Our Team

Optika understands fully the intrinsic value that our people provide by way of their skills, qualifications and experience.  Our staff possess a wide range of domain expertise, across asset intensive industries such as mining and processing, oil and gas, utilities and infrastructure.

Optika only employs professionals who are leaders in their fields.  From the experience they have gained working first-hand in the industry that they now consult to, our Consultants are able to intimately understand your business, which enables them to provide solutions that ‘fit’ the prevailing conditions and culture of your organisation.

Some of our key staff include:

Shane Ridley 

BSc (Met. Chem), MBA (Dist)
Managing Director

                       

Shane is the co-founder of Optika Solutions and fulfils a dual executive role as Managing Director and Principal Consultant.  Shane is an Extractive Metallurgist by profession, having spent over 13 years in the mining industry, working in various technical, operations management and consulting roles. 

Shane's skills span a broad spectrum from process commissioning and project management, to strategic planning, supply chain optimisation and business performance management.    Shane has lead and successfully delivered consulting solutions to ASX100 clients such as BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto, OneSteel and OZ Minerals.

 

 

  

Matt Schneider 

BSc (Met, Soft Eng), MSc (Dist)
Director

Matt is a Director of Optika and fulfils the roles of Engagement Manager and Principal Consultant. His skills include production chain studies, current and future state studies, operational management systems and industrial informatics.  Matt has orchestrated a wide range of consulting engagements both within Australia and overseas.  With 12 years experience in operational consulting and systems projects, Matt is an internationally recognised leader in his field.

Matt has authored many papers and regularly lends himself to industry events and standards formulation.  Matt has worked with BHP Billiton, Alcoa, KOGAS and WMC Resources.

 
 

  

Robert Bradbury

 

BSc (Business Information Technology)
Operations Manager

 

Rob is a highly motivated and enthusiastic operations manager with a proven history of successful programme and project implementation. 

He is experienced in working with organisations making strategic structural changes, and has an outstanding ability to communicate information and knowledge in the relevant context at all business levels.  With nearly 15 years experience working in the investment banking and insurance industries in London, plus successful projects undertaken in Perth for Synergy and BHP Billiton, he has a wealth of practical experience to back up his technical knowledge of project management.

Rob has a degree (BSc Hons) in Business Information Technology, is a qualified practitioner inboth PRINCE 2 and MSP (Managing Successful Programmes).  He is also a member of the Project Managers Institute.
   

Troy Levissianos

MCP, PRINCE2
Lead Developer

Troy has worked in the IT industry for 12 years, fulfilling a number of different roles, including infrastructure support, system administration, applications design and development and database administrator.  During the previous seven years, Troy has focused on the manufacturing execution systems area, supplying services to BP Refinery, Rio Tinto and OneSteel.

Troy is in the process of completing a Masters in Business Technology.
 

  

Daniel Lie

B Comp Sci, MBA
Consultant

Daniel has had nearly seven years experience in the IT industry, mostly in the agricultural sector with a prominent Australian exporter where he focused on providing product quality traceability across enterprise boundaries, from operations to the customer. With Optika, Daniel has been involved with a variety of projects, including user requirements studies, vendor evaluations, business improvement initiatives and simulation studies.

Daniel has a Bachelor of Computer Science and recently completed his Master of Business Administration at UWA.

  

  

Karen Caddy

Associate/Principal Consultant

Karen has 18 years mining industry experience, 14 with Rio Tinto. With a primary degree in Metallurgical Engineering and a Graduate Diploma in Business, Karen has diverse experience in areas including business planning, business modeling and analysis, strategy deployment and business improvement (including Lean, Six Sigma and Breakthrough techniques).

Just prior to leaving Rio Tinto, she held the role of Global Operational Excellence coordinator for Rio Tinto Industrial Minerals, with responsibility for designing and deploying an excellence program across businesses in Australia, Europe, Africa, and North America.

   

  

Ann Smales

Senior Consultant

 

Ann joined Optika in 2010 after a thirty year career in mining and mineral processing.  Her experience includes operations and maintenance, business planning and analysis and corporate international management roles.  Ann’s expertise is in the process and economic evaluation of operational or commercial alternatives.  This expertise is built upon strong numerical, analytical and interrogative skills and the ability to work with technical and financial staff across all business levels.   She has provided market analysis, financial due diligence and operations modelling to support the evaluation of strategic and operational initiatives.  She has extensive experience in the preparation and presentation of business recommendations to senior executive groups.

 

Prior to leaving Rio Tinto Minerals in 2009, Ann was Manager - Business Evaluation for this global business, providing financial analysis to support major capital investments, divestment and acquisition decisions, marketing strategies and process improvements.

Ann has a primary degree in Metallurgical Engineering (University of Queensland) and a Master of Business Administration (Deakin University).  
   

Ross Elliot

Senior Consultant

Ross has over 25 years experience in software engineering, engineering management and organisational improvement.

Working for Honeywell in Australia and Amsterdam, his roles included software engineer, Software Centre Manager (WA) and manager of the Industrial Automation Support Services Group (WA). He also led a number of major organisational redesign projects for Honeywell.

As a consultant for 10 years Ross has worked for organisations such as BHP Billiton, Western Mining, Comalco, Worsley Alumina, Clough, Argyle Diamond Mines and Worley. His work includes business analysis, project management, business planning, business design, process design, organisational improvement and change management.

Ross has completed both a BE (Hons) and a Graduate Certificate in Software Engineering and Software Management.
   

Scott Munro

Associate / Senior Modeller