Our People

He is adept at assisting clients formulate options for achieving objectives and using a technique known as multi criteria analysis to evaluate the options.Steven has used this successfully to help groups with diverse views reach consensus. Steven has particular expertise in floodplain management, natural hazard response planning, environmental auditing and hazardous waste management.  His strong interpersonal skills and broad technical expertise have been used to good effect in workshop facilitation, community consultation programs and training.

Steven has particular skills and experience in:

• Warning Systems
• Emergency Response and Evacuation Planning
• Floodplain Management
• Environmental Impact Assessment
• Environmental Management Systems and Audits
• Workshop Facilitation
• Stakeholder Engagement
• Design and Delivery of Environmental Training

She has over 20 years of experience in water resource management, environmental impact assessment and project management, gained through consulting and senior government roles. Shireen has qualifications in engineering, natural resource management and journalism and has received awards for her work in each of these fields.

She has worked on a wide variety of natural resource management and sustainability projects, developed policy and implemented award winning best practice strategies and programs for vegetation management, conservation and land use management. Shireen has substantial experience as a project manager and in contract management, having led multidisciplinary teams and worked extensively in the development of strategies and management plans.

In water resources management, she has strong capabilities and experience in:

• Managing the development and implementation of capital works,
• Policy development
• Modelling, forecasting and reporting in relation to urban water requirements
• Water conservation and demand management measures
• Program evaluation
• Hydraulic, hydrologic and water quality modelling
• Waterway assessments and water management plans
• Floodplain risk management studies and plans

In natural resource management, she has extensive experience in:

• The development and implementation of environmental rehabilitation and community education projects
• State of the environment reporting
• The development and implementation of strategic natural resource management plans
• Program development and implementation and department management
• Development and implementation of environmental risk management frameworks for local government land management activities
• Management of multi-disciplinary teams
• Leadership roles on international development projects

In environmental impact assessment, she has strong capabilities and experience in:

• Environmental impact assessments as required under the EP&A Act
• Assessed environmental issues, constraints and opportunities for development and rehabilitation projects
• Land use capability assessments
• Development of environmental management programs and strategies
• Development of construction environmental management plans

He is the Regional Director of The International Emergency Management Society (TIEMS) for Australia, New Zealand and Oceania and a member of the International Advisory Board of the Centre for Floods, Communities and Resilience at the University of Western England. He is also a member of the Australasian Evaluation Society.

In the environment field, Neil has strong capabilities and experience in:

• Designing and evaluating environmental education and sustainability education plans and programs across all sectors including schools, communities, government agencies and businesses.
• Writing technical and non-technical publications about environmental themes. For example, he has written several environmental encyclopaedias and State of the Environment reports.
• Developing and evaluating strategic natural resource management plans.

In the disaster management field, he has strong capabilities and experience in:

• Designing and evaluating disaster education and engagement plans and programs across all sectors including schools, communities, government agencies and businesses. He has developed a new approach titled ‘Learning for Disaster Resilience’.
• Developing and evaluating hazard warning systems particularly for floods and bushfires.
• Writing technical and non-technical publications about aspects of disaster management and resilience.
• Preparing climate change adaptation and disaster resilience plans and programs.
• Evaluating the performance of emergency management including after events.

Neil is also an experienced facilitator and has facilitated numerous meetings, workshops and forums particularly related to sensitive and complex issues.

A list of his publications relating to disaster management and resilience can be found here.

She has experience in biodiversity conservation planning, ecology and natural area management for more than 25 years in the local and state government sectors. Prior to joining Molino Stewart, Diane was Natural Resources Manager for Hornsby Council and prepared and implemented plans of management, environmental impact assessments, environmental strategies and community based environmental programs including Bushcare.

Diane has established biobanking sites for major infrastructure and a government program.  She has been responsible for natural area management including bushland and wetland restoration, estuary management, heritage restoration, walking and mountain bike track programs and bushfire management.  Her responsibilities included a catchment remediation program that constructed $1.1m worth of wetland biofilters annually, maintained 450 CRR devices and monitored water quality. Diane is particularly skilled in building partnerships, community consultation and identifying and obtaining agreed outcomes.

Diane’s broad level of experience and expertise allows us to continue to provide quality services to our clients in:

• Establishment of biobanking sites and offsets
• Bushland and wetland planning, management and restoration
• Environmental impact assessments
• Threatened species and other biodiversity assessment, planning and management
• Strategic natural area and bushfire management
• Wildlife management and ecological investigations
• Management of heritage planning and restoration

He has extensive experience in subdivision development and linear infrastructure construction and spent more than three years providing ecological advice as part of the Pacific Highway upgrade works between Kempsey and Ballina including pre-clearance surveys; targeted threatened species surveys; ecological community assessments; and contributions to environmental management plans.

Stephen holds the necessary Scientific Licence and Animal Care and Ethics Committee approval to undertake wildlife surveys in NSW.

He is a certified Bushfire Planning and Design practitioner under the BPAD scheme administered by the Fire Protection Association, Australia (Level 3 for NSW) and is recognised as a suitably qualified consultant by the NSW Rural Fire Service. These skills and accreditations allow Stephen to develop deemed-to-satisfy and alternative solutions for development applications in bushfire prone areas and certify compliance with the bushfire protection measures required for single dwellings, subdivisions and special fire protection purpose developments.

Stephen is a member of the Fire Protection Association, Australia Technical Advisory Committee for Bushfire Safety and very focussed on the transfer of knowledge of bushfire risk being passed onto the community. He is also a member of the International Association of Wildland Fire with a keen interest in bushfire ecology and vegetation response following catastrophic fires.

Stephen’s combination of ecological and bushfire management skills allow him to provide effective advice in support of development applications with sufficient attention to detail to simplify the approvals process.

Stephen’s specialist areas of expertise are in:

•  Threatened species and other biodiversity assessment, planning and management
• Wildlife management and ecological investigations
• Bushfire hazard assessments
• Bushfire planning alternative solutions
• Emergency response planning

He has a BSc and MSc and holds a Ph.D. in Environmental Sciences (specialising in natural hazards) obtained at the University of Bologna (Italy). He is an invited co-author of two UNESCO/IOC Manuals for inundation risk management in the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, and of the 2014 United Nations Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction. He has published ten scientific papers (nine as primary author) in international high-impact journals, including the prestigious open-access journal of Nature.

Before moving to Molino-Stewart, Filippo was a Senior Researcher at the University of Sydney’s Natural Hazards Group, where he was leading a $500,000 state-funded project to reduce the risk posed by natural hazards to NSW people with disabilities. Prior to that, Filippo was the Chief-Investigator (with Prof. Dominey-Howes) of the COVERMAR project , whose aim was to assess and map the impact of extreme floods on coastal assets in Sydney, using a risk assessment model that Filippo independently developed and validated.

In recognition of the contribution made in the field of resilience and risk analysis, Filippo received from the Attorney General’s Department the 2014 “Resilient Australia Award”, for the project COVERMAR.

Before moving to Australia in 2011, Filippo worked for six years as consultant for a global environmental engineering company, Med Ingegneria, from their offices in Italy. At Med Ingegneria he progressed from the position of spatial analyst, to the head of the Risk Assessment and GIS Office. He managed a team comprised of spatial scientists, geologists and engineers.

Filippo’s main fields of expertise are:

• Natural hazard analysis and mapping, in relation to climate change
• Vulnerability of the built environment
• Community resilience
• Emergency planning
• Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Remote Sensing
• Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)
• Scientific research and writing

Specific areas of expertise include

• Environmental Impact Assessment
• Sediment & Erosion Control
• Auditing, and
• Project Management

• Quantitative and Qualitative Data Analysis
• GIS Analysis and Mapping
• Flood Damage Analysis
• Flood Evacuation Planning
• Report Writing

Amna Robinson is an environmental scientist with experience in delivering services in both the public and private sectors  across a broad range of environmental and natural hazards projects.

Prior to joining Molino Stewart, Amna worked as a software application developer in the Information Technology industry for six years, delivering projects for clients from a wide range of different industries. During this time she became proficient in an extensive series of software and hardware technologies such as Windows OS, SQL Server, Visual Basic, VBScript, Javascript, C# and .NET while designing and programming software applications. She also provided assistance with project management, business analysis, software installations, technical support and training.

Amna has experience in:

• Quantitative and Qualitative Data Analysis
• Environmental Impact Assessment
• GIS Analysis and Mapping
• Floodplain risk assessment
• Report Writing

David has over 20 years experience in managing consulting projects and large scale systems delivery projects. He is particularly adept at assisting clients to analyse and collaboratively resolve complex or contentious issues. David has expertise in flood response planning, environmental assessment and climate change impacts.David provides high quality services in:

• Impact Assessment
• Floodplain management
• Environmental economics
• Database and web applications