Asset Management as a Value Driver

For decades, asset management sat quietly in the operating expense column — a function organisations spent on rather than invested in. That framing is collapsing. In 2026, asset leaders across Australian utilities, transport, government, healthcare and resources are being asked to do something fundamentally different: contribute to growth, demonstrate strategic value and shape the organisation's long-term performance trajectory.

This shift is at the heart of the 2nd Annual Asset Management & Performance Summit, co-located with FSM Summit ANZ 2026 at Royal Randwick on 26–27 August. The program is built for the asset leaders making this transition — and the executives holding them accountable for it.

Why Asset Management Is Being Repositioned

Three forces are simultaneously elevating the strategic profile of asset management:

• Capital scrutiny is rising. Boards and regulators want clearer line-of-sight between asset investment and organisational outcomes.
• Climate and sustainability obligations have become inseparable from capital planning. Asset decisions now have explicit ESG consequences.
• Performance expectations are tightening across reliability, safety, customer experience and resilience — all of which trace back to asset condition and lifecycle decisions.

In short: asset management is being asked to demonstrate measurable contribution to value, not just defensible cost control.

Asset Decisions That Drive Value: The Frameworks That Work

A quickfire session on Day 1 — Asset Decisions That Drive Value: Moving Beyond Maintenance Cost to Strategic Impact — examines how leading organisations are reframing asset management from a necessary expense to a contributor to reliability, financial performance and long-term organisational value. The session focuses on the analytics, prioritisation and decision frameworks that are delivering the strongest impact.

It pairs naturally with a featured Day 1 panel — Asset Management as a Value Driver: From Cost Centre to Strategic Enabler. Panelists include Toby Horstead, Technical Executive Asset Management at WSP; Prashanth Mullapudi, Manager — Strategic Asset Management at Yarra Trams; and Susan Ruffo, General Manager — Property Asset Management at VMCH. Three perspectives — infrastructure consulting, transport operator, property portfolio — sharing how they're elevating asset management into a strategic discipline aligned with finance and operations.

Integrating the Asset Lifecycle

Strategic asset management is impossible without a unified view of the lifecycle. A dedicated Day 2 keynote — Integrating Systems Across the Asset Lifecycle — tackles the architecture and interoperability questions that keep most organisations stuck. From capital planning to decommissioning, the keynote outlines the choices that build a genuinely connected asset ecosystem and the cost of leaving them unresolved.

The Strategic Asset Leaders Worth Hearing From

The 2026 program is built around senior asset practitioners with national portfolios:

• Peter Georgiadis, EGM — Major Projects, Asset Management & Delivery, JetCharge
• Dave Smale, Executive General Manager SEQ Assets, Queensland Rail
• Stephen Challis, Head of Asset Management, Shell Energy
• Cameron Esman, Head of Asset Management, Ventia
• Rohit Sharma, Head of Asset Management, Downer
• Grant Hyndman, Head of Asset Management, RSL Lifecare

This is the depth of practitioner expertise that distinguishes the Asset Management & Performance Summit from a generic infrastructure conference.

Resilience, Risk and Reliability in a Changing Environment

Asset management as a value driver requires reframing risk. With ageing infrastructure, climate pressure and rising regulatory expectations, organisations are rethinking how they manage exposure and safeguard performance. A featured Day 1 panel on Resilience, Risk and Reliability covers smarter capital planning, improved response strategies and the cross-functional collaboration that strategic asset operations depend on.

A complementary Day 2 panel — Asset Decisions Under Pressure: Cost, Climate and Criticality — features Cameron Esman of Ventia exploring trade-off decisions, scenario analysis and how to build confidence in choices that affect long-life, high-value infrastructure.

Why This Summit, Why Now

If you're in or supporting an asset management function and being asked to articulate strategic value to finance, operations or the board, the 2nd Annual Asset Management & Performance Summit is built for the conversation you're having internally.