Speakers

In 2007 Anna became a household name when she became the first female Premier of Queensland, but her legacy as a State leader will be the exceptional leadership she provided to the State, and the Nation, in the face of the tragedy of the Queensland flood and storm disasters of 2011.

Anna Bligh, the Premier of QLD, certainly made a difference. Her presence and compassion for the suffering of fellow Queenslanders was a reassuring sign that help was on its way. The reconstruction of homes, businesses and infrastructure was the Premier’s priority and Anna led the reconstruction charge, never shirking accountability.

After an early career as a civil engineer, Charlotte embarked on a PhD on Disaster Waste Management. During her PhD, Charlotte played an active role in the response to the 2010/2011 Canterbury earthquakes.

Charlotte¹s current research interests include risk management, systems thinking, decision-making and resilience.

Andrew is an executive engineer with more than 25 years of practical and broad industry experience.

Andrew’s background has incorporated senior site roles and practice within many industries including: mining, heavy industry, sugar refining, sugar milling, meat processing, coal handling, timber processing, solar salt production and local government.

As a Regional Strategic Coordinator – Resource Recovery with the Southern Sydney Region of Organisation of  Councils (SSROC) Roger manages projects working across Councils to address issues of waste and resource focus and importance. 

Jennifer is an environment and planning law Partner at Baker & McKenzie. She has 20 years experience advising industry, developers and government on environmental management and licensing, pollution incidents, waste, town planning, contaminated land, hazardous materials, supply chain compliance, heritage, Aboriginal land claims and compulsory acquisition.

Manchu Mahalingam
Liberty International Underwriters

Manchu has gained over 5 years' experience in Risk Engineering for the insurance industry.  Manchu's work involves analysing the exposures and controls of both prospective and existing clients and communicating the technical aspects to both underwriters and claims specialists.

He has been involved over a wide variety of industries including waste facilities, paint manufacturers, construction, mining/minerals processing facilities and bulk storage facilities.

Andrew has 20 years’ experience in protecting the environment and has worked in consulting, land management and as a regulator.

Since 2012 he has led the NSW EPA’s incident and emergency response functions, improving internal capabilities and forging stronger links with other agencies in the emergency management space. Andrew also has responsibility for delivery on a new project to better align financial incentives for improved environmental outcomes and is keen to see a more holistic view of environmental risk from industry and insurers alike.

Alison Price organises logistics for one of the largest mobile recycling businesses in southeast Queensland.
Alison oversees recycling projects on more than 50 sites processing almost half a million cubic metres of material each year. 

Councillor Pynsent has served on Council since 1999 and this is his first term as Mayor. Cr Pynsent believes his role as Mayor is to build a better community for groups of all ages. He is a former teacher and principal who finished his career at Kearsley Public School and has lived in the Cessnock area since 1988 and is a keen cattle breeder in his spare time.

The Mayor is passionate about growing the government area in terms of developing communities and providing jobs for local people. As a white ribbon ambassador, the Mayor is passionate about reducing domestic violence in the Cessnock community.

Mark is a leading specialist in waste, recycling and resource management. With a background in Chemical Engineering, Mark has been practicing in the area of waste, recycling and resource management for over 20 years. Prior to establishing a waste consulting company Rawtec in 2007, he was the Regional Manager for Cleanaway for SA/NT.

Mark is currently the SA Branch President of the Waste Management Association of Australia.

Rebecca has worked in local government waste for 15 years and is currently responsible for strategic planning and communications to achieve reduced waste to landfill for Blue Mountains City Council.

Alan is responsible for the management and underwriting of LIU’s Environmental Impairment Liability Insurance portfolio across the Asia Pacific Region.
Alan began his insurance career back in 2004 in New Zealand and has been with LIU since 2006, working in offices across Australia and Canada.

Alan’s current role involves the development of environmental and pollution insurance coverage solutions for a broad range of industries to address the increasing exposures they face from environmental liability.

Gain Tunstall has been with SUEZ for over 8 years and has 40 years of combined industry experience incorporating Senior Management roles.

He has extensive knowledge in: Disaster Management, Waste Management, Industrial Services, Transport and Construction Industries.

After training as an environmental planner in local government, Cate joined the NSW EPA in 1998.  Working in both regional and metropolitan areas, and after a short break in groundwater resource management in South Australia, Cate has been in the regional waste compliance section for the past 10 years. 

Recently, Cate has been involved in the EPA’s response to the Kiama Tornado, Blue Mountains Bushfire, Hunter Storms and Kurnell Tornado disasters.

Jordon Wong is an Environmental Engineering Consultant at MRA Consulting Group.
Jordon specialises in greenhouse gas emissions reporting and compliance for landfills, data analysis and cost benefit analysis for the waste industry.