Advisory Panel

Susan has worked in the energy and infrastructure sectors for over 30 years across Australia, the Middle East, Indonesia and North America. She has held leadership, commercial, advisory, technical and operational roles in renewable energy, upstream oil & gas, project development, power generation, electricity transmission and distribution. 

Susan is a Fellow of the Institution of Engineers Australia and has a Company Directors Diploma (with Order of Merit), a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering from QUT, a Graduate Diploma in Petroleum Engineering from UNSW and a Master of Business Administration from Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University. 

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.

Craig is the leader of Mott MacDonald’s energy group in Australia and has extensive background in Australia and overseas advising clients in both public and private sectors. His diverse over 28+ year background spans founding a successful start-up, leading Australian and NZ divisions of international professional services firms and being responsible for corporate strategy, risk, innovation, customer engagement, regulation and pricing at Australia’s largest utility group.  

Craig has a track record in capital raising, corporate strategy, governance, project development, and transformation of multi-national and disciplinary organisations. As a thought leader in the renewable energy and climate sectors, Craig has supported governments, regulators, and industry to adapt to new technologies, respond to changes in customer’s behaviour, and deploy innovative models to achieve effective improvements and enable systemic change. 

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.

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.

Dr Feenan is an accomplished commercial, operations and business development manager with over 35 years’ experience across the energy and natural resources sector in Australia, Europe and USA. He has worked in small startup companies, supporting listing processes on the London and New York stock exchanges, through to multi-national operating corporations. He has deep strategic, market, financial and risk analysis experience and most recently established a heavy-duty hydrogen mobility business in Australia.

John is a Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, holds a BSc (Hons) & MSc in geosciences and a Diploma of Applied Finance and Investment. John’s interest in energy technology and innovation includes successful patent applications in Australia and USA, and completion of a PhD in innovation management from UWA.

Dr Martin Atkins has over 15 years’ experience in industrial energy efficiency and decarbonisation across a range of sectors including dairy, pulp and paper, and food processing. He is currently a Senior Lecturer in Chemical and Process Engineering at the University of Waikato, New Zealand. Martin is also an assistant director of the Ahuora Centre for Smart Energy Systems based at the University. He is an active researcher in developing and applying Process Integration methods and Digital Twin tools to help assist industry to decarbonise.

He was appointed to the “Heat, Industry, and Power” Technical Reference Group at He Pou a Rangi – Climate Change Commission New Zealand, that provided expert advice to the commission as they prepared their advice to the New Zealand Government regarding carbon budgets and decarbonisation pathways and policies.

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.

David Armstrong has over 35 years of experience in heavy industry and industrial markets including aluminum, steel, building products, and chemicals. With a Bachelor of Engineering (Chemical and Materials) from Auckland University, Dave has developed his skill and knowledge base with over 20 years in various operating, management and strategic roles at BHP. Followed most recently with 11 years as CEO of Queensland Nitrates Pty Ltd (QNP), a successful Wesfarmers/Incitec Pivot joint venture chemicals business. An early leader in emissions abatement implementation, an overall 66% reduction in emissions intensity has been achieved since 2011 at QNP.