep understanding of RTIO’s business, Leanne has partnered closely with operations to ensure HSEC’s practices are impactful, effective and meet their intent.
Leanne has recently led the co-design of Rio Tinto’s “Better Investigation Outcomes” training at Ports Dampier, which targets the role all Leaders play in creating the conditions for learning. She is deeply committed to building capability and conviction in leaders to approach incidents and investigations differently, by listening to and collaborating with frontline teams as the experts of their work.
Satyan Chari
Founder & Principal - Nuansys Healthcare (AUS)
Connect on: LinkedIn
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Satyan is a clinician with over two decades of experience in various practitioner, research and leadership roles in healthcare quality & safety improvement and innovation. Satyan received a PhD in patient safety from Monash University where he researched human centred environmental design interventions to reduce falls and improve recovery for older patients in hospital. He has worked globally alongside leading voices in complex systems innovation, resilience engineering and healthcare human factors.
After a stint as the Executive lead for performance innovation, safety, and business intelligence at a Queensland not-for-profit, Satyan returned to Queensland Health to design and help lead what became an internationally regarded year-long immersive program for healthcare leaders founded on contemporary safety and systems sciences. In 2020, Satyan conceived and launched the CEQ Bridge Labs program, an award-winning innovation initiative supporting frontline teams tackle complex healthcare challenges through agency-academic partnerships in creative design, safety science and systems human factors & ergonomics.
Satyan holds concurrent honorary positions as an adjunct fellow at the Centre for Human Factors and Sociotechnical Systems at the University of the Sunshine Coast, as guest faculty in the School of Design at the Queensland University of Technology (Co-Director of the Healthcare Excellence Accelerator - HEAL) and as a Scientific advisor with the NHS Scotland Human Factors Hub. Satyan has also held Board-level advisory roles on safety innovation, systems improvement and clinical governance.
Satyan speaks and advises globally on human factors, Safety II and resilience engineering (mostly, but not exclusively, in healthcare). He founded Nuansys Healthcare in 2023 to catalyse greater uptake of contemporary human-centred, systems-based ideas and approaches within the health and human services sector.
Richard R
Vice President HSE, BlueScope
Connect on: LinkedIn
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Richard has worked for BlueScope Indonesia as Vice President HSE for around 18 years. His previous experience was in HSE petrochemicals, dairy milk factories, and coal mining.
His passion for HOP implementation lifts his organisation’s business safety and diversity by using a more open & proactive approach to managing safety on the floor.
Richard has found that using Learning Teams and Better Questions 4D has resulted in safety improvements in manufacturing areas, such as product quality issues, legal, procurement, logistics, export–import, business service, and health and well-being matters.
Brent Robinson
Operational Excellence Advocate, Learning Teams Inc
Connect on: LinkedIn
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Brent has spent the last 30 years in the manufacturing and contracting sectors and been involved in areas as diverse as baggage handling system and robotics to sustainable building façade systems in the construction industry.
Brent works with cross functional teams to develop improved system and is an advocate for organizations learning from the people doing the work, to feed into the continuous improvement process.
Brent is an operational excellence advocate and has worked across operations, sales and product development functions in New Zealand, United States and Australia.
Brent lives in Melbourne, Australia and has a passion for quality and safety that has driven his belief that the convergence of the two will drive better outcomes for any organization.
Safety FM, live from the Summit!
The Global Safety Innovation Summit’s media partner, Safety FM is broadcasting LIVE from the event, covering all the action across the 3-day program.
Tune in to hear Safety FM’s, Jay Allen interview speakers following their presentations.
Follow our LinkedIn page for interview updates during the Summit.
Registration is now open!
Early bird/ first release ticket pricing is available until the allocation is exhausted or until 30 October, whichever comes first.
Thanks to our sponsors!
The Global Safety Innovation Summit has been made possible with thanks to the following companies.
