Sandra Rigo

Director – Urban Planning

A Director of Hansen Partnership, Sandra is a Town Planner with over 25 years of experience in statutory and strategic planning, in both the private and local government sectors.

Sandra’s experience encompasses all elements of the development approvals process from initial site choice, to a collaborative design process and finally navigating the statutory process to gain planning approval.

She regularly gives planning evidence at VCAT and enjoys the challenge of presenting and participating in a range of public forums including community consultations, stakeholder and council meetings.

Whilst focussed on statutory planning in recent years, Sandra’s experience extends to strategic planning projects, including built form reviews, urban character studies, structure plans and urban design framework plans. Her responsibilities in these projects include the coordination and conduct of community consultation programs and writing planning policies and controls.

Outside project work, Sandra is a strong supporter of women in the property industry with a particular focus on the professional development and mentoring of young planners. As the only female director for many years, Sandra has always been passionate about mentoring female staff, fostering their career development and opportunities to encourage the next generation of female directors

Gerhana Waty

Director - Urban Design

Gerhana is an experienced urban designer with over 14 years’ experience in both the public and private sectors with a sound knowledge of design appraisals, master planning and framework initiatives within Australia and internationally.

Gerhana’s passion for urban design is driven by her architectural background and her particular interests in how evidence-based design and urban analytic could influence quality decision making and design outcome in a constantly evolving urban environment. Her contribution in strategic and statutory dimensions of urban design at Hansen reflects a strong, tangible and complementary emphasis on creating safe and sustainable spaces. She had previously contributed and led award winning transit oriented development and public realm improvement projects including the Surabaya Urban Develop­ment Program in Indonesia and the AILA Award for the Streets for People Feasibility Study for the City of Darebin.

In addition to her project work, Gerhana also regularly provides advice to Government agencies and developers on development applications and design justifications both locally and internationally. Gerhana is also an active contrib­utor to research through RMIT and the University of Melbourne (Melbourne School of Design) as a seasonal Master of Architecture Studio Leader.

Gary Wissenden

Director – Urban Planning

Gary is a town planner with over 16 years’ professional experience in public and private sector roles. His career has taken him to the United Kingdom as well as the Cities of Stonnington, Yarra and Glen Eira in metropolitan Melbourne, in addition to more than eight years in the private sector working across metropolitan, peri-urban, coastal and rural projects.

As a planner, Gary has managed a diverse range of statutory planning projects including mixed use and residential developments, commercial and retail projects, a range of liquor license and entertainment venues, education and institutional projects as well as telecommunications and infrastructure projects.

Much of Gary’s expertise lies in advocacy work. He regularly represents the public and private sector at VCAT and public meetings, providing professional and balanced advice.

In addition to his statutory planning work, Gary maintains a keen interest in strategic planning. He has worked on several land use strategies, with a focus on the coastal regions of Victoria. His strategic experience also extends to Hansen Partnership’s work in Vietnam.

Gary is an active member of Victoria’s planning industry bodies such as the Planning Institute of Australia (PIA) and the Victoria Planning and Environmental Law Association (VPELA).

Damian Iles

Managing Director

Since late 2024, Damian has served as the Managing Director at Hansen, bringing over 27 years of professional experience as a town planner. His extensive career spans both the government and private sectors, with a focus on navigating the statutory approvals process for various land use and development applications; including conventional market housing, build to rent housing, student accommodation, independent and aged accommodation, co-housing, community living, multigenerational housing and other alternative models. He has experience in the delivery of early learning, child care centres and a range of education facilities through metropolitan and regional areas. He is also involved in other sectors including, industrial and employment, commercial, hospitality and retail, recreation and community based initiatives.

Damian has a passion for innovative medium and higher density housing models and projects with a strong social conscience and commitment to sustainability. His holistic community focused work includes projects for Nightingale Housing, Launch Housing, Aboriginal Housing Victoria, Housing Choices Australia, STREAT, The Uniting and Baptist Churches, among many others. He seeks to champion better designed and more sustainable solutions for our communities, cities and towns. He also has a range of experience preparing master plans for both the public and private sectors. This work extends to institutional development and the preparation of various planning scheme amendments, as well as peer reviews, advice and strategy.

A respected expert witness, Damian is passionate about planning outcomes and provides a balanced narrative influenced by an understanding of government regulation, property, strategy and the importance of liveable, sustainable and workable solutions for the built environment. He provides frank and fearless advice and is passionate about influencing outcomes with enduring value.

David Barnes

Director – Urban Planning

Hansen Partnership’s Director David Barnes has been a town planner since 1980. With an MBA to supplement his planning qualifications, David is both a strategic planning specialist and an experienced statutory planner.

As a statutory planner David has been involved in obtaining planning approvals for a wide range of projects including residential, retail, commercial, industrial, rural, tourism, entertainment, sports, recreation and community development projects.

He has extensive experience representing clients at planning appeals and panel hearings as both an advocate and as an expert witness.

As a strategic planner, David’s experience encompasses policy formulation and implementation; preparation of strategy plans; structure plans; urban design frameworks; development plans; planning schemes and amendments; community consultation; preparation of infrastructure funding strategies and development contributions plans as well as the preparation of commercial, industrial and residential market assessments.

In addition, David has experience in Asia preparing urban management plans; strategy plans; structure plans; master plans; planning and development controls; institutional strengthening programs and professional training programs.

Andrew Partos

Director - Landscape Architecture

Award winning urban designer, architect and landscape architect with over 25 years’ experience, Andrew Partos was jointly responsible for the design and delivery of the iconic civic plaza at Federation Square, Australia’s most visited place.

He has worked in sustainable development for over ten years, with client responsibility for some of Australia’s most innovative projects including the Government Services Building and Lonsdale Street redevelopment in Dandenong and the Meridian productive landscape community in South Dandenong. Recent projects include a sustainable mine village in Mozambique with its associated community outreach program, and cluster village projects in Taradale and Malmsbury in central Victoria.

Cameron Gentle

Director - Urban Planning

Cameron has extensive experience in both the local government and the private sectors, having worked within the Victorian planning system since 1996.

His experience extends across a range of urban and regional statutory and strategic planning matters including medium and higher density residential development, large scale commercial and industrial development, subdivisions, development plan approvals, planning scheme amendments and VCAT.

Prior to joining Hansen, Cameron’s work in local government provided insight into coastal planning issues, firsthand experience in applying the metropolitan green wedge policy framework, experience in applications concerning extractive industries, growth area planning and issues pertaining to regional Victoria.

Within the private sector, Cameron’s experience has also been varied having managed and contributed to projects for both public and private sector clients. Notable projects include apartment and office towers in Docklands, development approval for a school in Tasmania, a greenfield subdivision on Melbourne’s fringe and a series of strategic plans for metropolitan rail corridors.

Cameron combines his broad experience and detailed understanding of the planning system with an open minded and practical approach to achieving timely and positive outcomes on all projects.

Alastair Campbell

Director - Urban Design

Alastair is an urban designer with more than two decades of experience working on a variety of projects for both public and private clients, contributing to a wide range of design schemes and developments in south-eastern Australia.

Through his experience in providing urban design advice, Alastair has developed a high level of competence and service delivery in urban design analysis and concept development. He is well recognised in the planning and urban design industry for preparing and implementing site-specific urban design guidelines through to large scale strategic urban design projects.

Alastair’s varied skills include project management, structure planning, master planning, sub-division design, neighbourhood character studies, town centre design, preparation of VCAT and panel expert evidence and community/stakeholder engagement and consultation.

Steve Schutt

Director – Landscape Architecture

Steve is a registered landscape architect with extensive experience in Australia and internationally. He is skilled and experienced in the delivery of  projects ranging across the fields of public domain design, residential landscapes, educational institutions, recreational facilities, natural and rehabilitated landscapes, commercial developments and large-scale infrastructure projects.

His skills and experience embrace the full spectrum of landscape architecture including conceptual design; design development; documentation; contract administration; master planning; visual assessment; community consultation as well as the provision of expert evidence to planning tribunals.

Steve has extensive experience in the management of multidisciplinary project teams. He has managed the design and implementation of a number of major landscape projects including the University of New South Wales Mall, Walsh Bay Redevelopment, Sydney Olympic Velodrome, Frankston CAD Urban Renewal, Langtree Mall redevelopment in Mildura, the Devonport Foreshore redevelopment in Tasmania as well as the multi-award winning Mackenzie Falls Gorge Trail.

As a director of Hansen Partnership, Steve is able to apply his skills and experience to a range of projects from landscape master planning to urban design studies and the detailed implementation of landscape designs in both urban and non-urban environments. In this regard, Steve is able to operate effectively as a multidisciplinary professional, offering skills in urban planning, urban design and landscape architecture.

Jane Keddie

Director - Urban Planning

Jane is the Director of Hansen’s strategic planning team and works regularly on a wide range of planning projects across planning and design.

She works collaboratively both internally and externally to deliver large and complex projects. Her commitment to improving planning’s responses to climate change are acknowledged by award wins and the intersection of climate resilience and planning systems is a key focus of her work. She also has a passion for Victoria’s regions and has worked extensively across the state. She regularly supports reviews of policy and has provided expert evidence at Planning Panels Victoria.

Jane’s strengths lie in system thinking and in the communication of complex planning concepts to a broad range of stakeholders. She is regularly sought out for her facilitation skills and willingness to do things differently to find the right solution for her clients.

Jane has chaired and facilitated numerous forums, roundtables, conference sessions and industry briefings. She has given evidence at both state and federal government inquiries and she regularly provides commentary, particularly around issues related to climate change. She sits on the program advisory board for Monash University’s planning degree and is the current Vice-President of the Planning Institute of Australia (Victorian division).