Infrastructure Aust boss to lead Engineers Australia


Brandon How
Reporter

Former Infrastructure Australia chief executive Romilly Madew has joined professional association Engineers Australia as its new CEO. Ms Madew replaces Dr Bronwyn Evans who retired this month. She takes up the new role on August 1 with Engineers Australia chief operating officer Michael Luddeni will be acting chief executive.

Ms Madew had been CEO of Infrastructure Australia from early 2019, and has more than 20 years of experience on advisory councils, committees, and company boards. This includes time on the Sydney Olympic Park Authority, Green Building Council of Australia, and the Australian Sustainable Built Environment Council.

Engineers Australia national president Dr Nick Fleming said Ms Madew’s appointment comes after an extensive search across the engineering sector and industry.

“Romilly comes to us as a globally recognised chief executive officer and advocate for change in the property and construction sector. Her visionary leadership style will enhance and build on our strong legacy of advancing society through great engineering, sound strategy and investment,” Dr Fleming said.

Romilly Madew

SecondQuarter Ventures have appointed Sam Kroonenburg as a venture partner. He is the chief executive and co-founder of online learning platform A Cloud Guru and also sits on the Forbes Technology Council as a venture partner. Mr Kroonenburg has more than 16 years of experience in the tech sector and sold A Cloud Guru to American online education company Pluralsight for $2 billion in mid-2021.

The new chief information security officer of Ampol Australia is Frances Bouzo who started in the role in April. Ms Bouzo formerly held the chief information security role at New South Wales state-owned insurance and care services provider icare between August 2017 and February 2022. Overall, she has around 27 years of experience in the IT industry.

Sydney-based space logistics startup Space Machines Company has appointed a Mark Ramsey as its chief operating officer, as well as Anthony Kittel as an advisory board member. Mr Ramsey has almost 20 years of space and defence sector experience with roles at SITAEL Australia, Lockheed Martin, and Thales Alenia Space among others. Mr Ramsey is also deputy chair of the Space Industry Association of Australia. Mr Kittel is the founder and chief executive of Redarc Electronics.

The chief executive of energy storage firm 1414 Degrees Matthew Squire has resigned, citing personal reasons. Chief operating officer Dr Jordan Parham will act as chief executive. Mr Squire only started in the role at the Adelaide-based company in August 2021.

Western Australia’s state-owned electricity retailer Synergy has appointed David Fyfe as the new chief executive officer. Mr Fyfe, joined the company in 2020 and previously spent more than a decade at the state’s grid operator Western Power. He has more than 20 years of experience across the energy and telecommunications sector, with 11 years at Telstra.

John Van Der Wielen has stepped down from his role as chief executive of health insurer HBF after five years. Mr Van Der Wielen is also the chair of the advisory council for Western Australia’s Future Health Research and Innovation Fund and sits on the governance board of the state’s Investment Attraction Fund. A WA health spokesperson has confirmed that Mr Van Der Wielen’s role as chair of the Future Health Research and Innovation Fund is not affected by his career decision.

Fortescue Metals Group chair Andrew Forrest has formerly regained executive control. On Wednesday, the company confirmed a realignment of its leadership structure so that the chief executive for Fortescue’s iron ore business and of Fortescue Future Industries (FFI) will report directly to the board. Mr Forrest founded FMG in 2003 and stepped down from the chief executive role in 2011.

Further, Mr Forrest will be interim chief executive of the iron ore business as current chief executive Elizabeth Gaines leaves the role in August 2022 after more than four years in the role. However, Ms Gaines will remain on the board as a non-executive director and the FFI global brand ambassador, continuing her more than nine-year stint with the company.

Joining FFI in early 2022 is former president and chief executive of General Electric Europe Dr Mark Hutchinson. Dr Hutchinson will join as director of projects before moving to the chief executive role by the end of the year. Incumbent FFI chief executive Julie Shuttleworth will move to a senior executive leadership role at FFI following Dr Hutchinson’s promotion. Ms Shuttleworth has been in the role since August 2020 and with Fortescue for more than 10 years.

Former AGL energy chief executive Andrew Vesey will be appointed FFI head of energy transition projects. Dr Jalal Bagherli and Fortescue deputy chair Mark Barnaba will be appointed co-chairs of Fortescue-owned Williams Advanced Engineering in the United Kingdom. Dr Bagherli’s most recent role was a 16-year stint as chief executive of Dialog Semiconductors.

Perth-based high performance computing service provider DUG Technology has found a new chief commercial officer in Colin La Galia. He left his role as chief executive of chemical services company Epichem in March 2022 after more than two and a half years. Mr La Galia has about 30 years of senior leadership, business development, sales, and marketing experience.

Chief information officer of Queensland state-owned CS Energy Terry Melton has stepped down after almost four years with the company.

The new head of Screen NSW is Kyas Hepworth who moves from her role as head of commissioning and programming at NITV. She will start the role in July, filling the vacancy left by Grainne Brunsdon who joined Screen Australia in March.

Do you know more? Contact James Riley via Email.

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