Lean, Operations Excellence and Sustainability
September 25, 2024, 9:00 – 10:45 am (Wednesday)- (Room – 1)
Chair and Speaker I:
Dr Chanjief Chandrakumar
Team Lead – Life Cycle Assessments
thinkstep Pty Ltd
Melbourne, VIC, Australia
Dr Chanjief Chandrakumar is a sustainability specialist and a researcher who investigates the connections between science-based climate action, sustainable development, policy, and economic aspects. Over the past 8 years, Chanjief has worked alongside government agencies, financial institutions, and leading research universities and organisations in Australia, Europe, and New Zealand, including the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases, International Energy Agency, New Zealand Ministry for Primary Industries, ETH Zurich, University of Oxford, and University of Sydney. He was also the founding president of the IEOM Student Chapter at University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka (back in 2015).
Currently, Chanjief is a Team Lead – Life Cycle Assessments at thinkstep Pty Ltd, where he advises businesses to succeed sustainably, using tools and approaches such as Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), circular economy, and science-based targets. He is also part of the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases and an active member of the MACS-G20 Collaboration Initiative on Food Losses & Food Wastes.
Chanjief holds a BSc (Hons) degree in Production Engineering from the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka, and a PhD in Environmental Life Cycle Management from Massey University, New Zealand. His PhD investigated a method called ‘Absolute Sustainability-based Life Cycle Assessment’ which assessed the climate change performance of New Zealand’s economic sectors. The innovative method is based around three established frameworks: LCA, Planetary Boundaries and Sustainable Development Goals.
Speaker II
DR Felix Concepcion Veroya
Founder & CEO, Ask Lex PH Academy, Calabarzon & Mimaropa, Philippines &
Co – Founder & Chief Strategy Officer
TUOS (Cloud – Based Data Analytics Platform), Philippines
Felix Concepcion Veroya is a renowned advocate of lifelong learning in the Philippines, with expertise in Industrial Engineering, Innovation, Sustainability, Analytics, and Continuous Improvement. He graduated as the first Cum Laude of the BS Industrial Engineering program of Batangas State University – The National Engineering University and a 4th place top notcher of the 3rd CIE Examination by the PIIE – IECB. As a Professional Industrial Engineer, Certified Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt, and Chartered Business Advisor, Felix serves as an Industry Advisory Council member and/or chairman for several universities across the Philippines. He founded PINOY IEs, a 16,000-member online community for Filipino Industrial Engineers.
Felix is also an international author of four (4) international e-books, downloaded by Fortune 500 companies about 500,000 times and an international speaker who staged more than 100 talks to – date. His numerous accolades include Outstanding Edupreneur of the Year, ASEAN Start-Up Award Founder of the Year for the Philippines Awardee, 3 – time Asia CEO Awards Entrepeneur of the Year Circle of Excellence Awardee, and Asia CEO Awards 2020 Young Leader of the Year Grand Winner. He is recognized as one of the Top 100 Filipinos and one of the Top 30 Filipino Leaders on LinkedIn and an Honouree of Tatler’s Generation T (GenT) List for championing lifelong learning. He is also helping MSMEs and startups to build their capacity and competencies in operational excellence, quality, and productivity. In his leadership, Ask Lex PH Academy won as the 2022 Asia CEO Awards LBC SME Company of the Year Grand Winner and 2023 Technology Company of the Year Circle of Excellence Awardee. In 2023, he has been awarded the Lean Six Sigma Award by the Industrial Engineering and Operations Management (IEOM) International Society, and has been top finalist of Philippine Chamber of Commerce Incorporated (PCCI) Injap Sia Outstanding Young Entrepreneur Award (ISOYEA) 2022 and De La Salle University and PHINMA Group of Companies Ramon V. Del Rosario SIKLAB Awards 2023.
Speaker III
David Aaron Karr, CPEng, FIIEA
President
Industrial Engineers Australia (IEA), Australia
Topic: Consensus Decision Making-Utilising Practical Game Theory Techniques
David Graduated as an Industrial Engineer BSc (Eng Mech in the Industrial Option) in 1976 at University of Witwatersrand (Wits), Johannesburg, South Africa in 1976. He received a Graduate Diploma in Engineering at Wits 1979. David has worked in various Production and Industrial Engineering roles in manufacturing, service industries and consultancy for over 45 years in South Africa, Canada and Australia. He also has training experience as a lecturer(casual) at TAFE(technical college) for 13 years.
He has worked for Siemens(Routing Eng) and Colgate Palmolive(IE) (South Africa), Pirelli Cables(IE) and Canada Post(IE) (Canada), BOC Gases (Australia)(Production & Project Manager) across production quality, project management, supply chain management, design and improvements of production line and layouts of work area and data optimisation. Industry experience included batch and process type manufacturing as well as large and small sites mainly with large multinational or national companies. He has its own Business Consultancy undertaking passenger surveys, time and motion studies , setting up preventative maintenance systems for various clients and introduction of digitised autonomous processes. David has been very active in professional organisations in Canada (Canadian Society of Industrial Engineers (CSIE) and in Australia (Industrial Engineers Australia (IEA) and Engineers Australia (EA). He is a fellow and Federal President of Industrial Engineers Australia and Chartered Professional Engineer of Engineers Australia.
Speaker IV
Dr Chalaka Fernando
Manager – Environmental Management Plan
Australian National University in Canberra, ACT, Australia
Chalaka Fernando is a 17-years+ experienced Sustainability professional currently leading the Environmental Management Plan at the Australian National University in Canberra, where he earned his PhD in Quantitative Sustainability Assessment using Dynamic-Life Cycle Assessment. Previously, he served as the General Manager for Sustainability at the largest apparel company in Sri Lanka and held various sustainability roles in the cement industry for over a decade. His expertise spans Environmental Management, CSR, Sustainable Construction, Quality Management, and overall Sustainability, culminating in his promotion to Regional Sustainability Compliance Coordinator for the Middle East and APAC. His core competencies include sustainability management strategizing and operationalizing, stakeholder engagement and collaboration, quantitative sustainability assessments (LCA) with simplified interpretation skills, GHG reporting and management, project management, and energy assessments. He is adept at data-driven materiality analysis, monitoring, reporting, and review, change management, process simplification, and implementing and maintaining ISO systems certifications. He is passionate about working with diverse teams and executing simple, scalable sustainability actions. Currently, he serves as a Non-Executive Director for the Australian Life Cycle Assessments Society (ALCAS).
Speaker V