Sean Brady 

Managing Director, Brady Heywood

Sean Brady is a forensic engineer who specialises in investigating engineering failures from both technical and organisational perspectives. He has acted as an expert witness in numerous legal proceedings involving a wide range of constructed facilities and is recognised for his expertise in forensic engineering, litigation and arbitration support, and failure investigations.

Sean is a Director of the Society of Construction Law Australia and a member of the Singapore International Mediation Centre's Panel of Experts.

In 2020, he led the Brady Review, an investigation into the causes of fatalities in the Queensland mining industry. The review was tabled in Parliament and made 11 recommendations to regulators and mining companies aimed at improving safety across the sector.

In 2024, Sean completed the technical and organisational investigation into the catastrophic failure of a turbine generator at Queensland's Callide C Power Station.

Alongside his investigative work, Sean is a sought-after speaker, writer and podcaster on the causes of technical and organisational failure, sharing insights on how engineering and organisational systems contribute to major incidents and how they can be prevented.

Areas of expertise: Forensic engineering, failure investigations, litigation and arbitration support, expert witness services, organisational failure analysis, and construction law.

Presentation title

How complex systems fail: Lessons from Boeing’s 737 MAX 8 crashes