Professor Mathew Aitchison is CEO of Building4.0 CRC. Mathew was previously Professor of Architecture at Monash University, before his secondment to the role of CEO.

At Monash, he led the bid and establishment phases of the CRC where he also directed the Future Building Initiative.

He was previously Professor of Architecture at the University of Sydney and Director of the Innovation in Applied Design Lab (IAD Lab).

He is a researcher, teacher and designer with extensive international experience.

Leading up to his current role as CEO of Building 4.0 CRC, Mathew directed a series of large, collaborative research projects exploring industrialised building funded by industry and government.

Ann has worked with the Lendlease Group since 1992 in a variety of sustainability, project and people management roles, including CEO of the Lend Lease Foundation and General Manager of Organisational Development for Bovis Lend Lease. 

She has worked in sustainability since 2004 when she established Lend Lease’s first suite of sustainability metrics, guided by the Global Reporting Initiative framework before heading up sustainability for Lendlease Building for over a decade. Recently she held the dual role of National Sustainability Manager for Lendlease Building Australia and Head of Sustainability Engagement for Lendlease Group globally, responsible for establishing a culture that supports a consistent approach to sustainability excellence in all aspects of the Lendlease business.  In July 2021 Ann was appointed Head of Sustainability, Australia responsible for leading the development and implementation of the sustainability strategy for all Lendlease businesses in the region.

In her thirty year career in the sector, Ann was chair of the award winning Miller’s Point Youth and Employment Partnership, was the 2003 National Association of Women in Construction NSW Vision Award winner, the 2005 National Crystal Vision Award runner up and the 2011 Contribution to Sustainability winner.  She is on the board of the Construction Industry Culture Taskforce and the Leadership Group for MECLA (Materials & Embodied Carbon Leader’s Alliance). 

She has degrees in Architecture (Hons 1) from the University of Sydney and an executive MBA from the Australian Graduate School of Management (University of NSW).

Bruce brings over 35 years of experience specialising in healthcare projects across Australia, the Asia Pacific region, Middle East, India and North America.

Having held senior roles in healthcare projects, Bruce has extensive and demonstrated experience in both the planning and delivery of projects including business case development, feasibility studies and master planning through to project documentation, delivery, completion and commissioning.

Bruce’s national and international experience informs his understanding of current and future trends in health facility design and models of service delivery, translating this knowledge into the development of functional and aesthetic architectural solutions with a focus on safe environments for patients, carers and staff.

Bruce is also a frequent speaker and presenter at national and international Healthcare Conferences.

James is the founder and managing director of Grange Development.

Grange Development was founded with the singular aim to bring tech-enabled, sustainable development solutions to the urban environment, to deliver tangible, documented change to the industry. Guided by world-leading science, math and engineering, Grange Development is investing heavily in construction and design innovations to deliver carbon-negative assets across its portfolio.

Grange has a current development pipeline of circa 11,000 dwellings across land, medium-density and high-density worth a total gross realisation value in excess of $4billion. Its development philosophy is centred around five core principles of Community, Climate, Innovation, Value and Execution.

Trained in architecture and philosophy with a PhD in urbanism, Elizabeth Farrelly is one of Sydney’s leading public intellectuals. Currently Writer in Residence at the University of Sydney’s Henry Halloran Trust, she was for thirty years the Sydney Morning Herald’s weekly principle essayist on urban planning and city-making. Her most recent book is Killing Sydney; the fight for a city’s soul (Picador 2021). She is currently building an off-grid shed-house in the country and standing as an Independent in the 2023 election for the NSW upper house.

Alireza Fini, University of Technology, Sydney

Dr Alireza Fini Alireza is a Senior Lecturer and Associate Director of Construction Management Program at University of Technology, Sydney. He completed his PhD with a specialisation in Construction Management at School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of New South Wales.

He has over 22 years of experience in the construction industry covering a balanced mix of professional practice, higher education teaching and academic research.

Alireza’s research areas include industrialisation and digitisation of the building industry. He has executed research projects funded by private sector of the building industry, Australian government agencies, as well as overseas funding bodies. He drives his research for real world impact based upon Technological Readiness Level with a view to translate the outputs into commercially viable products. Over the past six years, he has focused on mass customisation and advanced manufacturing in construction of the timber buildings using a combination of light weight and engineered mass timber systems.

Kara is the Founder and Managing Partner of Tiger Financial Group (TFG), a leading financial services firm empowering Australian growth companies into global markets.

TFG’s recent advisory and investment deal highlights include, but are not limited to, the US$1.2 billion deal to list on the NASDAQ for Tritium, a world leader in mobility and EV fast charging technologies; advisory services for HR tech unicorn Culture Amp; and investment in Indebted, a fintech leader in the BNPL value chain.

Kara has extensive experience in investment as a partner of a fintech fund and having spent a decade on Wall Street and in Silicon Valley, including with Goldman Sachs Capital Partners.
She is committed to the future of cleantech and in education given her leadership roles on the Board of MGA Thermal, the Governance Board of ATRaCE ($200M commitment to cleantech start-ups) and on Princeton University’s Alumni Schools Committee among other positions.

Kara is based in Sydney with her young family.

Linda Gregoriou is multi award winning active participant in the Australian and international architecture, retail, property and construction professions for over 35 years.

She specialises in high quality, residential, retail and commercial redevelopment projects.

Linda has a strong entrepreneurial spirit with a genuine passion for design and development and easily transcends both the financial and
creative realms.

Ross Harding is a creative sustainability consultant with an academic background in mechanical engineering and finance.

Finding Infinity provides self sufficiency advice, with projects ranging from houses to city blocks.

Urban designer turned entrepreneur, Lucinda Hartley is a global expert on the future of living. She is a co-founder of Neighbourlytics, a social analytics platform that measures the liveability and wellbeing, now working in over 12 countries. Lucinda is a globally renowned keynote speaker and one of Australia’s leading voices on data, technology and social change. She was named as one of 100 Women of Influence by the AFR and one of Melbourne’s 100 most influential people by The Age.

Robert Harley was property editor at The AFR for most of the 20 years he worked there and he continues to be a regular columnist for the newspaper. He has also been a popular moderator and MC for industry events.

Lisa Havilah is the Chief Executive of the Powerhouse Museum. 

Through her visionary leadership she is establishing a new museum paradigm for one of Australia’s oldest and most important cultural institutions. 

The landmark renewal of the Powerhouse is the largest cultural infrastructure project in Australia since the Sydney Opera House.

It includes the creation of the museum’s new flagship, Powerhouse Parramatta; the revitalisation of Powerhouse Museum Ultimo; the expansion of the Powerhouse, Castle Hill and the digitisation of the Powerhouse Collection. 

From 2012 to 2019, Lisa was the Director of Carriageworks.

Under her leadership Carriageworks experienced extraordinary audience, artistic and commercial growth, becoming the fastest growing cultural precinct in Australia.

Previously, she was Director of Campbelltown Arts Centre, where she pioneered an internationally renowned contemporary arts program that brought together culturally and socially diverse communities.

Kirsha Kaechele is an artist and curator at Mona (Museum of Old and New Art), and founder of Material Institute—her charity with branches in two countries—New Orleans, USA, and lutruwita / Tasmania, Australia. She is interested in the space where complex problems exist, and places transformation at the heart of her work. For Kaechele, problems are a medium for art.

Her projects include: 24 Carrot—building kitchen gardens in low-income schools and communities; CA$H 4 GUN$—a conceptual artwork in the form of a gun buyback scheme in New Orleans; Heavy Metal—an art-science initiative hellbent on cleansing timtumili minanya (River Derwent) of heavy metal contaminants; Ladies Who Jump—a philanthropically minded annual skinny dip in the depths of winter; and Eat the Problem—a super-deluxe food and art compendium featuring a series of ‘recipes’ using invasive species (both real and surreal) with an accompanying exhibition at Mona that featured the world’s largest glockenspiel, tuned to the frequency of the Earth. She is currently developing a fund to support rainforest preservation globally.

Professor James Laurenceson is Director of the Australia-China Relations Institute at the University of Technology Sydney. 

He has previously held appointments at the University of Queensland (Australia), Shandong University (China) and Shimonoseki City University (Japan). He was President of the Chinese Economics Society of Australia from 2012-2014.

His academic research has been published in leading scholarly journals including China Economic Review and China Economic Journal.

Ahmed is a Mechatronics and Mechanical engineer while undertaking his PhD degree in Mechanical and Aerospace engineering from Monash University he founded Luyten along with colleagues.

Applying his skills as a Mechatronics, Mechanical and Aerospace engineer, he designs, builds and manufactures 3D construction printers.

Ahmed worked as a mechatronics and robotics lecturer in a number of Australian Universities. He also participated in an amalgam of committees and projects in administrate as well as technical positions throughout his career.

Ahmed is The Founder, CEO and President of Luyten, an Australian company which designs and manufactures large scale 3D concrete printers for the construction industry which are sold around the globe.

In 2021 Luyten successfully 3D printed the Southern Hemisphere’s first code compliant house in Australia. Ahmed is working to solve the global housing crisis by introducing advanced robotics and automation to building construction and to produce energy efficient dwellings in one tenth of the typical time for construction. In October 2022 Luyten commissioned the (AI powered)Platypus X12 The largest mobile concrete printer in the world.

Not limiting itself to earthly constraints, Luyten has commissioned Project Meeka, working to design a 3D printer that can be transported to the moon to create buildings there to help advance space exploration missions. This is in collaboration with UNSW.

As founding principal of McGregor Coxall, Adrian has over thirty years’ international experience in landscape architecture, urban design, and environmental planning, applying his multidisciplinary expertise through decades of design, teaching, and authorship.

Nominated as one of Sydney’s 100 most creative people, Adrian combines development feasibility, politics, culture, and ecology with a passion for design to create sustainable places in the built and natural environments.

His design and mediation skills have been successfully applied to many award-winning projects that bring communities, authorities, and developers together.

Adrian founded BioCity Research in 2006 and is currently developing a book about ‘Biourbanism’, a circular framework for designing 21st century cities that live harmoniously with nature.

Emma McMahon is Head of Sustainability for Goodman’s Australian business and is a real estate sustainability expert, passionate about driving responsible, aspirational, and data-driven outcomes that have a positive environmental and social impact across the full property life cycle. Her role supports Goodman and its stakeholders to deliver the overall environmental, social, and corporate governance strategy.

Emma represents Goodman on a number of industry committees, including, Property Council of Australia and Green Building Council of Australia.

Prior to Goodman, Emma was the National Director of Sustainability at CBRE.

Jess is a city leader & communicator focused on climate adaptive, regenerative and resilient places. She served for five years on the City of Sydney Council as Councillor, Deputy Lord Mayor and Chair of the Environment Committee. She led the Greener Spaces Better Places program on behalf of Hort Innovation and the Nursery & Garden Industry as part of the Republic of Everyone, and is a member of the TEDxSydney & Newtown Neighbourhood Centre boards. She has led work within the Department of Industry Environment & Planning to promote living infrastructure within the Wianamatta South Creek precinct utilising collective impact principles and an indigenous-led, caring for country approach. Currently she is consulting on a range of projects focused on strategic approaches to cross-sector collaboration with a focus on vibrancy, renewable energy and resilience. She is still celebrating the historic victory of the reigning AFL Premiers, the Melbourne Demons. 

Peter Morley is Project Director at Dexus for the Atlassian Central Project. He has 25 years senior development management experience and has worked on the delivery of circa $4 billion of office and industrial developments across Australia.

Key development projects in Peter’s portfolio include 100 Mount Street, North Sydney ($530 million), 5 Martin Place, Sydney ($475 million), 480 Queen Street, Brisbane ($600 million), Kings Square, Perth ($430 million), 105 Phillip Street, Parramatta ($125 million) and 180 Flinders Street, Melbourne ($200 million).

Peter holds a Bachelor of Construction Management from UTS and is a member of the Committee responsible for drafting the updated PCA Guide to Office Quality and the Property Council’s NSW Building Reform and Regulation Committee.

Fabrizio is the Managing Director of PERIFA which is a vertically integrated development and construction business. He has over 30 years’ experience in the property development and construction sector. Fabrizio’s expertise includes leadership, vision and strategic development followed by implementation and delivery, risk management, acquisitions, joint venture client and investor engagements and partnerships.

Between 2007 and 2022 Fabrizio was the Chief Executive Officer of the Development & Construction business at TOGA where he re-established and then significantly grew the Development, Construction, Supply Chain, Procurement, and Sales & Leasing business units and has successfully led the company’s focus on achieving value and quality outcomes for all stakeholders. He has overseen the delivery of outstanding and well respected mixed-use, residential, retail and commercial precincts nationwide. As well as delivering sustained long-term growth and performance of TOGA’s Development & Construction business units, he has secured a strong portfolio of developments, and led and driven innovative initiatives during his time at TOGA. Prior to his appointment to TOGA, Fabrizio was a Director at Clifton Coney Group (Coffey Projects) and over the ten years was responsible for establishing and leading new operations in Sydney, New Zealand and Vietnam.

Fabrizio’s dedication to delivering quality outcomes of which all stakeholders are proud, has supported long-term recurring relationships and collaborations with partners, affiliates and clients.

Scientia Professor Deo Prasad AO is among the internationally recognised Australian experts in the field of environment and sustainability of buildings and cities with a focus on decarbonisation, clean energy, energy efficiency and circular economy. His experience covers practice as an architect (design and planning), an energy-environment consultant, a distinguished academic, significant leadership and governance expertise, all with notable recognition from all levels of government and professions

Deo was the CEO of the CRC for Low Carbon Living and now is the CEO of the NSW Decarbonisation Innovation Hub as well as an Interim Executive Director of the Australian Trailblazer for Recycling and Clean Energy. Both these aim to enable decarbonisation at scale while ensuring economic impacts in NSW as well as massive capacity build to underpin the sectors of clean energy and circular economy.

Mark Raggatt is a director of Australian design firm ARM Architecture. ARM is defiantly and zealously dedicated to the dissemination of ideas in and through architecture, and Mark’s work has been described as “a delirious mash-up of influences, sources, experiments, scribbles, rantings, critical writings, interviews, essays and major projects, all piled one on top of the other.” His design work includes the University of Sydney College of the Arts, the Gold Coast HoTA Outdoor Stage, and the Blacktown International Centre of Training Excellence. ARM has recently completed work on the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall Renewal. Mark was co editor and contributor to Mongrel Rapture: The Architecture of Ashton Raggatt McDougall which was awarded the Australian Institute of Architects Bates Smart Architecture in the Media Award. He continues his research and teaching through the Masters of Architecture programs at RMIT University in Melbourne and the University of Technology Sydney. Mark’s current research is focused on the role of design and designer in reconciliation and decolonization of the built environment in Australia.

Jillian is a partner in Mercer’s Sustainable Investment team, advising institutional investors on ESG integration, climate change, active ownership, sustainability themes, and screening. She has helped dozens of asset owners to address risk, return, and reputation requirements and now primarily advises Mercer’s Chief Investment Officers for Mercer’s fund solutions globally.

Jillian has more than 20 years’ experience in financial services, joining Mercer in 2004 and the sustainable investment team in 2011, including four years in London. Jillian was a co-author for Mercer’s major 2015 Investing in a Time of Climate Change report and ‘The Sequel’ in 2019, together with shorter papers such as Raising Your Impact Ambition in 2021. In 2022, she co-authored the Investor Group on Climate Change (IGCC) discussion paper on the circular economy for investors. In 2020, she co-developed Mercer’s Analytics for Climate Transition (ACT) tool and advice framework, which remains central to Mercer’s transition and net zero target setting guidance.

Jillian holds a Master of Arts in Development Studies from the University of New South Wales; a Bachelor of Arts and a Diploma of Education, both from the University of Newcastle; and a Graduate Diploma in Applied Finance and Investment from the Financial Services Institute of Australasia.

Councillor Linda Scott GAICD is an experienced non-executive director and local government leader, currently serving as the President of the Australian Local Government Association. Linda represented Australia’s 537 local governments on the National Reform Federation Council alongside the Prime Minister, Premiers and Chief Ministers, and now represents local governments on the National Cabinet and the Council of Federal Financial Relations, where required, as well as on a range of intergovernmental bodies including the Joint Council on Closing The Gap and the Meeting of Infrastructure and Transport Ministers. 

Linda is an accomplished non-executive Board Director and a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. She is the Chair of CareSuper, an award-winning industry superannuation fund with $20 billion under management, and as a Director of the Australian Council of Superannuation Investors (ACSI). She also serves on a range of Government boards and advisory groups, including the NSW Environmental Trust and CSIRO’s Ending Plastic Waste Mission. 

Linda is also a Labor Councillor at the City of Sydney, first elected in 2012 and re-elected in 2016 and 2021. She has served as Deputy Lord Mayor and on the Council’s committees, including the Central Sydney Planning Committee. During her time on the City of Sydney Council, Linda has successfully advocated for more affordable housing and green spaces, increased early education and care centres, new skate parks, and boosted city funding for climate change action. 

Linda was the President of Local Government NSW from 2017 to 2021, having served as a board member since 2015. As President, Linda successfully secured $8 billion in local government funding, including the doubling of library funding for NSW local government libraries, led a state-wide campaign to save recycling and successfully advocated for fairer and more transparent electoral funding laws. She was the first women to lead this organisation. 

Linda volunteers as a mentor for the University of Sydney Dalyell Program, raises funds for homelessness services in the annual Vinnies CEO Sleepout and is a Justice of the Peace. 

Linda graduated from UNSW with the Bachelor of Science (Psychology) (Hons 1) and is an established media commentator, regularly appearing on panel shows such as The Drum (ABC) and the Paul Murray Program (Sky). 

Linda lives in inner Sydney with her husband and two sons, and loves live music, art, bushwalking and swimming. 

Marcus is a founding partner at SGS Economics & Planning. He has more than 40 years’ experience in public policy analysis as an urban economist.

His formal qualifications include; PhD (RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia) awarded 2009, Master of Commerce (Economics) University of Melbourne, Australia, awarded 1986, and Bachelor of Town and Regional Planning (University of Melbourne), awarded 1977.

Marcus’s expertise covers metropolitan planning and governance, housing policy, infrastructure funding and the productivity of cities and regions.

Throughout his career, Marcus has undertaken numerous secondments and part time appointments, which have allowed him to expand his understanding of policy making and implementation at all levels of government. Some of these assignments include lecturer in urban economics at Melbourne University, adviser to the Minister for Planning and Housing in Victoria and Senior Executive in the Queensland Department of Housing, Local Government and Planning. Marcus has also acted as a senior policy adviser in a range of international settings, including Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, China and Sri Lanka.

Marcus is a recognised leader within the Australian urban policy community. He is a past National President and Life Fellow of the Planning Institute of Australia. His government appointments have included Board member at VicUrban, the Victoria State Government owned land development company now called Development Victoria, member of the Commonwealth Government’s National Housing Supply Council and member of the Housing Supply Expert Panel established by the Queensland Government.

Marcus is an honorary Associate Professor at the University of Melbourne. 

Marcus is extensively published on urban and regional policy issues in refereed journals and books. With Kath Wellman he edited and substantially wrote Urban Infrastructure: Finance and Management, published by Wiley in 2012. 

His PhD research focussed on the geography of innovation. His work was amongst the earliest Australian contributions to the theory of centripetal development in contemporary urban economies.

Marcus is a sought after commentator on institutional arrangements for managing metropolitan growth, arguing that Australia’s largest cities need their own democratically mandated governments to work in partnership with the Commonwealth, State and local jurisdictions. 

Within this broad topic area, Marcus is also a recognised authority on value capture systems and the role and potential of Government owned land development agencies.  In 2018 he co-edited an acclaimed book on these issues, titled “Australia’s Metropolitan Imperative – An Agenda for Governance Reform” (CSIRO Publishing).

Geoff Winestock has been a newspaper journalist for over 30 years. Career highlights include seven years in Moscow from 1992 to 1999 when he worked as a correspondent for The Journal of Commerce and editor-in-chief of The Moscow Times covering the transition after the collapse of the former Soviet Union. He was Brussels correspondent for The Wall Street Journal from 1999 to 2002 covering the European Union and global trade. He has worked as an editor and reporter for The Australian Financial Review and The Age. He is currently the editorial writer for the Sydney Morning Herald.

Nicholas Wolff heads one of Sydney and NSW’s most significant urban renewal projects. The Central Precinct Renewal Program is the NSW Government’s vision to renew up to 24 hectares of underutilised land in and around Sydney’s Central Station and transform it into a vibrant southern hub for the CBD, providing a mixed range of uses and jobs, including in hospitality, retail, commercial, residential and education, all linked to a world class interchange through new high quality, activated and landscaped civic spaces.
An architect by background, Nicholas is a leading urban renewal specialist, with a commitment to, and experience in environmentally sustainable solutions – having led the development of major projects in Sydney and Perth, including the award-winning $2.2b Central Park project in Chippendale and the soon to be opened, expansion at the Art Gallery of NSW – the Sydney Modern Project.