Public Forum and Technology Showcase - ARC Digital Manufacturing Hub 2026

Lineup

• More details about Marcelo Fariello (Mars Pet Nutrition)

  Marcelo Fariello (Mars Pet Nutrition)

  Marcelo Fariello is an Electronics Engineer and MBA-qualified manufacturing leader with over 20 years of experience in industrial engineering and supply chain management across South America, Europe and APAC region. Currently a senior leader at Mars Pet Nutrition, he specialises in driving operational excellence by integrating advanced technology into complex manufacturing environments. As an Electronics Engineer and MBA-qualified manufacturing leader with over 20 years of experience in industrial engineering and supply chain management across South America, Europe and APAC region. Currently a senior leader at Mars Pet Nutrition, he specialises in driving operational excellence by integrating advanced technology into complex manufacturing environments.

• More details about Steve van Winckel (Sutton Tools)

  Steve van Winckel (Sutton Tools)

  Steve van Winckel is Chief Manufacturing Executive at Sutton Tools, where he oversees multiple production facilities across Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. With over 30 years' experience driving business performance improvement across diverse sectors, Steve brings a deep grounding in lean thinking and Theory of Constraints to the challenge of sustaining and enhancing organisational performance, alongside formal qualifications in Engineering, Leadership, and an MBA. Steve is currently leading Sutton Tools' digital and AI transformation agenda — applying lean and constraints-based thinking to identify where data, automation, and AI can remove bottlenecks and lift performance across the plant network. His work spans building the data and BI foundations for operational decision-making, and exploring the next frontier of manufacturing automation, including the case for highly automated, "lights out" production in a high-cost manufacturing environment like Australia.

• More details about Dheeren Velu (Capgemini)

  Dheeren Velu (Capgemini)

  Dheeren Vélu is one of Australia's foremost AI innovators, a rare voice who has both built AI at the frontier and led its adoption across some of the country's largest organisations over more than two decades. As Head of Innovation and Frontier AI Lead for Capgemini Australia and New Zealand, he guides enterprise executives on frontier AI strategy, go-to-market, and global ecosystem partnerships across the region. A TEDx speaker and holder of multiple AI patents, Dheeren was named the Australian Computer Society's IT Professional of the Year in 2019. He is also co-inventor of the Artist Style Fingerprint, named National Winner for Artificial Intelligence Technology at the 2026 Australian iAwards and recipient of the Trailblazer Award. He also chaired the CIAIRI (Centre for Industrial AI Research & Innovation) Advisory Board at RMIT University. Dheeren will be talking about - Making AI Real: From Ambition to Advantage Most organisations have moved past experimenting with AI, but far fewer have turned that activity into advantage. Drawing on lessons from AI adoption across large enterprises, this keynote looks at what actually separates the organisations getting value from those still stuck in pilots, the shift toward agentic AI, the cultural and operational habits that make adoption stick, and how to measure whether any of it is working. The session closes on what these lessons mean for sectors now moving into their own digital transformation.

• More details about Jerry Wolsztyniak

  Jerry Wolsztyniak

• More details about Prof Dimitrios Georgakopoulos (Director, ARC Hub for Future Digital Manufacturing, Swinburne University)

  Prof Dimitrios Georgakopoulos (Director, ARC Hub for Future Digital Manufacturing, Swinburne University)

  Professor Dimitrios Georgakopoulos is a renowned researcher in digital manufacturing, IoT, and AI. He is globally in the 2% of top-cited authors in both career and 2024 rankings. His work has attracted $77 million in external funding. He has held executive research management positions in Australia and the USA, directed Australia's largest computer science research program, and led multiple cross-disciplinary initiatives, driving innovation and shaping technology's future across various sectors

• More details about Professor Zahir Tari (Program Leader, ARC Hub for Future Digital Manufacturing, RMIT)

  Professor Zahir Tari (Program Leader, ARC Hub for Future Digital Manufacturing, RMIT)

  Professor Zahir Tari is a Professor in the School of Computing Technologies at RMIT University and Research Director of the RMIT Centre for Cyber Security Research and Innovation. He is an internationally recognised expert in cybersecurity, cloud computing, distributed systems, edge computing and the Internet of Things (IoT). His research focuses on the security, reliability and performance of large-scale digital and critical infrastructure systems, including smart grids and industrial systems. Professor Tari has secured more than AUD $21 million in research funding, supervised over 30 PhD candidates, and has led numerous industry and government-funded collaborations to translate research into real-world impact. He is widely recognised for his contributions to cybersecurity innovation and digital transformation.