Speakers

Benn Barr has over 15 years' experience in energy and climate change policy and has a deep understanding of the national energy market and opportunities for renewable energy. He has expertise in the energy market and regulation, with a track record of providing strategic policy advice to government across a diverse range of resource management areas, as well as contributing to the national Council of Australian Governments (COAG) energy agenda. Mr Barr has a strong interest in effective modern governance having recently undertaken professional development at the John F Kennedy School for Government at Harvard.  He was the Secretary of the Council for the Australian Federation, a collaborative intergovernmental group of state and territory First Ministers, and has served as the Queensland Government’s senior official for the COAG Energy Council. Mr Barr joined the AEMC following six years as Deputy Director General in the Queensland Department of Natural Resources, Mines and Energy.

Guy was appointed Endeavour Energy CEO in December 2019 and took up the position in April 2020.

Guy is a highly regarded energy industry leader and influencer, and a board member of Energy Networks Australia, the peak national body representing gas distribution and electricity transmission & distribution businesses throughout Australia.

Guy has a wealth of international, financial and operational experience gained across a diverse range of sectors operating and residing in Australia, Asia, Africa, Europe, and North and South America.

His outstanding leadership qualities and experience means he is ideally suited to lead Endeavour Energy as it continues its customer-centric journey, meets record growth across Greater Western Sydney, adapts to the rapid technology change, and continues to deliver safe and reliable essential electricity services to 2.4 million people every day.

Bess joined TasNetworks from Transend Networks, where she was most recently Executive Manager Corporate Strategy and Compliance. Bess has 20 years' experience in the utilities sector, focusing on business strategy, stakeholder relations, regulation and compliance.

Bess is heading up TasNetworks’ Project Marinus, developing a second Bass Strait electricity interconnector, ‘Marinus Link’.

Andrew Dillon leads the peak national body representing gas distribution and electricity transmission and distribution businesses throughout Australia. He is an experienced energy sector executive with more than two decades in the industry.

Andrew has held several executive roles in the energy sector, including at AustNet Services, an ASX-listed energy network owner, the Energy Supply Association of Australia and in the Victorian Government.

Andrew is a Director of the Australian Gas Industry Trust, a former Director of Goulburn Valley Water.

Nicola has over 20 years’ experience in the energy and environment sectors and has managed assignments in Australia, New Zealand, Asia, Africa and North America.

As Group Manager of Forecasting at the Australian Energy Market Operator, Nicola leads teams that assess future electricity and gas demand and supply needs, provide insights to facilitate market responses, and undertake economic analysis to assess benefits of transmission in the National Electricity Market.

Nicola’s team is responsible for delivering the Gas Statement of Opportunities, and Electricity Statement of Opportunities, and jointly with AEMO’s Planning team, produces AEMO’s Integrated System Plan.

Chloe has worked across NSW Government agencies for the past 7 years to deliver energy, water and climate change policies, including the NSW Electricity Strategy. In her current role as Director, Energy Infrastructure and Zones in the Department of Planning, Industry and Environment, she is leading the delivery of Australia’s first coordinated Renewable Energy Zones, ongoing implementation of the Transmission Infrastructure Strategy and the establishment of a new Case Management program for dispatchable energy projects. Chloe has postgraduate qualifications in policy, business and environment and is a Fellow of the Centre for Sustainability Leadership.

Simon returned to McKinsey’s Sydney office in 2016, after 6 years at the firm’s Public Sector Practice in Washington, DC. While in the United States, Simon served federal, state, and city governments on a broad range of issues. Specifically, he has led programs on economic-and jobs-growth strategy, agency strategy, transportation policy, infrastructure investments and delivery, government efficiency, and productivity improvement.

Simon is passionate about improving the opportunities available to everyday citizens.

Andrew Kingsmill is the Head of Network Planning at TransGrid, the operator and manager of the NSW high voltage transmission network. Andrew has over 20 years' experience in the energy industry in infrastructure planning, operations, asset management and regulatory roles. In his present role, he is responsible for planning the future electricity transmission network in New South Wales, which will form the backbone of the energy system of the future.

Sarah McNamara was appointed as Chief Executive of the Australian Energy Council in July 2018.

Sarah joined the Energy Council as General Manager of Corporate Affairs in January 2016. She is an industry leader with more than a decade of experience working with policy and regulatory frameworks across the resources and energy sectors.

Prior to the Energy Council, Sarah was Chief of Staff to the then Minister for Industry, the Hon Ian Macfarlane, and has also worked as a senior policy adviser to the Prime Minister.

Between 2008 and 2013 Sarah worked in AGL’s Corporate Affairs team as Head of Government Affairs and Community Engagement. Sarah began her career as a corporate lawyer, and has a Bachelor of Arts/Law from the University of Melbourne.

Danny Price is a founder and Managing Director of Frontier Economics.  Danny is a leading expert in energy economics, with extensive experience advising governments, regulators, private utility companies and investment firms. He specialises in power sector modelling, power trading and hedging, performance assessments, industry reform, regulation, asset sales and acquisitions, and greenhouse policy. He has led major projects on energy industry regulation and reform in Australia and internationally. In addition, he has acted as an expert witness in economics in the Federal Court and the Australian Competition Tribunal.

Andrew has over 30 years of energy industry and infrastructure development experience having held a variety of senior management roles in the areas of sales and marketing, public and stakeholder relations, media and communication, strategic planning, policy development, stakeholder engagement and political advocacy.

For the last 3 years he has been Chief Executive Officer of the Energy Users Association of Australia (EUAA). Under his leadership the EUAA has positioned itself as a highly respected thought leader and advisor to energy industry players, regulators and governments and is recognized by these stakeholders as a strong advocate for energy users.

Andrew continues to play a key role in a range of forums including the AEMO Expert Panel, the Federal Government Energy Industry Roundtable, the AER Value of Customer Reliability Consultative Committee and the recently formed National Hydrogen Strategy Taskforce Stakeholder Advisory Panel.

Andrew is also deeply involved in ongoing engagement on behalf of energy users with the ACCC, AEMC, ESB, COAG Energy Council, AER and via numerous industry related customer reference groups.

Scott started as a Cadet Engineer at Endeavour Energy and has a wealth of experience in the energy industry. Scott is a senior executive with a track record in transforming business and people to provide a step change in organisational performance.

He brings a deep knowledge of Endeavour Energy to the executive team, having worked in many aspects of the business including asset management and operations, combined with commercial experience in regulatory and retail.

Scott also established the successful unregulated growth business, leading the entire end-to-end operations from business development to delivery, growing revenue 25% - 70% year on year across a three-year period.
His people management capabilities have led to major reform of our workforce and business.

Scott's current role of General Manager Operations has responsibility for asset management and delivery operations for the safe and reliable supply of electricity to over one million customers, leading a team of over 1,100 engineers, project managers, technicians, designers and field staff.

Ben Skinner was appointed as General Manager, Policy & Research of the Australian Energy Council in October 2017. His role primarily focusses on environmental policy and wholesale market policy in order to promote efficient, secure and competitive outcomes in the Australian energy sector.

Prior to this he was Specialist, Market Development at the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) for nine years, primarily liaising with government on environmental policy matters, including secondments to the Garnaut and Climate Change Authority secretariats.

Historically, Ben has worked as head of spot trading and then wholesale regulatory management for TRUEnergy (now Energy Australia).

Mark Tilly is Energy News Bulletin’s renewables, energy transition and downstream reporter.

Formerly based in Southeast Asia as a foreign correspondent, Tilly covered politics, the environment and urban development. His work has appeared in Crikey, Vice and Southeast Asia Globe. 

Previously he worked for Oxfam’s Mekong Water Governance Program thanks to Australian Volunteers International, focussing on hydropower dam development in region.