Advisory Panel

Susan Mallan brings more than 25 years’ experience in the energy sector to her advisory roles on energy developments across Australia. She has worked in listed, privately owned and Government corporations across the upstream exploration and development, power generation and electricity sectors. She has led teams in commercial, project management, technical, operational services and corporate functions.

A qualified mechanical and petroleum engineer with a Masters in Business Administration, Susan has worked extensively across Australia, the Middle East, Indonesia and North America. Susan holds a Company Directors Diploma from the Australian Institute of Company Directors and is a member of QUT’s Science and Engineering Faculty Academic Board, UNSW’s School of Petroleum Engineering Industry Advisory Board and the Women in Mining & Resources Queensland Committee.

Dr Godfrey’s career has been built in business, innovation investment and technology development fields. He has focused on the advancement and commercialisation of technologies (particularly new energy technologies – renewable, enabling and low emission fossil), investment readiness of products and companies, and innovation policy and programs.

In addition to his full-time management, technical and consulting roles since 1980, Bruce has been a member of assessment committees for numerous Commonwealth and Victorian government R&D and innovation and deployment support programs across a wide range of energy technologies including solar, wind, geothermal, marine, biofuels, fuel cells, hydrogen, battery storage, enabling and distributed energy resources integration and brown coal utilisation. He understands well the opportunities and challenges for developers and suppliers of new and renewable energy technologies, products and services that are used in or could penetrate energy supply chains in Australia and overs

Bruce is a Fellow of the Academy of Technology and Engineering (ATSE). He has Chaired Expert Working Groups for the Australian Council of Learned Academies (ACOLA) on Delivering Sustainable Urban Mobility (2015) and on Energy Storage (2017). He is Chair of the Board of Energy Renaissance Pty Ltd and is a Non Executive Director of the Future Battery Industries Cooperative Research Centre Limited.

Geoff is a mechanical engineer, and has specialised in energy efficiency since 1985.

He is the founder and MD of Genesis Now (1991), which has completed over 2,500 energy efficiency and renewable energy projects in most industry sectors. He has won industry awards including national energy efficiency champion, and is recognised as a leader and innovator in energy efficiency.

Geoff also co-founded six clean-tech companies, is an early stage investor in renewable energy companies, and is an active member of the Melbourne Angel Investor group.

Mr Cawley has technical energy experience from well or mine, through processing and transmission, to generation, with an extensive knowledge of energy use in the resources and industrial sectors.

He also has a strong exposure to renewables including the design and construction of a pilot biodiesel plant, detailed peer review of a solar flagship CST plant and multiple analyses of renewable options in the industrial and resources sectors.

Mr Cawley’s commercial experience includes the purchase and re-development of a gas turbine cogen plant, founding and leading a specialised energy efficiency engineering business for 13 years and recently, the successful founding and funding of a start-up with an efficiency focus. Mr Cawley’s capabilities in the emerging energy sector are underlined by his election to the well-contested board of the Energy Efficiency Council of Australia three times.

Mr Cawley also has significant firsthand experience of innovation within the energy sector, with several new technologies and solutions delivered by his company as well as the new start-up.

Peter is a Director and co-founder of Seed Advisory having established it in 2008. Peter has over 25 years’ experience including 20 years in the energy sector. His work focus within the energy industry has included advisory and direct energy retail and wholesale experience in executive management positions at EnergyAustralia, AGL, Pulse Energy, United Energy and IKON Energy.

Peter’s experience in the energy industry spans the energy value chain and covers strategy, risk management, policy and regulatory development, retail marketing, wholesale trading, analysis and corporate development.

He has worked with start up, small, medium and large companies including corporate consumers, retailers, networks, wholesale market participants, market operators, regulators, governments and investors. He has a detailed understanding of the Australian energy and renewable energy sectors covering the National Electricity Market, the Northern Territory Market and the West Australian market. Peter is also an actuary with strong quantitative and risk management skills.

Mr Frearson has significant expertise in developing and commercialising renewable energy technologies. His experience includes prefeasibility through to construction management of renewable energy generation projects.

Notably he was involved in the first MW scale PV plant in Australia. He has previously worked to develop innovative approaches to automation and manufacturing during his seven years at Ford.

Mr Frearson has expertise in project finance assessment, off grid and edge of grid energy projects and markets with technical expertise in solar PV, solar thermal and enabling technologies.

Kellie Larsen has over 25 years’ experience in the energy industry across a wide variety of roles. Working at the intersection of traditional fossil fuels, commodity markets and renewable energy sectors, Kellie is a trusted advisor to Boards, CEOs, and executive leadership teams across Australia, New Zealand, Asia and the UK.

Kellie provides independent management consulting advice for clients in the energy and infrastructure sectors, including renewable energy, hydrogen, fossil fuels, renewable and biofuels markets, and as well as advisory for critical energy and supply chain infrastructure clients. She specialises in executive, operational and decarbonisation strategy, including integrating ESG and sustainability issues into core business activities. Her other services include M&A advisory and change management implementation. Kellie has a Bachelor of Engineering (Chemical) from the University of Adelaide, and is a Member of the Australian Institute of Directors.

Kim is a non-executive director and advisor in renewable energy, sustainability and sailing sector. She has wide ranging commercial and legal experience encompassing the energy, mining, commodity markets, banking and finance sectors both within private sector and Government enterprises. She is a strategic thinker and innovator who has led investment strategy and business development to build new businesses across multiple geographies and new markets.

Kim has qualifications in law, natural resource economics and finance and has previously held senior executive roles are the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, Low Carbon Australia and Macquarie Bank both in Australia and the USA.

Dr Lovegrove is the Head – Solar Thermal for the UK based renewable energy consulting company ITPower. He has 28 years of experience in Solar Thermal Energy combined with 15 years of teaching experience in Energy Systems and Systems Engineering.

He was previously the leader of the Solar Thermal Group at the Australian National University. In that role he was the lead inventor and team leader of the 500m2 Generation II Big Dish solar concentrator, recognized with a Light Weight Structures Association of Australia, 2009 design award.

Dr Lovegrove has authored or co-authored more than 160 publications including 2 patents and 7 books, chapters and major public reports. He was the primary editor of the 2012 book “Concentrating Solar Power Technology” by Woodhead publishing UK. In 2012, he was a Member of the Australian Prime Minister’s Science, Engineering and Innovation Council, Expert Working Group on Climate Energy and Water Links.

Robert is an experienced economist, and commercial and regulatory advisor with expertise in regulatory policy and practice in Australia’s energy, water and transport sectors. He is expert in energy grid access regulation, having designed rules and incentive schemes, managed price reviews, and advised on regulatory, contestability and tariff strategy. He has a master of regulatory economics from Australian National University.

Over the past two decades Robert has applied his knowledge of energy policy, regulation and commercial strategy to advise clients across Australia and Asia. In recent years, he has applied himself to the electricity transmission and distribution network regulatory and pricing reforms needed to facilitate energy transition. He is recognised for his considered approach to solving commercial and policy problems, adapting and applying regulatory regimes, and engaging customers and stakeholders in business and regulatory decisions.

John has worked for over 40 years as a professional engineer and businessman holding executive‐level roles in both the public and private sector for utilities and advisory firms. John’s specific roles have included participation in Australian and international energy markets, projects and operations.

Over the last 20 years John has founded a number of highly successful consulting businesses providing strategic advice on both energy markets and electricity infrastructure to major utility and resources companies. CopperString, the largest single electricity network project in Australia, was founded by John and was designed to open up the sustainable resources corridor between Townsville and Mt Isa.

John also has investments in a number of significant energy and resources related project developments, and has played an active role in the economic development planning for northern Queensland. John travels extensively to provide strategic advice, business input and thought leadership across Australia and internationally.

Dr Watt is an energy sector analyst for renewable energy engineering company ITP Renewables. She also assists the APVI with its IEA PVPS liaison and its Australian PV Manufacturing Initiative and is a Board Member of Zero Emissions Byron, where she leads the Electric Vehicle and Emissions reporting programs.

Muriel has worked with government agencies, universities and industry in the areas of renewable energy development, policy and application since 1980. She worked at the University of NSW for 25 years, finishing as an Associate Professor in the School of PV and Renewable Energy Engineering. She established and Chaired the Australian PV Institute (APVI), acted in various committee roles, including Chair, for the Australian and New Zealand Solar Energy Society, Chaired the Policy Group for the Australian CRC for Renewable Energy, was the Australian Executive Committee member on theIEA PV Power Systems (PVPS) Implementing Agreement for 10 years, a member of the Australian Solar Institute Research Advisory Committee and member of the Solar Flagship Education Infrastructure Fund Advisory Board.

Heidi is a Chemical Engineer with 20 years of broad industry experience across Renewable Energy (solar, wind), Carbon Capture and Storage, Oil and Gas (GTL, CTL), Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology sectors. This experience stretches across three continents, covering the complete lifecycle of multi-disciplinary complex projects. This exposure has given Heidi a solid foundation across the feasibility, design, construction, commissioning, operation and maintenance phases as well as project management and delivery and people and team management through professional consulting, engineering and client side/operational capacities.

Heidi is the Industry Director for Aurecon’s Energy business, responsible for establishing and implementing the strategy for the energy market in Australia and New Zealand to support clients navigate through the rapid transformation occurring in the energy sector.

Jackie Barber has a wealth of experience having operated in energy markets for over 25 years both in the UK and Australia. She has a background in energy trading and operated at Executive General Management level at Tarong Energy Corporation and then Stanwell Corporation when the companies merged in 2011.

More recently, Jackie joined forces with fellow enthusiasts to form a new company called Energy Market Matters Australia (emma) with a focus on supporting businesses navigate the transition to a more energy efficient and sustainable future. Data wrangling, analysis, visualisation and simple communication of insights is where the journey often begins with customers. This leads to smarter procurement and investment in energy efficiency and/or new infrastructure and technology to lower the cost of energy and improve environmental outcomes.

Mark Twidell has worked in the renewable energy industry for over 30 years. Mark has worked in Australia, India, USA and Europe in Solar related industry and government leadership roles.  Past roles have been Director of Energy Programs for Tesla, Managing Director of SMA, CEO of the Australian Solar Institute and a variety of leadership roles with BP Solar. He has served on the Boards of the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) the Clean Energy Council (CEC).

Mark has an Electrical and Electronic Engineering degree from the University of Edinburgh and an MBA from Sydney University.