Speakers

Principal Electrical engineer at AECOM, Lecturer - EIT

Alex is a Principal Electrical Engineer and the Electrical Team Lead within AECOM Buildings & Places in Brisbane in addition to being a Lecturer at EIT. Alex has extensive experience in the detailed design and documentation of electrical services across a range of industries include Defence, healthcare and industrial applications. With strong technical knowledge and construction experience in the electrical engineering principals of low voltage design, Alex is also a Chartered Engineer of Australia and Registered Professional Engineer of Queensland.

ANDREW DOUCH is the recipient of the Microsoft Worldwide Innovative Teacher of the Year Award. He also received the Victorian Education Excellence Award for curriculum innovation, an Australian Government Quality Schooling Award, an IMS Global Leadership Award, plus a number of other awards, each recognising his innovative approaches to teaching and learning with technology.

As an education consultant and keynote presenter, he helps teachers amplify their impact on student learning by inspiring new thinking about teaching effectively in a technology-rich world. He is also well known for his revision lectures in Biology, for his biology podcast and the video lessons he teaches online which are regularly watched by more than 80% of Victoria’s year 12 biology students.

Profound but practical, his ideas and strategies have been adopted by teachers at all levels of education across Australia and the world, to increase student engagement and maximise student achievement.

Conference Engagements:
LearnTech Conference and Exhibition

Managing Director - Novella Group

Cem Novella is the managing director of Novella Group. Novella Group is a consultancy company comprised of Static Electricity Control, Meech Australia Static Control & Newson Gale Australia.

Cem is the current chair for the Centre for Static Electricity Control and provides technical support and guidance to various industry groups and standards committees in relation to static electricity control and lightning protection in hazardous areas.

As static electricity and lightning affect a wide spectrum of global industrial and manufacturing processes, Cem has worked on a diverse range of static electricity control and lightning protection programs for applications across the globe, including Mawson Station in Antarctica.

Conference Engagements:
Hydrogen Safety & Hazardous Areas Conference

Director MWS Risk

Daryl is a director of MWS Risk and an electrical engineer whose career has been focused on Instrumentation, Control Systems and Functional Safety.

Over a career of more than 25 years Daryl has been involved in project delivery and technical roles that have spanned conceptual work through to execution, commissioning, ramp-up and operational support.

He has experience in metallurgical extraction, refining, waste water treatment, coal, product handling and process

Conference Engagements:
Hydrogen Safety & Hazardous Areas Conference

Lecturer - EIT

Deepak is a Chartered Professional Electrical Engineer and Fellow of the Institute of Engineers Australia. He has a wealth of experience in Asset Management and Engineering within Electricity Supply Industry, Manufacturing firms and the Engineering education sector.

Deepak started his career in the mining industry as a Project Engineer looking after Substation and Distribution equipment construction and maintenance. He then worked in a Marine and Logistics firm in the Bahamas as Maintenance and Commissioning Engineer. Following this, he worked in the automobile manufacturing sector as a Maintenance Engineer on Power Distribution and Utility related systems.

For the last 14 years, Deepak has been working in a Senior Engineering role within the Asset Engineering, Risk and Compliance branch in a leading NSW Electricity Distribution utility.

Deepak has hands on experience in Design, Construction Standards and Maintenance of Power Distribution and Substation assets. He has a particular interest in industry best practice Asset Management practices focussing on safety, reliability, quality and value for money outcomes.

Gexcon, Team Lead of Gexcon Australia

Derek is a professional mechanical engineer with over 20 years of process safety experience across a range of industries, including hydrogen.

He has worked in projects around Australia and the world, both in design teams and as operational support.

Derek has extensive experience in process safety management, risk assessment and regulatory approvals, as well as using tools such as Shell FRED and Effects to conduct modelling for clients worldwide, helping them understand their hazards and design appropriate strategies to mitigate them.

Conference Engagements:
Hydrogen Safety & Hazardous Areas Conference

Independent Electrostatics and ESD Research, Consultancy and Training

Dr Jeremy Smallwood is electrostatics consultant, trainer and researcher with his company Electrostatic Solutions Ltd, providing services to industry since 1998. He works as an expert with BSI and IEC standards Committees. He was awarded the 2010 ESD Association Industry Pioneer Award, 2017 International Fellow Award at Electrostatics 2017 and the Stig Lundquist Award at the Electrostatics 2022 conference. Jeremy has been publishing, attending and presenting papers for over 30 years in Journal of Electrostatics and at Electrostatics and the EOS/ESD Symposium conferences. He is author of “The ESD Control Program Handbook” published by Wiley in 2020.

CEO – Principal Engineer, Gexcon US

Dr Scott Davis is the CEO at GexCon US and specializes in the engineering analysis and testing of combustion, thermal, and fluid processes.

Dr Davis received his Ph.D. and M.S. degree in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from Princeton University.

He is responsible for fire and explosion related activities, which include post-incident investigative work, worldwide training and experimentation.

Dr Davis performs risk assessments and safety studies for petrochemical facilities and chemical processing facilities. Dr Davis has investigated hundreds of fire and explosions, and is a member of GexCon’s docents group,

Conference Engagements:
Hydrogen Safety & Hazardous Areas Conference

Course Coordinator; Lecturer Electrical Engineering - EIT

Coming from an electrical background, Dr. Yuanyuan Fan has always attached significance to social and environmental impacts in her everyday work and research. She believes the future lies in the efficient utilization and management of renewable energy sources, from where smart grids incorporating technologies such as green hydrogen production and usage will then become practical and cost-effective. With extensive teaching experience to engineering students and continued pursuing of applied research, Dr. Yuanyuan Fan has publications from power system analysis to machine learning based engineering practices and education. For a sustainable energy future, she believes electrical engineers should take initiatives to broaden their knowledge and in the meanwhile to collaborate with data communication engineers, automation engineers, data scientists and policy makers. Yuanyuan has recently been accepted as a member of IEEE.

Hugh is Design Manager at GreyMatters, leading a team that delivers earthing and lightning protection design solutions for a wide range of sectors. He is a certified XGSLab and CDEGS user and delivers training including XGS certification training in person and remotely. Hugh is also an ATLAS accredited lightning protection designer and regularly delivers lightning protection solutions in critical sectors including tier 1 COMAH Sites.

Jamie Forsyth is an Earthing Technologist working with ESB Networks in Ireland. Having spent 10 years as a Network Technician in HV Substations before attaining his current role in 2021, Jamie has the benefit of both theoretical and hands-on experience of the installation and maintenance of electrical apparatus and power systems. Jamie is involved in the development of ESB Networks Procedures and on-site electrical testing

Jayson is the Technical Director at Electrotechnik, a company that develops leading electrical power system design and analysis software. Jayson also has extensive experience working on large-scale power systems projects in high voltage design, testing/commissioning, and power system analysis roles along with two decades of experience in professional software development.

Jayson has a master’s degree in electrical power engineering, and he leads a multi-disciplinary team of developers, cloud architects, UI designers, electrical power engineers, and Ph.D. researchers. Jayson’s role at Electrotechnik involves developing new software and complex algorithms for electrical power systems design, where he is using a combination of technologies, multiple programming languages, and Agile development practices.

Jonathan studied engineering at Cambridge University and has spent 20 years in business development for technical products.

He joined Newson Gale 1 year ago to accelerate growth globally as industry becomes increasingly aware of the risks from static electricity and the necessity to mitigate this with high reliability earthing systems.

Senior Risk Consultant - MWS Risk

Hydrogen is a source of clean energy, and is contributing to a sustainable future. We do, however, need to ensure that safety is inherent in systems using this resource.

As an emerging technology, project management and planning – integral to safety - need to be embedded in the design and lifecycle of the systems, to protect producers, transporters, users and the public.

This presentation covers how safety can define the design, construction, operation and maintenance of a system. The specific challenges around hydrogen are also covered.

Conference Engagements:
Hydrogen Safety & Hazardous Areas Conference

Ken Atkinson is a Senior Earthing Specialist working with ESB Networks in Ireland, having previously worked for ESB International since 2000 as an earthing design and power system studies engineer, consultant and team leader. Ken is responsible for development of ESB Networks policies, standards, and asset management systems in relation to all aspects of earthing for substations, overhead lines and cables at voltages from 400 V to 400 kV. He has a particular interest in HV substation earthing and has previously contributed to CIGRE Working Group C4.207, producing Technical Brochure 592 “Guide for Assessment of Transferred EPR on Telecommunications Systems Due to Faults in A.C. Power Systems”.

Matthew started in the Industry in the early 1990s, working for South Wales Electricity before completing a PhD at Cardiff University on soil resistivity measurement and analysis techniques. He has worked as an earthing and lightning protection consultant for over 25 years leading design and condition assessment projects for substations (11kV to 400kV), power stations, railways, renewables, industrials, pipelines and military sites. Matthew has contributed to British and Industry technical standards (BS EN 50522, TS 41-24 Issue 2, ENA EREC G78 and ENA EREC S41) and attends the GEL/81 working group for BS EN 62305. A Chartered Engineer and Fellow of the IET, Matthew is committed to providing quality advice and bringing on the next generation of earthing and lightning protection engineers.

Senior Inspector, Petroleum & Gas Resources Safety & Health Queensland

Nancy is a highly experienced chemical engineer with over 17 years of experience in leadership roles including operations management, safety regulation, quality and change management.
Nancy was Operations Manager of the BOC Townsville site before joining the Queensland Gas Safety regulator, RSHQ, in 2018. At RSHQ Nancy took the lead of hydrogen safety and led the development of Queensland’s Hydrogen Safety Code of Practice, the first of its kind in Australia.

Nancy represents RSHQ as a member of the Hydrogen Technologies standards committee and has represented Australia at the international technical standards committee for Hydrogen Technologies (ISO TC 197).

Nancy is passionate about creating a sustainable future and enabling the safe development of the hydrogen industry.

Conference Engagements:
Hydrogen Safety & Hazardous Areas Conference

Technical Director - AECOM Australia Pty Ltd

Neil’s professional background spans over 40 years’ experience as a designer and safety advisor for industries with a range of explosion hazards.

Neil has been an active member of Australian Standards committees for hazardous areas since 1992 and International Electrotechnical Commission committees since 2000.

His roles have included that as chair of Australian Standards committees, chair of IEC subcommittee for the classification and installations for hazardous areas and active membership in numerous working groups in both forums.