2023 Symposium Speakers

Chris Deeble is the Deputy Secretary of the Capability Acquisition and Sustainment Group (CASG) in the Department of Defence.

Chris has extensive experience spanning the defence, industry and commercial sectors and working with Government. He also served for 37 years in the Australian Defence Force, most notably as an Air Vice-Marshal.

His most recent appointment was Chief Executive at Northrop Grumman Australia. Prior to that he worked for Airservices Australia as the program executive for OneSKY, responsible for delivering the Civil Military Air Traffic Management System for Australia.

Chris returns to CASG after previously holding the role of Senior Program Manager where he managed more than $25 billion of complex acquisition and sustainment programs including the Joint Strike Fighter, Wedgetail Airborne Early Warning and Control, Multi Role Tanker Transport and Collins Class Submarine.

Chris has a bachelor's degree in mathematics from the University of Sydney. He was awarded the Conspicuous Service Cross (CSC) in 2007, and recognized in 2016 as an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO).

Chris is married to Donna and they have five adult children. They enjoy travel, movies and spending time with family.

Mr. Kranz is a research fellow supporting the Office of the Secretary of Defence with research related to improving the Department's acquisition management policies and practices. He is a board member of the College of Performance Management, a non-profit organization serving performance management professionals. As the President of Enlightened IPM, he provides government agencies and contractors advice and guidance on performing disciplined, integrated program management on Agile programs. Before his current position, Mr. Kranz was the Deputy Director of OSD/AT&L/PARCA for Earned Value Management and provided policy and guidance to the US military acquisition enterprise. Mr. Kranz spent 16 years as chief engineer and program manager at General Dynamics C4 Systems and 11 years in the Air Force as a technical manager on tactical communications systems, strategic communications systems, and the F-22 program. He has an MS EE from the Air Force Institute of Technology and a BS in EE from North Dakota State University.

Adapting Systems Engineering from Waterfall to Agile

Integrated performance management analysis. To include SE Technical performance measures, Risk Management, and Cost and schedule metrics

Thomas Gut is the Head of Lifecycle Management and Maintenance for the Gotthard Line, managed by the Swiss Federal Railways SBB Ltd. Before joining SSB in 2014, Thomas gathered international experience in Ecuador, Qatar, Mexico and Belgium in a range of consulting and government positions. These positions, combined with his board appointments, were excellent preparation for engaging with a diverse range of stakeholders in his current role.

The New Gotthard Base Tunnel: Full Life Cycle Management and Maintenance of Major Infrastructure

Rasmus Rytter is an author, speaker and renowned expert within benefits realisation and organisational change. His expertise and three books on the subject have helped a wide variety of companies and public organisations realise their benefit potential. Since 2013, he has been part of Implement Consulting Group as a partner, consultant and advisor. Before joining Implement, Rasmus worked for 10 years as a project manager, program manager and people manager. Rasmus has a master's degree from Aarhus University.

Realizing benefits from change

Realizing benefits from change - The role of change management as the key enabler for benefits realization

Teresa was appointed First Assistant Secretary Contestability Division in 2022.
In this role, she is responsible for providing decision makers with analysis of Defence's capability investment proposals as they move through the approval pipeline to Government consideration and beyond, as well as in ensuring the integrity and health of the overall capability system. She is also the Functional lead for the Capability Analyst Job family in Defence.
Teresa is a former Navy officer and ADFA graduate who has also worked as a project and program manager in industry for a number of years, before re-joining the Department in 2008 as a public servant. Key roles include working as a project manager in the Space Systems Program Office and as the Director of Major Program Control in the Defence Materiel Organisation. In 2015, Teresa joined the Capability Life Cycle design team, which had been formed in response to the 2015 First Principles Review.
In 2018, Teresa completed a Master's degree in Politics and Policy, specialising in public policy development in a Defence context, and was promoted to the SES, where she took up the role of Assistant Secretary Maritime Analysis in Contestability Division. In this role she was responsible for the independent assurance and analysis of the Department's maritime capability projects and programs, strategic cost assurance within Defence, and for the contesting of Force Design activities overall.
In 2020, Teresa was asked to lead the development and launch of the Defence Transformation Strategy, and led the team that developed and launched the first Defence Data Strategy 2021-23. Teresa also led the creation of the new Defence Data Division in its initial stages, including acting in the inaugural Chief Data Integration Officer role.
Teresa is married to James, who works in IT, and they have an eight year old daughter named Eleanor.

Drew is an executive leader with over 23 years of experience in the defence industry across both Australia and the United Kingdom. He has held technical, management, and strategic leadership roles ranging across Shipbuilding, System Design, Combat Systems, Maritime Sustainment, and Aerospace.
Drew has significant experience in complex project planning and controls, PMO establishment, schedule risk analysis, and change management. His skills range from devising schedule development strategies through to fully integrated project controls solutions.
Prior to taking up his current role as a Director at TBH, Drew led a large multi-national project planning and controls organisation responsible for developing and maintaining the highly complex Hunter Class Frigate Program Schedule and integrating with the broader Global Combat Ship Program
Drew resides in Adelaide but leads a national program assisting clients across the country deal with big challenges. Drew is passionate about the defence industry and enjoys working with government, business, and industry stakeholders at all levels to deliver efficient and effective business and project outcomes.
Drew's Experience Includes
• Establishing schedule frameworks for high complexity program schedules
• Leading the development of complex program schedules for major programs of work
• Assessing maturity and quality of schedule, project control, change control, and risk analysis models, processes, and deliverables
• Schedule dependency and integration reviews and improvement actions
• Preparation for internal and external audits including Earned Value System Reviews and Integrated Baseline Reviews
• Schedule Risk Analysis network development, analysis, and iteration
• Risk and Complexity Management

Current techniques for multi path analysis of major project schedules

As a Technical Manager within the Advanced Development Group at Tecolote Research, Inc., Ryan Bettinger is both a team leader and working analyst. He is responsible for managing Tecolote's project control team supporting the U.S. Space Force Innovation and Prototyping Directorate. Ryan has over 12 years of project control experience performing cost estimating/analysis, earned value management, and schedule analysis with the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force. He also is a certified ACEIT Trainer. Ryan has a Bachelor's of Science in Mathematics from the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington and a Master's of Science in Applied Mathematics from Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan.

The FICSM Team: The whole is greater than the sum of its parts

Converting a Project Master Schedule into an analysis schedule - tips, tricks and techniques to prepare for a full Joint Confidence Level (JCL) Analysis

Helena Bograd is an expert within benefits realisation and organizational change and the author of several articles and cases about the topic. She is also a speaker, trainer and she helps companies implement the benefits realisation and change methods in their change projects as well as ensure benefit-driven decision making at portfolio level. Helena is a Senior Consultant and has been part of Implement Consulting Group since 2018. Helena has a master's degree from Copenhagen Business School.

Benefitting from change management

Realizing benefits from change - The role of change management as the key enabler for benefits realization

Val Jonas has been CEO of Risk Decisions Ltd since 1998, and is recognised as a global risk management specialist. She works closely with clients and leads conversations on the cultural, process and technical issues within the project, product, strategic and enterprise risk management world, advising organisations implementing Risk Decisions' Predict! risk system.
Today organisations face increased risk management pressures. To help customers navigate through this change, Val helps shape risk management standards and guidance. She delivers Risk Vision masterclass sessions and Connecting Risk workshops for managers and practitioners.
She is risk subject matter expert to ISO and BSI committees (ISO 258/WG12 Earned Value Management and BSI 202001 Project Controls guide), non-executive director for the International Centre for Complex Project Management (ICCPM) and Chair of the Institute of Risk Management (IRM) Risk Leadership special interest group. Val was involved in the UK Office of Government Commerce's 'Management of Risk' guidance and collaborated on risk management guidance with the Association of Project Management, Project Management Institute, College of Performance Management and US National Defence Industry Association.
Risk Decisions develops and sells the Predict! risk management software and supporting services to global organisations, to help bring major projects in on-time and on-budget.
Val has a joint honours BA in Mathematics and Computer Science from Oxford University.

Leadership and Governance: are you steering or sitting in the back seat?

Angela is a senior contributing member of the software engineering community in Australia and internationally. She has combined a distinguished academic career (Senior Lecturer, Griffith University and Visiting Scientist, Software Engineering Institute, Carnegie Mellon University) with a high-impact consultancy career (Director of the Independent Project Review Institute (IPRI) and RedBay Consulting) producing strategic innovations and consultancy for optimising software intensive systems. Angela is a principal co-developer of the Schedule Confidence Risk Assessment Methodology. SCRAM is highly conducive to effective schedule management by establishing a framework and process for identifying root causes of schedule slippage. Her expertise in Process Improvement & Assessment has been recognised internationally. She was a Visiting Scientist for the Software Engineering Institute, Carnegie Mellon University. She was also a part-time Senior Lecturer in Software Engineering at Griffith University from 2000 to 2005.

Why Is My Schedule Slipping - and what can I do about it?

Meri has more than 25 years of experience in Program Controls, currently working for a small firm in the defence consulting field. Most recently Meri has completed the development and implementation of a project management framework and PMO in the not-for-profit domain.

Over the years, Meri has held several positions in the Defence and Aerospace, and Telecommunications sectors, both in consultative and staff roles and enjoys implementing and improving program performance management systems and processes to enhance program delivery, including PMO, Governance, EVM, Project Controls, Scheduling and Risk Management.

Meri is a certified in Integrated Program Performance Management (IPPMTM) and has served on the board of the Australian Performance Management Association and is a long term member of PMI and AACEI.

My PMO is smaller than your PMO

Sandeep is the Planning Manager at Penta Ocean Construction Co., Ltd, Singapore for infrastructure projects. He has been working in the Project Controls Industry for about 12 years, post completion of master's degree from IIT Roorkee India. He also did an Executive MBA while working on a large-scale project in Malaysia.
Claims Advisory, is a role he actively works in his organisation, he contributes as Delay Analyst at times, advises strategies in developing claim reports and providing appropriate delay analysis to the case.
He is an expert in 4D Planning implementation and managing the team of BIM specialists / Modellers and delivering 4D requirements. He has worked in India, Malaysia, and Singapore.
He is also a Digital Course Instructor in Project Controls on the Udemy Platform with over 60k students accessing his courses, which enhances his digital presence. He is now actively developing YouTube to reach out to wider audiences and students. The students are grateful to him for sharing his knowledge, which in-turn is very rewarding.
Constantly thinking of new ideas and new ways of doing things, is a innovative attribute in his approach towards work.

4D Program – Future of Project Controls

Shankar Sankaran PhD is a Professor at the University of Technology Sydney teaching and conducting research about project governance. He is a member of Project Governance for Engineers Steering committee of the College of Leadership and Management at Engineers Australia. He worked in industry for several year as a project manager before joining academia.

Project Governance by Engineers Why do Project Managers need Project Governance

Assoc Professor John Bensley is the MBA Director within the QUT Graduate School of Business with expertise in systems thinking, the management of innovation, product management and analytical psychology. John works with other University academics, Graduate School staff and industry professionals, to design, develop and deliver transdisciplinary education programs that meet the specific requirements of post-graduate MBA, Executive MBA and Digital MBA students. With more than 30 years management, marketing and operational experience from the mining and telecommunication industries his passion is understanding the determining effect of the human equation within organisations and helping people sense-make in complex environments.

Harnessing Emergence in Complex Projects: Rethinking Risk, Opportunity & Resilience

Toby Buchanan started his career delivering major projects with Lendlease in Australia and the UK, before joining AI technology company nPlan in 2018. Since then, he has worked with clients in the UK, Australia, North America, and Asia. He now runs nPlan's operations in the APAC region out of the Sydney office, and will be joining the symposium in person in Canberra.

The future of tendering is here: RPV, AI and the South Geelong to Waurn Ponds Duplication

Taylor Burns started his career delivering a range of multidisciplinary civil infrastructure projects with Transport for NSW and Public Works Advisory in Australia before moving to Europe where he focused on integrated cost and schedule risk analysis for mega projects. He then joined technology company nPlan in 2021. Since then, he has worked with clients in Australia, North America, and Asia as a risk engineer providing project insights through the use of nPlan's machine learning products.

The future of tendering is here: RPV, AI and the South Geelong to Waurn Ponds Duplication

Dr Nguyen is a system thinking expert with more than 20 years' experience teaching, researching and consulting with various companies and organisations in Australia, Asia, Africa, and Europe. He has held several management and leadership roles, most notably being the Director Australia and Southeast Asia with the Malik Management Institute, Switzerland, a world leading organisation for holistic general management, leadership, governance and transformation solutions. Nam has consulted to a wide range of Australian state and federal government agencies including Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) and Defence Science and Technology Group (DSTG). Nam is a recipient of the prestigious Davos Australian Leadership Award for being at the forefront of his chosen field – systems thinking and complexity management. He is an Honorary Fellow in the University of Adelaide Business School; an Adjunct Professor at FPT School of Business, Vietnam; a Certificated Talent of the International Academy for Systems and Cybernetics (IASCYS) and a Vice President (2014-16; 2018-24) of the International Federation for Systems Research (IFSR).

Governance and Controls in Complex Projects

Robert McMartin is an experienced PMO and Program Manager with expertise in program, project, general, facilities and contract management across a variety of projects from aviation, finance, utilities, property, events, logistics, public transport, environment, software development, defence and aerospace industries. Rob is also Co-Chair of the International Centre for Complex Project Management (ICCPM), Managing Risk in Complexity (MRC), Special Interest Group (SIG).

Evolution of Projects and Project Management - Reframing competency for the modern world.

Kym Henderson has over twenty years of achievement to formally recognized high standards following an IT career change. His broad ranging career covers Project and Program Management, Program Management Office, Software Quality Assurance Management and Project Planning and Control across multiple industry sectors including Government, Commercial IT, Telecommunications, Defence, Manufacturing, Utilities and some Banking and Financial Services.

He is the Chair of the PGCS Ltd which was established in 2019 to more effectively carry out the various activities of the PGCS. Kym was instrumental in re-establishing the PGCS as the regular annual project and program management governance and controls event held in Canberra from 2013.

He is also the Convenor and Project leader of ISO TC258 WG12 which is developing the ISO EVM Guidance standard and previously a core writing team member of ISO TC 258 WG7 which developed the ISO EVM standard (21508:2018) published in 2018. Kym was instrumental in ISO 21508:2018 being adopted (with modifications) as Australia's national EVM standard AS4817-2109.

He was a core team member for the PMI Earned Value Management (EVM) Global Practice Standard 2nd edition project published in October 2011. Kym had primary responsibility for Chapter 5 "Develop Schedule" and Appendix D "Schedule Analysis Using EVM Data".

Kym was also the first non-US national elected to office at the Washington DC based College of Performance Management (CPM) as Vice President of Research and Standards in 2009, concluding his tenure as Executive Vice President in 2019. Previously he was the Education Director of PMI Sydney Chapter from 2003 to 2007.

Kym is a leading Earned Schedule researcher and Subject Matter Expert and has extensive experience utilising EVM and associated techniques on projects of various sizes and complexity in the commercial and defence industry sectors.

ISO 21512 EVM Implementation Guidance

Wayne Greenwood has the following experience:
• Forty eight years operational and project experience in aviation, logistics, government, oil industry and tourism.
• 30 years lecturing experience at University AFE and business Colleges.
• Director of Priority Management since 1997, 23 years
Wayne is the International Program Director for Project Management training for Priority Management. Seconded to the Board of the prestigious Project Management College of Scheduling in August 2020. In 2018 he co- founded Endfirst plans the company that created OVERGantt project software.
Since 2011 Wayne has scheduled Capital projects with combined value of over two Billion Dollars. These Projects range from establishing Oil fields in Malaysia to the Treasury Track of the G20 summit, the Election ready Roadmap for AEC and includes over twenty oil rig refits in locations such as Dubai, Bahrain, Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Scotland and Malaysia.

Pull Planning using Project Flow Diagrams

Collin is the CEO and Managing Director of the International Centre for Complex Project Management (ICCPM). He has over 23 years of commercial and management experience in a variety of senior roles across various industry sectors. Before joining ICCPM, Collin was the Program Manager of QUT's Executive MBA in Complex Project Management. Before moving to Australia, Collin spent 8 years as a Director and Principle Consultant for a boutique business transformation management consultancy in South Africa with a particular focus on strategy development and change management.

Identifying and Responding to Complexity in Major Projects and Programs

My passion is helping organisations to succeed by working with them to build on their strengths and find solutions for their challenges.
I have had the privilege of working with a range of Government Departments, with senior leaders as well as executive and APS staff. My extensive experience working in and with Government has given me a unique insight into its strengths and challenges.
My communication and facilitation skills ensure that every engagement achieves its goals and exceeds the expectations of key stakeholders and build long term and trusted partnerships.
Key skills that bring value include Strategic planning, Business and technology optimisation and transformation, Assurance, and change management.

Introducing a healthy performance culture, aligning delivery to meaningful organisational impacts.

Maisara is a Digital Engineering Lead with extensive hands-on experience in digital engineering and construction management for multi-discipline projects from pre-investment to handover and O&M stages. He has successfully delivered several 4D,5D/ and 7D BIM projects with clients and contractors, supporting the digital transformation in many organisations and projects, with practical knowledge of the related standards – ISO 19650, ISO 19115 and ISO 16739.
Maisara is a highly qualified construction management professional, a member of both AIPM and PMI, and has extensive experience working as a Digital Engineer on a range of major projects.

Application of 4D BIM in project controls for construction management

Alex is a Project Planning & Delivery consultant with over 20 years of experience in project portfolio management across different industries and countries. Alex worked within multiple portfolio and program offices, helping organisations build their vision, mature project delivery practices, develop standards, implement PPM tools, and upskill project delivery teams. As a speaker, he participated in different Project Management conferences, and his articles were published in PM magazines.

PredAptive delivery: Predictive + Adaptive

Paul Ezekiel is an experienced Agile Coach and Consultant with a passion for helping organizations embrace enterprise-scale Agile, DevSecOps, and Business Agility. With a background in Finance and Banking, Paul brings a unique perspective to his work, combining his financial expertise with his deep knowledge of Agile methodologies. He holds an MBA with a Finance Concentration from Wilmington University in Delaware, completed in 2012. He also obtained a B.Sc. in Banking and Finance from the University of Abuja in Nigeria in 2009.

Paul has accumulated valuable experience throughout his career, having held various roles as an Agile Coach and Consultant in some of the world's most distinguished organizations. At Epam Systems he serves as an Agile Coach leading Agile Transformations, facilitating learning and development within the organization through individual team coaching, training, and workshops on Agile principles and values. Paul works closely with key roles across teams, addressing organizational, product-related, and technical impediments and also coaches Product Owners in backlog management and prioritisation.

Agile Transformation without Agile Coaches

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 project management leadership roles in the UK, France and Australia in complex nuclear programs. Projects include the UK Vanguard 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 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.

Managing wicked program delivery

Mr. Kranz is a research fellow supporting the Office of the Secretary of Defense with research related to improving the Department's acquisition management policies and practices. He is a board member of the College of Performance Management, a non-profit organization serving performance management professionals. As the President of Enlightened IPM, he provides government agencies and contractors advice and guidance on performing disciplined, integrated program management on Agile programs. Before his current position, Mr. Kranz was the Deputy Director of OSD/AT&L/PARCA for Earned Value Management and provided policy and guidance to the US military acquisition enterprise. Mr. Kranz spent 16 years as chief engineer and program manager at General Dynamics C4 Systems and 11 years in the Air Force as a technical manager on tactical communications systems, strategic communications systems, and the F-22 program. He has an MS EE from the Air Force Institute of Technology and a BS in EE from North Dakota State University.

Integrated performance management analysis. To include SE Technical performance measures, Risk Management, and Cost and schedule metrics

Helena Bograd is an expert within benefits realisation and organizational change and the author of several articles and cases about the topic. She is also a speaker, trainer and she helps companies implement the benefits realisation and change methods in their change projects as well as ensure benefit-driven decision making at portfolio level. Helena is a Senior Consultant and has been part of Implement Consulting Group since 2018. Helena has a master's degree from Copenhagen Business School.

Realizing benefits from change - The role of change management as the key enabler for benefits realization

Rasmus Rytter is an author, speaker and renowned expert within benefits realisation and organisational change. His expertise and three books on the subject have helped a wide variety of companies and public organisations realise their benefit potential. Since 2013, he has been part of Implement Consulting Group as a partner, consultant and advisor. Before joining Implement, Rasmus worked for 10 years as a project manager, program manager and people manager. Rasmus has a master's degree from Aarhus University.

Realizing benefits from change - The role of change management as the key enabler for benefits realization

As a Technical Manager within the Advanced Development Group at Tecolote Research, Inc., Ryan Bettinger is both a team leader and working analyst. He is responsible for managing Tecolote's project control team supporting the U.S. Space Force Innovation and Prototyping Directorate. Ryan has over 12 years of project control experience performing cost estimating/analysis, earned value management, and schedule analysis with the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force. He also is a certified ACEIT Trainer. Ryan has a Bachelor's of Science in Mathematics from the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington and a Master's of Science in Applied Mathematics from Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan.

Converting a Project Master Schedule into an analysis schedule - tips, tricks and techniques to prepare for a full Joint Confidence Level (JCL) Analysis