Advisory Board

Liz Brierley, Head of Asset Management, SEA Gas

Liz Brierley is an experienced leader with demonstrated capability in building effective teams to manage high risk assets in a regulated environment across multiple State jurisdictions. She has extensive knowledge of pipelines, gas networks and related energy systems that has been developed through more than 20 years working for gas network and pipeline operators, with more than fifteen years’ experience in leadership roles.

Liz has a proven ability to work collaboratively to influence change in organisations, standards and legislation. She has been actively involved in the development of Australian Standards for pipelines for more than 10 years, recently appointed chair of the ME 38.3 subcommittee. She is currently also serving on the Australian Pipelines and Gas Association Board.

Liz holds Bachelor of Engineering (Hons 1) in Mechanical Engineering and a Master of Engineering Science in Materials Welding and Joining from the University of Adelaide. One of the first Chartered Professional (Oil and Gas Pipeline) Engineers in Australia, she follows a passion to promote high quality engineering education and professional development as a member of the National Engineering Registration Board Assessment Panel for Oil and Gas Pipeline Engineers.

Sylvie Perreau, Chief, Sensors and Effectors Division, Defence Science and Technology Group

Dr Sylvie Perreau grew up and studied in France until she graduated from Telecom ParisTech with a PhD in Telecommunications Signal Processing in 1998. She worked in Industry (Alcatel) during her PhD studies and Academia (University of Connecticut and UNISA) for 13 years. She established an international reputation in the areas of Wireless Sensor Networks with over 80 publications and 1700 citations. She joined DSTO (now DSTG) in 2011 where she worked predominantly in the Intelligence Domain before leading the Contested Communications Branch. In January 2023, she was appointed as Chief of Sensors and Effectors Division at DSTG after acting in this position for 6 months.  Sylvie was awarded an Exceptional Achievement Award from the Australian Signal Directorate (ASD) in 2018 and the 2020 Minister’s Award for Achievement in Defence Science for her work in signal processing and wireless networks within highly classified environments across Australia and the globe. 
 

David Murfett, Engineering Manager, Global Systems, REDARC

Dr. David Murfett is a Manager and Professional Engineer with a talent for building quality Engineering teams. Since 2012 he has led the Engineering R&D team at REDARC, a company with 40 years’ experience in the research, design, development and manufacture of electronic voltage converters, inverters, power supplies, battery chargers, brake controllers and trailer braking products.

David transformed Engineering in the business, growing a small group of Engineers into an 80 strong team delivering quality power conversion products. Recognised by global Automotive OEMs, the RV and caravanning industry, and Australian Defence Force, as meeting the highest quality and reliability benchmarks. The team includes Mechanical, Electronic, Firmware, Mobile App, and a multimillion-dollar EMC and Environmental testing facility. David is now focussing on bringing Systems Engineering to REDARC. 

Completing his Bachelor’s Degree in Electronic Engineering at the University of South Australia in 1992, David developed a keen interest in Microelectronics, leading him to pursue his Ph.D in Microelectronics (1996) on the emerging technology of silicon IC based car air-bag accelerometers.

Starting his first role with a Sun SPARC station rescued from the trash, he built and managed a team of IC designers developing and patenting novel RFID technologies. Frequenting semiconductor plants in Singapore, France, and Switzerland, he managed the design, manufacture, assembly, and testing of IC’s. As IC Development Manager at Gemplus Tag (a French smart-card company, later TagSys), the small Engineering team then built these ICs into the world’s first RFID based library automation system, where David took a hands-on role installing it throughout the Singapore public library system. 

After finishing his MBA at the University of Adelaide in 2004, David took a role as IC Design Manager at Hendon Semiconductors (former Philips Semiconductors design centre and Bipolar IC foundry), where his team developed many I2C-bus products for NXP. 

David is a member of the Industry Advisory Panels for Electronic Engineering at both TAFE SA and The University of Adelaide, and a member of the International Advisory Board for the American Society of Engineering Managers.  Having recently obtained his helicopter pilot’s licence, he enjoys taking family and friends on flights. 

Jonathan Hall, PhD, Co-Founder & Chief Scientist, MIT Tech Review Innovator | InDaily 40u40 Alumni, Presagen

Life Whisperer Founder Dr Jonathan Hall began Life Whisperer in 2016 inspired from his original and unique discoveries in his PhD research in Embryo Nanotechnology, and extensive computational knowledge from his PhD in Theoretical Physics. Life Whisperer is a leading-edge technology to better select healthy embryos during IVF, improve outcomes for couples wanting to help children. As Global Winner One to Watch at TalentUnleashed 2017, with judges Richard Branson (Virgin) and Steve Wozniak (Apple), the company made the finals at TechCrunch Startup Battlefield Australia, and has been mentioned in Scientific American, Time Magazine, and Wall Street Journal, and more recently was named Top Big Data Company in Australia by Data Magazine (UK), Top 20 AI/ML startups by StartupLanes, and awarded Frost & Sullivan Global Product Leadership and Global New Product Innovation.

Steve Ludlam, Chair, Advisor, Associate, Nuclear and Defence

Steve Ludlam is a respected international leader of complex engineering programs in both the Marine and Nuclear domains. As Chief Executive of naval shipbuilding company ASC Pty Ltd from 2010 to 2014, he transformed the business, significantly improving performance and introducing a commercial operating enterprise providing customer solutions. Before moving to Adelaide, Steve was President of Submarines at Rolls-Royce plc in the United Kingdom, leading the successful modernisation of the country’s nuclear-powered submarine program.

He is currently an Advisory Board member of Defence SA and an independent member of the Risk and Audit Committee of ANSTO. He holds several other Board and Committee positions, in particular, Industry Leaders Fund and Carrington Cottages Ltd.

Steve holds a Master of Science in Nuclear Engineering from the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, United Kingdom. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineers in 2010 and is a four-time member of the Engineers Australia ‘100 Most Influential Engineers’ cohort.

Kimberley Clayfield, Space Research Program Director, CSIRO

Dr Kimberley Clayfield is Director of CSIRO's Space Research Program, including oversight of the CSIRO Centre for Earth Observation and development of the AquaWatch Australia Mission. Kimberley is also the Leader of the CSIRO Space Technology Future Science Platform (Space FSP). 

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Bruce Hatwell, BEng(hons) FIEAust GAICD, Lucid Consulting Australia

Bruce Hatwell commenced his engineering career in 1990 following 10 years in the construction industry and successful completion of an honours degree in electrical engineering at the University of South Australia, where he was awarded the Keith Johinke Medal for engineering graduates of all disciplines. 

His roles over the next 10 years concentrated on consulting engineering, predominantly as an electrical engineer and project manager, leading multi-disciplinary engineering services teams in the design and delivery of commercial and industrial projects in many sectors. 

In 2000 Bruce founded the operations of Lucid Consulting Engineers as a sole operator in Adelaide, with key clients established particularly in the tertiary sector. The ‘Lucid journey’ thenceforth closely mirrors Bruce’s professional career. 

Lucid developed and expanded organically and rapidly, and by 2017 provided multi-disciplinary consulting engineering and project management services nationally, with offices in each mainland capital city of Australia. The original focus remains the recruitment and training of quality tertiary qualified graduate mechanical and electrical engineers, and their development to become highly capable leaders.  Bruce has a strong emphasis on quality communication by engineers, with a view that this is unique and not replicable artificially.  

Lucid has founding values based on its people and clients, with the outcome that all stakeholders firmly support the business. Commencing in 2017 Lucid began a focus into the specialist areas of defence, health, energy and asset management, and reformed structurally to a matrix organisation. These areas remain strong motivation for the organisation, now the largest staff-owned consulting practice in its field in Australia, with a diverse staff exceeding 300 working in many technical and business disciplines.  Lucid is now a public unlisted company with upwards of 25% of its people being shareholders. 

Bruce became a member of Engineers Australia as an engineering student and progressed to be awarded Fellowship in 2010. In 2012 he became Executive Chair of the Lucid organisation, leading formalisation of a board structure, after having served as CEO until that time. Bruce has also introduced and chaired the Risk and Audit, and Remuneration and Nomination committees at Lucid. In 2018 and 2019 Bruce attended Harvard Business School in Boston to successfully study the areas of strategy and governance, growing knowledge to suit the needs of Lucid. 

Bruce has many interest areas that include the composition and production of music, walking, travel, brewing, and AFL football at a local level. Bruce enjoys his role in advanced architectural design teaching at UniSA, focussing on the engineering services aspects. He enjoys time at Middleton with his wonderful wife Dina whenever possible. Bruce has 3 fantastic children and has welcomed the addition of one amazing grandchild in 2023.

Gosia Davis, Technical Manager, Saab Australia

Gosia Davis is an engineering leader with a strong passion for delivery. Gosia graduated from Adelaide University in 1994 with a Bachelor of Electrical and Electronic Engineering. She worked in electronic design, digital signal processing and software engineering before moving into leadership roles in 2007.

Gosia has worked in a variety of sectors with some career highlights being development of mobile phone applications for Hitachi in the UK, upgrade of security systems at Parliament House in Canberra, delivery of telecoms systems for a Chevron gas platform and managing the acceptance program for a satellite ground station for the Australian Defence Force. Gosia now thrives on leading in the engineering domain, with recent roles as Head of Safety and Security at BAE Systems Australia and Head of Engineering at Silentium Defence.

Gosia is passionate about growing Australian sovereign capabilities and has recently joined Saab Australia. She has a keen interest in developing the next generation of engineers and embedding diversity and inclusion in work environments.

Outside of work she’s a mother of two young adults and loves travel and the outdoors.

Mike Kidner, Managing Director, Resonate Systems Pty Ltd

Dr Mike Kidner has 20 years’ experience as a professional consultant in the UK, USA, and Australia, specialising in signal processing, structural dynamics and data analysis. He has mentored post-graduates in research and development programs in the education sector, and for several years managed a team of consultants in a commercial environment. 

Mike is currently the Managing Director and major shareholder of Resonate Systems, where he guides his team in delivering turn-key measurement and analysis systems in, but not limited to: 

• custom data acquisition devices for complex datasets
• vibration monitoring/controlling;
• electro magnetic interference monitoring 
• noise monitoring; 
• hardware simulators; 
• production test software; 
• electromagnetic shakers/cancellation systems;
• electro-hydraulic test systems;
• dynamic signal analysers, as well as offering NI alliance partner solutions.

Sarah J Baker, Assistant Principal – Space, STEM and Innovation, Hamilton Secondary College

Dr Sarah Baker joined Hamilton Secondary College (HSC) in a new role of 'Assistant Principal - Space, STEM and Innovation' at the start of 2022. This position is linked to the HSC Space School Vision focused on Space and Astronomy and founded on two pillars: Educating students about space across years 5-12 and linking education to the Space Industry. Sarah is responsible for further development and implementation of Space linked curriculum, Space Professional Learning and Communications, Community linked Space information events and Scientific Research and Development Projects in collaboration with an amazing HSC 'Space and STEM team'. The Space Industry/Research connections from Sarah's previous 6 years as Manager of the Commonwealth Student Pathways Program in the Department for Education (SA) also form an integral part of these programs.

With a strong belief in life-long learning, previous experience from a Bachelor of Science and honours from Adelaide University, PhD in Molecular Biology and a Master's in Education (Digital Technologies - UniSA) plus post docs in SA Water (blue green algae Cylindrospermopsis raciborski) and pain sensing (NK-1 gene receptor at Flinders Medical Centre in Neuroscience) and a Cert III in Food Technology have given Sarah a great appreciation of how collaboration with extensive and diverse sources can value add to Space Education in Australia and building the capacity of our students for future Space careers.

Peter Rowland, B.Sc., M.B.A., M.I.E.T., C.Eng., F.A.I.C.D, Non-Executive Director, Micro-X Ltd

Peter Rowland is the founder of Micro-X Ltd, an Adelaide-based, high technology company which is developing and commercialising a range of innovative lightweight x-ray imaging systems for global medical and security markets based on world-leading technology in electronically controlled, miniature x-ray sources using carbon nanotube field emission. Peter founded Micro-X in 2011 and as Managing Director led its development through ASX listing and global expansion until his retirement in 2023.

He had over ten years’ prior experience in the medical devices industry as Managing Director of ASX-listed Ellex Medical Lasers and then as Vice President of Biolase Inc, a Californian based, NASDAQ-listed developer of surgical lasers for dentistry in global markets.

Throughout his career Peter has been involved in high-technology product development internationally, initially as a design engineer and then project manager in the defence and aerospace industry in the UK and then as Director of Business Development for BAE Systems in Australia.

Peter has a BSc in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the Queen’s University of Belfast and an MBA from the Scottish Business School at the University of Strathclyde. He is a Member of the Institution of Engineering and Technology in London and is a Chartered Engineer. He was included in The Australian newspaper’s inaugural 2021 List of Australia’s Top 100 Innovators. Peter has served on a number of Boards and is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. In his leisure time Peter enjoys flying light aircraft and teaches at a Flying Academy having recently upgraded his private Pilot’s Licence to Instructor rating.

Craig Oakeshott, Market Specialist, Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC)

I have almost 40 years’ experience in the electricity industry. Having worked in both coal and gas fired power stations for over 10 years I have a good appreciation for not only the theoretical but also the practical and, now, the financial operation of these assets. My experience in long term planning and market modelling, including working with the federal government examining long term energy market development scenarios with and without a carbon tax and under a range of potential generation technology futures, has significantly enhanced my knowledge of the issues facing the industry over the next 30 years. I have spent the last decade or more working on understanding the technology, the challenges in justifying, and expanding networks, and the financial models employed in the current energy market and the policy challenges that this development will bring. Small scale renewable energy developments, smart grids and consumers armed with new incentives to be energy efficient make for an evolutionary energy environment.

I am also an experienced and inclusive manager. Team work, empathy and sharing a common vision that becomes the everyday decision benchmark for each individual are important factors to the way I manage a successful team. Management and indeed mentoring, to me, is about providing people with the right advice and a supportive environment to bring the best out of themselves while achieving the organisation objectives.

Specialties

Energy markets and futures, smart grid, renewable energy, electricity regulation, renewable project evaluation and integration, carbon and emission trading, technology assessment, energy efficiency, credit risk, statistical modelling, market simulation and PLEXOS modelling, strategic risk management, scenario planning, project assessment, mentoring, leadership, climate policy, RET.
 

Kamran Eshraghian, President, iDataMap Corporation

Professor Kamran Eshraghian joined the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Adelaide in 1979. He received his Ph.D. in 1980 from University of Adelaide and subsequently in 2004 was awarded Dr-Ing e.h. (Doctor of Engineering) from University of Ulm, Germany, for his research in integration of VLSI with Photonics. His work in CMOS VLSI has influenced two generations of researchers and developers in academia and industry. In 1995 as Distinguished Professor and School Chair he led the School of Computer, Communication and Electronic Engineering in Western Australia. In 2005 as Founder/President of ELabs he formulated new concepts for integration of nanoelectronics with those of bio and photon-based technologies, thus created six satellite HiTech companies. In 2007 he became the inaugural holder of Ferrero Family Chair in Electrical Engineering at University of California, Merced with focus on memristor driven architectures and SoS integration prior to invitation by Korean Government in 2009 as Distinguished Professor to lead the newly established World Class University program at CBNU. Currently he is the executive chairman and president of iDataMap Corporation focused on global digital healthcare and EI-driven predictive medicine. His current interests include Event-driven neuroSW/HW architectures within the computational neuroscience domain. Professor Eshraghian is a Fellow and life member of IEAust.
 

Alex Walsh, CEng CPEng BSc(Eng.) MBA FIMechE. MIEAust. APEC Engineer IntPE (Aust) FICCPM GAICD, Executive General Manager, ASC Pty Ltd

Alex has over 40 years practicing as a nuclear and mechanical engineer in the civil nuclear and defence industries. He has held senior engineering and complex program and project management leadership roles in the UK, France and Australia in complex nuclear programs. Projects include the UK Vangaurd and Astute Submarines, the Sizewell B and Hinkley Point C Nuclear power stations, surface warships, Collins Class submarines sustainment, Air Warfare Defence (Hobart class) and Sellafield legacy remediation program.

Alex and his wife Angela have four adult children who work in the USA and UK.

Alex previously worked in Australia on the submarine programme in 2013 and 14. In January 2022, Alex returned to Australia to take on the engineering challenge of extending the life of the Collins Submarines and preparing for the AUKUS nuclear powered submarines.