Advisory group

Our advisory group provides valuable insights on our strategic planning; and teaching and research programs. Representing a broad spectrum of industries, each member provides a link to the external stakeholders who comprise their field of expertise.

The goals are to focus on increasing industry involvement in course design, including input into:

  • The curriculum
  • Presentation of guest lectures
  • Real-world case studies
  • Industry-based projects
  • Site visits

For further information, contact Prof Chris Manzie, manziec@unimelb.edu.au.

Electrical and Electronic Engineering Industry Advisory Group

NameOrganisation
Mr Jordan Green AM (Chair) Executive Chairman, Jordan Corporation
Ms Abiramy Virandra (Deputy Chair)Head of Commercial Strategy, SEEK Melbourne
Ms Christine Tursky Gordon Founder, SouthTech Systems
Mr Wayne Fitzsimmons Chairman, Pearcey Foundation
Mr Rod Laird Industry Consultant, Business Impact Architecture
Dr Greg Adamson Principle Consultant, Digital Risk Innovation
Mr Robert Slaviero Managing Director, Analog Devices Australia Pty Ltd
Dr Bill Petreski Director, Strategy61
Dr David Menzies CEO, Nematiq
Dr Fatemeh Jalali Lead Data Scientist, BP Australia, Melbourne
Mr King Yew Foong Info-Communications Industry Business Strategist, Independent Consultant (Singapore)
Mr Kenneth GreenGeneral Manager Fiber Extension Portfolio, Casa Systems
Ms Niluksha HerathManager Connections Reform, Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO)

Biographies

  • Mr Jordan Green AM
    Jordan Green

    CPEng, BEng (Electronics) (RMIT), MBA (MBS), SMIEEE, GAICD, FAAAI

    For over 40 years Jordan has helped start, build and grow technology-based ventures in Australia, Europe, Asia and the USA. As engineer, executive, founder, director and investor Jordan collaborates to change the world using bleeding edge technology to foster creative disruption that changes people’s lives for the better.

    Jordan is an experienced strategic leader for international business and non-profit enterprises. Combining his own learning with the wisdom of colleagues from around the world, Jordan has trained and guided thousands of aspiring investors and entrepreneurs on four continents, and quite a few islands too.

    An internationally recognised thought leader in early-stage investing, Jordan is active as an Angel investor, company director, educational instructor and public speaker. He initiated and led the organised Angel investor community in Australia and continues as the founder and President of Melbourne Angels, Trustee of the Angel Resource Institute (USA), Chairman of the Asian Business Angel Forum, Chairman Emeritus and a Fellow of the AAAI, He served on the SME Special Interest Committee for the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD), is a University of Melbourne Honorary Fellow, IEEE Senior Member, Chartered Professional Engineer and Victorian Chairman of the Pearcey Foundation. Jordan has qualifications in Engineering, Business, Management, Governance, Leadership, Marketing, Strategy, Innovation and Product Development and did his postgraduate research as a biomedical engineering fellow at the Technion (Israel).

  • Assoc Prof Bill Petreski

    Principal, Strategy61
    PhD Philosophy (Applied Physics), B AppSc (Computing & Physics), Victoria University

    Bill has 25 years of domestic and international experience specialising in emerging technologies. He has led global development teams in Silicon Valley, Singapore, London, Seoul and Taipei. Bill deploys his extensive and hardened corporate advisory expertise by developing and executing business strategies that stimulate the financing, uptake, adoption, and commercialisation of high-growth business models particularly in research-industry situations. He rises to challenges through leadership and management, governance, economic analysis, and developing and advocating public policy. He also has several successful joint academic and industry research ventures.

    Before starting Strategy61, Bill honed his corporate strategy and finance skills as Director, Innovation and Digital Solutions, KPMG and Principal, Economic and Public Policy, Australian Industry Group (Ai Group).

  • Mr Wayne Fitzsimmons

    Wayne is a communications engineer (University of Queensland 1964). He started his professional career at the Aeronautical Research Labs in Fishermans Bend, joined Fairchild Semiconductor (pioneers of silicon semiconductors and the raison d'ĂȘtre of the term Silicon Valley) and then in 1973 set up the Australian arm of mini-computer company, Data General. Data General took him to the UK in 1980 and to Boston in the USA, in 1983, holding senior executive roles with two NASDAQ listed companies, Data General and Banyan Systems. Returning to Australia in 1994, as CEO and Board member of publicly listed Communications company Datacraft Ltd, he had a successful exit from his own IT start-up, OpenDirectory, in 1998. Wayne is currently Chairman of the Pearcey Foundation, a national not-for-profit ICT industry group focussed on promoting the ICT sector to the nation. He is a board member of several successful early stage Australian ICT companies – launching his latest Melbourne-based cloud software start-up, iPro, in early 2018. He was awarded an Order of Australia Medal in the 2018 Queens Birthdays Honours.

  • Assoc Prof Greg Adamson

    Associate Professor (honorary) Greg Adamson is a cybersecurity consultant with a background in financial services, healthcare and government. He specialises in cybersecurity, blockchain, and professional ethics. He is a Senior Member of IEEE, leads IEEE's Meta Issues in Cybersecurity, is a Graduate Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, a Club Melbourne Ambassador, a Fellow of Engineers Australia, and a Fellow of the Australasian Institute of Digital Health. He has a Master of Law from the Melbourne Law School

  • Mr Robert Slaviero

    Robert Slaviero is the Managing Director of Analog Devices Australia Pty Ltd, which specialises in the development of embedded and Digital Signal Processing (DSP) software.  He is also the Licensing Director for Analog Devices Inc, a multinational organisation with headquarters in Boston, with 15,000 staff and a turn-over of $6B.  Robert has almost 40 years of experience in the design and management of electronics, communications, computer and software projects. He has academic qualifications in engineering, business and law.  Robert has worked on the development of numerous commercial products including telecommunications and multimedia products, data communications test equipment, modems, multiplexers, medical, security and avionics equipment. Previous positions include General Manager, Engineering R&D Manager, Software/Hardware R&D Engineer and Senior Design Engineer.  Robert has a Bachelor of Engineering Degree in Electronics Engineering and a Post Graduate Diploma in Digital Computer Engineering, both from RMIT University. He also has a Post Graduate Diploma in Management Systems as well as a Master of Business in Information Technology, both from Swinburne University.  Robert also has a Post Graduate Diploma in Intellectual Property Law from Monash University.

    Robert is a Fellow of the Institution of Engineers Australia (FIEAust), a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Management (FAIM), an Honorary Fellow of the University of Melbourne's School of Engineering, a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (SMIEEE), and a member of Professionals Australia (formerly APESMA), the Licensing Executives Society of Australia and New Zealand (LESANZ), Intellectual Property Society of Australia and New Zealand (IPSANZ) and the Australian & New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science (ANZAAS).  He is an IEEE Victorian Section committee member and assists with judging of university student projects and technical paper competitions and has mentored new IEEE committee volunteers.  He was the past Chair of the Victorian IEEE Signal Processing Society (02-13), past Chair of the IEEE Victorian Section (99-01) and previously served as Section Vice-Chair (96-98) and Secretary (95-98). Robert has been on the organising committee and technical review committee of various local and international conferences, and has given guest lectures and presentations at various universities and conferences.  He also serves (or has served) on a number of academic, government and industry advisory boards & committees.  Robert received a Special Recognition Award from the Pearcey Foundation in 2010 for “making a difference in the development of the Australian Information and Communications Technology industry” and also received the Distinguished Service Award from the IEEE Victorian Section in 2016.

  • Enterprise Professor Len Sciacca FTSE

    Professor Sciacca has extensive experience in government, industry and research sectors. Throughout his career he has been forming collaborations and partnerships in scientific and engineering environments leading to outcomes with impact. He has led several large research and development programs with large teams of scientists and engineers in partnerships between universities, industry and international government agencies. Prof Sciacca is a Fellow of the Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering and Fellow of Engineers Australia.

    His career includes roles in CSIRO, the Universities of Melbourne and Newcastle, Defence Science Technology Group, Defence industry and his own start-up company developing satellite tracking technologies. While in the Defence Science and Technology Group he led the Electronic Warfare and Radar Division before taking on the role of Chief Science Partnerships and Engagement.

    Professor Sciacca is now an Enterprise Professor – Defence Technologies at The University of Melbourne leading the university’s defence research portfolio. He facilitates industry engagement and promoting entrepreneurism in academia.

  • Dr David Menzies
    Dr David Menzies

    David has years of experience in corporate strategy, finance, marketing and product commercialisation. He has managed the completion of early-stage research, product development and launching products across multiple sectors. His career has involved roles at Monash University, Invetech, Securency, Platinum Road, Outerspace Design and NematiQ in roles covering research, product development, corporate strategy, strategic marketing, corporate finance, business development and executive leadership.

    David is currently the CEO at NematiQ, which has a breakthrough graphene membrane technology for the water filtration market.

  • Mr King Yew Foong

    Foong is an independent analyst/adviser and market influencer based in Singapore. He covers communications service provider (CSP) business strategies, market opportunities, digital transformation, and disruptive trends. His other interests include 5G, the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, data analytics, and innovation.

    Foong has over 23 years of experience in the info-communications industry. He was formerly Research Vice President and Chief of Research for CSP at Gartner where he had advised senior corporate leaders in major CSPs and telecom equipment providers worldwide. As Chief of Research, he was responsible for thought leadership and research quality. Prior to Gartner, he worked at Frost & Sullivan, Singtel, Lucent Technologies, and Binariang Satellite Systems.

    Foong is fluent in both English and the Malay language. He holds a Masters of Business Administration degree from the National University of Singapore and a Bachelor's Degree in Electrical Engineering (1st Class Honours) from the University of Melbourne, Australia.

  • Ms Abi Virandra

    Abi has 15 years of experience in corporate strategy, commercial strategy, enterprise planning, finance, and commercial decision support across several industries. She started her career at L.E.K Consulting before moving into Industry, working for a diverse set of companies including Energy and Fast-moving consumer goods.  She currently leads the Commercial Strategy team at SEEK and is responsible for revenue optimisation across the product portfolio. She enjoys tackling new business challenges, and leading teams to deliver strategic priorities and commercial outcomes.

    Abi holds a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering (First class honours) degree and a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Melbourne. She also holds a Master of Business Administration degree from the Melbourne Business School.

  • Mr Kenneth Green

    General Manager Fiber Extension Portfolio, Casa Systems

    Bachelor of Electrical Engineering, University of Melbourne
    Master of Science (Electrical Engineering), Stanford University
    Managing Technology and Strategic Innovation, Stanford University Graduate Business School

    Kenneth is an engineering professional with a strong record of innovation and excellence in high tech product R&D with an international footprint. Kenneth's diverse experience includes working with local Australian companies and large multi-national corporations to develop and successfully deliver highly competitive products into the global market. Currently General Manager (Fibre Extension) for Casa Systems, Kenneth is responsible for ensuring the success of the product portfolio with major telecommunications operators around the world. Kenneth previously held technical leadership and management roles at NBNCo, Ixia Systems, Agilent Technologies and Hewlett-Packard Company.

  • Dr Fatemeh Jalali

    Lead Data Scientist, BP Australia, Melbourne

    Dr Fatemeh Jalali an AI and IoT Specialist with an extensive experience in time series forecasting, Edge/Fog computing, machine learning and ICT energy consumption. She loves to invent and discover new things, dig into data, solve complex and interesting problems, make forecasts and look into the future. She is currently a Lead Data Scientist with BP Australia.

  • Ms Niluksha Herath

    Manager Connections Reform, Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO)

    Niluksha has over 17 years of experience in the electricity industry, specialising in network planning and grid connections, in both technical and senior management roles. She began her career as a Power Systems Engineer and has since led a range of operational processes, major infrastructure projects and strategic programs, including the setting and delivery of new energy policy and regulatory frameworks.  She is currently responsible for a multi-disciplinary team at AEMO delivering new reform to facilitate generation, load, and energy storage connections, including emerging technologies, to the National Electricity Market. She enjoys building and leading diverse teams through transformational change, enabling the transition to renewable generation and a low-emissions future.

    Niluksha holds a Bachelor of Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering degree from Monash University and a Master of Business Administration degree from the Melbourne Business School.