The Executive Team

Rachel Murray

Chief Operating Officer & Regional Operations Manager - Regional NSW,  NSW

Rachel is Eco Logical Australia's Chief Operating Officer and senior consultant for our Mudgee office and Regional Manager for regional NSW. She is an experienced planning and approvals specialist with an Honours degree in Environmental Management (Sustainable Development) from the University of Queensland. She has an extensive background in mining and undertaking environmental impact assessments and managing approvals processes. Rachel has well developed project management skills. Reviews of environmental factors, Plans of Management and environmental approvals projects are where Rachel’s skills and talents are found. She is a strong communicator and enjoys interacting with clients and their stakeholders to deliver projects. Rachel’s passions lie in working with her clients to help solve their environmental issues and works to ensure sustainable outcomes for the projects she works on.

Emily Dow

Lead Legal Counsel,  NSW

Dr. Meredith Henderson

National Discipline Lead – Ecology & Impact Assessment, Principal Ecologist & Head of Technical and Quality,  NSW

Meredith is principal ecologist in Eco Logical Australia’s Wollongong Office, with over 25 years of survey, impact assessment and research experience. Meredith has worked in a range of sectors and on a broad range of projects. She has a PhD degree in terrestrial ecology. Meredith has spent many years designing and carrying out ecological surveys in NSW, Victoria and SA and she combines this with her passion for assisting clients with an astute knowledge of legislation and approvals. She is interested in the fine balance between providing certainty for conservation and development especially in contested landscape. With her regional team, she helps ELA’s clients make critical decisions about the environment.

Jasmine Richards

Principal Environmental Consultant & Head of Clients,  SA

Jasmine is a Principal Environmental Consultant with over 13 years experience specialising in regulatory approvals, mine closure planning, environmental management and stakeholder engagement within the resources industry. She has worked on projects throughout Australia including South Australia, the Northern Territory, Victoria, Tasmania, Western Australia and Queensland. Her previous role as an Environment and Community Superintendent on an operational mine site means that she has extensive experience in exploration and mine site environmental management, compliance, regulatory approvals, mine closure and proactive stakeholder engagement. It also has given her an in-depth knowledge of the challenges and opportunities faced by industry and helped her form trusted relationships with the many Federal and State regulators.

Warren McGrath

Head of Strategy,  NSW

Warren is an environmental scientist of over 20 years’ experience in State, Territory and Federal environmental planning and approvals and compliance. He has lead multi-disciplinary teams for environmental impact assessments and development of management programs for mining, urban development and linear infrastructure projects. Warren regularly provides advice on current policy and agency expectations in environmental protection and biodiversity conservation. He has a background in ecological restoration in WA and has overseen several revegetation mine rehabilitation trials and projects. As Head of Strategy, Warren makes recommendations to the Executive and oversees initiatives in regard to the maintenance of quality services to clients, growth of technical capacity and capability, sales, marketing, business development, and strategic opportunities.

Garry Straughton

National Discipline Lead - Water, Regional Operations Manager - Vic/WA/SA/NT & Principal Hydrogeologist,  SA

Garry is a Principal Hydrogeologist in the Eco Logical Australia Water Team. He has a passion for working with clients to better understand the risks faced when projects interact groundwater and surface water (too much, too little, low quality, effects to third parties). Garry is skilled at development of strategies to better understand and work with water on projects, and help stakeholders recognise the value of water in the environment. Garry’s key competencies lie in environmental approvals (baseline studies and impact assessments), water supply exploration studies and compliance monitoring.

Sophie Powrie

National Discipline Lead - Sustainability Services, Regional Manager Metro NSW & Principal Environmental Consultant,  NSW

Sophie is an experienced natural resource manager specializing in conservation planning. With 17 years industry experience, she has extensive skills in stakeholder engagement, workshop facilitation, effective project design, and knowledge transfer. She combines practical experience, attention to detail and collaborative learning to drive successful multi-stakeholder project outcomes.

Andrew Walsh

Regional Operations Manager NSW/ACT/QLD, Acting Operations Manager (Brisbane) & Principal Consultant, NRM,  NSW

Andrew has 19 years of experience in environmental and heritage management across Australia, as an environmental consultant and in various government roles. His technical focus has been on planning and approvals, invasive species management, conservation, restoration ecology, environmental impact assessment and mine closure and rehabilitation. Over his career, he has developed significant experience in senior leadership, effective stakeholder engagement and project management, focusing on delivering high quality solutions. One of his strengths is developing and maintaining long-term relationships with staff, clients, regulators and other stakeholders based on trust, integrity and mutually beneficial outcomes. For the last four years, Andrew has been the Project Manager for the $16M Lord Howe Island Rodent Eradication Project. The project was one of the largest single conservation actions undertaken in NSW. Prior to this role, Andrew has 8 years’ experience consulting experience, leading a diverse team of environmental scientists, ecologists and planners across five offices in North Queensland and the Northern Territory. As a consultant, Andrew has delivered a range of technically diverse projects for a variety of clients across most Australian States and Territories. Sectors include Conservation, Defence, Resources and Energy, Transport and Property. Andrew also worked for a number of years as a supervising quarantine and export inspector for the Australian Quarantine and inspection Service preventing and monitoring for exotic invasive species.

Sue Nichols

Manager - People and Culture,  NSW

Sue has enjoyed in excess of 20 years generalist human resources experience, across several industries including manufacturing, fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), pharmaceutical, banking, consulting and construction. Prior to joining Eco Logical Australia, Sue was employed as the manufacturing site based Human Resources Manager, for a multinational corporation in the FMCG sector. Sue’s generalist human resources experience spans across the full spectrum of the human resources discipline, including employee relations, industrial relations, recruitment, and occupational health & safety.

Steve Dimitriadis

Business Systems Manager,  NSW

Steve manages the development and deployment of information and technological systems at Eco Logical Australia with the goal of maximising effectiveness for consulting staff. Steve is responsible for the delivery of products and services to seek out and champion innovation and facilitate efficient information and communication platforms across the company.

Natalie Robinson

ESQ Manager,  NSW