Keynote speakers
Matt Kean
NSW Treasurer
Minister for Energy
Matt Kean entered Parliament in 2011 and spent his early years advocating for stronger mental health policy.
Elevated to the NSW Cabinet in 2017, he was appointed Minister for Innovation and Better Regulation in 2017, then appointed Minister for Energy and Environment in 2019 and appointed Treasurer in 2021.
His first Budget delivered reform to break the barriers to women’s opportunity – an investment that will pay dividends for both the economy and our society.
In the 2022 Budget, he also drove education reforms to give NSW children the best start in life, cost of living relief for families across the State, and initiatives to help more people into homes.
He intends to invest in our economy and our people today to deliver a stronger, more prosperous, more sustainable future tomorrow.
An outspoken critic of ‘climate denialism’ he has campaigned for greater and national action on climate change, arguing it’s not only good for the environment but it’s also good for our economy.
He has committed to increasing the size of the NSW National Park estate by almost 600,000 hectares by the end of 2022 and in 2020 delivered the biggest renewable energy policy in Australia’s history.
.png)
Gabrielle Kuiper
Senior Advisor
Smart Energy Council
Gabrielle Kuiper is a DER Specialist and Senior Adviser to the Smart Energy Council. Dr. Gabrielle Kuiper is an energy, sustainability and climate change professional with over 20 years’ experience in the corporate world, government and non-government organisations and academia. She was previously the DER Strategy Specialist with the Energy Security Board.
Prior to that Dr. Kuiper held senior executive or senior advisory energy-related positions in the Office of the Australian Prime Minister, at the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC), and in the NSW Government. Dr. Kuiper currently works in climate philanthropy for an Australian charitable trust.
Lynne Gallagher
Chief Executive Officer
Energy Consumers Australia
Lynne Gallagher is the Chief Executive Officer of Energy Consumers Australia, which is the national advocacy organisation contributing to shaping Australia’s energy future for households and small businesses.
Lynne has been with Energy Consumers Australia for 7 years and has over 20 years experience in the energy sector in strategy, policy and research roles. Prior to working in the energy sector, Lynne held senior executive roles in business and in the public sector, where she delivered major reforms that contributed to improving the financial and economic wellbeing of many Australians.
Danny Kennedy
Chief Executive Officer
New Energy Nexus
Jenny McAllister
Assistant Minister for
Climate Change and Energy
.png)
Heidi Norman
Professor
University of Technology Sydney
Drew Clarke
Chair
Australian Energy Market Operator
Benn Barr
Chief Executive Officer
Australian Energy Market Commission
Nando Ochoa
Professor of Smart Grids and Power Systems
University of Melbourne
Renate Egan
Professor
Australian Centre for Advanced Photovoltaics, UNSW
Yolande Strengers
Professor
Emerging Technologies Research Lab
Megan Fisher
Chief Executive Officer
EnergyLab
Danny Kennedy is the CEO of New Energy Nexus (NEX). NEX is a global platform organisation for funds and incubators, with chapters and partners in the USA, China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Australia, the Philippines, Uganda, Nigeria and India.
He oversees the CalSEED fund of $43 million for very early-stage companies driving innovation and building equity in the California economy plus the $12 million CalTestBed initiative with the University of California, Office of the President.
He is an adviser to several companies and is Chair of the Board of Third Derivative, a joint-venture with Rocky Mountain Institute building the world’s largest climate tech accelerator.
Jenny McAllister is the Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy in the Albanese Labor Government. Jenny was sworn into the Senate in 2015. Before this, she held various senior roles at AECOM, a global infrastructure firm.
Jenny’s professional career spans both public and private sectors, in which she held senior roles that focused on infrastructure, environment management and climate change. Jenny has served as National President of the ALP and as a member of the ALP National Policy Committee. She was co-founder of the Labor Environmental Activist Network (known as LEAN) with Kristina Keneally, a former Premier of NSW.
Professor Heidi Norman is a leading researcher in the field of Australian Aboriginal political history. Her research work includes a political history of Aboriginal land rights in NSW and study of the benefits of land restitution to Aboriginal Land Councils.
In this later work, she has been focused on the Aboriginal land estate and climate change. She is a descendant of the Gomeroi people from north-western NSW.
Drew Clarke AO FTSE is Chair of the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) and was until recently a Director of CSIRO. Drew’s earlier career was in the Australian Public Service in science and policy roles.
He has been working in energy policy for 20 years, including as Secretary of the Department of Resources and Energy, as Australia’s representative on the Governing Board of the International Energy Agency, and in roles establishing ARENA and developing the National Energy Market.
Drew is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering and was awarded an Order of Australia in 2016 for services to public administration. He Chairs the Energy Transition Research Committee at the Australian Council of Learned Academies.
Benn Barr became the Chief Executive of the Australian Energy Market Commission early in 2020, bringing with him two decades of energy and climate change experience and deep expertise in energy markets and regulation. He was previously Deputy Director-General of Queensland’s Department of Natural Resources, Mines and Energy.
Benn’s leadership at the AEMC has coincided with the development and release of the Energy Security Board’s post 2025 market design reforms. The AEMC is heavily involved inthe ESB’s work –including policy, technical and corporate support.Benn has a strong interest in effective modern governance, pursuing this field at the John F Kennedy School of Government at Harvard.
He places high value on meaningful stakeholder engagement and has built the AEMC’s capacity considerably since 2020. This includes turning the pandemic’s challenges into advantages for digital engagement that can reach more, and more diverse, stakeholder groups.
Nando Ochoa is a Professor of Smart Grids and Power Systems at The University of Melbourne, Australia. His expertise in network integration of distributed energy resources (DER) and smart grids as well as his extensive portfolio of industrial and academic projects have led to more than 210 research papers, more than 80 technical reports, and two patents.
He holds a Bachelor's degree in Mechanical and Electrical Engineering from UNI (Peru), and a Research MSc and a PhD in Electrical Power Engineering, both from UNESP Ilha Solteira (Brazil).
Professor Renate Egan Leads UNSW activity in the Australian Centre for Advanced Photovoltaics and led manufacturing and industrial technology development of energy technologies in Australia, Germany, and China. She is Co-Founder of Solar Analytics, Australia's largest independent energy monitoring provider, was named as one of Eight Great Women in the Business of Science and Solar by Renewable Energy World and was recently inducted into the Australian Smart Energy Council Hall of Fame. Renate also participates on a number of national and international panels, boards and review committees across the energy sector.
Yolande Strengers is a Professor of Digital Technology and Society at the Emerging Technologies Research Lab where she leads the Energy Futures research program. She is an Associate Director - Consumers, of the Monash Energy Institute, and Associate Dean - Equity, Diversity and Inclusion at the Faculty of IT. She is author of The Smart Wife (MIT Press 2020, with Dr Jenny Kennedy) and Smart Energy Technologies in Everyday Life (Palgrave Macmillan 2013).
Megan is the CEO at EnergyLab - Australia and New Zealand's largest climate tech startup accelerator and innovation network dedicated to reaching net zero emissions. EnergyLab supports talented founders in clean energy and climate tech and connects them to the mentors, advisors, partners, peers, and investors they need to succeed.
With a background in product development and innovation Megan has experience commercialising, developing, and scaling products plus driving novel technology initiatives from pilot to adoption. Megan has worked in several industries in the midst of digital disruption as well as the enormous transition as the energy industry moves to renewables.
Megan made the move from corporate to not for profit to have a positive impact on the climate tech startup ecosystem in Australia after engaging in the more advanced international clean energy startup ecosystems.
Iain MacGill
Associate Professor
University of New South Wales