Speakers

On 21 July 2014, Ms Paula Conboy was appointed as the full time state/territory member and AER Chair for a five year period from 1 October 2014.

Paula has over 20 years’ experience in public utility regulation in Australia and Canada. Most recently she was a full time member of the Ontario Energy Board in Canada from March 2010.

Paula holds a Master of Science degree in Agricultural Economics from the University of Guelph and conducted her thesis research at LaTrobe University.

Steve Davy was appointed Chief Executive Officer in September 2013 and has been with Hydro Tasmania since 2005. 

Steve is Chairman of Hydro Tasmania’s mainland retail business, Momentum Energy, selling electricity on mainland Australia and on the Bass Strait islands. 

He has previously served as Chair of the Australian Financial Markets Association Environmental Products Committee, and is a Director of the Australian Energy Council.

Nino has over 30 years’ experience in the energy industry, including numerous senior management roles with AusNet Transmission Group Pty Ltd (formerly SPI PowerNet Pty Ltd) including as Managing Director since 2003.

In late 2016, Nino was elected Chairman of Energy Networks Australia following six years as a Board member.

Nino is the Chair of the Deakin University Engineering Advisory Board and was formerly Deputy Chairman and Director of the Energy Supply Association of Australia

Part-owned by CSIRO, Evergen is a new energy services business delivering intelligent energy systems through optimised solar power and battery technology. Emlyn leads the Evergen team in developing and delivering innovative products and services, with a focus on creating an exceptional customer experience.

Emlyn is a qualified Building Services Engineer with over 20 years’ experience in property design, construction and operations. Previously Head of Property Management and Sustainability at AMP Capital, Emlyn was successful in delivering best practice customer experience while ensuring efficient, effective, and safe building operations across an $8B commercial property portfolio.

With a passion for Sustainability in the built environment, Emlyn chaired the Better Buildings Partnership for the City of Sydney, held multiple director positions and industry committee roles including the National Risk Roundtable and National Sustainability Roundtable for the Property Council of Australia.

Darren Miller commenced as ARENA’s CEO on 27 August 2018. He has more than 25 years’ experience across a range of sectors including renewable energy, electricity retail, technology, finance, media and entertainment.

Darren was co-founder and CEO of Mojo Power, an innovative electricity retailer, from 2015 until July 2018. He was previously the Director of Asset Finance at Sungevity Australia in 2014, and co-founder and CEO of Sumwise, a technology and services company from 2007 to 2013.

Darren’s previous experience includes a position as investment manager for Publishing and Broadcasting Limited (PBL) and Consolidated Press Holdings (CPH) and roles at New Zealand Natural and Ernst & Young.

Darren is a Chartered Accountant with a Bachelor of Commerce (Hons) from the University of New South Wales.

Jon joined ERM Power as Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (MD & CEO) on 2 February 2015. Jon also plays an advocacy role in the broader energy industry speaking at various events, such as the Australian Energy Week.

Jon is an experienced chief executive with broad international experience in the information technology (IT), telecommunications and industrial sectors. His background in systems and process engineering, and business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) sales and marketing has enabled him to lead business transformation and growth in Australia and internationally.

Prior to joining ERM Power, Jon was the Executive Vice President, Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) for Landis+Gyr, the leading provider of smart metering and energy management solutions globally. Jon joined Landis+Gyr as Executive Vice President Asia Pacific in January 2008 and in April 2010 moved to Switzerland to take up the EMEA position.

Prior to joining Landis+Gyr, Jon was CEO of AAPT, an Australian based telecommunications company, wholly owned by Telecom New Zealand and was based in Sydney. He has had extensive experience in Asia and Europe in IT and telecommunications, starting his career with IBM in Australia in 1986. He spent six years in Hong Kong with IBM and AT&T running substantial cross regional telecommunications services businesses, and several years running AT&T’s business across Europe, Middle East and Africa, based in Paris.

Jason has served as the chief executive officer (CEO) of Synergy since January 2014 and prior to that he was the CEO of Verve Energy for two years.

Synergy is Western Australia’s largest electricity generator and retailer with a diverse range of power generating assets located throughout the South West Interconnected System and has in excess of one million residential and business customers.

Jason holds a Bachelor of Engineering and a Graduate Diploma of Business from Curtin University and has a background in engineering, power system planning, energy trading and fuel contract negotiation and management with 27 years’ experience in the energy sector.

Previously, Ben was the Director of Strategy and Regulation and Chief Financial Officer at UK Power Networks (UKPN), a large electricity distribution company in the UK with 8 million customers, and also owned by the CK Group.  Before joining UKPN in 2011 Ben was a utilities investment banker for fifteen years, working Europe, Asia and Latin America, most recently at Deutsche Bank.

Ben commenced with Australian Gas Infrastructure Group in March 2015.

Tony Wood has led the Grattan Institute’s Energy Program since mid-2011. Since then he and his team have delivered sixteen major reports on energy and climate change and he has developed a strong profile with governments and industry, and is a regular contributor in major media on key energy issues.  From 2009 until mid-2014, he also had a role as Program Director of Clean Energy Projects at the Clinton Foundation, advising governments in the Asia-Pacific region on effective deployment of large-scale, low-emission energy technologies such as solar and CCS.

Prior to these roles, he spent 14 years working at Origin Energy in senior executive roles covering retail and LPG line management and corporate affairs. In 2008, he was seconded to provide an industry perspective to the first Garnaut review.

In January, 2018 Tony was awarded a Member of the Order of Australia in recognition of his significant service to conservation and the environment, particularly in the areas of energy policy, climate change and sustainability.