Councils – Leanconstruction ANZ

Councils National Board

Lean Construction Australia and New Zealand is structured around a National Board, supporting 6 regional councils in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria & Tasmania, South Australia, Western Australia and New Zealand.

All LCANZ Council members are bound by the Lean Construction ANZ Constitution, and LCANZ State and Country Committees Roles and Responsibilities

Michael is a consultant who has specialised in assisting project teams achieve high performance outcomes. Building on more than thirty years of engineering and construction experience he has developed and applied an approach based on an agile business optimisation, built on the right organisation structure, trusting relationships and efficient work flow methods. Prior to joining Evans & Peck Michael was a relationship contract specialist with John Holland where he provided strategic advice to the organisation and its alliance teams in relation to the securing and delivering major infrastructure projects

Ken is a Mechanical Engineer, and has been working in Construction for the past 19 years. His current position is Principal Methods, Lean and Innovation at EIC Activities, the CIMIC groups Engineering and Innovation company. Ken has been involved in supporting the lean community in Australia for the past 5 years.

Dr Gao Shang is an academic at the University of Melbourne where he teaches subject of Lean construction. He is also the author of the book titled Lean Construction Management – the Toyota Way, which is the first book ever published to address the Toyota Way practices in the construction industry to achieve lean construction management. Dr Gao had experience in developing special Diploma in Lean construction for senior building professionals in Singapore. He has also served as consultant to large construction firms in China and Singapore.

David started his career in project based heavy manufacturing of steam turbines across Europe, the US and China. This gave David his grounding in what was then the Continuous Improvement movement. Since moving into the engineering services and construction sector David has been a passionate advocate of finding a better way of delivering projects through their entire life cycle. David has applied this approach in several senior leadership construction roles in the UK, Australia and New Zealand.

Phil is an authentic transformation leader with a focus on team collaboration, continual improvement and innovation. Phil currently works for McConnell Dowell as the Innovation & Continuous Improvement Manager.

His experience is founded on 20 years of experience working in Project and Engineering Management role with tier 1 contractors in the civil engineering industry. In project and engineering management roles he has led teams on a variety of successful projects throughout Australia and New Zealand, including in the rail, roads, marine and telco sectors. He is a qualified Civil Engineer and has a Masters in Project Management.

Christina is a Managing Partner of the Lean Construction Advisory, a Brisbane based consultancy which bring efficiency, productivity and LEAN methodology to the construction industry.

Christina has over twelve years’ experience as a consultant in the field of Organisational Development as a successful coach, facilitator, trainer, and change agent.

Stephanie is a consultant focussed on helping the construction industry to develop a culture of continuous improvement (CI). Leveraging her background in management consulting with Deloitte, and lean industry experience across manufacturing and construction, she supports organisations to grow their CI capability in areas including leadership, accountability, visible performance, and ‘better practice’ processes/systems. Working in operational consultancy for several years she has experience creating sustainable change and led a large multi-site transformation programme. Stephanie is a consultant with Intent Group and is a trained Toyota Kata practitioner. She hopes to support LCANZ to achieve its goal of advancing the application of lean.

Queensland LCANZ Council

LCANZ Queensland Council meets on the 3rd Wednesday of each month at QUT Gardens Point.

Contact our state chair for future details if you would like to attend.

Christina is a Managing Partner of the Lean Construction Advisory, a Brisbane based consultancy which bring efficiency, productivity and LEAN methodology to the construction industry.

Christina has over twelve years’ experience as a consultant in the field of Organisational Development as a successful coach, facilitator, trainer, and change agent.

With over 30 years’ experience in the construction industry, Jon is a passionate advocate for change, driven by a desire to ensure that every level of the industry is sustainable, resilient to boom and bust cycles and able to deliver the infrastructure society needs in a collaborative and efficient manner.

Jon is the CEO of the Queensland Master Contractors Association, and also a partner in Lean Construction Advisory.

Robin is currently a Professor of Virtual Design & Construction and the Discipline Leader, Construction and Project Management within the Queensland University of Technology (QUT).

Following a career in the Military, Brian got involved in IT when through the .com boom, he worked with a number of great businesses at the vanguard of different movements including internet banking with Halifax and Smile Bank as well as a period working in the US with Genuity, the company that developed the ArpaNet, the precursor to the Internet.

In 2008 I became Asia Pacific MD at Exor Corporation and joined Bentley Systems by acquisition in 2010. Based in Australia, I am responsible for delivering the Bentley Software and Services that allow the professionals that design, build, operate and maintain the regions infrastructure to be better, faster, safer and more cost effective.

An experienced Infrastructure executive, Harry has developed Business Units and accelerated growth and improved performance for large scale Construction companies providing design, project management, manufacturing, construction and maintenance services. Harry has held senior leadership positions within International Top Tier Construction Companies.

Chris is an Executive Director with RoadTek, a branch of the Department of Transport and Main Roads, Queensland. Chris has over 20 years experience, specialising in Civil Construction, Project, Program and Business Management. Through experience in managing various projects and operations across Queensland he has developed an approach based on relationships, optimisation and leadership.

Kent has over 30 years’ experience in the design, planning and construction of complex infrastructure projects. Notably, he spent 21 years with TMR in the Design and Planning sections specialising in project management of the design for complex major infrastructure projects, and 13 years with Construction Firms delivering D&C projects.

Kent thrives on innovation and challenging the design. He embraces the opportunity to work in a collaborative environment where all parties can work together to develop the best solution.

NSW LCANZ Council

Marton is a co-founder of LCI in Australia and chair between 2011 and 2016. He is a lean coach @marosszekyassociates and an engineering durability consultant@BCRC. Former professor at UNSW, co- co-author of Total Construction Management—Lean Quality in Construction Project Delivery.

He is currently working in Australia, India and the US coaching design and construction groups in the practice of lean. He is the industry engagement lead for the Centre for Smart Modern Construction (c4SMC) at Western Sydney University.

Dr Cecilia da Rocha is an academic at the University of Technology Sydney where she develops research on modularization, customisation, pre-fabrication/off-site construction, and production flow. She also coordinates and teaches 48340 Construction, a subject introducing lean and other innovative approaches to first- and second-year Civil Engineering students. Cecilia has a number of international collaborations and has been a visiting researcher in institutions in the UK, Canada, Israel, and the US.

Caroline is a civil engineer with 10 years of practical experience in the construction industry. For 5 years, she was the Lean and Sustainable Construction Coordinator at C. Rolim Engenharia —one of the most prominent lean construction companies in Brazil—, where she led the implementation of several lean projects for production management and consolidated the lean culture of reducing waste, adding value to the client, continuous improvement, and benchmarking among all employees. She also holds a master’s by research in Civil Engineering (construction management and economics) and her research, focused on Visual Management, resulted in a model for the design of visual devices for production management in construction sites. Currently, Caroline is a doctoral researcher at the University of Technology Sydney.

Dr Matt Stevens has a significant background in the construction industry for over four decades and utilises this experience in research, teaching and engagement.

His textbooks include Managing a Construction Firm on Just 24 Hours a Day (McGraw-Hill, 416 pages) and The Construction MBA (McGraw Hill, 512 pages). In 2021, John Smolders AM and Stevens will publish The Young Australian Constructors Guide (Routledge, 472 pages). In addition, Stevens has committed to a fourth book, Applying Lean to Construction Contracting for 2022.

He has published seven mobile computing applications (apps) for construction contractors. They include: 1) Construction Project Dual Rate Overhead Application 2) Construction Productivity Capture3) Unit-based Job Cost 4) Construction Contractor Breakeven Analysis 5) Construction Project Return on Investment 6) Construction Project Overhead Sizing Calculator 7) Construction Cost to Complete Calculator. His eighth app is planned for 2021and is focused on worker proactive and anonymous safety reporting.

Victoria/Tasmania LCANZ Council

As an experienced advisor in the People and Change, Improvement and Project delivery areas, my focus is around assisting organisations formulate strategy, implement sustainable change, and ensure measurable performance improvement is embedded into business & project cultures.

Recognising a critical need for leaders to have an effective resource to help them realise the potential residing within their team members, I published my first book in 2008. “Why Winners Win” – How Successful Leaders Get Results.

Over the past 12 years I have helped support the successful development, delivery and mobilisation of major projects between $50 million – $30 billion+. These include: North East Link, $4 billion+ Regional Rail projects, $1.8 billion Port of Melbourne upgrades, $20 billion+ Woodside Browse bid (with a consortia), work with TfNSW, the $4 billion+ NWRL project, and other major national and international services organisations.

My consulting approach is to go beyond surface issues to discover and address what serves and/or sabotages desired end results one specific initiative resulted in a $18 million+ saving on one project.

In 2011, identifying a need to enhance project delivery methods within major infrastructure, I sought out the founders of Lean Construction in the U.S.A. and created a partnership to bring Lean Project Delivery methods to my clients.

Leon is a qualified Lean Six Sigma (LSS) black belt and Quality specialist with over 25 years of experience. He has held various senior roles in the manufacturing, engineering, construction and service industries in Australasia, China, Hong Kong, and SE Asian countries. One of his major career highlights was being enlisted as the LSS Consultant for DHL Express and DHL Global Forwarding. He has provided LSS and quality consultancy and training services to multinationals such as DHL, Standard Chartered bank, Maybank, Sunway/Monash University, Dell Computers, Panasonic, Hitachi Semiconductor, Western Digital and Vitasoy (HK).

Nicole is a Senior Innovation & Excellence Advisor at Laing O Rourke, establishing, implementing and maintaining an innovation culture across the South Eastern Program Alliance. She has a wide range of corporate experience in Property Finance, Manufacturing & Construction and has been practicing LEAN methodology for over five years. Her passion is to improve the “way we go to work” and actively find new and transformative approaches to add value, both in systems and process development and strategic and cultural change.

Ali is an Industrial Engineer and Lean six sigma black belt practitioner with more than 20 years of experience working across a large variety of manufacturing environments, including implementing Lean methodologies at several prestigious European car manufacturers’ production lines such as Peugeot and Renault. He has reflected his “Lean” and “Six-Sigma” knowledge and experience in Australia in companies like BlueScope Steel, Downer, UGL, Orora, Yarra Trams, McConnell Dowell (Western Program Alliance), John Holland (North Western Program Alliance), and LXRP (VIC Level Crossing Removal Project) since 2010. Ali is currently working as Consulting Manager for ORBIZ consulting.

Kennett is an operations professional with an engineering background and specialise in Operational Excellence and Lean Six Sigma. Over the past 11 years, he has been applying his trade within civil engineering and agriculture across South Africa, New Zealand, and Australia.

His most recent roles revolve around Lean transformations of tier 1 civil engineering contractors and he currently works for McConnell Dowell as a Continuous Improvement Lead. Prior to this, he was the Operations Director of an agro-processing company where his Lean journey started. Kennett is a qualified civil engineer, has a Masters in Engineering Management and is a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt.

Michael is a CI professional who has worked with various organisations and individual clients in the finance, facilities management, mining, rail freight logistics and infrastructure construction industries over the last 20 years.

Over this time, he has addressed the challenges of mitigating the impact of poor process performance, rigid cost structures, competitive pressures and demand variations in the pursuit of ongoing productivity performance improvements. Michael’s skills and deep experience in problem solving for operations improvements uses Lean thinking, methods and tools taking a low-cost capability building approach by stablising, standardising and then improving internal business processes and organisational capabilities that lie behind the variability in productivity performance.

Michael’s current role is as Continuous Improvement Lead with McConnell Dowell on the Western Program Alliance.

South Australia LCANZ Council

Dr Davidson began his career in theoretical particle physics, working on the modelling and analysis of heavy ion collision experimental data. After working for several years he changed direction and, after qualifying in engineering management, worked in the area of quality management systems as a trainer, auditor and program manager.

Following a move to Adelaide at the end of 1999, he joined Motorola as a metrics and measurement specialist, rising to the position of Principal Staff Engineer and Master Black Belt.

He has since worked at UniSA in the field of Systems Engineering, including contributing to a requirements analysis project for the new RAH, and as an independent consultant across multiple sectors including defence, resources and finance in systems engineering and business improvement. He is currently a Senior Consultant at Frazer-Nash Consultancy, a leading engineering consulting company specialising in systems engineering and technology strategy.

More than 30 years of transforming commercial functions, supply and category management, schedule/cost/scope/ change/document control, contractual claims & dispute resolution on mining, industrial, rail and information communication technology(ICT) Projects; and
most recently Andrew completed a commercial innovation and leadership role on $1 Bill Sidra Medical Research Centre (a 400 Room Digital Hospital Project in Doha, Qatar) – chosen by ENR of USA as the World’s Best Health Mega-Project in 2018

Vince Cosmai has been working in the Modular Construction Industry since 2003. After spending 13 years with two Northern based manufacturers’ Vince along with his partner, Dino Gallina formed Oneconstruct in 2016. Recognised Nationally as “Best Off-site Construction Building in Australia” the Company provides to the market with unique and bespoke Modular solutions.

Vince hopes to bring to the SA Board his learnings and experiences with Manufacturing in a prefabricated format. With the need in society to build faster, safer and or course leaner, the Modular Construction Industry is uniquely placed to capitalise on increasing need for satisfying the current and future market conditions.

West Australia LCANZ Council

New Zealand LCANZ Council

Mani has taken up several construction-related positions since his graduation in 1998. He performed a wide range of roles in industry before his return to academia in 2012. His involvement in the Lean Construction community started upon this return. Since then, he has served the International Group of Lean Construction as a researcher, reviewer, member of the editorial team, and session chair. He currently works as an academic at the Auckland University of Technology with a specific focus on four research areas, including building construction management and project planning; building science and techniques; digital and interaction design; and design innovation.

Ian is the Managing Director of Intentgroup, a professional engineer and a Master Black Belt. He is passionate about helping organisations to achieve world class performance. He has been doing this for over 30 years all around the world and understands deeply what is required to deliver and sustain improvement. His experience covers food and beverage, construction, plastics, pulp and paper, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, transport (airports / airlines) amongst others.

Councils National Board

Michael Ward

Michael Ward

Ken Panitz

Shang Gao

Shang Gao

David Whatmough

Phil Hendy

Christina Levinson

Stephanie Pretorius

Queensland LCANZ Council

Christina Levinson

Jon Davies

Robin Drogemuller

Brian Middleton

Ken Panitz

Harry Hartman

Chris Lunson

Kent Kieseker

NSW LCANZ Council

David Whatmough

Michael Ward

Marton Marosszeky

Mick Jackson

Dr Cecilia da Rocha

Caroline Valente

Dr Matt Stevens

Victoria/Tasmania LCANZ Council

Shang Gao

Phil Hendy

Hunter Dean

Leon Choo

Nicole Sambrook-Dixon

Ali Eghbajoo

Kennett Sinclair

Michael Neamontis

South Australia LCANZ Council

Position Open

Neil Davidson

Andrew Ng

Vince Cosmai

Jian Zuo

David Morris

West Australia LCANZ Council

Position Open

New Zealand LCANZ Council

Mani Poshdar

Stephanie Pretorius

Ian Walsh

Benefit #1 – Lean is Cheaper