Richard robinson, R2A Director

Richard Robinson is one of the country’s most experienced and respected risk and due diligence engineers, sharing his knowledge and expertise in books, academic papers and with some of Australia’s biggest organisations. He regularly presents on the advantages of adopting the precaution based approach to risk instead of the hazard based process, which has been dominant in Australia in recent times.Richard Robinson is a career risk and due diligence engineer with over 30 years experience in industry.

As the Director and Chairman of R2A, key roles include:

  • Engineering due diligence and organisational risk control

  • Construction of due diligence arguments and risk and reliability based models for common law and for investment payback criteria

  • Short course presentations and liability briefings

  • Facilitating workshops

  • Appearing as an expert witness

In addition, Richard is the presenter of one and two day short courses for Engineering Education Australia, Engineering Due Diligence, Defensible Management Techniques as well as the Safety Due Diligence and Project Due Diligence modules for the Construction series, and a part-time Lecturer, Introduction to Risk and Due Diligence postgraduate unit at the Swinburne University of Technology.

He is the principal author of R2A text Engineering Due Diligence and is co-author of Criminal Manslaughter and Project Governance booklets.  He was also a major contributor to the Engineers Australia Safety Case Guideline, third edition: Clarifying the safety case concept to engineer due diligence under the provisions of the model Work Health & Safety Act 2011, published in November 2014.

EDUCATION

BE, Mechanical Engineering, Monash University, 1974
BA, Philosophy, University of Melbourne, 1981

MEMBERSHIPS

  • Member, Society of Fire Protection Engineers, USA, 1983

  • Chairman, Masters of Systems Engineering Course Advisory Committee, RMIT, 1987-1988

  • Fellow, Engineers Australia, 1992

  • Chairman, Victoria Division, Engineers Australia, 1993

  • Chairman, Course Advisory Committee, RMIT Pilot Centre, Point Cook, 1994-1998

  • Director, Engineers Media (Engineers Australia Pty Ltd), the wholly owned publishing subsidiary of the Institution of Engineers, Australia, 1984-2004

  • Chairman, Engineers Media, 2001- 2004.

  • Committee member for the third revision of the Safety Case Guidelines, Engineers Australia 2014

EXPERIENCE

Highlights in this position have included:

  • The development of alternate airspace collision risk models for the Civil Aviation Authority New Zealand, and for the Office of Airspace Regulation Australia

  • Strategic risk reviews for the Marina Coastal Expressway Singapore and for the Tugun bypass Gold Coast

  • Due diligence reviews for rockfalls in cuttings Railcorp NSW

  • Hazardous atmospheres in laboratories (CSIRO)

  • Many SIL (Safety Integrity Levels) allocation studies and enterprise availability studies for Melbourne Water

  • Member of the ministerial peer review panel for the Eildon Dam Alliance Project

  • Member of the Independent Blasting Audit Team, Department of Minerals & Energy, WA (Western Mining Corporation Nickel & Gold), 1999

  • The expert risk management member on the Victorian Powerline Bushfire Safety Taskforce, 2011