Keynote Speakers – IEOM 2024 Sydney
Tuesday, September 24, 2024
Welcome Address by Conference Chair: 11:00 – 11:20 am
Dr. Matthew Pepper
Director, Centre for Supply Chain Research
School of Business, Faculty of Business and Law
University of Wollongong NSW 2522 Australia
Matt’s PhD research centred on the design and application of continuous improvement frameworks in process industry supply chains. Recent research and consultancy activities focus on lean thinking, six sigma-based process improvement and supply chain design and optimisation. Matt has undertaken research and consultancy across a range of industry sectors, including the manufacturing and process industries as well as local government. Most recently his work has focused on the implementation of continuous improvement in service environments. Matt is a member of the Editorial Advisory Boards for the Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management, the International Journal of Lean Six Sigma, International Journal of Information and Operations Management Education. He is also an Associate Editor for the Global Journal of Flexible Systems Management and the IIMK Society and Management Review Journal.
Keynote I: September 24, 2024, 11:20 – 12:00 pm
Romy Baker MBA, Grad Dip Admin, GAICD, RN
Chief Executive Officer (CEO)
Business Excellence Australia
Romy’s career commenced with nursing and operating room training and then she developed her career to the level of a senior executive in the health industry with a strong record of accomplishment in a range of health-related roles in the private and public sectors. As Chief Executive of one of the largest private hospitals in Australia, St John of God Subiaco, Romy led the organisation through a major building redevelopment, and a financial and corporate reorganisation. Her unique combination of business acumen, project management, strategic leadership skills and nursing have also been utilised in planning, designing, developing and establishing general practice medical centres.
Prior to this she oversaw the building of a research institute and project managed the amalgamation of four leading research centres, creating a major national research institute, Westmead Millennium Institute.
Romy has consulted to several health organisations including Day Hospitals Australia and now focuses on business improvement. Since 1993 Romy has had a special interest in business excellence and has used the Australian Business Excellence Framework (ABEF) to guide and develop high performing, resilient organisations. She is an experienced evaluator with the Business Excellence Australia.
Keynote II: September 24, 2024, 12:00 – 12:40 pm
Jamie Burrage
General Manager, Sydney Division
Engineers Australia (EA)
Sydney, Australia
Topic: Engineering workforce in Australia from a skills supply and demand perspective
Jamie Burrage is an experienced association professional with experience working with a number of membership associations, including as CEO of the National Safety Council of Australia Foundation, and NSW State Manager for the Australian Computer Society. Now running the Sydney Division of Engineers Australia as General Manager, Jamie leads a team representing 25,000 members and to enable 40+ committees and groups to assist Engineers Australia with its purpose to advance society through great engineering.
Wednesday, September 25, 2024
Keynote III, Wednesday, September 25, 2024, 11:20 – 12:00 pm
Professor Olivia Mirza
Associate Dean, Engagement
School of Engineering, Design & Built Environment
Western Sydney University
Sydney, Australia
Topic: Sustainability in Engineering Projects
Professor Olivia Mirza was one of the sixteen Golden Jubilee Scholarship holder at University of New South Wales in 2000. She graduated in Honours Bachelor of Civil and Environmental in 2002. She worked as a structural engineer for 8 years before pursuing her academic career. She worked for Leighton Contractors (Student Engineer), Australia Consulting Engineers (Structural Engineer) and Cardno Group (Senior Engineer – International Projects). Professor Mirza is currently Professor and Associate Dean Engagement in School Engineering, Design and Built Environment. She is also Research Theme Champion at University level under Pro-Vice Chancellor Research, Enterprise and International. She is also the President for Engineers Australia, Sydney Division. Some of her outstanding projects she worked on was M7 motorway, One Shelley Street, King Street Wharf, Sydney where the external structural support system supported by diagrid for sustainable purposes. She was the lead structural engineer for the diagrid. The building was awarded a 6-star Green Star “World Leader” rating and the highest environmental building rating achievable in Australia. She is also leading the fire design in the Tower 5 of the New York World Trade Centre.
She is distinguished in her forensic bridge rehabilitation. She was the lead design engineer for Sydney Harbour bridge where she proposed a resilient alternative by incorporating steel-concrete composite theory and capability of being precast and modular. This project also involved in retrofitting the new precast modular section onto the existing steel girder. Her passion for making changes to conventional engineering and fulfill Australia 2050 net zero pledge shows with the recent Parramatta light rail Stage 1 construction using Macro Synthetic Fibres Reinforced Concrete for slab track. It was Australia first (MSFRC) and longest green track.
Professor Mirza is a strong advocate for encouraging more women into the engineering profession. Australia like most other countries in the world has a shortage of engineers and it is Olivia’s vision to increase the number of women engineers. In 2016 she set up a group called “WoW” Women of Wisdom for Western Sydney University. WoW is to help with the retention of female student in Construction and Engineering field. She managed to increase the female participation from 17% to 35%.
Keynote IV, Wednesday, September 25, 2024, 12:00 – 12:40 pm
Professor Dr Sami Kara
School of Mechanical & Manufacturing Engineering
University of New South Wales (UNSW)
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Topic: Decarbonisation and Sustainability of Manufacturing Industry towards Net-Zero
Dr Kara is a professor of sustainable manufacturing and life cycle engineering at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney Australia (www.lceresearch.unsw.edu.au). He has a professional background of more than 30 years in industry, research, and tertiary education, including several engineering and management positions in manufacturing companies in Australia and around the world. His research interest is in developing technology solutions with a life cycle view by using circular economy strategies to decarbonize and reduce environmental impact of manufacturing industry while helping them create value. He has authored more than 300 peer reviewed scientific publications.
He is regularly invited as a Subject Matter Expert to review Australian and international government proposals in decarbonization of the manufacturing industry and environmental sustainability. He also works as an advisor for various international organizations in providing strategic directions to decarbonize their organizations towards achieving their net-zero targets.
Professor Kara is an elected fellow of the International Academy of Production Engineering (CIRP), Royal society of New South Wales, UNSW Scientia Education Academy, International Academy of Engineering and Technology (AET), and German National Academy of Science and Engineering (ACATECH).
Thursday, September 26, 2024
Keynote V, Thursday, September 26, 2024, 11:20 – 12:00 pm
Professor Dr Kannan Govindan
Director, Centre for Sustainable Operations and Resilient Supply Chain (CSORSC), Institute for Sustainability, Energy and Resources (ISER) & Adelaide Business School (ABS), Division of Research and Innovation
The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia
Topic:
Professor Kannan Govindan is currently a Director of Centre for Sustainable Operations and Resilient Supply Chains (CSORSC) with the University of Adelaide, Australia and Chair Professor with University of Southern Denmark, Denmark. He has been recognized as a Highly Cited Researcher in ‘Engineering’ for six years in a row (2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023) by Thomson-Reuters/Clarivate Analytics. He has published more than 400 international journal articles (with 57250+ citations and an h-index of 125) in leading journals such as Nature, European Journal of Operational Research, Omega, Decision Sciences, Journal of the Operational Research Society, Journal of Environmental Management, Journal of Cleaner Production, Computers & Industrial Engineering, Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment, European Management Journal, International Journal of Production Economics and International Journal of Production Research. Many of his papers were selected as the ESI top 1% highly cited papers or 0.1% hot papers and highlighted as the Key Scientific Articles contributing to the excellence in Engineering and Environmental research. He is an executive editor of the Journal of Cleaner Production, Associate Editor of Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Associate Editor of International Journal of Production Research, Senior Editor of Industrial Management and Data Systems, Editor of Annals of Operations Research, an Area Editor of INFOR: Information Systems and Operational Research, and was a Guest Editor in journals such as Decision Sciences, European Journal of Operations Research, Computers and OR, Annals of OR, Journal of Cleaner Production, International Journal of Production Economics, International Journal of Production Research. Finally, he is an Editorial Board Member of several international journals. His research interests include digital supply chain, industry 4.0 on supply chain, sustainable development goals, reverse logistics, closed-loop supply chain, digitalized sustainable circular economy, green supply chain management, and sustainable supply chain management.
Keynote VI, Thursday, September 26, 2024, 12:00 – 12:40 pm
Dr Mohsin Malik
Associate Professor & Director-Master of Project Management
Swinburn Business School
Swinburn University of Technology, Australia
Topic: A relational view of how social capital contributes to effective digital transformation outcomes
Associate Professor Mohsin Malik has diverse industry and academic work experience of over 20 years. Dr Malik worked as a professional engineer for 7 years before earning a Ph.D. in operations management from the University of Western Australia in 2012. Since then, Dr. Malik has worked as an Assistant Professor at Abu Dhabi University (2013-2016) and as a Lecturer at the University of Melbourne (2016-2018). Dr. Malik joined Swinburne in June 2018.
Dr. Malik researches organisational dynamics for innovative outcomes and sustainability in supply chains and his research outputs so far are at the intersection and in alignment with three United Nation Sustainable Development Goals – SDG-12 Responsible consumption & production, SDG-9 Industry, innovation & infrastructure, and SDG-3 Good health & wellbeing. His research has been featured in leading academic journals such as Industrial Marketing Management, International Journal of Project Management, International Journal of Production Economics, International Journal of Operations and Production Management, Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, Annals of Operations Research, Renewable and Sustainable Reviews, Journal of Cleaner Production, Industrial Management and Data Systems, Business Strategy and the Environment, Production Planning & Control and International Journal of Hospitality Management.