Dr. Najib H Dandachi, CEO Al Usul Ltd

Dr. Najib Dandachi is a Fellow of the IAM, with a Ph.D in Electrical Power Systems from Imperial College, London. He has more than 30 years of international experience gained with National Grid, UK, the Arab Gulf Countries Power & Water Authorities and West Africa.

He occupied several executive roles in United Arab Emirates (UAE) Water and Electricity Authority over 18 years which involved managing the Grid Control, System Planning & Operation & Maintenance and Strategic Asset Management; Dr. Najib worked closely with Governmental Authorities and Board of Directors to set and direct strategies and business plans across the GCC; he has led business transformation process in many organizations intended to achieving business performance improvement and ISO 55001 asset management accreditations. 

He is a thought leader on Energy & Water systems and its transformation through privatization, liberalization and regulation and is a recognized technical and business Executive in the field of utility strategic and master planning, asset management and operational excellence. 

www.al-usul.com  

Sally Sudworth

Sally is a chartered engineer and chartered environmentalist and is global head of sustainability and climate change at Mott MacDonald. She is a fellow of the IAM and co-chairs the Climate Emergency Programme, along with a number of other industry climate emergency groups at the Women’s Engineering Society and Net Zero Infrastructure Industry Coalition. She was awarded the Isabel Hardwich medal and IAM President’s special award in recognition of this work. Sally spoke at COP26 in Glasgow on sustainability and the climate emergency.

Prior to working at Mott MacDonald Sally led the net zero carbon strategy for infrastructure at the UK Environment Agency and was flood exec for the Northwest, and before that was director for the low zero carbon hub in Wales. 

Sally spent 10 years as a director for Engineers for Overseas Development, an engineering charity that provides development opportunities for graduates to become professionally qualified. Their community led projects are based in sub-Sahara Africa and help to alleviate poverty and improve the quality of people’s lives.

Carl Waring

Carl Waring is a Principal Consultant at Frazer-Nash Consulting Ltd, a Lecturer in Ethics in Engineering and Innovation and Risk Management and a PhD Researcher at the College of Engineering and Technology University of Derby, UK.  His research is looking at developing a Circular Economic Readiness Framework for the Rail Sector.

Carl is a Chartered Engineer and Chartered IT Professional and has in excess of 30 years in consulting in developing and improving the ways and means in which organisations manage and invest in infrastructure / Asset Management (ISO55000) as well as managing and investing in information technology. He earned his Masters in Information Management focusing his research in computer supported cooperative working in Engineering Consulting organisations, based upon systems theory and problem solving methodologies.

His current research and work interests include complexity in organisations, applied systems theory, strategy development, organisational readiness, how to determine organisational capability set against objectives, circular economy, data readiness within the context of being able to exploit Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning and Asset Management across Rail, Highways and other infrastructure sectors.

He has worked in rail engineering, railway regulation, worked overseas including Hong Kong, UAE, USA and Australia and presented at a number of conferences in particular around Systems Theory and Asset Management.