Official Event Advisory Panel
Quest Events would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank the official event advisory panel who contributed their valuable time and expertise to ensure the agenda for this event is timely and relevant for all stakeholders working in safety in hazardous industries.
Lorena Bueno Cortez
Australia Land Manager
Schlumberger
Jason Edwards
Psychology and Counselling Researcher
Queensland University of Technology
Dr Jason Edwards is a Postdoctoral research associate at CARRS-Q, with expertise in safety culture. His PhD research involved the development of a conceptual framework for safety culture, and the application of this framework to a three year investigation of the culture of the Australian heavy vehicle industry. Through the use of participant observation and in depth case studies, he produced the most comprehensive analysis, to date, of the beliefs, values, attitudes and norms of Australian heavy vehicle drivers, and the manner in which they influence health and safety related behaviours. Jason has supervised a number of PhD projects examining heavy vehicle safety, road policing and regulatory interactions both within Australia and overseas.
Dr Edwards was a recipient of an inaugural Advance Queensland Research Fellowship through which he is collaborating with Workplace Health and Safety Queensland to further understand the culture of Australian industries (including the heavy vehicle, construction, and manufacturing industries), and tailor WHS inspectorate practices to this culture.Engineer with over 25 years experience in the transportation infrastructure industry.
Scott Pelling
Group Process Safety and Assurance Manager
Incitec Pivot
Scott joined Incitec Pivot Limited (IPL) in October 2010 to develop the Safety Case for the Moranbah Ammonium Nitrate plant. Scott came to IPL with a varied background in process engineering and operational management roles in mining and chemicals, including five years at an ammonium nitrate complex, and eight years with a major agricultural chemical manufacturer. A qualified Chemical Engineer, Scott spent 10 years leading operations at manufacturing sites in herbicide, insecticide and chlor-alkali businesses, including two Major Hazard Facilities. In addition to his degree, Scott is a qualified OSHA-USA auditor for Process Safety Management, and is trained in Pressure Relief design and Hazard Study leadership.
Following successful licencing of the Moranbah plant, Scott has continued in the Corporate Health and Safety Team, supporting Process Safety implementation and MHF Safety Cases across IPL. Most recently, Scott has been working to integrate Process Safety Management with the broader Risk Management processes within IPL, and also has responsibility for HSE reporting and auditing.
Tony Pooley
Director & CEO / Associate Professor Risk and Safety Management
Principle Seven / UniSA
Tony is recognised as one of Australia's most respected risk management specialists. He is the Director of Principle Seven, and is an Associate Professor on Risk Management at the University of South Australia. He is the co-author of Risk Bandits: Rescuing Risk Management from Tokenism and was a peer reviewer on the recent Process Hazards (Chemical) and Managing Process Safety chapters in the OHS Body of Knowledge.
Tony has held senior roles in corporate management, industry regulator oversight, and Academia. He has founded, managed and sold two substantial consulting firms and has created multiple process safety management and risk assessment processes that are used internationally.
Peter Thorning
Director - Regulatory Strategy and Boards
Office of Industrial Relations Qld
Peter is currently acting Director, Regulatory Strategy and Boards with the Queensland Government’s Office of Industrial Relations. He works with OIR’s executive management team to lead, manage and coordinate the implementation of regulatory strategies to ensure a modern and effective approach, including strong focus on risk-based and responsive regulation. This includes leading and managing a small team in support of the Regulator, Work Health Safety Board and Industry Sector Standing Committees for OIR. Within OIR, Peter has previously managed the Research Partnerships area, the work health and safety leadership and culture area and the focus on improving work health and safety outcomes in the transport and storage priority industry sector.
Prior to joining OIR in 2010, Peter’s focus was on hazardous industries from the perspective of pollutant emissions. As Manager, Industry Reporting in Queensland’s Department of Environment, Peter was responsible for developing and implementing the National Pollutant Inventory (Australia's Pollutant Release and Transfer Register). This involved ensuring that pollutant emissions from over a 1000 industrial facilities in Queensland were calculated, reported, validated and published on the publicly available national database www.npi.gov.au. Peter’s interest in hazardous industries was formulated in an early career as an analytical and environmental chemist working at a general analytical laboratory in Brisbane, a global titanium dioxide producer in the UK and a well-known nickel and cobalt refinery in North Queensland.
Peter’s current passion, and PhD research area, is risked-based and responsive regulation and particularly how this applies to work health and safety regulation. He is fascinated by the complex interplay of attitudes, motivations, knowledge, capabilities and actions of businesses and workers and how these are influenced by the various compliance/enforcement and persuasion/guidance strategies of the regulators.