Marlene Kanga

Marlene is a Chartered Chemical Engineer, an Honorary Fellow of IChemE and an experienced Chair and non-executive Director.

She was the 2017-2019 President of the World Federation of Engineering Organisations (WFEO), the first chemical engineer to hold this position, and was National President of Engineers Australia in 2013. Marlene is an Officer of the Order of Australia, a national honour, awarded for distinguished service to engineering, particularly as a global leader and role model to women, within professional organisations and business.

She is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technology Science and Engineering, an international Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, a Foreign Fellow of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Academy of Engineering and Technology, an Honorary Fellow of Engineers Australia, and a Fellow (honorary) of the engineering institutions of New Zealand and India.

Marlene studied chemical engineering at the Indian Institution of Technology, Bombay, India and has a Masters in process safety engineering from Imperial College London, UK, and a PhD from Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. She has been involved in the process safety engineering industry in Australia and New Zealand, for more than 30 years, developing the land Use Safety Criteria for the New South Wales (NSW) Department of Planning which were adopted in regulations across Australia and New Zealand.

She is currently a non-executive director of, Endeavour Energy, Air Services Australia, and Standards Australia, and previously of Innovation Science Australia, Sydney Water Corporation and Chair of the Australian Department of Industry and Science R&D Incentives Committee, the largest government support program for industry R&D. She is a mentor for start-up boards and a director of iOmniscient, which has developed artificial intelligence for video technologies and Rux Energy which is commercialising hydrogen storage technology.

Marlene was the 2018 Engineers Australia National Professional Engineer of the Year and received the 2019 Chemeca Medal for her contribution to chemical engineering in Australia and New Zealand. She has been listed among the 100 engineers making a contribution to Australia in the last 100 years as part of Engineers Australia Centenary celebrations in 2019, among the top 100 women of influence and one of the top 10 women engineers in Australia.