{"id":1971,"date":"2024-03-18T13:51:34","date_gmt":"2024-03-18T13:51:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ieomsociety.org\/sydney2024\/?page_id=1971"},"modified":"2026-03-16T23:05:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T23:05:07","slug":"conference-leadership-team","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/ieomsociety.org\/wollongong2026\/conference-leadership-team\/","title":{"rendered":"Conference Leadership Team"},"content":{"rendered":"

Conference Leadership Team<\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n

Conference Chair<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Dr Matthew Pepper <\/span><\/strong>
Professor<\/span><\/strong>
Director, Centre for Supply Chain Research<\/span><\/strong>
School of Business, Faculty of Business and Law, University of Wollongong NSW 2522 Australia<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Matt Pepper is Discipline Leader for the Supply Chain and Analytics Discipline and Director of the Centre for Supply Chain Research within the Faculty of Arts, Society and Business, University of Wollongong. He is also an Adjunct Professor at Rajagiri Business School, Kochi, Kerala.<\/p>\n

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 supply chain sustainability, digital transformation and disruption in complex service environments.<\/p>\n

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 Australian Journal of Management and the IIMK Society and Management Review Journal.<\/p>\n

\n

Conference co-chairs<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Dr Felix Kin Peng Hui
<\/strong>Conference Chair &
<\/strong>Associate Professor of Engineering Management and an Academic Specialist
<\/strong>Department of Infrastructure Engineering
<\/strong>University of Melbourne
<\/strong>Melbourne, Australia<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Dr Felix Kin Peng Hui is an Associate Professor of Engineering Management and an Academic Specialist in the Department of Infrastructure Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and IT, University of Melbourne. He is also the Program Director\/Academic Coordinator for the Master of Engineering Management program and the Engineering Business specialisation for postgraduate masters degrees.<\/p>\n

Dr Hui is an experienced engineer with over 25 years of industry experience in managing continuous improvement projects, factories, and business units. He has held senior management positions in a range of manufacturing industries which includes machine tools, precision engineering and semiconductors. He has also consulted to organisations seeking continuous improvements to optimise their operational efficiency. His research interests are in the areas of operational process optimisation, operational efficiency, lean systems, organisational development and team dynamics in engineering projects. He is currently a lead investigator on several government funded projects which includes mega-infrastructure projects research, prefabricated modular construction research, next generation buildings with Building 4.0 CRC and on CRC-P projects involving end-of-life treatment processes. Dr Hui is a registered Professional Engineer (Singapore), an ASEAN Chartered Professional Engineer and a Fellow of Institute of Managers and Leaders.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"Dr Ethan Nikookar<\/span><\/strong>
Deputy Discipline Leader, Supply Chain & Analytics; and Deputy Director, Centre for Supply Chain Research<\/span><\/strong>
University of Wollongong, School of Business, Wollongong, Australia<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

After several delightful years of studying and conducting research in Finland and Germany, Ethan came to Australia to pursue his post-graduate studies in supply chain management. He earned his PhD in supply chain resilience and disruption management from the University of South Australia Business School. Since the completion of his Ph.D, Ethan has worked in several teaching and research positions in several large universities, including as a Lecturer at Flinders University and Researcher at the Centre for Workplace Excellence, University of South Australia Business School, And Australian Institute of Business. Ethan joined the UoW family in 2024 with a great passion for practical learning.<\/p>\n

Ethan has also an extensive career history with some of the best-known companies in the manufacturing sector. Before academia, Ethan spent several years in various automotive and steel manufacturing companies leading supply chains.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"Dr Spring Zhou<\/span><\/strong>
Associate Professor, School of Business<\/span><\/strong>
Faculty of Business and Law, University of Wollongong, Australia<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Dr Quan (Spring) Zhou is an Associate professor at School of Business, Faculty of Business and Law, University of Wollongong. She obtained a PhD in Operations and Supply Chain Management from University of Auckland in 2016 for her research in managing medical supplies in national reserves. Prior to joining University of Wollongong, Spring worked as a lecturer at Massey University (2016-2018) and a Research Fellow at University of Auckland (2016) in New Zealand. Her research interests are in supply chain management, non-profit operations, inventory management of perishable products, and agricultural value chains.<\/p>\n

As a strong proponent of practice-inspired research, Spring is passionate about combining her research interests with practical needs. Spring has been actively involved in practice-driven, applied research. For example, her PhD project was motivated by the serious expiration problem in the medical reserve stocks. In that project, she studied rotation schemes and provided suggestions on managing the medical supplies, considering the perishability of long-life medical products. Spring has also worked with AgResearch in New Zealand to evaluate on-farm changes when delivering desirable credence attributes for agri-products and explore ways to motivate changes in land use practices.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"Dr Dilupa Nakandala<\/span><\/strong>
Professor, Associate Dean of Graduate Studies<\/span><\/strong>
School of Business, Human Resources & Management<\/span><\/strong>
Western Sydney University, Sydney, Australia<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Professor Dilupa Nakandala\u2019s research interests are in innovation and technology transfer management and supply chain management. Her research has been recognised by funding from the Australian Research Council, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Australia and Western Sydney University. She has published her research in top-tier journals, including Decision Support Systems, Knowledge-based Systems, European Journal of Operational Research, Supply Chain Management Journal, Int\u2019l Journal of Production Research, and Int\u2019l Journal of Technology Management. She has also published several book chapters and in practitioner journals and was the lead author of the \u2018South Asia\u2019 chapter of the latest UNESCO Science Report.<\/p>\n

Dilupa obtained BSc in electrical and electronic engineering (First Class Hons) at the University of Peradeniya, MBA in management of technology at the University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka and PhD in innovation studies at Western Sydney University. Dilupa possesses a rare and diverse research method skillset where those qualitative and quantitative research skills enable her to do studies using the case study method, fuzzy expert systems, genetic algorithm, agent-based modelling, and structural equation modelling. She teaches innovation, entrepreneurship, and project management at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels.\u00a0Before joining academia in 2007, she held multiple roles in engineering, integrated solution designs, quality assurance, business, process and project management, and compliance in a multinational business environment for over eight years. She is also a certified Project Management Professional in PMI, USA and a Design Thinking practitioner and has the PRINCE2 Practitioner qualification.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"Dr Peter Shi, FCILT<\/strong><\/span>
Deputy Director (MCom) and Head of Supply Chain Management<\/strong><\/span>
Macquarie Business School, Macquarie University<\/strong><\/span>
Chair of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport NSW Section, NSW, Australia<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Peter Shi, FCILT, PhD is an academic and logistics\/supply chain expert currently serving as a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Management at Macquarie University Business School in Sydney, Australia. He is Deputy Course Director and Head of the Supply Chain Management Specialisation for the Master of Commerce program. His research focuses on operations, logistics, supply chain management, digital transformation, supply chain finance, and sustainable\/green supply chains, and he has published extensively in peer-reviewed international journals. Peter holds the Chartered Fellow designation of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (FCILT) and contributes to the field through editorial roles on several respected journals, including Sustainable Operations and Computers. He also chairs the NSW Chapter of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport in Australia and is active in academic leadership and professional community engagement<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Dr Sanjoy Paul
Associate Professor
<\/span><\/strong>UTS Business School<\/span><\/strong>
University of Technology Sydney (UTS), Sydney, Australia<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Dr Sanjoy Paul is an Associate Professor in the UTS Business School, University of Technology Sydney, who works on supply chain risk and resilience, and in particular, on recovery modelling using mathematical model and optimisation.<\/p>\n

Sanjoy\u2019s research interests include also sustainable supply chain management, supply chain resilience, applied operations research, modelling and simulation, and intelligent decision making.\u00a0His work has particular application to global supply chain interruptions, for example those experienced during pandemics, and he is now developing several supply chain recovery models that could be used by business during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. His latest research can be found in the following google scholar link.<\/p>\n

Sanjoy has received several awards in his career, including ASOR Rising Star Award, Excellence in Early Career Research Award from UTS Business School, the Stephen Fester prize for most outstanding thesis from UNSW, high impact publications awards for publishing articles in top-tier journals, and several university scholarships for outstanding results at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Based on his citation records, he was included in the top 2% of scientists three times (based on the single year 2020, 2021 and 2022) in author databases of standardized citation indicators. He is a member of the Australian Society for Operations Research, and of the Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply (CIPS). Prior to joining UTS as a lecturer, Sanjoy served on the academic staff at Melbourne\u2019s RMIT University, and before that, at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"Dr Sabrina Fawzia<\/span><\/strong>
Senior Lecturer, Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE)<\/span><\/strong>
Senior fellow and Associate fellow (Indigenous knowledge) from Advanced HE <\/span><\/strong>
Subject area coordinator for CEE, Faculty of Engineering<\/span><\/strong>
Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Dr Sabrina Fawzia is currently working as a Senior lecturer in the Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) Discipline, Faculty of Engineering, Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Australia. She received her PhD degree from Monash University, Australia in 2008. Through her scholarly, innovative, high quality research, she has established a national and international standing. Dr Fawzia has authored over 144 peer-reviewed articles, including 102 high quality journal papers (80 Q1), 3 peer-reviewed book chapters, and one book. Her papers have attracted about 5127+ citations with h-index 39. Her research has very high impact worldwide as demonstrated by his overall field weighted citation index (FWCI) of 1.54. Dr Fawzia has supervised 17 PhD students and 6 Mphil students to completion.<\/p>\n

Dr Fawzia has won multiple awards and grants for her outstanding contributions in teaching and research fields. She is the recipient of numerous competitive grants amounting $2.6 million, including One ARC DP26 and two ARC LIEF as a chief investigator. Her current research areas are Fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) strengthening, 3D printed concrete, sustainable composite construction by using recycled and waste materials and Engineering Education. She is leading a funded research project examining how students perceive and use artificial intelligence tools in higher education.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Dr Ahad Ali
Associate Professor and Director of Industrial Engineering Program
Lawrence Technological University
Michigan, USA<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Dr. Ahad Ali is an Associate Professor, Director of Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering and Master of Science in Industrial Engineering in the A. Leon Linton Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Lawrence Technological University, Michigan, USA. Dr. Ali is the Director of Smart Manufacturing and Lean Systems Research Group. He earned B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Khulna University of Engineering and Technology, Bangladesh, Master in Systems and Engineering Management from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore and Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Dr. Ali is the Executive Director of IEOM Society and Conference Chair of the International Conference on Industrial Engineering and operations Management. He supervised 11 doctorate students in Doctor of Engineering in Manufacturing Systems. Dr. Ali has published 60 journal and 150 conference papers. Dr Ali has done research projects with Chrysler, Ford, DTE Energy, Delphi Automotive System, GE Medical Systems, Harley-Davidson Motor Company, International Truck and Engine Corporation (ITEC), National\/Panasonic Electronics, and Rockwell Automation. His research interests include quality, reliability, six sigma, manufacturing, simulation, optimization, scheduling, maintenance, e-manufacturing, lean, supply chain and logistics. He is a member of ASEE, IEEE, IEOM, INFORMS, and SME.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Dr Md Mizanur Rahman
University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia &\u00a0
Director, IEOM Australia Operations
email: mizanur@ieomsociety.org<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Dr Md Mizanur Rahman is a sustainable energy expert with over 22 years of experience spanning renewable energy, energy efficiency, thermodynamics, heat transfer, fluid mechanics, energy management, sustainable power generation, energy storage, and energy\u2013environment systems. His research and professional work address contemporary challenges including net-zero energy buildings, renewable energy policy, life-cycle assessment, building energy systems, solar-assisted HVAC, long-range energy planning, flameless combustion, and distributed generation. He has actively contributed to the academic and professional community as a co-chair and organizer of multiple international conferences, and has delivered invited talks at international conferences, seminars, and professional meetings. He has published 38 peer-reviewed research articles in leading international journals and conference proceedings.<\/p>\n

Dr Rahman has served as a Senior Lecturer at University of Technology Malaysia (UTM) for seven years and as a Lecturer\/Researcher at Aalto University, Finland, for three years. In industry, he brings 12 years of engineering experience, including eight years as a Senior Project Engineer and four years as an Assistant Project Engineer, with responsibility for the full lifecycle installation of electrical distribution lines and substations. His technical expertise includes testing, calibration, and maintenance of transformers, energy meters, protective devices, and photovoltaic systems.<\/p>\n

He holds a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Aalto University, Finland, and an MSc in Sustainable Energy Engineering from the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Sweden. He is a Chartered Energy Engineer (CEng) with the Energy Institute (UK) and a Professional Member (MIEAust) of Engineers Australia.\u00a0Dr Rahman is keen to further contribute to industry by applying his expertise in sustainable and renewable energy, energy policy, zero-emissions systems, climate change mitigation, energy efficiency, and energy management across the broader mechanical engineering domain.<\/p>\n

\n

Conference Manager<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

\"\"Erin Snape<\/span><\/strong>
Business Development Manager
Innovation and Commercial Research Unit<\/span><\/strong>
University of Wollongong<\/span><\/strong>
Wollongong, NSW, Australia<\/span><\/strong>
email: esnape@uow.edu.au<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Erin Snape is a senior professional at the University of Wollongong (UOW) in Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia. She serves as Stream Lead in the Transformation Management Office and is also involved in the Operations Portfolio, where she contributes to strategic change, transformation initiatives, and organisational development at the university.\u00a0Before taking on her current transformation leadership role, Erin has held roles including Business Development Manager within UOW\u2019s Innovation and Commercial Research Unit and Senior Manager, International Engagement in the Faculty of Business and Law, where she supported international student engagement and industry partnerships.<\/p>\n

Erin is active in university community initiatives, including supporting student experiences and engagement programs, and has a strong presence in professional networks related to education, change management, and institutional transformation<\/p>\n<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Conference Leadership Team Conference Chair Dr Matthew Pepper ProfessorDirector, Centre for Supply Chain ResearchSchool of Business, Faculty of Business and Law, University of Wollongong NSW 2522 Australia Matt Pepper is Discipline Leader for the Supply Chain and Analytics Discipline and Director of the Centre for Supply Chain Research within the Faculty of Arts, Society and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1971","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ieomsociety.org\/wollongong2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ieomsociety.org\/wollongong2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ieomsociety.org\/wollongong2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ieomsociety.org\/wollongong2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ieomsociety.org\/wollongong2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1971"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/ieomsociety.org\/wollongong2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1971\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2476,"href":"https:\/\/ieomsociety.org\/wollongong2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1971\/revisions\/2476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ieomsociety.org\/wollongong2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}