Leadership Engineer with People and Process Passion
1. Glenn Whitfield
About me I have a passion for people as well as a passion for process. I love to engage with both
people and process in a way that leads to great outcomes. I am naturally drawn to leadership
roles and I find joy in helping people achieve personal and team based goals.
Summary of
key
qualifications
and courses
1990 - 1994 Curtin University (Perth, Western Australia)
Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical)
2005 AGSM (Perth, Western Australia)
Operational Leadership Development Program, Australia.
2012 - 2013 Rio Tinto (Perth, Western Australia)
Green Belt Six Sigma, Australia.
(Completed and passed training and exam, final project accreditation not attained).
Summary of
key skills
Improvement on the “line between People and Process”.
I have seen many situations where great people and good systems don’t result in a great outcome.
I have developed a particular skill for working in these situations and helping teams to get great
outcomes. Although each problem is unique I tend to use a combination of engagement tools,
cultural change, business analysis and problem solving. Some of my successes have been in the
areas such as;
Working with maintenance teams to improve asset performance.
Working with finance teams to improved business planning and forecasting.
Working with production and process teams to improve annual production and quality.
Working with supply teams to improve the supply function.
Investigations and Auditing
I see investigations and audits as an opportunity to improve and I have a great love for both. I have
often been seen as a preferred lead investigator for incidents with higher complexity or where the
outcome was seen as business critical. I have had success in shaping business thinking through
investigations in areas such as:
Product quality investigations that resulted in a business changing the way it measured,
controlled and modelled production and quality.
An investigation into a major equipment failure that found a core piece of production
equipment to be uneconomical to sustain, resulting in a significant change to the business
supply chain.
Systematic, cultural and sustained improvements in safety across maintenance teams.
Strategic development, Business Planning and Business Execution.
I had the privilege of developing and implementing a business framework that allowed for strategic
planning to be integrated with business planning, budgeting, forecasting, compliance, risk
management, business reviews and business execution. I was able to manage this process as
part of the annual planning and budgeting cycle for a number of years, allowing me to gain practical
experience in cascading business visions through to executable action plans.
Personal Skills
Over the last 20 years my various industry, ministry and volunteering roles have allowed me to
develop strong skills in facilitation, team building, leadership, communication, public speaking
and culture change.
12 Horseshoe Circuit
Henley Brook 6055
WA
Home Phone: +61 8 92967061
Mobile Phone: 0427 996 462
Personal E-mail: whitfield6@westnet.com.au
au.linkedin.com/in/WhitfieldGlenn
2. Professional Experience
2013 - 2015 Ellenbrook Baptist Church and Collective Hope Church (Perth, Western Australia)
Various Associate Pastor roles
Key Role: My wife and I have had the privilege of working together in a number of ministry related roles, where we have
had the opportunity to build into the lives of our local community.
2007 - 2013 Dampier Salt Limited, Rio Tinto (Perth, Western Australia)
Manager Business Planning and Improvement
Key Role: A complex, ever changing and wide reaching role with involvement across many departments and many
business functions, including asset management and procurement, strategic planning, budgeting and improvement
processes for Dampier Salt. The role also co-ordinated risk management and compliance reviews as well as involvement
in auditing and investigations as required.
Key Achievements with various aspects of the role.
Asset Management strategy and Improvement
Led asset management improvement initiatives across Dampier Salt resulting in significant improvement in work
management performance throughout 2009-2013. This work involved developing a business strategy for Asset
Management Improvement through to training workshops with site crews.
Developed a highly effective asset management model that was used to setup and train sites in how to improve asset
management performance. The work included a number of refine and effective metrics for monitoring asset
management in a way that brought measureable benefits to the operational sites.
Planning and budgeting
Took role of Rio Tinto Minerals “Asia Pacific Regional Coordinator” for the 2008/2009 Operational and Capital
planning process, involving 3 Salt Mines in WA, Perth head office, Singapore marketing team and 2 Talc Facilities in
Japan. This led to a significant involvement over a number of years in the annual production planning and budgeting
process for Dampier Salt LTD.
Led the redesign of the entire business production supply chain as part of the implementation of Rio Tinto’s MMP
SAP module.
Business Improvement
Developed and led the Dampier Salt annual business improvement planning from 2007 to 2013 including
representing Dampier Salt as the Global Business improvement co-ordinator for Rio Tinto Diamonds and Minerals in
2013.
Designed, built and implemented a production reporting system based on a Lean “Drumbeat” concept to enable real
time and summarised review of production performance, leading to continuous improvement programs across three
mine sites.
2004 - 2007 Dampier Salt Limited, Rio Tinto (Dampier, Western Australia)
Business Improvement Superintendent / Operational Excellence Coordinator
Key Role: Deliver business improvement and implement the Operational Excellence Standards across the five RTM Asia
Pacific sites.
Key Achievements:
Designed and led a production focussed “Breakthrough” Project at the Port Hedland site. The project resulted in the
2005 production targets being met via a 28% increase in production rates. The project used concepts from the “Toyota
Production System’s - Breakthrough” methodologies.
Designed and led a successful 12 month business wide redevelopment of the Dampier Salt supply system aimed at
improving supply’s performance and support to their customers.
Led an investigation into the cause of poor salt quality in the Dampier salt fields which ultimately changed the way in
which Dampier Salt manages the core function of growing salt. (This project ultimately led to the redesign of the entire
business supply chain as part of the roll out of the SAP MMP module).
Designed and implemented metrics tracking tools used by the sites to monitor and manage variances in daily, weekly
and monthly production performance. (This tool is still in daily use 10 years later).
3. 2002 - 2004 Hamersley Iron, Rio Tinto (Dampier, Western Australia)
Port Maintenance Superintendent
Key Role: Safely manage the execution of maintenance for both Hamersley Iron Ports including the on-site fabrication
workshop with a team of around 60 maintainers and machine operators.
Key Achievements:
Significantly improved the teams safety performance; from a LTIFR of 6.6 to zero in 12 months.
Delivered improved flexibility and utilisation of the Port maintenance resource by developing and implementing a significant
restructure in the Port Maintenance Team.
Executed role of shutdown manager for regular port shutdowns, often overseeing 250 personnel over 3-5 day shuts.
1999 - 2002 Hamersley Iron Pilbara Rail, Rio Tinto (Dampier, Western Australia)
Rollingstock Maintenance Superintendent
Key Role: Safely manage the Maintenance of Hamersley Iron’s $1 Billion Rollingstock fleet with a team of 110 staff and
contractors.
Key Achievements:
Improved safety performance of team with a result of 2 years LTI free, within a tightly regulated industry.
Team leader for amalgamation of Rollingstock Maintenance between Hamersley Iron and Robe River as part of the
formation of Pilbara Rail.
Successfully planned and setup a maintenance operating budget of $30M using well-developed measures and
processes.
Negotiated, setup, and managed multiple contracts providing various sub-contracting services to the rolling stock
maintenance.
1998 - 1999 Hamersley Iron Pilbara Rail, Rio Tinto (Dampier, Western Australia)
Specialist Electrical Engineer
Key Role: Develop Improvement opportunities within Railway Operation.
Key Achievement: Part of the implementation team for the Distributed Locomotive Control (DLC) project resulting in
Hamersley Iron’s first unmanned operation of a locomotive. This system is now used in at least 4 four locations within
Hamersley Iron’s Operation.
1995 – 1998 Hamersley Iron, Rio Tinto (Dampier, Western Australia)
Port Improvement Engineer
Key Role: Develop Improvement opportunities and improve plant performance within Port Operations.
Key Achievement: Developed improvements in the Port Operations Metal Detectors significantly reducing delays and
increasing effectiveness of the metal detection systems.
Key Achievement: Designed original remote control system for the “Unmanning” of the Iron Ore Reclaimers at Parker Point,
Hamersley Iron’s first remotely controlled machine.
References
Denise Goldsworthy (Previous immediate manager at Rio Tinto as Managing Director for Dampier Salt)
Telstra Australian Business Women of the Year, 2011
Owner and Managing Director at Alternate Futures PTY LTD
denise.goldsworthy@alternatefutures.net.au
0407429584
Toby Ellis (Last immediate manager at Rio Tinto, as CFO for Dampier Salt)
Chief Financial Officer, Dampier Salt PTY LTD
toby.ellis@riotinto.com
(08) 92709359
0438992085