Meet Our Founder
John Vagenas
Industrial Sustainability Solutions Founder and Managing Director
About John Vagenas
John is a process engineer with over 20 years of experience in mining, minerals and heavy industry. He has a Bachelor of Engineering (Hons.) in Industrial Chemistry from UNSW and has worked as a Company Director since 2006.
He is the founder and Managing Director of three prominent industry organisations:
- Metallurgical Systems – an award-winning suite of metallurgical accounting and process optimisation software and services established in 2010.
- Industrial Sustainability Solutions (ISS) – enables granular analytics, reporting and compliance with its proven Sustainability Tracker (ST) platform.
- Elemental Engineering – a consulting firm providing world-leading process simulation and design services to the minerals industry since 2006.
John is a fellow of the Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (AusIMM) and has also served as an Alternate Director of Austmine (October 2019 – Dec 2023). He supports and contributes to a range of industry events and publications. This has included presenting as the keynote speaker for Metplant 2023, on global best practice metallurgical plant design and industrial operating strategies, as well as AusIMM’s 2021 thought-leadership series and 2022 series on technology and decarbonisation.
John’s key areas of expertise include:
- Metallurgical accounting, production reporting and industrial process optimisation – John is a subject matter expert and has travelled the globe to consult on some of the world’s most complex production processes. He has built and tested hundreds of steady-state and dynamic process simulation models using his extensive knowledge across Ni, Cu, Co, Zn, Au, U, PGM’s, Li, Va to name a few.
- Digital transformation – he has a practical and in-depth understanding of the evolving technology challenges faced by heavy industry operators and what is required to maintain growth and profitability.
- Sustainability – he has implemented ESG measurement and optimisation solutions for several of the world’s most successful mining, resources and industrial organisations and is actively working to fast-track the sector’s overall evolution in this area.
- Addressing the skills shortage – John believes strongly in the need to make the industrial sector more diverse, inclusive and attractive to the next generation of talent, and facilitates a range of graduate/mentoring opportunities to support this.
If you have any questions relating to our credentials, please get in touch.