About

Executive team

   

 



Dr Amanda Ashworth,
Acting Managing Director

Dr Amanda Ashworth has been with the business for 23 years and has held many positions including: Team Leader, Business Development Manager, Sales Program Manager and Strategy Manager. For the past five years she’s been part of Entura’s Executive Team, most recently as Director of Strategy, Sales and Commercial.

She is well known for her initiation and carriage of the Entura clean energy and water institute (ECEWI) since its launch in 2012, which has delivered training to Entura’s clients nationally and internationally. Through ECEWI and other connections, Amanda has maintained a significant international profile across the Indo-Pacific.

Amanda has over 30 years’ experience in multi-disciplinary research and practice on a wide range of environmental, social and economic topics. She has considerable experience in managing complex environmental approvals for large infrastructure projects and in developing strategies and plans and evaluating their success.

Amanda has also been involved in project direction of major engineering projects.

Amanda holds a PhD, Graduate Diploma in Environmental Studies (with Honours) and Bachelor of Arts (Public Policy and Sociology). Amanda was an Anglo-Australian Fellowship recipient hosted at Durham University UK for her research into risk and risk communication. She has spoken at numerous international conferences and is the author of several peer-reviewed papers.





Dale Bryce, Director Hydropower and Headworks

Dale joined Entura in 2014. As Director, Hydropower and Headworks he is responsible for delivering commercial and client outcomes across the Hydropower and Dams & Geotech portfolios and Entura’s India business. He also maintains a number of roles in program and project direction across the broader power and water business, actively engaged in stakeholder management, leadership of resourcing and delivery strategies and contract management.

Previously, he has led Entura’s Water and Renewables Group, commercial project delivery, and the strategy, sales and marketing functions.In his role as a Project Director, he aspires to delivery excellence, aiming to improve project leadership, and commercial outcomes for all. He takes a particular interest in renewables and storage projects across Australia and the Indo-Pacific, including pumped hydro and battery energy storage, utility-scale solar farms, and wind farms and their connection to the electricity grid.

Dale brings some 25 years’ experience in professional services, consulting, infrastructure and government. He has previously worked with Jacobs, King & Wood Mallesons, the Port of Melbourne Corporation, and Lloyd’s Register.

He has advised on leadership culture and customer-centricity and is a champion of design thinking, client insights and stakeholder engagement.

Dale is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, a qualified and Certified Project Director with the Institute of Project Management, and a past president of ICON, an Asia-Pacific not-for-profit association.





Silke Schwartz,
Director Water and Renewables



Silke has over 2 decades of experience in the renewable energy industry, working with Entura for more than 15 years for Australian and international clients.

As the Director of Water and Renewables, she is responsible for delivering commercial and client outcomes across the Renewables, Environment and Planning, Water Management and Spatial and Data Services Teams.

She has managed several teams within Entura, and had a leading role in business development activities. Her areas of expertise include project management and project directorship of multidisciplinary projects, such as owner engineer roles, feasibility studies and technical due diligence assessments.

Silke holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Naval Architecture, and has published a number of technical papers during her career.





Wayne Tucker, Director Grid and Power

Wayne joined Entura in 2023.

As the Director of Grid and Power, he leads Entura’s Grid Connection and Power Systems team, Secondary Electrical Team, Primary and Transmission Team and the Protection and Test Services Team, to deliver commercial outcomes in line with business targets.

Wayne has more than 30 years of experience in the power sector, including 12 years’ experience in executive and senior leadership roles across strategy, engineering, asset management, project delivery, regulation, operations, customer management and business development.

He has a deep understanding of the Tasmanian power system, having recently been the Executive General Manager of Growth at TasNetworks. He has also Chaired the Australian Power Institute and participated in various other industry forums.

Wayne holds a Graduate Diploma of Engineering Maintenance Management from Monash University, and a Master of Business Administration from Deakin.





Donald Vaughan, Technical Director Power

Donald has over 20 years’ experience providing advice on regulatory and technical requirements for generators, substations and transmission systems. He has worked for all areas of the electrical industry, including generators, equipment suppliers, customers, NSPs and market operators. 

Donald specialises in the performance of power systems. His experience in generating units, governors and excitation systems provides a helpful perspective on how the physical electrical network behaves. Graduating from the University of Tasmania in 1993 with honours in Electrical Engineering, Donald’s early career included work on automated truck loading systems and bulk fluids handling in the petrol industry. In 1996 he commenced work designing and commissioning generator and power station control systems and ancillary plants, before moving into generator performance, where he defined and implemented compliance tests for generating unit controls against the electricity code.

Before taking up the position of Technical Director Power, Donald was a Principal Consultant at Entura. Prior to that, he led Hydro Tasmania’s Power Systems Performance team through the business’s entry into the Australian National Electricity Market, and the connection and commissioning of Basslink.




Richard Herweynen, Technical Director Water

Richard has more than 30 years’ experience in national and international dam and hydro power engineering, covering all phases from investigations and feasibility studies, to detailed design and construction support, operation maintenance, risk assessment and upgrades. Richard has been the lead designer on a number of major projects, including three RCC dams within Australia, a number of significant dam upgrades, the tender design and documentation of a hydropower project in Malaysia, and a concrete faced rockfill dam project in Nepal. 

Richard provides a technical governance role on a number of large projects. He currently chairs the Independent Technical Review Panel for the Baleh Hydro Electric Project in Malaysia, and chairs the Technical Working Group for the Tarraleah Hydropower Re-Development Project and the Cethana Pumped Hydro Energy Storage Project. He was the independent dam safety engineer for the Murum Hydro Electric Project in Malaysia, during the later years of construction, which involved readiness for impoundment, first filling, and first year of operation. He is the independent technical reviewer on a number of dam safety reviews and dam upgrade projects in Tasmania.

Richard is active in the wider profession; he is an associate member of ANCOLD and was part of the ANCOLD working group for Concrete Gravity Dams, and is the chair of the ICOLD Technical Committee on Engineering Activities in the Planning Process for Water Resources Projects. He played an active role in developing the young professionals group at both ANCOLD and ICOLD.

He has published over 30 technical papers predominantly on dam engineering including dam safety, risk assessment, concrete faced rockfill dam design, RCC dam design, the unique challenges of older style post-tensioned anchors, and managing first filling. He has also published papers on other interesting issues such as sedimentation caused by landslides, fish passage on dams and the displacement of diesel generation with hydropower.

Richard graduated from the University of Tasmania in 1989 with first class honours in Civil Engineering. He has continued with his studies to achieve a Graduate Diploma in Management (Technology) from Deakin University in 1998, and a Masters in Geotechnical Engineering from the University of NSW in 2014. In 1995 he was awarded the IEAust Tasmanian Young Professional Engineer of the Year, and in 2012 was awarded the Tasmanian Professional Engineer of the Year Award.