Future of Collaborative Contracting

Danny Benjamin - Delivery Director at Major Road Projects Victoria

Danny has his Nana to thank for embarking on a career in civil engineering which has now evolved into the role of Delivery Director at Major Road Projects Victoria. Heeding Nan’s advice, who suggested he become an engineer because of his mathematics skills, Danny completed an engineer degree with Monash University and went on to work across both the private and public sector.

His experience includes working with engineering consultancies such as SKM, Halcrow (in the UK) and GHD, construction companies such as Thiess and in Government roles with Victoria Police and now MRPV.

Although Danny has designed various things as an engineer (some of which are still standing and usable) he quickly realised that his skills lay more in helping infrastructure businesses to plan and deliver more effectively.

Danny is most proud of giving Victoria Police a new headquarters and more recently developing and implementing MRPV’s new collaborative delivery approach – a game changer for the way in which infrastructure projects are procured and delivered

Kiri Parr

Kiri is an academic, speaker and consultant in the construction industry in Australia.  Kiri is passionate about improving the outcomes in the construction industry.  Her work sits at the intersection of construction law, procurement strategy, human behaviour and governance models.

As well as operating her own consultancy practice, Kiri is a Senior Fellow at the University of Melbourne law school lecturing in the Construction Law Master’s program in two courses “Construction Project Delivery” and “Major Projects – the Legal Interfaces”.   In industry Kiri is co Vice-Chair or the FIDIC Contracts Committee and is actively involved locally with Consult Australia and the Society of Construction Law Australia.

Prior to establishing her own company in 2020, Kiri spent more than 20 years’ as a construction lawyer, initially in private practice and followed by 15 years as the Regional General Counsel for Arup, a large international professional consulting company.  During this time, Kiri was involved in numerous large projects in the region including Airport Link, Gold Coast Light Rail and Marina Bay Sands.  From 2015 to 2019 Kiri was included in Doyle’s Leading In-House Construction Lawyers in Australia.

Sarah Adams - Augusta Ventures 

Sarah is an in-house lawyer and company director with broad experience in construction law obtained over more than 25 years across a wide variety of industries.

Prior to moving in-house, Sarah worked in private practice in England, NZ and Australia, including eight years as a partner of an Australian national firm.  After 10 years of more traditional in-house practice, Sarah moved to a litigation funder, where she evaluates the legal and commercial merits of claims and assesses their suitability for funding.