Michael Wiltshire is an Operations Manager with the Water Corporation, where he has built a career over nearly two decades. For the past seven years, he has been part of the Dams Team, leading operations with a focus on safety, performance, and team development.
Michael is a dedicated family man, Enjoying life with his wife Emily and their three children. He is passionate about mentoring and supporting young people through his church community and enjoys giving back by coaching a community basketball team. In his downtime, you’ll often find him following Speedway Sprintcar racing or watching AFL football.
Michael has over 25 years experience in Dam Engineering roles. His career has included roles in engineering consultancies in Australia and England as well as at a Dam Owner. Currently Senior Principal Engineer, Dams and Dam Safety at Water Corporation, Michael’s role covers a wide range of functions at a dam owner from design of works, dam safety management, risk management and dam safety training. Training, development and knowledge transfer in the industry are among his interests. Michael has previously been a board member of multiple community organisations, been ANCOLD’s Treasurer (2015-2017) and is currently ANCOLD’s elected Director.
Originally from Ireland Gerard moved to Sydney, Australia in 2008. After spending his early career in the insurance industry, he relocated to Kununurra in 2013 and worked through various position with Water Corporation. In 2022, Gerard stepped into his current role as Dams Coordinator, where he supports the operation and management of dams across the North West, with a particular focus on the Ord Irrigation Scheme. Gerard previously attended the ANCOLD Operators Forum in 2023 in Bendigo.
With over 14 years of experience at Water Corporation, I have built my career from the ground up, beginning as a trainee and progressing to an Operations Team Leader role before moving into a Senior Technical Advisor role within Water South. Throughout all roles, I have developed strong technical and leadership capabilities, leading to my current position as Senior Technical Advisor for Compliance within Water South.
Across my career, I have been actively involved in dam safety works, as well as managing a range of projects and maintenance programs across the region. My work has consistently focused on maintaining asset integrity and ensuring the delivery of safe and reliable water services to the community.
Outside of work, I enjoy spending time with my young family, balancing a strong professional commitment with family life.
Jimmy has worked for the Water Corporation for over 19 years, with extensive experience across the operations & management of critical Dam infrastructure.
Throughout his career, he has played a key role in the delivery of numerous large-scale dam safety projects and major upgrade programs.
Currently working as Operations Team Leader, he brings a wealth of hands-on experience, and technical expertise developed through years of working across complex and diverse operational environments.
With 14 years of experience at Water Corporation, I have progressed from starting as a trainee through to an Operations Team Leader role within Water South. Throughout my career, I have been actively involved in dam safety works, as well as managing projects and maintenance tasks across the region.
This experience has allowed me to develop strong technical knowledge and practical expertise, with a consistent focus on maintaining asset integrity, supporting operational performance, and ensuring reliable water services.
Outside of work, I value spending time with my family and maintaining a balanced lifestyle.
Karen has worked for 10 years at the Water Corporation across various roles. For the past 5 years she has joined the Dam Safety team as Coordinator – Dam Safety. Her duties include data integrity, monitoring instrumentation and dam operator readings, ANCOLD dam inspections and data support for the team. In 2025 Karen was awarded the ANCOLD 2025 Dam Operators Forum, Emerging Professionals Scholarship which enabled her to attend the conference in Dubbo, NSW.
Rhys is an engineer who has worked in the water industry for nearly 10 years, and in Dams Operations for the past 5 years. As part of his duties, Rhys completes dam inspections, compliance reporting, runs operational improvement projects and provides operations support. Rhys has also previously attended the ANCOLD Operators Forum in 2022 (Strathgordon, Tas.) and 2023 (Bendigo, Vic.).
