BYDA Utility Safety Conference 2026: Confirmed Speakers
Ben Hutchinson
Topic: Safety Management Masquerade: How Our Safety Systems Can Deceive Us
Ben Hutchinson is a qualified National HSEQ Manager, Fatigue Specialist and Exercise Physiologist with a focus on adaptive and system principles – including system safety, Resilience Engineering, STAMP/STPA, HRO, Human Factors, Safety-II and Safety Differently.
Ben has extensive experience in fatigue risk management, shift-work modelling, and sleep science spanning critical sectors including major hazard facilities, construction, mining, and process industries. He has a keen interest in using bow-ties and systemic models (e.g. FRAM, AcciMap, STAMP) for reactive/proactive risk management.
Currently undertaking a PhD in Safety Science, Ben is interested in applying research for understanding the complex and messy worlds of organisational risk – specifically, what creates both success and major failure.
Brad Keane
Topic: Evolution of Underground Mapping Technologies
Brad’s journey in service locating began in 2002 with the establishment of Ecophyte Technologies, founded through a Water Industry Alliance grant to introduce geophysical methods to the water sector. This work expanded to include the use of Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) and Electromagnetic (EM) technologies to detect pipes and identify leakage signatures. Over time, his expertise broadened to mapping other utilities and applying survey technologies to deliver accurate service maps.
In 2010, Brad transitioned to a mineral exploration focus, joining GroundProbe and Gap Geo, where he applied seismic, Time Domain EM, and magnetic survey techniques across projects in unexploded ordnance (UXO) detection, mineral exploration, and archaeology.
Since 2018, Brad has served as the National Specialist in Detection and GIS at CR Kennedy. He is deeply committed to improving the efficiency and capability of the service locating industry. Drawing on his background in mineral and engineering geophysical surveys, Brad understands the importance of accuracy – while recognising solutions must be fit for purpose rather than one-size-fits-all.
A particular passion for Brad is Ground Penetrating Radar, especially multi-channel GPR, having contributed to early developments in the technology and its application to congested areas and road environments. More recently, he has focused on integrating GPR with other locating methods to enhance data quality and operational efficiency.
Chris Ross
Topic: Leveraging Technology to Prioritise Efforts in Protecting Assets
Chris Ross is a 31-year veteran of the telecommunications industry in Australia, with extensive experience in planning, designing, operating, and protecting networks, facilities, and assets.
He holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and a Diploma of Leadership and Management. Chris is passionate about the value that can come from broad relationships across the industry, focusing on mutually beneficial solutions.
Currently, Chris works for Telstra’s digital infrastructure business, InfraCo, as Principal of Asset Protection and Relocation. In this role, he leads the protection of InfraCo’s extensive network of copper, fibre, pit & pipe, pole, and facility assets across Australia. His team also manages asset damage cost recovery, with a focus on mitigating causes of damage through account management of repeat damagers.
Based in Lake Macquarie near Newcastle, NSW, Chris enjoys adventures in the great outdoors, especially snow skiing and watersports. He is discovering that home renovations can teach profound spiritual and life lessons, including humility. Chris is a proud husband, father, step father and grandfather.
Dave Ross
Topic: Revolutionising Underground Utility Detection through AI and Patented Radar Innovation
Dave is a geophysicist with 19 years of experience using locating equipment, Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR), and other geophysical instrumentation. His career began as a team leader installing electrical and gas infrastructure, where a shortage of locators led him on a path to utility detection. From the moment he first used a GPR, he was intrigued by the technology and has since dedicated his career to subsurface investigation.
Over the years, Dave has managed two locating divisions for companies specialising in utility mapping and geophysical services. He led the development and commercialisation of a 3D GPR system with support from a government grant. This system became integral to company operations, supporting applications such as cemetery mapping, void detection, utility locating, and pavement condition analysis.
In 2023 Dave joined IDS GeoRadar as the Business Development Manager for the Asia-Pacific region, expanding his expertise through international fieldwork and demonstrations. Highlights of his role include conducting Stream UP demonstrations in Japan and deploying a GPR system on a train in Thailand. His position allows him to remain hands-on with cutting-edge GPR technology while supporting clients across diverse industries and applications.
Dave’s academic background reflects his passion for understanding what lies beneath the surface. He holds a Bachelor of Science, a Graduate Certificate in Maritime Archaeology, Graduate Diplomas in Archaeology and Geoscience (majoring in Geophysics), and a Master of Archaeology. He has also published several papers in the field.
Glen Cook (Cookie)
Topic: Overcoming the Complexities of Overhead Safety
Cookie is an experienced and enthusiastic Public Safety Specialist and acclaimed keynote conference speaker on powerline safety. He is extremely passionate about promoting powerline safety awareness, and has been nationally and internationally recognised for his efforts.
Cookie was awarded the Australian Health and Safety Professional of the Year, at the 2020 Australian Work Health and Safety Awards. In 2023 he was named the annual Damage Prevention Hero at the Global Excavation Conference in the United States.
Working as an electrician for over 30 years, including as a senior electrical inspector within the construction and utilities industries, Cookie has been a first responder to serious injuries/burns and fatalities due to third-party accidental contact with powerlines. He now educates the broader community about the dangers of accidental contact with overhead and underground powerlines. He has worked hard to gain in-depth understanding of numerous “at risk” industries such as agriculture, aviation and construction. He delivers his presentations in clear, industry-friendly terms.
Cookie was the driving force behind the ‘Look up and Live’ app and award winning lookupandlive.com powerline mapping application, assisting workers plan their work near powerlines.
Greg Smith
Topic: Proving Safety: Understanding WHS Governance and Assurance
Greg is an international award-winning author and qualified lawyer who has spent more than three decades specialising in safety and health management. Greg works with clients helping them to understand their responsibility for safety and health and develop processes to discharge those responsibilities.
In addition to being a lawyer, Greg has worked as the Principal Safety Advisor for a major oil and gas company and General Manager Health and Safety in a transport and mining services company. Greg holds various board positions and taught the Accident Prevention unit at Curtin University in Western Australia.
Greg is the author of Management Obligations for Safety and Health, Paper Safe: The triumph of bureaucracy in safety management, and Proving Safety: wicked problems, legal risk management and the tyranny of metrics, co-author of Risky Conversations: The Law, Social Psychology and Risk and the editor of Contractor Safety Management, which won the 2014 World Safety Organisation’s Educational Award.
Kym Bancroft
Topic: Work as Done vs. Work as Imagined: Mind the Gap
Kym is currently the Managing Director of a boutique consultancy, New View Safety, that partners with organisations to transform their safety culture and their safety performance.
With over 20 years’ international experience as a Health and Safety executive, Kym holds a Masters in Safety Leadership, and is a registered Organisational Psychologist.
Kym has worked across a diverse range of industries, cultures and geographical locations including open-cut mining in Canada, through to offshore gas in the US, and a raft of sectors across Asia Pacific.
Kym’s previous roles include as the Deputy Director General, holding the position of Regulator for Workplace Health & Safety and Electrical Safety and as the Head of Health & Safety at Serco Asia Pacific and Urban Utilities.
Taking a contemporary approach, Kym incorporates psychological principles and human centred methodologies with safety innovation and evidence-based research to drive transformation across the workplace, creating high reliability, operational excellence, and a positive workplace culture.
Mark Alston
Topic: A Practical Approach to Improving Investigations and Uncovering Systemic Risk in Utilities
Mark Alston is the Executive Director of Investigations Differently, where he helps high-risk organisations rethink how they approach investigations and risk management. With a focus on practical, tailored solutions, Mark partners with frontline leaders to build capability across all levels of the workforce, driving continuous improvement in safety performance.
Drawing on extensive experience both in Australia and internationally, Mark has worked with major organisations including Urban Utilities, Powerlink, the Department of Defence, Sims Metal, BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto, Teys Australia, NSW Health, and Mitchell Services.
His approach combines Safety II principles with Human and Organisational Performance (HOP) to create forward-thinking, human-centred strategies for managing risk. Mark is a former member of the Australian Federal Police, which enabled him to develop an eye for detail and a strong leadership, management, investigation and quality auditing background.
Mark brings a fresh perspective to safety by challenging traditional thinking and helping organisations unlock safer, smarter ways of working.
Mark Follett
Topic: Utility Safety is all in the Planning
Mark Follett has devoted his career to subsurface utility engineering (SUE). Mark has been a key part of the delivery of many major Australian infrastructure projects in the past 20 years through his roles in utility coordination, utility construction management, utilities design, utilities design management, and utilities risk management. His SUE experience spans delivery of projects in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria and includes utilities design and utilities construction management of multiple major road, freeway, light rail, regional heavy rail, level crossing removal, and road and rail tunnel projects.
Mark contributed to the creation of AS5488.2 Classification of Subsurface Utility Information (SUI) Subsurface utility engineering (SUE) as an advisor to the Standards Australia committee and content author. He regularly presents municipal infrastructure and delivery authorities with training in the awareness, understanding, and usage of AS5488.
For the past 9 years, as a founding partner, co-owner and Director of UDEC, Mark’s focus has been on building a specialist utility design consultancy that provides consulting services to the major transport infrastructure industry in Australia based on the principles of SUE best practice.
Mark Garden
Topic: Overcoming the Complexities of Overhead Safety
Mark has worked in the electricity industry since 1988, beginning his career at Western Power in cable installation before progressing to line work, operations across regional WA, and eventually into safety leadership roles. For over 20 years, he has played a key role in developing safe systems of work and national industry standards and guides, including AS4741 and the ENA Guide for Protective Clothing for Electrical Workers.
In his current role at Western Power, Mark focuses on public safety and regulatory reporting, providing expert advice to reduce the risk of harm around the live network. He also represents Western Power on the BYDA State Advisory Group. Mark’s best day is when no safety incidents have happened.
Nick Zembillas
Topic: Beyond the Surface: The Future of Subsurface Utility Engineering & AS 5488
Nicholas Zembillas is the Subject Matter Expert-International for Colliers International & Colliers Engineering and Design. Mr Zembillas is a globally recognised leader in Subsurface Utility Engineering (SUE), with over 40 years of experience shaping industry practices, policies, and international standards. His career spans both the public and private sectors, including 15 years with the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT), where he pioneered innovative utility coordination methods, and 32 years leading a global SUE practice with TBE Group, later Cardno TBE.
A key figure in international SUE standards development, Mr. Zembillas has contributed to ASCE 38, BSI PAS 128, CSA S250, and Australia’s AS 5488 as well as other frameworks across China, the UK, Canada, and Latin America. He currently serves as a Subject Matter Expert at Colliers Engineering and is CEO of SUE LATAM, LLC, a leader in SUE services.
Recognised for his industry leadership, Mr. Zembillas is President of the Subsurface Utility Engineering Association (America) and a recipient of multiple accolades, including the E.J. (Ted) Hooper medal and a Damage Prevention True Hero Award. His expertise continues to shape best practices in utility engineering, geophysics, and geospatial technologies worldwide.
Phil Cornforth
Topic: New Zealand’s Viral Safe Digging Awareness Campaigns
Phil is a damage prevention professional with over 25 years of experience in the utilities industry, working in the UK, Europe, and New Zealand to reduce utility damages. Phil has previously managed network protection processes and investigations for electricity, gas & fibre utility network owners in NZ.
Since 2015, Phil has been with beforeUdig New Zealand, working with utility asset owners to raise awareness within the excavation community about safe digging practices through education and public engagement.
Phil has also spent three years from 2018 in the UK managing safe digging stakeholder engagement with industry for the Utility Strike Avoidance Group (USAG) and LinesearchbeforeUdig (LSBUD), giving him a unique international perspective on what works best to prevent damage.
Professor Ujwal Kayande
Topic: Buried Risk, Smart Response: How AI could Rewrite the Underground
Ujwal Kayande is Professor and Inaugural Director of the Institute for Digital Innovation & AI (IDIA) at Melbourne Business School. He previously founded the School’s Centre for Business Analytics in 2014 and served as Director until 2021. Ujwal teaches Marketing Strategy, Marketing Analytics, Digital Product Management, Gen AI for Business, and Business Analytics in MBA and Executive Education programs.
He has delivered short programs on data analytics to over 3000 senior executives across the world. He currently serves as an Advisor to several companies including L’Oréal, T2 Tea, Brandcomms.ai, Forethought, Lauretta.io, and Zetaris.
Riley Bryn
Topic: Endeavour Energy’s Approach to Managing the Electrical Safety Risk to Members of the Public
Riley is the Public Safety Manager at Endeavour Energy based in Sydney in Australia.
Originally an electrical tradesman having spent many years working in high-risk environments, he now manages public safety and is engaging with regulators and various industry sectors across the state.
Passionate about safety and leveraging over two decades of technical expertise, he is a big advocate for change.
Rob Sansbury
Topic: The next upgrade of AS5488 to meet AI Strategies
Rob is a civil engineer with over 37 years of experience in infrastructure and commercial/property projects. He specializes in negotiating with local and statutory authorities, collaborating with professionals, and overseeing design and construction activities. Rob currently serves as the National Defence Sector Leader for Stantec, where he works with Augility on the Estate Works Program (EWP) for projects up to $25M. He has extensive experience with various Defence projects, including Capital Facilities and Infrastructure (CFI), Medium Works Projects, and the Internal Partnership Contract (IPC), as well as early planning works like 5% MPFR, IBC, and FDBs.
Rob has built strong relationships with ADF stakeholders, including uniformed personnel and base management teams, enhancing communication within the ADF. He also serves as the national EAUST representative on a Standards Australia committee responsible for updating AS5488 on subsurface utilities, focusing on the new “Part 2” of the standard. Additionally, Rob leads Stantec’s involvement in the HMAS Stirling project within the AUKUS program, coordinating across eight disciplines with Stantec USA experts.
Ross Larsen
Ross Larsen is a seasoned infrastructure protection leader with an Urban Planning background and a decade of experience in the energy and utilities sector. As Manager of Corridor Integrity at APA Group, Ross plays a pivotal role in safeguarding over 15,000km of gas transmission pipelines and other energy infrastructure with a value of approximately $26bn.
Ross leads a national team responsible for ensuring the integrity and safety of APA’s pipeline corridors, which span every mainland state across diverse terrains—from remote mining regions to densely populated urban areas. His work focuses on preventing external interference, managing corridor risks, and promoting safe excavation practices. Key to this is APA’s proactive engagement with industry stakeholders, local government, state authorities, and the broader community. Ross is also responsible for aerial pipeline surveillance, landholder engagement, and management of land tenure for APA’s assets. His experience and leadership have also extended to broader business involvement in the area of APA’s Reconciliation Action Plan (development and implementation), data privacy, and community engagement.
Ross has driven improvements to APA’s management of external works through: uplift in the BYDA response, enhanced safety awareness materials and delivery methods, stepshift in maturity of incident analytics, and industry engagement. Ross is an active supporter of BYDA, a Director of Certloc to promote the highest standards in asset location, and Chairs the Australian Pipeline and Gas Association’s Corridor Committee. Ross has presented at a number of industry forums including APGA, No-Dig Down Under, and written articles for various industry publications.
Thomas Sudholz
Topic: Complexities of Working in a Rail Corridor
Thomas is a Rail Systems Senior Project Engineer at the Australian Rail Track Corporation, based in Melbourne. He brings a diverse background across signalling, civil, and mechanical engineering, with experience in the utilities, rail, and agriculture sectors.
He has held roles in safety, planning, track, and signalling across major projects including the Level Crossing Removal Project (LXRP), the North East Rail Line Upgrade, the Metro Tunnel Project, and the North East Link Project. More recently, he has contributed to ARTC’s Network Investment Program, focused on strengthening the resilience and reliability of Australia’s rail freight network.
With previous experience at John Holland Group and Metro Trains Melbourne, Thomas has developed a wealth of knowledge in planning and executing works in the rail corridor. He particularly values opportunities to share his learnings with those new to the industry.
An advocate for regional communities and risk reduction in rural environments, Thomas strongly supports applying the principle of “So far as is reasonably practicable,” with an emphasis on what is truly practicable.
Additional Speakers:
- Aleksander Stojanovski