Gareth Bramston
Director / Principal

Gareth is an environmental professional with over 15 years environmental management and approval experience. His background includes leading and managing major environmental approvals in the mining and development industry from the early planning phases through to construction and development. Gareth graduated with a Bachelor of Science (Honours) from the University of Southern Queensland.

Gareth’s international experience includes environmental management and approval services to mining Projects in Thailand and Bangladesh and environmental tourism Projects in Vanuatu. Gareth is also an accredited auditor and is experienced in environmental due diligence for resource projects. His particular strengths include government liaison throughout a project’s approval phases, and ongoing support and practical advice for operational mine sites.

Rod Hailstone
Director / Principal

Rod brings a unique background with over 20 years’ experience as an Environmental Scientist, while also being admitted as a lawyer.

Rod has spent a significant period of his career in environmental leadership roles within mining businesses, across both QLD and NSW. Rod has also demonstrated experience in leading both operational and corporate environmental teams, as well as developing and executing strategic environmental plans to support business success. Rod has a depth of technical knowledge and demonstrated experience in successfully delivering a range of State and Commonwealth approvals, as well as undertaking due diligence investigations across both QLD and NSW.

To support Rod’s environmental knowledge and skill base, he has also worked as an environmental law clerk, developing an excellent understanding of the environmental legislative processes.

Coupled with this, Rod also brings a background as an environmental regulator, having spent eight years working with the NSW Department of Land and Water Conservation, with three years of this spent managing investigations of water and native vegetation related breaches, and a further five years working as a Hydrographer.

Stuart Ritchie
Director / Principal

Stuart is an environmental engineer with a career spanning over 30 years’ as an environmental professional. Stuart has an extensive environmental background with expertise in environmental risk and compliance management, mine rehabilitation and closure, environmental sustainability strategies, climate change and energy policy, government and community engagement support and environmental project support.

Stuart holds a Masters of Environmental Management and brings experience in corporate environmental and sustainability roles across both national and multi-national mining and manufacturing companies. Stuart’s significant industry experience and his exposure and understanding of environmental and regulatory requirements, has resulted in a high level of operational environmental performance, a strong relationship with key regulators  and a combination of skills that translate into practical and workable strategies and solutions across a broad spectrum of industry sectors, notably mining and manufacturing.

Hayden Leary
Director / Chief Operating Officer

Hayden is a natural resources engineer with a career spanning over 20 years as a approvals, environmental and operations professional in the mining industry. Hayden has a proven ability to lead organisations, set strategic directions, and drive operational excellence.

Hayden’s technical proficiency spans the entire project lifecycle, from environmental and mining lease approvals to operational optimisation and risk mitigation. Hayden has extensive experience in navigating complex joint ventures, through his executive leadership roles in the mining industry, where he managed strategic asset development and joint venture partnerships.

Hayden is also an experienced risk management practitioner from business risk to operational risk assessment. Hayden’s leadership extends to industry organisations, where he has served as a Non-Executive Director and Chair of various committees within the Queensland Resources Council, contributing to the long-term sustainability of Queensland’s minerals and energy industries.

Lucia Lopez
Principal Ecologist

Lucia is a Principal Ecologist, specialising in Botany with over three years in Australia and six years of field experience throughout Africa and South-East Asia (Sumatra) working with various business partners, consultancies and local NGOs and Herbaria to deliver Environmental Impact Assessments.

Lucia’s experience covers a wide range of habitats from rainforest to wooded grasslands and projects, from consultancy to conservation projects (in partnership with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Throughout her field experience, Lucia has been actively training recent graduates in Africa on plant collection techniques and plant identification skills.

She is highly experienced in designing and leading ecological field assessments including baseline terrestrial and aquatic ecology; targeted threatened species surveys; research and monitoring; vegetation mapping; BioCondition assessments; rehabilitation monitoring; and receiving environmental monitoring programs.