Meet our
judging panel
Our 2026 Judging Panel
HMA 2026
The Hunter Manufacturing Awards’ judging panel comprises a range of experienced professionals from a variety of industries. A judge must advise HMA if there is any relationship between them and any entrant company; they may not be permitted to singularly judge any company with whom they have any personal or professional relationship including, but not limited to:
In the case of a ‘conflict of interest’ with the judging of a submission, HMA will call upon a second, independent judge with the necessary qualifications, to judge that particular submission so that an impartial scoring is met.
All judges will have sighted, understood and agreed to the ‘independence’ criteria. Should a ‘tiebreak’ position occur during judging, the ‘champion judge’ will liaise with nominated members of the Hunter Manufacturing Awards’ Board to assist in reaching a decision.
Trent Bagnall
Trent Bagnall
Trent Bagnall is the Managing Partner of Melt Ventures, the nation's first Advanced Manufacturing Seed Fund, where he invests in groundbreaking manufacturing, clean tech, and IoT startups.
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Trent Bagnall is the Managing Partner of Melt Ventures, the nation's first Advanced Manufacturing Seed Fund, where he invests in groundbreaking manufacturing, clean tech, and IoT startups. His expertise is built on his own entrepreneurial success, having founded the tech company QMASTOR, which he grew from a startup to a successful ASX-listed global business. Deeply committed to regional Australia Trent is focused on driving innovation and job creation in the Hunter including at the Melt's Advanced Manufacturing Centre in Muswellbrook.
Paul Chapman
Paul Chapman
Paul Chapman is WHS Manager at the Port of Newcastle. He has 25 years’ experience in Work Health and Safety (WHS) and significant experience managing WHS and providing education in a variety of industries across the manufacturing, mining and educational sectors.
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He started his career in the Steel Industry and has since held the senior WHS Professional Position at major operations of zinc lead smelting, aluminium, and coal loading in the Newcastle Region. In addition, Paul has lectured in Occupational Hygiene at the University of Newcastle.
A Science Degree, (Chemistry and Biology Majors), and Graduate Diploma in OHS from the University of Newcastle has given him a strong technical background and assisted with the development and implementation of WHS operational strategies that support business and financial objectives.
Paul has a passion for positive change and demonstrated leadership aimed at embedding standards of excellence across all areas of a business.
ISAAC COURT
Craig Slavek
Isaac is a national export sector manager at the Australian Trade and Investment Commission and brings extensive experience in international business engagement to the HMA judging panel.
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Isaac Court is the National Resources, Energy, Infrastructure and Green Economy Manager at the Australian Trade and Investment Commission (Austrade), where he co-leads a national team assisting Australian mining equipment, technology, and services companies, along with clean energy and sustainable cities businesses, to engage internationally.
With close to 20 years in Austrade's trade division, Isaac has developed and led Australian export delegations to countries including India, China, the Philippines, New Zealand, Russia, Ukraine, and Poland, and has built supply chain programs connecting Australian capability to the international resources industry.
A longstanding contributor to the Hunter Manufacturing Awards, Isaac has judged the Export and Global Supply Chains Award since 2010, bringing a sharp international perspective and a deep understanding of what it takes for Australian businesses to compete and succeed on the global stage.
A standout entry, for Isaac, clearly tells a compelling story backed by evidence. He looks for clarity of purpose, originality in approach, and demonstrable export impact, with strong entries showing measurable results, honest reflection on challenges, and a clear link between strategy, execution, and outcomes.
Siobhan Curran
Siobhan Curran
Siobhan leads one of Australia's most recognised university accelerators and has spent over 12 years commercialising research and building industry partnerships at the University of Newcastle.
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Siobhan Curran MBA GAICD is a senior innovation leader with more than a decade of experience at the University of Newcastle, spanning IP commercialisation, technology licensing, spinout formation, and entrepreneurship program delivery. As Acting Director of Knowledge Exchange and Entrepreneurship, she leads a multidisciplinary team responsible for translating university research into real-world economic impact.
Her work sits at the intersection of industry, entrepreneurship, and advanced technology, areas with direct relevance to the manufacturing sector. Siobhan led the development of the I2N Accelerator and Incubator, named Australia's most recommended accelerator in Startup Muster 2025, and has secured over $7 million in competitive grants and government funding across her career. Recognised as Entrepreneurial Leader of the Year at the ACEEU Triple E Awards in the Asia Pacific region, she is a leading voice in regional innovation and serves as a Director of Advocacy with Knowledge Commercialisation Australasia, actively shaping national policy on university-industry collaboration. Siobhan has been a judge with the Hunter Manufacturing Awards for two years.
Manufacturing is the Hunter's backbone and its future. For Siobhan, it is where research becomes reality, where deep technology finds its footing, and where the next generation of globally competitive businesses will be built and scaled.
Jacqui Daley
JACQUI DALEY
Jacqui is the former Chairperson of the Hunter Manufacturing Awards and the Managing Director and CMO at The Measured Marketer. A seasoned marketing leader with nearly two decades of experience across Australia and the UK, Jacqui brings commercial focus, strategic clarity, and deep industry insight to the judging panel.
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acqui Daley is the Founder and Managing Director of The Measured Marketer, a strategic marketing consultancy working with industrial and B2B organisations across Australia and the UK. With 19 years of experience across small, medium, and large businesses, she brings a sharp commercial lens and a genuine passion for helping organisations grow with purpose and clarity.
A Certified Practicing Marketer accredited with the Australian Marketing Institute, Jacqui served as Head Judge of AMI's National Marketing Excellence Awards from 2017 to 2022 and is the author of BRAG, a strategic marketing guide for industrial and B2B organisations. She has served as CMO for the Hunter Defence Taskforce since 2020 and as a Director on the Board of Hunter iF from 2021 to 2023.
Jacqui served on the Hunter Manufacturing Awards Board from 2017 to 2026, including three years as Chairperson, and remains a dedicated contributor to the Awards as a judge, bringing the same energy, rigour, and commitment to excellence she has always brought to the sector.
Jacqui looks for clarity of strategy, measurable impact, and innovation in standout entries, valuing submissions that demonstrate real commercial outcomes and meaningful contributions to the manufacturing sector.
Peter Davies
Peter Davies
With over 40 years of experience across a diverse range of industrial sectors, Peter brings a wealth of practical knowledge, strategic insight, and operational leadership to every engagement.
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With over 40 years of experience across a diverse range of industrial sectors—including Manufacturing, Mining Services, Construction, Industrial Engineering, Defence Services, as well as Distribution and Warehousing—Peter brings a wealth of practical knowledge, strategic insight, and operational leadership to every engagement.
Peter has a proven track record in business turnarounds, strategic planning, and operational excellence, and helps drive growth and efficiency across diverse industries. He has successfully led initiatives that deliver significant savings, enhance process performance, and accelerate market expansion. His expertise includes managing large teams, overseeing complex projects, and fostering collaboration across international and domestic markets. Through a strategic, results-driven approach, Peter creates sustainable improvements that strengthen business resilience and long-term success with an ability to create clarity from chaos.
Geoff Dunleavy
Geoff Dunleavy
Geoff brings over 25 years of domestic and international experience in manufacturing across human resources, workplace health and safety, recruitment, industrial relations, organisational development, and business transformation to the HMA judging panel.
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Geoff Dunleavy is the Managing Director of HumanKapital, a consultancy providing a full suite of human resources, workplace health and safety, and recruitment services. His 25-year career spans General Manager level roles in ASX listed companies and Director level roles in the public sector, with international experience across the APAC region, North and South America, Africa, and the United Kingdom.
His expertise covers a broad range of sectors including manufacturing, engineering, mining services, banking, transport and logistics, technology, health, and education. Geoff holds undergraduate qualifications in Health Science alongside postgraduate qualifications in Human Resources, Safety, and Business, and is an accredited Quality Auditor, Workplace Mediator, and Workplace Investigator.
Now in his sixth year as a member of the HMA judging panel, Geoff brings a wealth of practical knowledge and a genuine passion for celebrating the innovation and creativity that defines manufacturing in the Hunter region.
Geoff sees the Hunter Manufacturing Awards as a fantastic platform to showcase regional creativity and innovation. He is particularly impressed by the growing number of entries demonstrating how the Hunter is at the forefront of adopting green practices, renewable energy, and recycled materials.
Casey Gould
Casey Gould
Casey Gould is the Director of The Media Park and an experienced media and marketing strategist, known for building impactful regional brands, leading high-performing campaigns, and bringing strong industry insight and creative expertise to the HMA judging panel.
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Casey Gould is the Director of The Media Park, bringing more than 20 years of experience across Australia's leading media organisations, including Seven Network, Australian Radio Network, Channel Nine, Ten Network, and Southern Cross Austereo. Her career has spanned both metropolitan and regional markets, building a strong reputation for strategic thinking, creative leadership, and commercial insight.
Known for her expertise in media strategy, brand development, and campaign execution, Casey has led high-performing marketing initiatives across manufacturing, automotive, construction, industrial services, and professional sectors. Through her work with manufacturing and trade-based businesses across the Hunter region and beyond, she has developed a deep understanding of the challenges and opportunities facing the industry.
Now in her third year judging the Marketing category for the Hunter Manufacturing Awards, Casey brings a strategic perspective and a genuine passion for recognising innovation, leadership, and excellence within the manufacturing sector.
What excites Casey most about judging the Excellence in Marketing category is seeing authentic, strategically driven work that creates genuine connection. For her, standout entries combine clarity, creativity, and measurable impact in ways that truly differentiate brands in a competitive market.
Eric Kreutzer
Eric Kreutzer
Eric holds a Bachelor of Science degree and brings over 40 years of experience in mining and technical consulting, including senior management of mining operations and consulting companies, to the HMA judging panel.
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Eric Kreutzer is a Company Director at LMATS with a career spanning more than 40 years across mining, technical consulting, and asset integrity management. His professional experience includes roles as State Manager and Manager Mining Services at CW Pope (now BV Australia), General Manager of Inspection and Testing Services at ETRS/Pearlstreet (now SRG Asset Inspection), and Business Development Manager Hunter at Aurecon.
Eric's consulting clients have included state and federal government authorities, multinational mining and oil and gas companies, and public and private utilities. He has extensive experience in the development and management of asset integrity projects across mines, power generation facilities, high rise buildings, transport infrastructure, dams, pipelines, ports, and wharves.
A recipient of the HunterNet Harvey Knox Award, Eric has been a judge for the HMA Innovation category for over ten years, bringing deep technical expertise and a genuine commitment to recognising excellence in regional manufacturing.
Eric believes manufacturing has been pivotal to the development of the Hunter economy. As the region transitions away from coal-based infrastructure, he sees manufacturing as central to retaining interesting, fulfilling, and well-paid jobs locally, and to meeting the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.
John Lynch
John Lynch
John is a leadership coach supporting leaders through new and unexpected phases in their lives, careers, and businesses, bringing a lifetime of experience in engineering, health and safety, and leadership development to the HMA judging panel.
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John Lynch began his career in electrical engineering, spending 15 years in one of Newcastle's largest heavy industrial manufacturing businesses. Witnessing serious workplace injuries during this time led him to commit the remainder of his career to injury prevention and the development of safer, stronger workplaces.
The past 28 years have seen John work across a wide range of industries as a business owner, senior leader, workplace trainer, work health and safety consultant, and leadership coach. He owned and operated a Registered Training Organisation serving the manufacturing industry throughout the Hunter Valley and held the role of Specialist Advisor Training and Development at Port Waratah Coal Services. For the past decade, John has focused on leadership development for leaders at all levels in the manufacturing industry.
This is John's fourth year as a judge with the Hunter Manufacturing Awards, a role he describes as one of the ways he gives back to an industry that has given him so much throughout his career.
John looks for well-planned submissions where businesses clearly understand and meet the judging criteria. For him, collaborating with fellow judges and witnessing the growing quality of entries each year is a genuine joy and a reflection of the Hunter's extraordinary manufacturing community.
Boris Novak
Boris Novak
BE(ELEC) GAICD
Boris began his career as an Electrical Engineering Officer in the Royal Australian Air Force by leading teams in the deployment of tactical communications-electronics facilities in support of deployed air operations for joint and combined forces.
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Ten years later, Boris founded a systems-engineering business that supplied breakthrough analytic capabilities within Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance.
Whilst in business, Boris founded and accepted leadership roles in a range of various industry collaborative ventures. This included a secondment to Defence’s Rapid Prototyping Development and Evaluation Program, including a four -year tenure in its governance as an elected representative to the RPDE Board.
Having exited the business he founded, Boris now enjoys consulting to HunterNet as an Industry Advisor. Boris believes that the advantages of today’s products are only limited by the imagination behind them and the hard – headed knowhow to make them real. Boris considers the present to be an exciting and especially privileged time to be an engineer. He observes the novel Start-ups that are emerging from the Hunter with great interest.
Paul Scobie
paul Scobie
Paul brings over two decades of experience in manufacturing, product development, and innovation. He began his career as an Industrial Designer in local manufacturing firms and has since held many senior leadership roles.
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Paul brings over two decades of experience in manufacturing, product development, and innovation. He began his career as an Industrial Designer in local manufacturing firms and has since held senior leadership roles at the local, state, and national levels.
Currently, Paul focuses on creating opportunities for industry to commercialise technologies and translate intellectual property by developing industry-focused research partnerships for the Newcastle Institute for Energy and Resources (NIER) at the University of Newcastle. His work places a strong emphasis on advanced manufacturing and prototyping, bridging academia, industry, government, and investment.
Paul previously oversaw KPMG’s R&D advisory practice in the Hunter region, helping companies fund their innovation. He has also lectured in Industrial Design at university and led large-scale manufacturing projects including building rail vehicles and buses.
Passionate about high-quality product design and leadership in manufacturing, Paul is committed to fostering innovation and excellence in the region. 2025 marks his ninth year as a judge for the Hunter Manufacturing Awards.
Craig Slavek
Craig Slavek
Craig is an experienced Training Advisor with Training Services in the Hunter region, with a strong background in the VET sector specialising in apprenticeships and traineeships. He is passionate about working with industry to foster productive, compliant workplaces that enable apprentices to succeed and build meaningful careers.
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Craig began his career through a traineeship, progressing into sales management and leadership roles before transitioning into the VET sector, where he found his true passion supporting apprentices and industry. He is now an experienced Training Advisor with Training Services in the Hunter region.
Craig’s key strengths lie in his regulatory expertise and his ability to work closely with employers to ensure training contract obligations are met, supporting both compliance and quality outcomes. He has a strong connection to the manufacturing industry, with a significant proportion of apprentices and trainees in the Hunter region employed across diverse manufacturing sectors, making it a key focus area for both Training Services and the NSW Government.
Throughout his career, Craig has contributed to strengthening workplace training practices and fostering environments where apprentices can succeed. This is his first year as a judge with the Hunter Manufacturing Awards, and he is looking forward to contributing to the recognition of emerging industry talent."
I work with a broad range of learners and employers, but judging allows me to see the highest calibre of talent—showcasing what’s possible when individuals and workplaces truly excel.
Michael Murray
Michael Murray
Michael has held senior management roles in a range of industry sectors over the last 25 years.
He is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and a director of two Hunter based consulting services businesses.
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Following a leadership journey, which included over 25 years in general manager and chief executive roles, in a diverse range of industries from Tourism and Hospitality, IT and Economic Planning, to Mining Services and Renewable Energy, Michael has been providing advisory and coaching services to Hunter Businesses and leaders for over 20 years, predominantly in the mining and manufacturing sectors. He is also a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
Michael is also involved with two community based non-profit organisations as a Director.
Michael has been a member of our judging panel for 14 years, in recent years, acting as the convenor for the panel.
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