Program
Keynote Speakers
Richard Cohen
General Manager
Rio Tinto Iron Ore Railways Division
Richard completed a Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical) with first class honours and a Bachelor of Commerce (Management) with the University of Western Australia in 1993. Richard has also completed the Young Professional Program through London Business School in 2001.
Richard commenced with Hamersley Iron as a graduate engineer in 1994 and has held a number of positions both in the Port at Dampier and at the Mine Site of Paraburdoo. Between 2003 and 2006, Richard held the position of Dampier Port Operations Manager.
Richard commenced as General Manager of Rio Tinto Iron Ore Railways Division in 2006, leading one of the largest privately owned railways in Australia through a period of rapid expansion.
Reece Waldock
CEO
Public Transport Authority of W.A.
Reece has been the CEO of the Public Transport Authority of Western Australia and Commissioner of Railways since December 2000.
PTA, under the Transperth banner, operates Perth’s train system and manages the integrated public transport system of buses, school bus services and ferries across Western Australia. The PTA also operates regional rail and coach services under the Transwa banner and manages the state-owned rail freight corridor.
As CEO and latterly Project Director, Reece oversaw the completion of a 72 km extension of the metropolitan rail network from Perth to Mandurah, known as the New MetroRail (NMR) project. This included the construction of two underground city stations and nine suburban stations.
Reece is a Fellow and past Chairman of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (Western Australia). Member of UITP (Australia) Board. Former Chairman of Port of Broome and Port of Wyndham and member of Subiaco Redevelopment Authority.
Dr Geoff Gallop
Professor & Director
Graduate School
of Government University of Sydney and
former Premier of Western Australia
Professor Geoff Gallop was born in 1951 in Geraldton, Western Australia. After attending school in Geraldton he studied at University of WA, Oxford and Murdoch Universities. He gained his doctorate from Oxford in 1983.
In 1986 he was elected the Member for Victoria Park, a position he held until retiring from politics in 2006. Professor Gallop was a Minister in the Lawrence Labor Government from 1990 to 1993, the Leader of the Opposition from 1996 to 2001 and the Premier of Western Australia from 2001 to 2006.
In 2001 he was honoured with Life Membership of the Association for the Blind (Western Australia) and in 2003 was elected a Fellow of the Institute of Public Administration Australia. In 2006 he was admitted to the Honorary degree of Doctor of Letters by Murdoch University.
After retiring from politics he was appointed Professor and Director of the Graduate School of Government, The University of Sydney.
Angelo Demertzis
General Manager East West
Australian Rail Track Corporation
Angelo has a degree in Mechanical Engineering and an MBA from the University of South Australia. He commenced employment in the rail industry in 1982 with the Australian National Railways. He held a number of senior positions in engineering and train operations with National Rail and Pacific National prior to joining ARTC in 2005 as Project Director for ARTC’s new communications and train management systems. More recently Angelo was appointed to the position of General Manager East West and is responsible for the train operations and rail infrastructure for the East West corridor (Sydney to Perth and Melbourne to Perth).
Ross Dunning AC
Chairman
Port of Townsville
Ross Dunning is currently Central Co-ordinator for the Goonyella Coal Chain Review, Chairman of the Port of Townsville, a non-executive Director of Queensland Energy Resources Limited, Townsville Enterprise Limited and Indec Consulting. He undertakes consulting work in the areas of project management and commercial corporate activity, particularly related to rail, ports and transport generally. He has also occupied non-executive Director positions with a number of ASX listed companies, Government owned corporations in Queensland and New South Wales and non-listed public companies.
Ross attended the University of Queensland obtaining a Civil Engineering degree with Honours in 1963 and successfully added to this degree a Bachelor of Commerce from the same university in 1979. He was awarded the Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) in the 2002 Australia Day Honours List. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Transport, a Fellow of the Institution of Engineers Australia, a Registered Professional Engineer of Queensland, a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Management and a Fellow of the Institution of Railway Signal Engineers. He is also a Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
Aged 66, Mr Dunning is married with three children and lives in Wooloowin, Brisbane.
Andrew McCusker
Operations Director
MTR Corporation
Limited, HONG KONG
Andrew McCusker is the Operations Director of MTR Corporation Limited. He established risk based asset management in MTR which has enabled best-in-class service delivery with constant cost improvement. In 2007, Andrew received the Steve Maxwell Leadership Award which recognizes his excellent leadership and commitment to effective asset management.
Andrew is one of the champions for the formation of the Community of Metros (CoMET) benchmarking group which allows world-class metros to jointly engage on best practices pursuit through benchmarking.
Andrew was the Chief Engineer (Production) for the Bahrain State Power Corporation, Middle East, before he joined MTR.
Master of Ceremonies
Glenn Mitchell
ABC sports broadcaster
Glenn Mitchell joined ABC Sport in Perth in January 1990. Since then, he has become a familiar voice around the country with his commentaries on AFL football and international and domestic cricket.
He is also currently executive producer of ABC Sport (WA).
He has commentated at the last three Olympics (Atlanta 1996, Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004), and the past two Commonwealth Games (Manchester 2002 and Melbourne 2006). He also called the track and field events on ABC TV's coverage of the 1996 and 2000 Paralympic Games.
One of the ABC's senior cricket commentators, Glenn has broadcast over 110 Tests and one day internationals, covering overseas tours against Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, New Zealand and England.
Glenn has called over 750 football matches in the AFL and WAFL (on radio and television). He has also broadcast men and women?s NBL basketball on both TV and radio, along with world championships for cycling, triathlon and water polo, tennis, hockey, golf, boxing and netball.
Away from broadcasting, Glenn has held positions on the boards of the Western Australian Sports Federation, the Coaching Foundation of Western Australia, and the Western Australian Paralympic Committee. He is on the induction committee of the Western Australian Hall of Champions.
In 1998, he published "Pursuing Excellence", a biographical history of Western Australia's leading sportswomen.
In November 2000, Glenn was awarded the Australian Sports Medal by the Governor General for his services to sport.
He is married to fellow ABC sports presenter Karen Tighe.
Glenn is a polished and articulate master of ceremonies and speaker who regularly appears at major corporate, sporting and government functions.
He has witnessed first hand both sporting triumph and disaster. As such he is well place to share his thoughts on what makes a true sporting champion. Through a series of anecdotes Glenn will take you behind-the-scenes into the high pressure world of the sporting elite and share their secrets of success with you in an entertaining, informative and motivational presentation. Choose from any of the following speech topics, or Glenn can tailor a presentation to suit your specific requirements.