Speakers

Sally Stannard

As Acting Director-General, Sally Stannard leads the Department of Transport and Main Roads (TMR). TMR has an annual budget of $12 billion, including capital expenditure of $4.2 billion and managed assets in excess of $106 billion.

Sally was appointed as Acting Director-General on 5 June 2023, taking on the leadership of TMR's portfolio of work across road, rail, bus, cycling and marine infrastructure in Queensland. Alongside that, Sally has oversight of a new addition to TMR—the Queensland Government Customer and Digital Group that is focused on driving Queensland's digital economy, delivering better citizen-centric services, and optimising the Queensland Government's investment and use of technology. 

In Sally's previous role as the Deputy Director-General (Translink), she led the delivery of customer-focused passenger transport services across Queensland including policy, planning, ticketing, contract management and customer services. 

Sally is the Chair of Cross River Rail and Chair of Public Transport Association Australia New Zealand. She is also a board member of Roads Australia and Queensland Hydro.  She holds qualifications in Engineering and International Studies and is a Graduate Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. Sally is passionate about the role transport plays in equitable and sustainable economic development of our cities and regions.

Peter Gill

Graeme Newton

Graeme Newton has led the Cross River Rail Delivery Authority as its Chief Executive Officer since 2017. Cross River Rail is Queensland’s largest single infrastructure project and will transform the way people travel across the whole of South East Queensland. It will increase rail network capacity and reliability, act as a catalyst for future rail improvements, drive urban renewal at major station locations and has already played a critical role in Brisbane securing the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Prior to taking the helm of the Cross River Rail Delivery Authority, Graeme has had extensive senior executive experience leading large and complex, high profile, multi-billion-dollar infrastructure projects within both the private and public sector. He was appointed by the Queensland Premier as the first Chief Executive Officer of the Queensland Reconstruction Authority in 2011 and prior to that served as both Director-General for Infrastructure & Planning and State Government Coordinator-General. Graeme has also been awarded both a National Award for Excellence and the QUT Outstanding Alumni Award. In his current role at Cross River Rail, Graeme takes great pride in leading high performing teams that continue to set new benchmarks for integrated delivery, safe construction, collaborative partnerships, and technological innovation.

Carla Garvie

Carla is an experienced commercial director and transformation leader with over 25 years of global experience in diverse industries, such as transport, energy and government. She holds a Bachelor’s in International Business, a Graduate Certificate in Finance and Investment, a GAICD credential, and has completed an executive education program at Harvard Business School.

In her current role as the Commercial Director at Alstom, she is responsible for driving the growth and profitability of the company's rail and mobility solutions in Australia and New Zealand. She applies her skills in data analysis, operational excellence, and business development to deliver competitive tenders, negotiate strategic partnerships, and identify new market opportunities. She also leads and empowers teams through change and fosters a culture of inclusion and innovation. Carla is passionate about creating sustainable and efficient transport and energy systems that benefit customers, communities, and the environment.

Samantha Abeydeera

Samantha Abeydeera commenced as Head of Transport for Brisbane in April 2023. In this role Samantha is responsible for one of Australia’s largest public transport providers with approximately 3,500 employees facilitating close to 80 million annual customer journeys across bus, ferry and e-mobility. Prior to joining Council, Samantha was the Executive Director of Strategic Operations at Transport for NSW. This unique role was responsible for driving end to end multimodal strategy and continuous improvement in mass transport. Samantha previously held senior roles in the private sector including Managing Director of Transport and the group’s Chief Operating Officer for Maritime at the NRMA Group, where her team achieved a record 99% customer satisfaction rating. In 2018 Samantha was recognised as one of the Top 50 Women in NSW Government for her transformational leadership as Director of Train Crewing at Sydney Trains where she led more than 1000+ Drivers and Guards who delivered in excess of 400 million customer journeys annually. Samantha holds a Bachelor of Commerce and a Bachelor of Laws from Macquarie University and has also undertaken executive education in Boston at Harvard Business School.

Franziska Korte

Franziska works on a range of Future Mobility projects, with a focus on low and zero emission mobility. She has delivered strategic advisory and policy development projects for government agencies in both Europe and Australia.

Franziska combines her technical knowledge with her transport planning background and is passionate about incorporating sustainable development principles into her work. She has delivered several transport decarbonisation projects, focusing on the challenges and opportunities that come with the introduction of zero emission vehicles in Australia. Across all her projects, Franziska brings a life cycle and systems perspective to ensure emissions reductions are maximised to shape a more sustainable transport system.

Lauren Hewitt

Lauren has demonstrated ability to liaise, interpret and mediate between parties facing critical environmental challenges. This has included work in project development for Queensland’s energy producers as well as General Manager Policy at Queensland’s peak agricultural body, AgForce achieving landmark legislative reform and private and public negotiations on behalf farmers.

In 2015, Lauren was awarded Queensland Rural Woman of the Year in recognition of her impact and leadership skills. Lauren applies her skills considering and improving the efficiency and footprint of the freight sector as CEO of the Queensland Transport and Logistics Council.

When not thinking about how to solve problems for members and their industries, raising some active and inquisitive children, beekeeping and tending to the family farm keep her busy (though not necessarily in that order).

Trent Williams

Trent is passionate about creating people and place-focused transport solutions. As the Future Mobility Lead for Stantec, he takes a forward-thinking approach to help clients across Australia and New Zealand understand, prepare for and take advantage of emerging technologies and trends.

Russell Vine

Senior Marketing Executive with over 20 years’ experience developing marketing and communications for some of the world’s largest brands.

Russ is the General Manager Communications and Engagement at the Cross River Rail Delivery Authority and was one of the first team members to be appointed by CEO Graeme Newton when Cross River Rail moved into delivery back in May 2017.

Prior to this, Russ was Managing Director of integrated communications agency Ogilvy Brisbane, where he built up significant experience assisting State Government with many of its better known and most successful large-scale community engagement initiatives.

Currently a member of the Delivery Authority’s Executive Management Team, Russ is passionate about telling the Cross River Rail story and in particular, using digital technology to ensure that people have every opportunity to better understand why Cross River Rail is being built, what it entails and what it means for the future of transport in Southeast Queensland.

Zachary Whale

Zach manages GrainGrowers’ policy and advocacy efforts working to ensure the right policy settings for Australia’s grain growers. Previously, Zach has worked for the Department of Agriculture and most recently was the Grains Policy Director at AgForce Queensland Farmers. He has qualifications in International Relations and Public Policy and is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Zach is from Merriwa in rural New South Wales, where his family remains involved in agriculture.

Angelo Lambrinos

Angelo is an Engineers Australia – Engineering Executive and Chartered Professional Engineer as well as an Australian Institute of Project Management – Certified Practicing Portfolio Executive, with over 27 years’ experience in Portfolio, Program and Project management; 15 of those in delivering major civil engineering and transportation infrastructure and 12 years in financial services, leading best practice enterprise portfolio management offices.  He has been working for Transurban for the last 9 years where he initially came on to establish their Enterprise Portfolio Management Office then, deliver major civil road infrastructure projects across Melbourne and Brisbane. Angelo is currently the General Manager for Transurban’s assets in Queensland and looks after 82 kms of motorways across South East Queensland, operates the largest dedicated incident response fleet in Australia which responds to over 1,000 incidents per month and manages over $2B in asset lifecycle capital costs across operations, maintenance, engineering and asset management.

Andrew Wheeler

Andrew has over 20 years’ experience in the transport infrastructure industry having worked on some of State’s largest infrastructure delivery projects during this time.

Andrew leads the Program Delivery and Operations South Coast Region and is accountable for the delivery of the regions $5.194 billion, 4-year (2022-2026) program integrated program of capital infrastructure, maintenance and operations projects, estimated to support an average of 3,280 direct jobs over the life of the program. The South Coast Region is home to 20 per cent of Queensland’s population, covering a geographical area of 6543km2. The region stretches from Coolangatta on the New South Wales border, north to Springwood and as far west as the Cunningham Highway, west of Boonah. The Region is responsible for 918km of state-controlled roads, 130km of National Land Transport Network, 20.3km of light rail, as well as cycling, boating, bus stations and park ‘n’ rides.

Santiago Velasquez

Lucinda Hoffman

Lucinda Hoffman is the General Manager (Transport Policy) within the Policy, Planning and Investment Division of the Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads.  

Lucinda shapes the Department’s long-term vision for the transport system, which includes creating a single integrated transport network accessible to everyone, bringing Queensland closer together and effectively planning the state’s future transport needs.  

Lucinda is leading the research, development, and implementation of a variety of innovative projects including the Zero Emission Vehicle Strategy which includes the Electric Vehicle Rebate Scheme and the Queensland Electric Super Highway initiative.  

With over 15 years’ experience with the Department, Lucinda previously ran her own planning consultancy and has worked in various leadership roles across environment, cities transformation, urban planning, policy implementation, strategic leadership and has extensive experience in intergovernmental relations. 

Gary Mahon

Lee Hellen

Lee Hellen is a geospatial entrepreneur and consultant specialising in geospatial and surveying technology. He is the founder of Land Solution Australia, Monitum and most recently the IoT GNSS based enterprise Kurloo Technology, based in Brisbane, Australia.

Lee is a highly respected member of the Surveying and Spatial Sciences professional community, having served as a member and non-executive director of the Surveying and Spatial Science Insitute (now the Geospatial Council of Australia). Lee was awarded the Spatial Industries Business Association’s National Chairmans award in 2022 and has been recognised 4 times in Australia and New Zealand for national technical excellence and innovation since 2015.

Dr Michael Kane

Dr Michael Kane heads the Public Policy team at RACQ covering safety, mobility and energy matter across transport policy and infrastructure. Michael has previously worked in sustainability and innovation within the Queensland Government. Michael has a PhD relating to knowledge economy, urban transport and planning. Outside of RACQ Michael is an adjunct Research Fellow at the University of Queensland researching future cities and sustainable transport.

Neil Sipe