15 - 16 September 2021 - Online conference
Speakers and session chairs for this event:
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Dani Alexander
RACE for Business Program Leader, RACE for 2030​
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Dani Alexander is passionate about reshaping our energy system to be clean, affordable, reliable and equitable. She specialises in distributed energy resources to promote energy system flexibility, specifically for Australian businesses. Dani believes in leveraging great ideas and partnerships to build waves of impact. Also a Research Principle at the UTS Institute for Sustainable Futures, Dani leads the RACE for Business Program at RACE for 2030, is a C40 Woman4Climate and is an editorial board member of Ecogeneration magazine.
Dorota Bacal
Capacity Builder, RACE for 2030​
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Dorota graduated PhD in photovoltaics at Monash University. Previously a researcher, Dorota works with RACE Industry Partners, building capacity within their organisations to accelerate the uptake of innovation within energy transition and decarbonisation areas. She has previous experience with carbon accounting and implementation of energy efficiency solutions.
Andrew Clarke
Principle Consultant, Northmore Gordon​
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Andrew has more than 30 years' experience and has worked in a variety of roles across the steel and chemical industries including operations management, and process design and improvement. Since entering the energy and carbon industry as a consultant in 2008, Andrew has helped many businesses reduce their energy costs and carbon footprints, including mineral processing, food processing, foundries, leather tanning and numerous other manufacturing industries. He has been working on an ongoing basis since 2008 to facilitate and support Energy Management Programs in steel manufacturing. Andrew holds professional certifications in Measurement and Verification and in Energy Management, and has significant experience in carbon certificate creation under the NSW Energy Savings Scheme, Victorian Energy Upgrades scheme and the federal Carbon Farming Initiative. If your facility is in Singapore, Andrew is approved as Energy Efficiency Opportunities Assessor.
Jo Cooper
Senior Project Officer - Sustainability Advantage, NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment​
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Jo’s involvement in the environment sector goes back many years as volunteer, campaigner, educator, policymaker and researcher. In 2007 Jo became EcoSurf Manager at Surf Life Saving Australia where she enabled the charity to expand its reach, advocacy and educational work proactively, including having the definition of ‘saving life’ extended to include the plant and animal life of the sensitive coastal environments members operate in.
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Jo has been working with Sustainability Advantage, the NSW Government’s flagship program activating and enabling business sustainability and leadership, for almost a decade. Jo helped to create and expand this program’s net zero emissions and circular economy initiatives to help NSW businesses accelerate their performance. Jo manages a large cluster of food manufacturers and also works on developing collaborative projects across sectors to drive impact at scale, develop new markets and enable resource optimisation. These complex sustainability challenges would be hard for any single organisation to solve alone.
Matt Drum
Managing Director, Ndevr Environmental​
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Matt has graduate qualifications in business and post-graduate in Environmental Law. He provides strategic advice for some of Australia’s largest and most well-respected corporations and is one of Australia’s most experienced and active Registered Greenhouse and Energy Auditors (RGEAs), holding a Category 1 and Category 2 accreditation from the Australian Government. Since 2007 Matt has dedicated his career to working on climate change issues, with the sole focus of helping the economy transition to a sustainable future, primarily by reducing carbon emissions. Matt was instrumental in the creation of Ndevr Environmental back in 2010 and under his leadership, Ndevr has grown from a sole consultant to a market leading team of professionals specialising in climate change, energy, and the broader sustainability.
Chris Dunstan
Chief Research Officer, RACE for 2030​
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Chris has been active in Australian clean energy policy, programs and research since 1990. Chris was instrumental in developing the NSW Greenhouse Gas Abatement Scheme (the world’s first carbon trading scheme), Australia’s first Demand Management Code of Practice for Electricity Networks and the NSW Government's Climate Change Fund. Between 2006 and 2020, Chris was Research Director at the Institute for Sustainable Futures at UTS. His research focused on decentralised energy, demand management and energy productivity. At UTS, he led many projects, including the Intelligent Grid Research Program, the Australian Decentralised Energy Roadmap, the Electric Driveway research project and Network Opportunity Maps. Chris’ PhD thesis was entitled: In the Balance: Electricity, Sustainability and Least Cost Competition.
Scott Edwards
Sustainability Manager, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners
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A recovering chemical engineer I’ve spent the last 17 years with Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (previously Coca-Cola Amatil) and the last 20 years in FMCG manufacturing across roles in engineering, production, quality with the last 11 of those years in Environment and Sustainability. Over that time I’ve been heavily involved with Sustainability Advantage, APCO, RE100 and The Coca-Cola Company’s Global Environment Council. In my role I work closely with engineering, logistics, corporate, legal, property, brand management, procurement, new product development and operations teams to reduce risk, maintain compliance and improvement performance in a sustainable way. Presently I’m charged primarily with delivering the decarbonisation, sustainable water and closed loop packaging strategies for the Australian supply chain through the development and implementation of a Net Zero Carbon and Net Zero Water roadmaps.
Karla Fox-Reynolds
Principal, Innovation Projects, Climate-KIC Australia
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Karla Fox-Reynolds has more than 15 years’ experience providing sustainable and innovative solutions to the built environment and property development industry. She has successfully managed complex, multi-stakeholder projects and enabled collaborations across public and private entities. Karla also contributes to industry committees and expert reference panels.
Fadi Geha
Founder and Executive Director​
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Fadi is an engineer with more than 30 years’ experience in enterprise software sales, consulting, and M&A. He is the Founder and Executive Director of Simble Solutions and served as its CEO from Nov 2009 to Nov 2019. During that period, Fadi led Simble through its various growth phases including the development of its suite of Carbon and Energy Management platforms, CarbonView and SimbleSense. Over that time Simble evolved from a start up sustainability focussed tech company through to an ASX listed public company via an IPO in February 2018.
Prior to Simble, Fadi held senior management positions with various software and consulting technology companies including SAP, Accenture, Viewlocity and Supply Chain Consulting. Fadi holds a Bachelor of Civil Engineering from USYD. He served as a director of the Business Council of Sustainable Development Australia between 2009 and 2019.
Kylie Hargreaves
Chair, Australian Alliance for Energy Productivity and Director, Hargreaves International
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Kylie is an experienced diplomat, policy maker, director and private consultant with a track record for solving difficult challenges. In addition to chairing A2EP, Kylie is currently also the Deputy Chair for Regional Development Australia – Sydney, a Beachhead Advisor for the New Zealand Government and a member of the Expert Panel for the NSW Government's Small Business Innovation & Research Program.
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With more than 25 years' experience as a senior executive working for Australian and state governments, including Austrade in the UK, USA and Spain, Kylie's key responsibilities have been to drive economic growth through the identification of innovative business models and new market opportunities. Kylie has represented Australia on the international stage and worked with hundreds of small, medium and large companies to capitalise on new growth opportunities. More recently this has included working with some of Australia's largest companies like Bluescope and the Tattarang Group of companies to advance critical NSW infrastructure projects in the energy space.
Daniel Hodges
Engineering Manager, Molycop Australia
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Daniel began his career as a motor mechanic whilst studying Mechanical Engineering. He then transitioned into the steel industry, going on to work across operations and asset management in a variety of roles. He is the Engineering Manager for Molycop Australia, the largest and most experienced supplier of mining consumables worldwide.
Daniel has broad experience across all elements of manufacturing management, with particular strengths in high-risk asset management, engineering systems and strategy.
Steve Hoy
Chief Executive Office, Enosi
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Steve Hoy is a global utility industry executive and recognized subject matter expert in smart grid and distributed energy resource management systems. As a founder and CEO of Enosi he leads a team developing retail energy trading solutions using the latest technologies including cryptography for proof of provenance. He has over 35 years experience in engineering, IT and strategy concentrating on the utilities sector, having started his career in the early 1980s as a power engineer with the local distribution utility (now AusGrid). His career has evolved from power engineering through SCADA and control systems at Megadata and Honeywell, into mainstream enterprise IT solutions at Logica, PwC Consulting and IBM where he led a global group of smart grid and utility industry subject matter experts in IBM’s Energy, Environment & Utilities Centre of Competency.
Steve is now CEO of Enosi Australia, which aims to disrupt the power industry through the development of innovative energy traceability, trading and settlement solutions.
Jonathan Jutsen
Chief Executive Officer, RACE for 2030 CRC
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Jon has been a leader in energy and carbon management for over 40 years. He was co-founder and led the Australian Alliance for Energy Productivity for nearly 10 years as Chair and CEO. He founded and led Energetics for over 20 years plus 10 years focused on innovation, including establishing an energy tech start-up with VC funding which he took to the US and ran for four years. He also had a stint on the Board of ARENA (Australian Renewable Energy Agency). He is a Chemical Engineer with a Masters degree in Energy Technology. He was named one of the ‘100 Most Influential Engineers in Australia’, is a Fellow of the Academy of Technological Science and Engineering, received a Millennium Medal, and 2018 Energy Efficiency Champion.
Amy Kean
Director, Stride Renewables​
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Amy Kean is a Director at Stride Renewables, a boutique energy advisory firm. Amy has over 20 years of experience in energy markets across the public and private sectors, nationally and internationally, and has a background in Science, Arts and Law. Before joining Stride, Amy was the NSW Government Renewable Energy Advocate. Following this role, she became the Director of Energy Infrastructure, Programs and Emerging Technologies.
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Amy has also worked at the Clean Energy Council, Pinpoint Mastercard, Accenture, Hydro Tasmania and was a board member of Renewables SA, Renew and REEEP. She is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Energy. In 2017, she received the NSW Green Globe award for Public Sector Leadership and the Energy Minister's Leadership Award in 2018. In 2019, Amy received a Recognition Award for services to the Duke of Edinburgh Award from HRH Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex.
Declan Kuch
Visiting Research Fellow, UNSW & Vice Chancellor’s Research Fellow, Western Sydney University
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Dr Declan Kuch has published widely on energy and climate policy over the last decade, working with industry, government and community groups to grapple with the challenges of the energy transition. He co-leads Australia’s involvement with the User-Centred Energy Systems Technology Collaboration through the IEA – the first social-science centred TCP in the Agency’s history, and is currently examining the social license challenges associated with automated energy systems with partners in seven countries.
Jarrod Leak
Chief Executive Officer, Australia Alliance for Energy Productivity
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Jarrod Leak joined the Australian Alliance for Energy Productivity (A2EP) as Chief Executive Officer after a long career with Swedish engineering company, Alfa Laval, most recently as Managing Director and Cluster President for its Oceania and South East Asian operations.
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Jarrod has a great depth of experience across a range of industries, with significant expertise in implementing innovative technology-based sustainability and energy productivity solutions. With A2EP already having established energy productivity on the agenda in Australia, Jarrod is focussed on taking energy productivity to the next level and emphasising the important role it will play on the path to net zero.
Heidi Lee
Chief Executive Officer, Beyond Zero Emissions
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As Chief Executive Officer of think tank Beyond Zero Emissions, Heidi Lee is an Australian leader in independent research and innovative solutions demonstrating how the country can prosper in a zero-emissions economy. She led the organisation's much-lauded COVID-response piece, The Million Jobs Plan, which showed how in just five years, renewables and low emissions projects can deliver 1.8 million new jobs in the regions and communities that these are needed most.
Previously Heidi held several leadership roles at Beyond Zero Emissions, including on the Buildings Plan, as Board Director and Chair, and as Business and Industry Lead. Heidi is an expert in sustainable buildings and urban design and brings 20 years of experience in creating sustainable cities to her role at Beyond Zero Emissions.
Martina Lyons
Market Transformation Lead, RACE for 2030​
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With more than 15 years’ experience in strategy, policy, program design, project management, stakeholder engagement and communications across not-for-profit, government and the private sector, Martina is driven to help create an equitable society that is open, respectful, peaceful, creative, innovative and diverse. Martina has recently worked for the Australian Renewable Energy Agency and various NSW Government agencies including Department of Environment.
Josh McIntyre
EPS National Business Development Manager, Siemens
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Josh has been active in energy and sustainability global businesses serving the built environment and industrial plants across Australia. His experience has included over 15 years of design, engineering, programming, sales, project management and commissioning of automation systems, HVAC, lighting, fire systems, security and energy retrofits.
Justin Merrell
Group Environment Director​
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Justin is the Group Environment Director at Lion, one of Australia’s largest brewers. He is responsible for setting Lion’s environment strategy that focuses on carbon, sustainable packaging, and water stewardship. Prior to Lion, Justin held various roles in Qantas, but joined Qantas in 2012 as Group Environment Manager just in time to catch Australia’s first biofuel flight. Prior to Qantas, he was Operations Manager at the Koppers chemical plant in Kurnell for 11 years. Justin has a Chemical Engineering Degree from the University of Newcastle and Master of Environmental Management from the University of New South Wales.
Umer Mohammed
Head of Energy, Performance and Sustainability, Siemens ​
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Umer Mohammed has more than 30 years' wide-ranging supply-side experience within electricity transmission, distribution utilities & energy management. In particular, the 10 years that he spent with Jemena helped with gaining a deep understanding of the utilities network. He has experience in delivering bottom line savings for end-users through solution development. Umer has been successful in leading teams to deliver projects and program initiatives to major private sector and government clients. Umer can effectively review a customer’s energy portfolio through detailed understanding of customer operations, economic and sustainability drivers. He is passionate about sustainability and driven to encourage the leadership within organizations to take up energy efficiency.
Greg Morrison
RACE for Everyone Program Leader, RACE for 2030​
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Greg Morrison is a Professor in sustainable cities at Curtin University and Program Leader for the research theme RACE for Everyone. Greg has a series of recent research publications on the energy transition through social and technical systems analysis.
Jeffrey Neave
Environment Manager, Molycop Australia
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Jeffrey Neave has worked in the steel manufacturing industry for 40 years. He is currently the Environment Manager for Molycop Australia, having a background in mechanical engineering at Molycop. Jeff is a key member of the Molycop Energy Management program which has delivered energy savings totalling over $1.5m per annum and the consequential reduction in Greenhouse gas emissions has resulted in 15K tonnes of corresponding carbon emissions abatement each year. He is a keen proponent of renewable energy and played a founding role in Molycop's decision to enter into a PPA for renewable electrical energy of 100,000 MWh per annum. Jeff is looking forward to navigating the hurdles of carbon emissions reduction in the coming years in preparation for a net zero future.
Robert Nicholson, MBA
Energy Market Lead, pitt&sherry​
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Robert is a Senior Principal Consultant at pitt&sherry and leads the company’s Energy Market presence with a focus on the development and adoption of emerging energy technologies and renewable energy projects. Robert also leads pitt&sherry’s energy services business unit developing net zero and energy management strategies, and the transition to renewable energy sources for large energy users.
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Robert brings more than 20 years of senior business experience and led pitt&sherry to be an early adopter
in the development of hydrogen projects in Australia, undertaking feasibility studies for utilities and local government in the generation of hydrogen from treated wastewater. Robert sits on the Board of the Australian Alliance for Energy Productivity (A2EP), is an Advisory Board member for Macquarie University’s Sustainable Energy Research Centre, and is a member of the Australian Institute of Energy where he is an active mentor.
Caroline Ottmann
Director, Strategy and Innovation, Schneider Electric​
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Caroline brings more than ten years of international experience across technology and energy industries in a series of consulting, strategy, commercial and transformation roles. She is passionate about the energy transition and leads Schneider’s Pacific sustainability commitments and new energy landscape strategy, covering key topics including energy management, energy efficiency, safety, sustainability and cyber security.
David Roche
Research Principal, UTS Institute for Sustainable Futures​
David has more than 25 years’ experience in business development and technology commercialisation across a range of industries, including renewable energy. He has assisted many SMEs through a broad range of technical and advisory services such as business and strategic planning, capital raising, project management, financial modelling and analysis. He has also been a director of five technology start-ups that have gone on to list on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX).
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David has extensive expertise in the design, construction and performance of photovoltaic energy systems, having helped develop, optimise, install and project manage some of the first grid-connected PV systems in Australia. He has also provided technical assessments of various renewable energy projects, and successfully developed and delivering training courses in renewable energy. David has edited and co-authored books on solar car racing and photovoltaic system design. He holds Bachelors’ degrees in Electrical Engineering and Mathematics, and a Master of Science.
Dr Fiona Simon
Chief Executive Officer, Australian Hydrogen Council​
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Fiona Simon is the CEO of the Australian Hydrogen Council (AHC), the peak body for the Australian hydrogen industry. AHC connects the hydrogen industry and its stakeholders in building a secure, clean and resilient energy future based on hydrogen. AHC’s members are from a range of sectors, including energy, transport, consulting, banking and technology.
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Prior to joining the Australian Hydrogen Council, Fiona worked for close to 20 years in energy policy and regulation, specialising in energy retail competition and consumer protection matters. Fiona holds a Bachelor of Arts and a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Melbourne. She has published a well-regarded academic book on retail energy regulation in Australia.
Dr Mary Stewart
Chief Executive Officer, Energetics
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Dr Mary Stewart is a chemical engineer who is recognised globally as an expert in decision-making for sustainable development, with more than 20 years’ experience in assisting some of Australia’s largest energy users develop energy management and climate risk strategies. Mary is an international expert on life cycle assessment as it applies to resources and in developing carbon footprints and carbon neutral positions. Mary was recently invited by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) to be the Business and Industry NGO observer on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Technology Executive Committee’s Implementation taskforce.
The taskforce supports TEC work on technology needs assessment (TNA), collaborative technology development and transfer, and uptake of existing clean mitigation and adaptation technologies. She has previously represented the ICC on the innovation working group and on the Standing Committee on Finance. She represented Australian business and industry perspectives at COP25 in Madrid in December 2019. Mary is the president of the Energy Efficiency Council and is on the Community of Practice for Energy of the Institute of Chemical Engineers where she was one of the drafting team for the Institute’s Climate Change Policy.
Amelia Thorpe
Associate Professor, UNSW ​
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Amelia Thorpe is Associate Professor in Law at UNSW. Her work centres on frameworks for decision-making in cities – who gets to have a say, and how – and the ways in which those frameworks might advance social and environmental justice. Her book, Owning the Street: The Everyday Life of Property, was published by MIT Press in 2020. Amelia’s current research includes projects on the governance of electric vehicles, and of delivery cyclists.
Sally Townsend
Head of Sustainability, Blackmores Group
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Sally Townsend is a passionate sustainability and communications professional. She has 20 years of experience in the retail and healthcare sectors and specialises in developing strategies with a strong corporate narratives and deep alignment throughout organisations.
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In her current role as Head of Sustainability for Blackmores Group, Sally has responsibility for the Group Sustainability Vision aligned to the UN Sustainable Development Goals and is working to integrate these commitments into the core business strategy to deliver on the company’s sustainability vision for a world where people and nature thrive together. In 2020, Blackmores committed to Net Zero Emissions by 2030 and has progressed the journey to have a deeper understanding of human rights, climate resilience and biodiversity impacts across their global supply chain.
Dr Gordon Weiss
Decarbonisation Expert, Energetics
Gordon’s expertise lies in climate risk modelling, emissions projections, energy and carbon policy development, decarbonisation technologies and energy management. Gordon has worked with a number of governments on the development of energy and greenhouse gas programs and policies, and is arguably one of Australia’s leading forecasters of emissions reduction trajectories, regularly reviewing forecasts of Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions and assessing actions to reduce those emissions.
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Gordon has a PhD in Chemical Engineering and is a Fellow of the Institute of Chemical Engineers (IChemE). He is also a member of Standards Australia’s EN001 Energy Auditing Technical Panel.
Andrew Weller
Business Development Manager, Glaciem Cooling Technologies
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Andrew leads Business Development for Glaciem Cooling – an award-winning Australian company enabling commercial and industrial users to decarbonise their heat and cooling energy needs. Andrew has a background in management consulting at the intersection of cleantech and the agriculture sector, having led the commercialisation and internationalisation of Australian technologies across a range of industries.
Andrew is passionate about commercialising technologies for a true zero carbon future, helping customers understand the value proposition and designing and deploying the business models that ensure successful commercial outcomes.
Dr Stephen White
Energy Efficiency Leader, CSIRO
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Dr White leads CSIRO's Energy Efficiency Research. He also leads the 'Buildings to Grid Data Clearing House' activity in the Affordable Heating and Cooling Innovation Hub (i-Hub). He is also the Operating Agent for the International Energy Agency EBC Annex 81 'Data-Driven Smart Buildings'. Dr White has more than over 25 years of experience in energy end use efficiency and electricity industry demand side management. He has extensive experience in the application of research to support both government energy efficiency policy instruments and technology commercialization. He oversees the NatHERS benchmark software (referenced in the National Construction Code) and key national energy databases (NEAR, Australian Housing Database).
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He has played a leadership role in the start-up of a number of companies, and the design of award winning innovative airconditioning systems. He has published extensively in the field and is in demand as an expert advisor to organisations such as ARENA, the International Energy Agency and Mission Innovation.