Our people

Meg is an expert in strategy and execution in complex policy and challenging environments. Her extensive international career spans business, government, diplomacy, environmental policy and philanthropy.

She has worked at the forefront of action on climate change – in renewable energy and decarbonising the economy – as COO of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, CEO of Low Carbon Australia Limited, as a Board member of the Australian Renewable Energy Agency and of the CRC for Low Carbon Living.

Meg also served as member of the NSW Chief Scientist & Engineer’s Expert Panel advising the NSW Government on innovative decarbonisation technologies to support the achievement of the NSW Net Zero Plan. She sits on the NSW Net Zero Emissions and Clean Economy Board and the Australian Foreign Investment Review Board, is a Trustee of the Nature Conservancy and is the Environment Commissioner with the Greater Cities Commission.

With a PhD in Photovoltaics from UNSW and an MBA from University of London, Oliver was the founder of Epho, one of Australia’s largest providers for commercial and industrial solar solutions, acquired by AGL in 2021. He is now the Managing Director of Bright Dimension, a specialist strategy and management consultancy.

A graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and with 25 years’ clean energy experience in research, technology development and commercialisation, merger and acquisitions, business structuring and start-ups, Oliver is the Chair of the Industry Advisory Committee for the School for Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering at UNSW where he is also an Adjunct Senior Lecturer.

Professor Zee Upton is the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Innovation) at the University of Newcastle. She has a significant record of research in skin, wounds and tissue repair, spanning many disciplinary boundaries.

Prior to joining the University of Newcastle, Zee spent 6 years in Singapore where she was the Executive Director of the Skin Research Institute of Singapore (SRIS), a tripartite research initiative between Nanyang Technological University, the National Health Group and the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (ASTAR), as well as the Executive Director of ASTAR Institute of Medical Biology.

In these roles she facilitated extensive collaboration with industry, many via the Wound Care Innovation for the Tropics Industry Alignment Pre-Positioning Program that she also established and led. Preceding this, she spent 15 years at the Queensland University of Technology where she held senior management and leadership positions, established the Wound Management Innovation Cooperative Research Centre and formed a start-up that ultimately listed on the Australian Stock Exchange.

Kara is the Founder and Managing Partner of Tiger Financial Group, a leading financial services firm empowering Australian growth companies into global markets. Kara is also co-Founder & Managing Partner of Jekara Group, a private capital fund accelerating the global energy transition.

With two decades of global finance experience, Kara brings analytical and strategic guidance focused on the cleantech industry. She is a private market investor & advisor and a Board Director of private and public international companies.

With a Bachelor of Civil Engineering from UNSW and a Master of Management from the University of Wollongong, Grant has extensive experience in the Australian energy industry and was Managing Director of Origin Energy Limited from February 2000 until October 2016. Prior to Origin, Grant served as Managing Director of Boral Energy from 1994 to February 2000 and was General Manager AGL Gas Companies.

He is a Fellow of Australian Institute of Company Directors and President of the Business Council of Australia (BCA) and previously served as Chair of the BCA Infrastructure and Sustainability Committee. He is former Director of Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association Limited, Envestra Limited, former Chairman of Energy Supply Association of Australia and former Chairman of Oil Company of Australia. Grant is also a former Chairman of Contact Energy Limited.

Nicholas Fisk is the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research & Enterprise) at UNSW Sydney, where his portfolio is to optimise research performance, infrastructure and training along with external research investment, aligning with industry and promoting translation, commercialisation and entrepreneurship. His background is as a clinical scientist in medicine with over 400 publications.

After training in Australia Nick spent two decades at Imperial College London before leadership roles at the University of Queensland. Current Board memberships include Research Australia, Scientia Clinical Research, NewSouth Innovations (Chair), the Sydney Partnership for Health, Education, Research and Enterprise, and Chair of the Go8 DVCR’s Committee. Past roles include President of the International Fetal Medicine and Surgery Society, Chair of the Association of Academic Health Centers International and Chair of the Go8 Deans of Medicine Committee. He has served on the Boards of TEDi-London, the Queensland Institute of Medical Research, the Metro North Hospital and Health Service, and Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute.

Scientia Professor Rose Amal AO is a chemical engineer, leader of the Particles and Catalysis Research Group AT UNSW and Co-Director of ARC Training Centre for the Global Hydrogen Economy (GlobH2E). Rose is recognised as a pioneer and leading authority in the fields of fine particle technology, photocatalysis and functional nanomaterials having made significant contributions to these related areas of research over the past 20 years.

She has received numerous prestigious awards and was named as NSW Scientist of the Year in 2019. She has been listed in the Australia’s Top 100 Most Influential Engineers (2012-2015), is a Fellow of Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering, the Australian Academy of Science, the Royal Society NSW, IChemE and an Honorary Fellow of Engineers Australia.

A gifted inventor and a successful engineering entrepreneur, Laureate Professor Behdad Moghtaderi has devoted his career to the development and commercialisation of novel energy and process technologies applicable to a diverse range of industries including power generation, oil and gas, mining and Defence.

The focus of his research is the nexus between energy, water and carbon in a world constrained and dominated by ever evolving new and disruptive technologies. He has developed an international reputation for high quality research and pioneering work in the development of innovative technologies, attracting over $90 million of competitive funding, and has also worked closely with industry, government, and international organisations on topics related to his research informing and influencing policy and practice, specifically on matters related to the impact and adoption of new and disruptive technologies.

Professor Paul Dastoor is internationally acclaimed for his research into the field of organic photovoltaics, developing a completely recyclable printed solar technology. As Director of the Centre for Organic Electronics at the University of Newcastle, his team addresses global issues as diverse as the energy crisis and diabetes.

He is also Node Director for the ANFF Materials Node, which is responsible for delivering advanced fabrication and characterisation facilities to academic and industrial researchers across Australia and overseas. With a substantial number of patents worldwide and success spinning out several companies, including his glucose biosensor technology, which listed on the NASDAQ in 2020, he has a proven track record in research translation and commercialisation.

Professor Veena Sahajwalla is a celebrated materials scientist, engineer and inventor who was named NSW Australian of the Year in 2022, is a judge on ABC TV’s The New Inventors and has appeared on Q+A, The Drum, War on Waste and Australian Story. She is the Founding Director of the Centre for Sustainable Materials Research and Technology at UNSW.

Veena is best known for her work pioneering waste research and turning it into a new generation of green materials and products, including by inventing Polymer Injection Technology, or ‘Green Steel’, and launching MICROfactories™. She leads two national research and industrial transformation hubs, the ARC Microrecycling Research Hub and the National Environmental Science Program Sustainable Communities and Waste Hub.

Professor Renate Egan is Executive Director for the Australian Centre for Advanced Photovoltaics, the national centre for photovoltaics research led by UNSW, in partnership with ANU, UQ, CSIRO University of Melbourne and Monash. She is also Deputy Head of School (Engagement) in the School of Solar PV and Renewable Energy Engineering.

Renate joined UNSW in 2014 after a 20-year career in industry where she led manufacturing and technology development in Australia, Germany and China and is a leading authority on manufacturing costing and technology transfer.

Renate is also Co-Founder of Solar Analytics, Australia’s largest independent energy monitoring provider. An innovator, entrepreneur and academic, sheis passionate about using her skills to increase the uptake of solar and accelerate the energy transition.

Professor John Fletcher is Director, UNSW Digital Grid Futures Institute and has made it his personal mission to ensure the huge opportunities presented in the global switch to renewables aren’t missed by local researchers, businesses or future generations. An electrical engineer who specialises in power electronics, electrical machine drives and electric propulsion, John understands the importance of real-world application and commercialisation of knowledge and has recently overseen the production of 25 innovations including software and hardware through the lab. Challenging university tradition, John inspires researchers to think beyond academia and consider how their knowledge can benefit our greater society, while enabling networking across faculties and private industry.