Industry advisory board

During his varied career David has held operational and project leadership roles on major infrastructure projects with top-tier consultants encompassing a wide spectrum of responsibilities and projects including renewable energy and rail systems to building and industrial structures, highways, urban developments, and water and maritime projects. Notable projects David has contributed to include the Ballarat Line Upgrade Alliance, Tullamarine-Calder Interchange Alliance, Dublin Light Rail Project in Ireland, Saigon Premier Container Terminal Project in Vietnam, Aurora Recycled Water Plant in Melbourne, and the Royalla Solar Farm near Canberra.

David is passionate about people and making the world a better place. Guided by his core values of People, Integrity, and Lifelong Learning, David has a passion for, and extensive experience in, mentoring and training of engineering professionals. As well as being the current Chair of the Monash School of Civil Engineering’s Industry Advisory Committee, David is a frequent guest lecturer and Mentor for a number of Undergraduate and Masters units, at Monash. He is also a mentor for the Consult Australia Future Leaders Program. As Director Victoria and South Australia at BG&E, David is responsible for over 100 staff in BG&E’s Melbourne and Adelaide offices delivering projects to clients throughout Victoria and South Australia.

David holds a Bachelors Degree in Civil Engineering from Gippsland Institute of Advanced Education in Churchill. He is also a Fellow of the Institution of Engineers Australia. David comes from an engineering family; his wife Melanie is an Engineer at AECOM and his daughter Paige is a Project Engineer at Lend Lease. In his spare time he enjoys Geocaching, music, great food, and long country drives.

Michelle is a particularly skilled project manager and is excellent at client liaison, early engagement, schematic and detailed design, multi-disciplinary lead and value management. She specialises in industrial warehouses with a portfolio bursting with projects such as the National Tiles Warehouse, Bedford Warehouse, JBS Processing Facility, Bluescope Manufacturing Warehouse, Linfox Facility, Hunter Express, Apex Steel, Orora Warehouse, and many more. She has designed buildings in steel, concrete, timber and masonry. Michelle also has experience in the role of National Quality and Continual Improvement Manager.

He has overseen FSG's growth from a handful of like-minded engineers to an established participant in the national geotechnical consulting landscape with a high performing team of over 100 staff.

Ben has a long history with Monash University, having completed a Bachelor of Engineering (Civil) in 1995 and a Doctor of Philosophy in Geomechanics in 2000. His industry experience, prior to establishing FSG, includes roles with a major infrastructure contractor and an established geotechnical consultant, before spending over a decade with a national piling contractor in design and construction management positions. During this time, he gained a detailed practical understanding of a broad range of deep foundation and ground improvement systems, as well as developing a blend of technical, construction management, and commercial expertise. Ben is the Engineers Australia representative on both Subcommittee BD-090-03 for AS 5100.3 - Bridge Design (Foundations and Soil Supporting Structures) and the Committee for AS2159 - Piling Design and Installation. He has a passion for good engineering and developing great engineers, which is a strong focus in his business culture and leadership style, and he is proud to be an employer of Monash Civil Engineering graduates and post-graduates in his business.

Throughout his career, he has put an emphasis on training, mentoring and providing opportunities to young engineers coming into the workforce. Khaled is a member of a number of organisations involved with the upskilling of upcoming leaders in the industry. His aim is to guide the younger generation and in preparation for the challenges ahead.

After completing her PhD in water markets, Teri was a lecturer and researcher at the University of Melbourne in the Dept of Civil and Environmental Engineering with a special interest developing their Sustainable Infrastructure Systems course. Her research focussed on water accounting and data uncertainty.

Teri graduated from the Monash Department of Civil Engineering as a top student. She still has many friendships from that time and is very keen to see the Department continue to flourish as one of the leading engineering schools in the world.

Laurie has 20 years of technical and project management experience working on infrastructure and construction projects in Australia and the UK, successfully managing a broad range of projects from feasibility through construction and handover across a variety of industries, incorporating safety management, quality assurance, requirements elicitation, brief preparation, stakeholder management, design management, contract management, budget and program control.

Laurie is currently the Program Director for the Technical Advisory Services Program to the Department of Transport, provided by AECOM WSP Joint Venture. She demonstrates strong leadership of the JV resulting in a high performing team that is collaborative and innovative, with strong culture and behaviours. She actively manages program risk and opportunities in relation to the performance of the contract and implements strategies and management measures to drive a focus on positive solutions for the Client.

Laurie has extensive and proven Commercial and Project Management expertise and was the Commercial and Technical Manager for the Level Crossing Removal Project Technical Advisory Joint Venture from 2017-2019. Another career highlight was working in London as Project Manager for a new Service Control Centre for London Underground.

Charlie has 35 years of international experience in the water and sewerage industry, having worked for both private and public water utility organisations including, Opus International Consultants, Acer Engineering (a subsidiary of Severn Trent Water) and NZ Forest Products across New Zealand, Australia and the United Kingdom. Throughout his whole career Charlie’s approach has always been to pursue value for money through innovation and collaboration. Charlie’s current focus includes innovation in integrated water management and digital disruption of the water industry, to provide customers and communities with inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable water and waste water services of the future, in accordance with the UN Sustainable Development Goals Global Compact initiative.

Charlie was recognised for his outstanding engineering achievements, innovation and resourcefulness as Victoria’s Professional Engineer 2019, by Engineers Australia.

Niall has also held a senior leadership role with State Government, however most notable is his 25 years experience within the Local Government sector, where he has gained outstanding skills across a variety of engineering disciplines, including road safety, civil and structural design, coastal engineering, project management, waste services, infrastructure maintenance, construction and policy and strategy development. Niall draws on this Civil Engineering and Leadership foundational experience to collaborate with the Monash Civil Engineering team to bring insight from a Government Sector engineering perspective, in the hope that future students share has passion for the role that Governments' play in building thriving communities.