Matt Savas
Founder, Kaizumi
Matt is the founder of Kaizumi, an AI-powered lean training platform that generates hyper-personalized learning modules for any industry, company, or role at the click of a button.
Before launching Kaizumi in 2026, Matt spent 11 years at the Lean Enterprise Institute in a variety of roles including Content Director and Coach. He also served as Director of the Lean Global Network for three years, where he coordinated activity across 30 international institutes.
He has a BA in East Asian Studies from Bates College and an MBA from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He enjoys camping with his wife in the Maine woods and hopes one day to have a small home in rural Japan.
Doug Rickarby
Managing Director & Principle Guide, Gemba Guides
Doug has devoted more than 40 years to the development and application of Toyota and Lean management principles.
He began his career at Australian Motor Industries, a contract vehicle manufacturer that later became wholly owned by Toyota Australia, where he held a broad range of leadership roles across Manufacturing, Training, Purchasing, Supplier Development, New Model Project Management, and Corporate Planning, before ultimately serving as General Manager of Manufacturing until the closure of automotive manufacturing in Australia in 2017.
Drawing on this extensive experience, Doug established Gemba Guides to support local and international organisations in developing their businesses through Lean thinking and practice. At this conference, he will share reflections, lessons, successes, failures, and insights gained over four decades, together with his hopes for Lean thinking to help shape a stronger future for both public and private enterprise in Australia.
Jackie McLeod
Chief Operating Officer, Royal Melbourne Hospital
Jackie has held the position of Chief Operating Officer at the Royal Melbourne Hospital since November 2020. With more than 25 years of experience in Victoria’s public health sector, she is recognised for her leadership in digital health innovation and operational transformation.
Jackie successfully led the rollout of the Electronic Medical Record (EMR) Program across the four Parkville health services in 2020, following the full EMR implementation at the Royal Children’s Hospital in 2016. She has played a pivotal role in delivering large-scale digital health initiatives valued at over $235 million, driving improvements in patient care and operational efficiency.
Sarah Aranha
Director Access & Patient Flow, Royal Melbourne Hospital
Sarah joined the Royal Melbourne Hospital in 2023 as the Director Access and Patient Flow. Operationally she leads the Digital Coordination Centre, established in August 2023 with the purpose of improving access and flow across the health service.
Sarah has worked in diverse roles across Victoria including as the Director Continuous Improvement and Consumer Partnerships, Pandemic Planning Manager and a range of quality and safety and operational roles. Sarah holds a Master of Nursing (Emergency) and a Grad Dip in Health Administration. In 2023 she completed Stanford Medicine’s Advanced Course in Improvement Science and remains passionate about learning and improvement to deliver better health outcomes.
Danny Elassaad
Managing Director, CW Products
Danny is an Australian business leader and Managing Director of CW Products, a family-owned manufacturer of roller shutters and automation systems.
Working alongside founder Ibrahim Elassaad, he has played a key role in expanding the company into a nationally recognised, Australian-made success story.
Having grown up in the business, Danny brings deep industry knowledge and a hands-on leadership style. He is particularly focused on developing emerging leaders within the organisation, fostering a culture where people are empowered to grow, take ownership, and contribute to long-term success.
A strong advocate for continuous improvement, Danny has also championed the introduction of lean principles across the business—driven not just by efficiency goals, but by a belief in the value of people. His approach emphasises collaboration, capability-building, and creating systems that support both employees and customers.
Under his leadership, CW Products continues to evolve while maintaining its reputation for quality, innovation, and strong customer partnerships across Australia.
Nigel Dalton
Social Scientist, ThoughtWorks
Nigel is a passionate lean and agile technology leader with over 30 years of IT-related experience across government, multi-nationals, and start-ups.
After working in the USA, in 2007 he joined travel publisher Lonely Planet as General Manager of Information Technology, becoming Deputy Director of Digital (web and mobile businesses) in 2010. After years of being an agile thought leader, it was at Lonely Planet that he learned of the origins of agile in the world of Toyota and Lean. It was a revelation to him, filling all the gaps in management systems that agile was being injudiciously stretched to fill.
He has been involved in several ventures, including co-founding a consultancy, Luna Tractor, to help organisations apply systems thinking, lean and agile software development techniques to all aspects of business. Previously, Nigel held roles with AXA Australia, online human resource start-up ePredix in the USA (now owned by SHL) as well as Silicon Systems and Mitsubishi Electric in New Zealand.
At REA Group Nigel held the role of CIO from 2012, and headed up the REALABS research and development team from 2018. That team were responsible for ensuring REA was ahead of the curve with future technology and social trends, both in the real estate space and beyond.
Nigel now works at ThoughtWorks, a global technosocial consultancy, where he is writing a book (SuperProductive) which tells the story of modern Lean through the lens of productive, healthy workplaces. His passion is seeing the many threads of Lean from healthcare, to manufacturing, mining and supply chain management brought together to focus on improving digital organisations that have pushed agile methods to their limits.
David Plunkett
Adjunct Professor, Deakin University
David has many years of executive and senior management experience in both the Public and Private Health Sectors. David commenced his health career as a Registered Nurse.
He joined Eastern Health in 2002, one of the largest Victorian public healthcare services, with multiple sites and more than 11,000 staff. David held various roles, including Chief Nursing and Midwifery Officer and Executive Director Acute Health, all leading to be Eastern Health’s Chief Executive for 10 years until 2026.
David holds a Master of Business Administration, is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and is an assessor with the Australian Council on Healthcare Standards.
A values driven leader, David has advised government via numerous committees and Boards, is a Fellow and past President of the Australian College of Nursing.
David is currently Managing Director of Ameliorer, a leadership and management consulting business supporting people and organisations in their strategic endeavours.
Tara Moses
Chief Operating Officer, RM Williams
Tara Moses is the founder and director of Clearground Advisory and a Lean practitioner of 20+ years. She was, until recently, Chief Operating Officer of R.M. Williams, where she scaled the heritage Australian bootmaker’s production capacity 3x while leading 600+ people, including 450 craftspeople. Earlier, across the United States, she directed operations over five Red Wing manufacturing sites and trained more than 2,000 people in Lean Six Sigma through LeanCor. She co-developed Australia’s National Manufacturing Strategy with the Australian Fashion Council and was named a Ragtrader Top Leader in Sustainability in 2025.
Tara’s leadership runs on genuine curiosity about people — what shaped them and what lights them up — which she sees as the human heart of Lean, not a soft add-on. Away from the floor she’s happiest with a journal and a first coffee before the house wakes, a good book, or a new craft project underway.