Grant Every-Burns, 53
Chief Executive and Managing Director of Macquarie Generation, Newcastle

Grant Every-Burns is the chief executive and managing director of Macquarie Generation. The NSW state-owned corporation owns and operates the Bayswater and Liddell power-stations in the Upper Hunter Valley. In 2003/2004, Macquarie Generation recorded revenue of approximately $800 million and an after tax profit of $100 million. The corporation employs over 600 people.
Every-Burns holds a bachelor of engineering (honours) in electrical engineering from the University of NSW. Over almost 30 years he has worked in six of the seven major NSW powerstations, including senior management positions at Liddell, Bayswater and Eraring, before joining the executive of Pacific Power as assistant general manager and then leading Macquarie Generation through the corporatisation process.
“The corporation is Australia’s largest electricity generator supplying 15% of NEM (National Electricity Market) requirements. It is now recognised as one of the lower-cost producers in the national market,” he said.
Every-Burns is committed to new electricity supply projects in peaking and baseload generation which are cleaner than the comparable technologies, and provide a base for technical and commercial skill development and jobs growth.
Outside of engineering and his work, he enjoys leisure boating, scuba diving and family time, as well as supporting the Hunter’s Rescue Helicopter Service and local medical research.

Kirby Adams, 49
Managing Director and CEO of BlueScope Steel, Melbourne

Industrial engineer Kirby Adams is the managing director and CEO of BlueScope Steel – a company with 16,400 staff in 17 countries and a revenue of $5.8 billion at the end of 2004, a 9% increase on the previous year.
In the past year, the company has announced significant new investments in India and China, as well as $120 million for a new Colorbond steel paint line to be built at Erskine Park in western Sydney.
“There have been a number of challenges over this past year including higher raw material and scrap costs, the continued drive to achieve further cost and production efficiencies, the restructuring of our packaging products business, industrial disruption at our Western Port plant, and a stronger Australian dollar relative to the US dollar and Asian currencies,” he said.
“Our goal for the future remains on two key areas – continuing our safety aim of zero harm and continuing to reward shareholders as we grow.”
Adams is also vice-chairman (and former chairman) of the International Iron & Steel Institute (IISI), the peak body for the world’s steel industry. Under his chairmanship, IISI developed its 11 sustainability indicators, designed to measure the economic, environmental and social performance of the world steel industry.
Outside of work, he enjoys a number of activities including swimming, walking, running, going to the gym, gardening, reading and entertaining friends.

Leigh Clifford, 57
Chief Executive of Rio Tinto, London

Leigh Clifford is the chief executive of Rio Tinto, a worldwide resources company with approximately 33,000 staff (11,000 in Australia and New Zealand) and revenue of over US$14 billion.
“Last year saw a variety of operational challenges flowing from a very difficult first quarter in our business which was offset subsequently by three strong quarters and a record year for the Rio Tinto group,” he said.
For the coming year, Clifford predicted new challenges in ensuring the group has the skilled people in place to meet the demand of the market.
“In addition with infrastructure pushed to its limits in many operations, significant new capital expenditure will be necessary,” he said.
Originally from South Australia, Clifford graduated from the University of Melbourne with a bachelor of engineering in mining and a master in engineering science. His work and travel takes a lot of his time, but he still manages to fit in the occasional round of golf and a few laps on his bicycle.

Lucio di Bartolomeo, 51
Managing Director of ADI, Sydney

Civil engineer Lucio di Bartolomeo became managing director of ADI in 2002, following his previous five-year involvement as managing director of FreightCorp, a business unit of the former State Rail Authority of NSW which he established on a commercial footing, preparing it for privatisation in 2002. He nominates his role in the commercialisation of rail freight in NSW as his proudest career achievement.
As head of a leading defence industry firm Di Bartolomeo enjoys the ongoing challenge of ensuring ADI can access the latest technology, “both through its own R&D program and through accessing the best overseas technologies.”
He wants to see ADI develop into a global player specialising in the niche areas of military and specialist vehicles, such as the Bushmaster and its FireKing firefighting variant, and in building the company’s Australian defence industry base.

Philip Aiken, 56
Group President of Energy for BHP Billiton, Melbourne

Chemical engineer Philip Aiken joined BHP Billiton in 1997 as president and chief executive officer for petroleum. He was appointed group president energy (consisting of energy coal and petroleum) in March 2004.
He is a former director of BTR and former managing director of BTR Nylex, following a long career at BOC where his last role was managing director gases Europe.
Aiken is also a director of Robert Walters and was chairman of the Sydney 2004 World Energy Congress Organising Committee.

Rod Eddington, 55
Chief Executive of British Airways, London

Rod Eddington has been the chief executive of British Airways since 2000.
He will join the board of Rio Tinto with effect from 1 September 2005. He was managing director of Cathay Pacific Airways from 1992 to 1996 and became chairman of Ansett Airlines in 1997.
He was educated at the University of Western Australia and Oxford University where, as a Rhodes Scholar, he completed a doctorate in engineering science.
He plans to return to Australia at the end of this year.
His interests include cricket, Australian Rules football, and bridge.

Malcolm Broomhead, 52
Managing Director and CEO of Orica, Melbourne

As managing director and CEO of Orica, Malcolm Broomhead leads a global business controlling interests in more than 40 countries. The company employs almost 11,000 people and the latest revenue figure for the year ending September 2004 was $4.6 billion.
Broomhead came to the role at Orica in September 2001, after a career ranging across mining, energy, forestry, manufacturing, construction and investment.
He holds degrees in civil engineering and business administration from the University of Queensland.
In 2004, Broomhead was awarded the Chartered Accountants & Zurich Business Leader of the Year.
His interests outside works are family, golf and skiing.

David Clarke, 61
Managing Director and CEO of Rinker Group, Florida

David Clarke is the managing director and CEO of Rinker Group, which was established following the demerger of the heavy building materials businesses of CSR Limited in March 2003. It is one of the top 10 heavy building materials groups in the world, comprising Rinker Materials Corporation in the US and the Readymix and Humes businesses in Australia and Asia.
Clarke’s entire career has been based in the heavy building materials industry. He graduated as a civil engineer from the West Australia Institute of Technology in 1966, before joining the Readymix Group, then 50% owned by CSR Limited.
In 2003 Clarke joined the Rinker board. Prior to the demerger, he had been an executive director of CSR since 1996.

Peter Farrell, 63
Chairman and CEO of the ResMed Group, San Diego

Dr Peter Farrell is the chairman and CEO of the ResMed Group, which has about 30 subsidiary companies around the world, employing 1600 staff including 800 in Australia. For the third quarter of the financial year ending 30 June 2005, the group achieved US$108.5 million in revenue – up 19% and the 40th consecutive record quarter since listing.
Farrell is a chemical engineer from the University of Sydney, and also has a master of engineering (chemical) from MIT and a PhD in bioengineering from the University of Washington.
In the past 12 months, Farrell was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia, named as the 2005 Warren Centre Hero of Innovation, elected vice-chairman of the Executive Council for the Harvard Medical School Division of Sleep Medicine and served on the Board of Trustees of the UCSD Foundation. At Harvard Medical School, he also established the Peter C Farrell Professorship of Sleep Medicine with a gift.
In his spare time, Farrell plays golf and collects art. Through the latter, he was elected vice-president of the Board of Trustees of the Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego and has served on the board of the National Gallery of Australia.

Don Fry, 65
Chairman of NQEA, Cairns

Don Fry is the chairman and principal shareholder of Cairns-based shipbuilder NQEA. In the past year, the company has completed construction of a SOLAS class ocean going passenger ship and introduced two more low-wash commuter ferries on the Thames River in London.
This year, Fry said he will probably reduce his level of activity in NQEA and concentrate on research, including the University of Queensland’s scramjet project. He recently donated a test chamber and Mach 8 nozzle for the project’s hypersonic test facility. He was also appointed as adjunct professor at the university’s School of Engineering.
Fry has stepped down as chairman of the Commonwealth Advisory Committee on Homelessness after having his final report published nationally, following consultation around Australia. But he continues with tending the homeless through his involvement on the Salvation Army Advisory Board.
Fry is on the federal government committee advising on the establishment of a number of technical colleges to overcome Australia’s skills shortage. This is a strong commitment which he intends to pursue.
Other recent achievements include receiving the Distinguished Constructor Award and being inducted into the Queensland University of Technology Hall of Fame.

Tony Hyde, 57
Executive Director of Engineering and Design at Holden, Melbourne

Tony Hyde has worked in manufacturing all his working life, most of it in Melbourne and most of it with Holden.
Hyde believes success in motor vehicle manufacturing is mainly dependent on quality product and the need to continually improve processes and discipline at every step in the evolution of a motor car.
He said one of his greatest achievements was helping to reintroduce the high performance Holden Monaro car a few years ago. The original Holden Monaro, dated to the late 1960s and early 1970s, won fame at the hotly contested Bathurst 1000 production car races.
“Computer simulation was used extensively in developing the new Monaro, which in turn led to introducing this technique to our mainstream cars,” he said.
Hyde has worked at the GM’s Opel subsidiary in Germany and the Pontiac Motor Division in the US.
He holds a diploma in mechanical engineering from Caulfield Technical College in Melbourne and a General Motors Overseas Fellowship.
In his spare time he is a keen golfer and plays off a handicap of four, often driving to and from the course in his restored 1976 Chevrolet Corvette.

David Gray, 57
Managing Director of Boeing Australia, Brisbane

Dr David Gray is the managing director of Boeing Australia. The wholly-owned subsidiary of the boeing Company specialises in design, installation and support of defence and commercial systems. It employs 1800 people and has a current revenue of $360 million.
Gray was raised in Zimbabwe and studied electrical engineering in Britain at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. He worked in power electrical engineering and telecommunications in South Africa before migrating to Brisbane in 1984.
He was appointed chief executive of GEC Heavy Engineering and then moved to Sydney in 1989 to become general manager of telecommunications company Exicom. After a short time there he was asked to return to GEC and form GEC Marconi (Australia) following the recent worldwide acquisition of Plessey. He was managing director of that company until August 1995, when he was appointed to his current position at Boeing.
Last year Gray was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Queensland University of Technology in recognition of his push to educate a new generation of aerospace engineers.
Boeing’s support of education includes cosponsoring QUT’s Chair in Aerospace Engineering. The company helps tertiary students by providing financial assistance for those studying for degrees and postgraduate qualifications relevant to the aviation industry.
Gray is married with three children and enjoys playing golf, tennis and cycling.

Albert Goller, 55
Chairman and Managing Director of Siemens Australia & New Zealand, Melbourne

Albert Goller, an electrical engineer from Germany, is the chairman and managing Director of Siemens for Australia and New Zealand, which employs 2790 people and has sales of over $1 billion.
“The 2004/2005 financial performance of the company will be the best year Siemens has had in its 133 year history in this region,” he said.
Goller has a masters degree in information & telecommunications from the University of Paderborn in Germany. He has worked for Siemens for over 30 years, commencing as a sales engineer in 1973 at the company’s Berlin regional office.
Outside of work, he supports the Siemens Science Experience youth education program and enjoys activities such as golf, tennis and running.

Douglas Campbell, 66
Group Managing Director of Telstra Country Wide; Manager of Telstra Technology, based in Albury, NSW

Civil engineer Douglas Campbell is the group managing director of Telstra Country Wide. Between August 2002 and October 2003, he combined this role with management responsibility for the Telstra Technology Unit.
Last year Telstra Country Wide won the Australia Customer Service Institutes National Outstanding Excellence in Customer Service Award. He also won the Australian Customer Service Institutes – Customer Service CEO of the Year.
His goals for the future include providing all Australians in rural, regional, remote and outer-metropolitan Australia with improved telecommunication services; and to ensure that these customers benefit as soon as possible from new technology developments.
Originally from Canada, Campbell holds a bachelor of engineering (civil) degree from McGill University in Montreal. Outside work, he enjoys “sailing, sailing and sailing”.

David Hind, 57
Managing Director of Process Gas Solutions, South Pacific, for the BOC Group; chair of the Australian National Training Authority, Sydney

David Hind, a chemical engineer from the University of Sydney, is the managing director of Process Gas Solutions, South Pacific, for the BOC Group.
He manages about 2500 people and revenue of more than $1.5 billion per annum. In the past year, BOC has partnered with BP and Transperth to commercialise Australia’s first hydrogen supply for three Perth-based hydrogen fuel cell buses. BOC also entered into a partnership with Rotary to conduct youth driver awareness training for year-11 high school students.
As chair of the Australian National Training Authority (ANTA), Hind led the Industry Consultative Committee that advised the federal government on nine new Industry Skills Councils. But last October, the government announced it will abolish ANTA at the end of this month. Nevertheless, Hind said one of his goals for the future is to “continue to help the future skilling of Australia and Australians”.
Outside of work, Hind supports the Malcolm Sargent Cancer Fund for Children and his wife’s work in helping children in detention centres. He is also an ambassador for the Australian Republic Movement. Recently he trekked to the advance base camp (5650m) of Mt ChoOyu in Tibet and became a grandfather.

David Hudson, 59
Managing Director of Barclay Mowlem, Sydney

David Hudson is the managing director of Barclay Mowlem, a construction company with $1.1 billion in revenue and approximately 2200 employees.
During the past year, Barclay Mowlem was part of the joint venture that won the 2004 Australian Constructors Achievement Award for the Alice Springs to Darwin Railway Project. It also achieved an “outstanding safety record” on the Taiwan High Speed Rail Project.
In October 2004, Hudson headed the Australian Constructors Association’s Taskforce, which produced the publication “Public Private Partnerships: Putting Guidance into Action”. He is the vice-president of the association.
In the past 12 months, Hudson has spoken at the CORE 2004 Conference in Darwin, the Australian Financial Review’s 2004 National Infrastructure Summit in Melbourne and the New Caledonian Nickel Conference.
He is now working to “transform how the construction industry operates by rewriting the rules of engagement to ensure the industry remains viable, profitable and attractive to newcomers”.
Hudson has a bachelor of engineering with honours in civil engineering from the University of Leeds, UK. Outside of work he enjoys offshore racing a Sydney 38 yacht.

Raymond Horsburgh, 62
Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Smorgon Steel, Melbourne

Chemical engineer Raymond Horsburgh is the managing director and chief executive officer of Smorgon Steel. The company was publicly listed in February 1999. The company employs over 5000 employees and last year had revenue of $2.6 billion.
Horsburgh has held a range of senior positions during 31 years with Australian Consolidated Industries, including chief executive of the ACI Glass Group where he was responsible for operations in Australia, New Zealand, UK, Indonesia, Malaysia and China. He has been a director of Nylex Malaysia, ACI Shanghai Glass and Guangdong Glass in China, and PT Kangar in Indonesia.
Outside of work Horsburgh is involved in several organisations including chairman of the Harness Racing Board of Victoria and deputy chairman of the Essendon Football Club.

Bob Johnston, 44
Chief Executive Officer of Bovis Lend Lease Asia Pacific, Sydney

An electrical engineer and graduate of James Cook University at Townsville, Bob Johnston has been with (then) Lend Lease since 1987.
He was appointed CEO of Bovis Lend Lease Asia Pacific in October 2003. In this role he is responsible for the firm’s project management, design and construction services across the Asia Pacific area, including China, India, Japan, Korea, Singapore and Australia. Prior to his current position Johnston was chief operating officer for Lend Lease’s US Real Estate Investments Business and played a lead role in its break-up and sale.
Bovis Lend Lease is the construction arm of parent company Lend Lease, founded in Sydney in the 1950s. Headquartered in London, Bovis Lend Lease is one of the world’s top 12 construction management firms.

Richard Leupen, 51
Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of United Group, Sydney

A graduate of Wol-longong University, mechanical engineer Richard Leupen has had three decades experience in engineering and construction management.
United Group became a public company in the late 1990s and Leupen has been on the company board since 2000. With its broad construction activities across railway rolling stock, building construction, maintenance and property services, the company recently added a fifth division with the acquisition of Singaporean property services group Premas.
Leupen said a highlight of his early career was managing a 2x24MVA silicon smelter project at the age of 33.
He believes his greatest challenge has been in building United Group to the position of being a significant service group in Australia and Asia with a staff of 7500.
Apart from business, his main hobbies are boating, fishing, gardening and photography.

Lee Kernich, 49
General Manager of R&D at Mitsubishi Motors Australia, Adelaide

Currently, Lee Kernich’s biggest challenge is overseeing the closing stages of development of the new car to re-place the current Mitsubishi Magna at the company’s Tonsley Park factory in Adelaide. Although the car will be similar to one of the firm’s products in the US, it is being heavily reengineered to suit Australian environmental and market conditions, and to comply with new Australian Design Rules for safety, exhaust emissions and noise. On this project Kernich’s team has worked closely with engineers based at the parent company’s R&D facility in Okazaki, near Nagoya in Japan.
Until a few years ago, Kernich devoted what spare time he had available to preparing classic motorcycles for racing, but lately, with the time and responsibility demands of his job, his highest spare-time priorities are his wife and two teenage children.
In an industry where there is traditionally a mix of disciplines, Kernich believes being an engineer enables him to provide technical leadership and to validate the output of the R&D team. He has an honours degree in mechanical engineering from Adelaide University.

Wal King, 60
Chief Executive of Leighton Holdings, Sydney

Despite a couple of difficult projects in the past year, the Leighton group remains the largest contracting conglomerate in Australia and Wal King is one of the country’s longest serving construction chief executives, having been appointed to the position in 1987 when he was just 43.
King came from a farming community near Grafton in NSW and took part-time jobs to help put himself through a civil engineering course at the University of NSW. Following his undergraduate degree he spent another two years in Sydney completing a masters in engineering science and construction management.
In 1968 he went to work as a site engineer with Leighton and was quickly made manager of a large project at Gove in the Northern Territory. This challenging project became the foundation stone for King’s successful career with Leighton. He then managed a number of projects around the country before returning to Sydney to become managing director of Leighton Contractors in 1978.
In 1988 King became a Member of the Order of Australia, conferred for his contribution to the construction industry. He has received Engineers Australia’s highest individual award, Peter Nicol Russell Memorial Medal.
His favourite relaxation is snow skiing.

Bob Kirkby, 58
Group President for Carbon Steel Materials at BHP Billiton, Melbourne

An honours graduate in civil engineering from James Cook University in Towns-ville, Bob Kirkby worked for Mount Isa Mines for the first eight years after graduation.
He joined Utah Development Company in 1978 (bought by BHP in the early 1980s) and worked in the Bowen Basin at a number of open cut coalmines and at the Hay Point coal terminal. He then moved to the West Australian iron ore mining operations of BHP and into BHP’s steel business where his leadership role in a strategic review and subsequent rationalisa-tion of business was a key event in his career. Before the merger of BHP and Billiton he was chief operation officer of BHP Minerals. He was a member of the BHP Billiton Merger Committee and subsequently has had responsibility for the multibillion dollar Carbon Steel Materials Group.
Kirkby believes one of his strengths is his knowledge and experience globally in the coal, iron ore and steel industries. He is also proud of his success in safety and environmental
areas.

Grant King, 50
Managing Director of Origin Energy, Sydney

Grant King was appointed to his present position in 2000. Origin Energy has 3000 employees and about two million electricity customers. Prior to his current position he was managing director of Boral’s energy group since 1994.
A civil engineer from the University of NSW and with a masters in management from Wollongong University, King has had extensive experience in the oil and gas industry.
He holds a number of directorships including chairman of Contact Energy. He is a councillor of the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association and an advisory council member of the Australian Graduate School of Management.

Stuart McGill, 62
Senior Vice-President of ExxonMobil, Irving, Texas, US

Currently living in the US, Dr Stuart McGill a bachelor degree and PhD in chemical engineering from Sydney University.
McGill joined Esso Australia in 1969 as an engineer in the production department. He held various engineering positions with Esso in Victoria and Exxon in the US.
In 1980 he became managing director of Esso Production Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur, and, in 1985, was appointed chairman and managing director of Esso Australia. In 1988 he returned to the US as vice-president of Exxon Company International.
After a time with Esso in Europe, he held several senior positions with Exxon and later ExxonMobil in the US.
He is now the company’s senior vice-president and is based in Irving, Texas.

Ken Moss, 59
Nonexecutive Chairman of Boral, Sydney

Mechanical engineer Dr Ken Moss has been the chairman of Boral since 2001. The company has a turnover of about $4 billion and a workforce of 14,750.
“In the past year, the company has continued to deliver on its perform and grow strategy, having invested some $1.4 billion on growth over the past five years of which half has come in the last 18 months or so. Of that $1.4 billion, about 40% is offshore, which is in line with Boral’s strategic intent to be a focused building and construction materials company operating in Australia and increasingly offshore,” he said.
Moss is also the chairman of Centennial Coal, which operates 12 coal mines in NSW, making it one of the largest underground coal producers in the state. He is a director of Adsteam Marine Limited and GPT Management Limited, and board member of the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (former chairman).
Moss has an engineering degree (honours) and a doctorate of philosophy in mechanical engineering from the University of Newcastle.

Andrew Liveris, 50
President and Chief Executive Officer of the Dow Chemical Company, Midland, Michigan, US

Andrew Liveris has had a spectacular career with Dow, from when he joined the firm in Melbourne
in 1976, fresh from the University of Queensland with a first class honours degree in chemical engineering.
His 28 year career with Dow has spanned manufacturing, sales, marketing, new business development and management in Australia, Hong Kong and the US.
In 1992 he moved to the US as group business director for Emulsion Polymers and New Ventures. He was appointed general manager in 1993 and vice-president in 1994 for Dow’s start-up businesses in environmental services. In 1995 he was named president of Dow Chemical Pacific and moved backed to Hong Kong. He returned to the US in 1998 as vice-president of Dow Specialty Chemicals.
In 2000 he was appointed president of Dow’s Performance Chemicals Business Group, a US$5 billion portfolio that brought together specialty chemical businesses from several acquisitions.
He now lives in Midland, Michigan.

Tony Palmer, 58
Managing Director and Chief Executive of Newcrest Mining, Melbourne

After formative experience in the Broken Hill mining region, Palmer joined the Western Mining Corporation (WMC) where he worked for 20 years, culminating in his appointment as regional manager for eastern Australian operations, which included responsibility for the $550 million Olympic Dam project.
After leaving WMC, he established an independent and still existing drilling contracting business, before joining Normandy Mining in 1991 as managing director. After leaving Normandy in 1997, Palmer worked with Multiplex Constructions.
He joined Newcrest as managing director and CEO in December 2001. The company’s growth potential focused on the possible redevelopment of the Telfer gold deposit in Western Australia. With the new open pit and underground operations, at an overall cost of about $1.2 billion, Telfer became one of Australia’s largest resource development projects.
With an ongoing focus on cost control and achievement of production targets, Newcrest has made steady profits during Palmer’s time as managing director. The company’s share price rose from $3.35 to more than $12.00, with Newcrest emerging among Australia’s top mining companies and elevated into the ASX top 50 companies.
Palmer holds a degree in mining engineering from the University of NSW.

Peter Tomsett, 47
President and Chief Executive Officer, Placer Dome, Vancouver, Canada

Placer Dome is the fifth largest gold mining company in the world and operates a total of 17 mines in seven countries. The company is headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
The company’s revenue last year was about US$1.9 billion. It has about 13,000 employees.
Since his appointment last September, Tomsett has made a number of changes to the corporate leadership structure. The changes are intended to improve decision making and ensure business processes are implemented consistently across the company. The changes also emphasise that decisions on growth and finance need to be more centralised.
Tomsett joined the Placer Dome Group in 1986 as a mining engineer. Since he became managing director, in January 2001, Placer Dome Asia Pacific has acquired Orion Gold, which essentially doubled the size of its operation in this region.
“We have gone from producing about one million ounces to almost two million ounces of gold a year,” he said.
Tomsett said one of his career milestones was establishing the Osborne Mine in Queensland, which won a Minex award from the Minerals Council of Australia for excellence in safety performance.

Roger Trundle, 49
Managing Director of Thiess, Brisbane

Civil engineer Roger Trundle began his career at Thiess in 1980. He became the company’s managing director in November 2000. At that time the company, a significant component of the Leighton Group, had a turnover of $1.8 billion. Today the company has a turnover of $2.3 billion and employs 8000 people.
Trundle and the Thiess management place great store on workplace health and safety, environmental awareness and providing tangible benefits to the communities in which Thiess operates.
Trundle is an associate director of Leighton Holdings, a member of the Minerals Council of Australia, and a director of the Australian Constructors Association.

Douglas Rathbone, 59
Managing Director and CEO of Nufarm, Melbourne

Melbourne-based Nufarm manufactures crop protection and industrial chemicals. It employs more than 2500 people and has an annual turnover of about $1.5 billion.
Douglas Rathbone, a chemical engineer, joined Nufarm in 1973 and has been instrumental in transforming the company from a $20 million business in 1982, when he became its managing director, to its current position as a top 10 global leader in its field.
Outside his business, Rathbone is president of the Children’s Cancer Centre Foundation at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne, of which Nufarm is a key supporter. He also maintains a strong interest in the family wine business.

Chris Roberts, 51
Chief Executive Officer of Cochlear, Director of ResMed, Chairman of Research Australia, Member of the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC).

Cochlear’s revenue is about $300 million. It employs 950 people. Dr Chris Roberts’contribution to developing the Australian medical device industry over almost 30 years is one of his most satisfying achievements.
His main challenge has been operating in relatively complex technical areas across many countries in Europe, the Americas and the Asia-Pacific region.
He holds an honours degree in chemical engineering and a PhD from the University of NSW, and an MBA from Macquarie University.
He would like to see health and medical research become a higher national priority for Australia.

Wayne Osborn, 53
Managing Director of Alcoa World Alumina Australia, Perth

An electrical engineer, Wayne Osborn has served all his career with Alcoa, joining the company at its Point Henry smelter near Geelong in 1979. He took over his current position in 2001.
An important element of his leadership is changing traditional workplace culture and encouraging women in the workforce. Last year Osborn was one of two engineers out of 10 business leaders praised for their workplace initiatives by the federal government’s Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency.
He believes that encouraging women and cultural diversity enables “greater diversity in innovation and problem solving.
“If our engineers were the only people working on problems, the solutions would lie within a narrow focus and would usually be capital intensive. By engaging all of our people, we could find faster, more efficient outcomes and build better jobs,” he said.
Osborn has also guided the firm’s support of the arts through encouraging the use of aluminium as a sculptural medium.

Peter Watson, 48
Managing Director, Transfield Services, Sydney

Transfied Services’ annual turnover is approaching $1.6 billion. It has more than 10,900 employees.
Civil engineer Peter Watson was appointed managing director of the company in June 2002. “The building blocks for the future of Transfield Services have been established on the foundation of providing value-adding services to our existing clients.”, he said. “Since listing on the Australian Stock Exchange three years ago, we have retained over 92% of existing contracts with many clients extending not only the length of contract but also the scope of works.”
Under his leadership the company has increased its capitalisation fourfold, moving it into the top 150 listed companies on the Australian stock exchange.
His main challenge has been preparing the maintenance arm of a construction company, adding some infrastructure assets to it, moulding this into a company and then listing it on the ASX.
Watson sits on the Strategic Advisory Panel for the University of Sydney’s project management graduate program. He is a founding sponsor of the Australian Sustainable Research Committee and a member of the Business Alliance Council for “Save the Children Fund”.

Robert Logan, 57
Chief Executive Officer of Roche Mining, Brisbane

Roche Mining’s estimated turnover this financial year is $1.4 billion. The company, which is part of Downer EDI, employs about 3000 people.
Logan counts among his main achievements being part of a team that has both expanded and diversified Roche Mining from a primarily metaliferous open pit miner in 1997 – with a turnover of about $250 million and 500 employees – to the multidisciplined organisation it is today.
He said when he joined Roche Mining it had been in existence (as Roche Bros) for about 70 years and in order to survive it needed to grow. “The main challenge has been to ensure the growth was managed so it could proceed safely and profitably, while maintaining the focus on each individual customer, old and new,” he said.
Logan is also interested in seeing a better engagement by the industry with the communities in which it works, particularly the indigenous communities.
Logan holds both bachelors and masters degrees in civil engineering from the University of Melbourne.

John Sullivan, 49
Director, International Operations Synergies, Ford Motor Company – Europe, London

John Sullivan attained his present position at Ford after occupying several senior posts within the company.
The entire Ford group has a revenue of more than US$150 billion and employs about 300,000 people globally.
Sullivan has been involved in designing vehicle architectures from “scratch” with integrated “active and passive” safety systems. He said he has maintained the passion to be an engineer first and a manager second.
Sullivan holds a bachelor of engineering degree from the Victoria Institute of Colleges and a master of engineering science from the University of Melbourne.
His sees continuous learning as very important– keeping abreast of what’s happening in the technical literature and making the time to understand what the competition is doing.
He likes reading about engineering before the computer age – Messerschmitt and Spitfire aircraft, old bridge designs, Saturn V Apollo launch vehicles – “all amazing engineering projects by engineers with slide rules”.

Bill Wild, 58
Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of the John Holland Group, Melbourne

Bill Wild has been managing John Holland for the past five years. He has led the group from a position of near bankruptcy to being again one of Australia’s leading general contractors and one of the country’s largest construction contractors.
He has driven an acquisition program that included small specialist companies – Loram, Quantum and Lucon – as well as the larger Fletcher Projects. In February 2003, John Holland acquired Transfield Construction.
The group now has $1.9 billion in annual revenue and employs 1400 staff.
Wild is committed to making his industry safer for its participants.
He holds a civil engineering degree from the University of Queensland and a masters in engineering science from the University of NSW. He was named 2004 Australian Civil Engineer of the Year by Engineers Australia’s Civil College.
His other activities include offshore yacht racing, building up a good Braford cattle stud, and studying the early history of the discovery of Australia and collecting books on that topic.

Peter Tyree, 56
Chairman of the Tyree Group of Industries, Mittagong, NSW

The Tyree Group manufactures components used in mains electrical distribution systems, including cables, transformers, magnet wire, and electronics products.
Electrical engineer and chairman of the firm Peter Tyree said: “A particular focus of our group is to grow the Australian electricity industry and all that goes with it, including a strong education support. Electricity is so important to Australia. We are among the best in the world in terms of cost and reliability and we need to ensure we maintain our performance by investing wisely in the future. There is, rightly, a major focus on infrastructure in Australia at present, and the electricity or power industry in particular must receive continued action.”
Tyree’s turnover is more than $100 million/a. Its total number of employees is about 300.

Trevor Worthington, 41
Vice-President for Product Development at Ford Australia, Melbourne

Aeronautical engineer Trevor Worthington has been vice-president for product development at Ford Australia since 2002. He handles a budget of $170 million and leads a staff of more than 1000.
Working in Taiwan and the US were highlights of his career. He endeavoured to ensure the capabilities of Australian engineers were understood and recognised overseas.
One of the most critical qualities needed for his job is understanding the customer, he said.
Worthington believes it is essential to establish a close collaboration between all aspects of product development and the rest of the company in order to deliver the optimum outcome for the customer.

Else Shepherd, 62
Chair of Powerlink Queensland, Executive Director of Mosaic Information Technology, Chief Executive Officer of Microwave & Materials Designs, Nonexecutive Director of National Electricity Market Management Company, Brisbane

Else Shepherd is one of only very few women to chair large Australian corporations. She’s had a successful engineering career in the sugar, telecommunications and electricity industries. She has been chair of Powerlink Queensland since 1994. This government-owned corporation operates and maintains the state’s $3 billion, 1700km high-voltage electricity transmission network.
As cofounder and an executive director of Mosaic Information Technology, Shepherd has led the company’s development of innovative telecommunications products using digital signal processing.
She also founded and led a new company, Microwave & Materials Designs, which develops new microwave products using high temperature superconducting materials.
For her contributions to engineering, education and the electricity generating industry, she was appointed a Member in the General Division of the 2003 Queen’s Birthday Honours List.
Her main challenge in her job has been the introduction of new technologies. She said in any industry it is always simpler and safer to follow and use tried and true technology and there will be opposition to the concept of trying something radically new.
Shepherd holds an electrical engineering degree from the University of Queensland. She also has a graduate diploma in music from the Queensland Conservatorium. Music is one of her main activities outside work. A trained pianist and conductor, she has founded and directed Diversions, a Brisbane community choir, for 19 years.

Don Voelte, 52
Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Woodside, Perth

Don Voelte is the first American managing director and chief executive officer of the Woodside Group. Last year the group’s revenue was $2.1 billion at a production of 56.2 million barrels of oil equivalent. Its staff is about 2500.
Voelte has nearly 30 years experience in the oil and gas business. He was with Mobil Corporation for 22 years attaining the position of president of new exploration and producing ventures. He then worked with the Atlantic Richfield Company and Chroma Energy.
He sees his main challenges “in leading a domestic Australian energy company into multiple international opportunities; maintaining a sound culture and strong ethics in a rapidly expanding business while providing top quality returns to shareholders.”
Voelte holds a civil engineering degree from the University of Nebraska and did postgraduate engineering work at the University of Houston, Texas.
His hobbies are skiing, golf, jogging and painting.
With his wife Nancy he has a charitable foundation focused on education. They have endowed the “Donald R Voelte and Nancy A Keegan Engineering Chair” and the “Nancy A Keegan and Donald R Voelte Medical Chair” at the University of Nebraska.

Ralph Waters, 56
Chief Executive Officer, Fletcher Building, Auckland, New Zealand

Mechanical engineer Ralph Waters has been the CEO of New Zealand-based building materials manufacturer Fletcher Building since 2001. The company has about 14,000 employees. Its current revenue is $5.5 billion.
Since 2001 the company’s earnings have grown nearly five times. Waters has fostered an interest in the Australian market. He said the company has a “fair slice” of business in Australia, with 2700 employees and $1 billion turnover.
He saw restoring employees’ pride in the company as one of his main achievements.

Engineers Australia Magazine, Volume 77 No 6, June 2005.

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