Good afternoon and welcome to the latest edition of Australian Energy Daily People, where we track the influencers behind business and policy.

Highlights: New Secretary for Department of the Environment & Energy; Sustainability Victoria gets a new CEO; and Anh Mai returns to AusNet Services.

- Charis Palmer
Editor, Australian Energy Daily

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Simon Atkinson has been appointed Secretary of the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Cities & Regional Development. Currently a Deputy Secretary in the Treasury, he was recently Cabinet Secretary in the Prime Minister's Office and Chief of Staff to Mathias Cormann. He previously led the establishment of Infrastructure Australia.

Anthony Cocolas is now an Associate at the CEFC. He was previously Manager, Structured Asset Finance at ANZ.

The Data Standards Body has established an Energy Advisory Committee. The appointees from the energy sector are: Spiz Dimopoulos of EnergyAustralia, Ben Johnson of ERM Power, Joe Locandro of AEMO, Jan Prichard of Origin, Aakash Sembey of Simply Energy, Edwin Shaw of Ausgrid, and Dayle Stevens of AGL. David Havyatt of Energy Consumers Australia and Lauren Solomon of the Consumer Policy Research Centre are also among the appointees.

David Fredericks has been appointed Secretary of the Department of the Environment & Energy. Currently Deputy Secretary, Budget & Financial Reporting in the federal Department of Finance, his previous roles include Deputy Secretary in the Attorney General’s Department, Deputy Chief of Staff to Kevin Rudd, and Chief of Staff to both Penny Wong and Kim Beazley.

The federal government recently revealed it had appointed an expert panel to look at cutting emissions. The panel is being led by Grant King, outgoing BCA President and former Managing Director of Origin. The other panellists are David Parker, Chair of the Clean Energy Regulator; Andrew Macintosh, Chair of the Emissions Reduction Assurance Committee; and Susie Smith, Chief Executive of the Australian Industry Greenhouse Network.

John O'Neill has been appointed Chief Customer Officer, Project & Structured Finance at Export Finance Australia. He is currently sits on the CEFC's investment committee and helped establish the IPFA as interim CEO.

Kelly Seo is now an Associate, Legal at the CEFC. She was previously a Lawyer at Arnold Bloch Leibler.

Claire Ferres-Miles has been appointed CEO of Sustainability Victoria. She has held senior roles with the City of Melbourne, the City of Port Phillip and the Vic Department of Transport, Planning & Local Infrastructure.

Rachelle Gill is now Senior Adviser, Consumer Policy & Advocacy at Energy Policy WA. She was previously an Assistant Director, Planning & Building at the Housing Industry Association.

Wenona Hadingham has been appointed Assistant Director in Energy Policy WA’s Energy Transformation Implementation Unit. She was most recently a Principal Policy Officer at the WA Department of the Premier & Cabinet.

Nicole Heesh is now a Senior Policy Officer in the Transition to Lower Carbon team at the Qld Department of Natural Resources, Mines & Energy. She was most recently an Energy Analyst at Aurecon.

Sam Meyer is now Senior Communications & Media Adviser to Tasmanian Labor Leader Rebecca White. She joins from Hydro Tasmania, where she was most recently Manager, Brand & Communications.

Sasha Torsi is now Director, Communications at Solar Victoria. She has previously held senior communications roles at the Vic Department of Health & Human Services, Greening Australia and Sustainability Victoria.

Stephanie Wagstaff has been promoted to Senior Project Officer, Emerging Technologies at the Department of Environment, Land, Water & Planning. She was previously a Project Officer, Renewable Energy.

Carmen Whiteley is now a Senior Policy Analyst at the Qld Department of Natural Resources, Mines & Energy, focusing on national energy markets and strategy. She has previously held roles at Hydro Tasmania and the federal Department of Agriculture & Water Resources.

Thomas Adolph is now a Principal Adviser, Media & Government Relations at the Chamber of Commerce & Industry WA. He was previously a Media Adviser to Malcolm Turnbull and then Scott Morrison, following a stint in Julie Bishop's office.

Damian Dwyer has been promoted to Deputy CEO at APPEA, up from Director, Economics.

Nicky Ison is now Energy Transition Manager at WWF Australia. She has left her roles at the Community Power Agency, which she founded, and the Climate Action Network.

Kira Sorensen is now Senior Policy Adviser, Environment at the Chamber of Minerals & Energy of WA. She previously held a number of roles with Alcoa.

Mark Wakeham is now a Senior Policy Adviser, Climate, Energy & Just Transitions at the ACTU. He has previously held senior roles with The Sunrise Project, Environment Victoria and Greenpeace.

Kylie Walker has been announced to succeed Margaret Hartley as the next CEO of the Australian Academy of Technology & Engineering (ATSE), commencing January 2020. Walker is currently Chair of the Australian Commission for UNESCO and Co-Chair of the National Research & Innovation Alliance.

Hamish Aiken is now a Manager, Environmental Compliance at Yancoal. He joins from the NSW Department of Planning, Industry & Environment, where he was Principal Policy Officer, Resources Policy.

Mark Dayman has stepped down as Managing Director of Fyfe, but will become their Executive Chair. Former Chair Gary Spence has taken over as Managing Director.

Alex Fitzpatrick has been bumped up to Senior Manager, Communications at AGL after completing her secondment as Manager, Sustainability.

Carmel Forbes has joined Shell as a Regulatory & Compliance Adviser. Most recently an Industry Regulation Lead at EnergyAustralia, her previous roles include Assistant Director, Energy at the federal Department of the Environment & Energy and Assistant Manager, Energy Security at the federal Department of Industry, Innovation & Science.

Kirsten Gabel has been appointed as a Director of DC Power Co, responsible for representing the crowdfunding investors on the board.

Alicia Genet is now Head of Public Affairs & Sustainability at Santos, moving up from Head of Risk, Audit & Sustainability.

Mike Gray is now General Manager, Special Projects at INPEX, transitioning from General Manager, Technical & Projects, Onshore.

Ashley Grohn is now a Principal Consultant, Energy at Jacobs. He joins after a very brief stint as CEO of Tukio Intelligent Infrastructure and was formerly a Client Director, Energy at Aurecon.

Lisa Hannifin is the new Chief Customer Officer at Meridian, moving up from her role leading the Sales & Services team.

Mitch Hume has been promoted to Community Engagement Lead, Project EnergyConnect at Transgrid, moving up from Adviser, Government & Stakeholder Engagement.

Adam Karl is now a Corporate Development Manager at Beach Energy. He was most recently a Senior Business Development Adviser at Santos.

Brett Lawrence has been appointed a Non-executive Director of Calima Energy. He also holds directorships at Tamaska Oil & Gas, TMK Montney, and Acacia Coal and is a Partner at Perth-based venture capital firm Xponova.

Warren Leitao has stepped down as COO of Renu Energy. No replacement has been appointed as yet.

Anh Mai has returned to AusNet Services as Head of Energy Market Reform, following seven months as an Energy Strategy Specialist at the Vic Department of Environment, Land, Water & Planning.

Janine McArdle has been appointed as a Non-executive Director at Santos. She has previously served as senior executive at Apache Corporation and Aquila Energy.

Murray Newton is now a Media Manager at Viva Energy. He was previously Corporate Relations Manager for Port of Melbourne.

Becky Nguyen is now General Manager, Commercial at Lochard Energy, replacing the retiring Kon Fah Wong. She previously held commercial roles at Santos, Cooper Energy, AGL, Origin and Energy Australia.

Sarah Ryan and Lyell Strambi have been appointed Non-executive Directors at Aurizon, effective December 1. Ryan is a member of ASIC’s Director Advisory Panel and a Director at Viva Energy, Woodside and MPC Kinetic. Strambi is CEO & Managing Director at Australian Pacific Airports Corporation, owner of Melbourne Airport.

Roxanne Smith is now General Counsel & Company Secretary at the Australian Gas & Infrastructure Group. She was most recently a Partner at Johnson Winter & Slattery, having spent more than 20 years with the firm.

Andrew Stewart returns to the country as Executive President, Strategy & Development at Wood. He was previously serving as their CEO, Americas.

Michelle Stone is now a Manager, Media & Communications for Major Projects at TransGrid. She was previously a Manager, Media & Public Affairs at AusGrid.

Jennifer Tarr has been appointed General Manager of Stanwell Energy, the retail arm of Stanwell, a bump up from Manager, Market Policy & Regulatory Strategy.

Jessie Foran has been promoted to Adviser, Security & Reliability at the AEMC, moving up from Strategic Briefings Specialist. 

Sonia Greguol has been appointed interim General Manager, Strategy & Architecture at AEMO. She was most recently General Manager, Digital Strategy & Delivery at Jemena.

Fernando Johnstone has been promoted to Principal Analyst at IPART. 

Monica Morona has been promoted to Senior Adviser, Energy Policy at AEMO, moving up from Stakeholder Engagement Lead.

Joanna Norris is now a Senior Consultant at AEMO. She joins from Rio Tinto, where she was most recently a Senior Engagement Adviser.

Tyson Vaughan is now an Adviser at the AEMC. His former roles include Manager, Regulatory & Institutional Affairs at Enel Green Power, Senior Policy Officer at the NSW Office of Environment & Heritage and National Energy Market Advocate at the Total Environment Centre.

Robert De Boer is now a Partner at Mills Oakley. An energy and resources specialist, he was a Partner at Herbert Smith Freehills for more than 17 years and, more recently, a Director at PRI Consulting Global.

Climate research scientist Jaclyn Brown has been appointed Director of the CSIRO Climate Science Centre. She joins from CSIRO’s Agriculture & Food sector, where she was a Senior Research Scientist.

Dominique Hes has been appointed Principal Researcher at Beyond Zero Emissions.

Ben McGarry has been appointed Global Services Leader, Future Energy at Aurecon, a bump up from leading their Queensland Future Energy team. He replaces Sam Button. Tomas Keraitis has also moved up to Technical Director, Future Energy. 

Emma Oliver is now a Managing Director at Accenture. Her previous roles include General Manager, Corporate Services at Lochard Energy and General Manager, Operations at the Energy & Water Ombudsman Victoria.

Zen Energy founder Richard Turner has been appointed University of South Australia’s Entrepreneur-in-Residence & Industry Professor of Practice. 

Jonathan Abrahams, Head of Maritime Advisory DNV-GL (Norway) will speak at Australia Norway Energy Transition Symposium in Canberra on November 12. Other speakers include ANU Professor Frank Jotzo; Anja Jones Gudbrandsen, Client Analyst, Rystad Energy and Paul Hodgson, General Manager Innovation and Stakeholder Engagement, National Energy Resources Australia (NERA).

AEMO CEO Audrey Zibelman and ACCC Chair Rod Sims will speak at the Melbourne launch of Ross Garnaut's book Superpower on November 13.

Synergy general manager of power generation Barry Ford and Alinta Energy general manager of asset strategy Dr Gary Bryant will speak at the Australian Gas Turbines Conference in Sydney on November 14-15.

SA Minister for Energy & Resources Dan van Holst Pellekaan will speak at an Australian Institute of Energy event in Adelaide on November 19.