James Sturges
Champion
Director - Community Development, eleXsys Pty Ltd
James has been a community leader in Ipswich for many years both in Business and Community activities. He was General Manager of Llewellyn Motors before becoming Chief Executive of the Ipswich Hospital Foundation until recently. He is Chair of the Board of Trustees of Ipswich Girls Grammar School and a member of a number of other committees in Ipswich, including Regional Development Australia. He is also immediate Past President of the Ipswich City Rotary Club and is highly regarded across the community. He is actively involved in Ipswich, Springfield and Mt Tamborine Chambers of Commerce chapters. He has a passionate interest in technology and its applications in e-commerce, having designed and built a number of solutions to the business problems he was facing at the time. These included:
- Creating Australia’s First on-Line TAFE virtual learning environment
- Winning an Australia Pacific ICT Award for secure ecommerce systems in construction for system developed
- Designing and having installed a solar generation system for Llewellyn Motors. which has since returned the investment and is exporting energy to the Queensland Grid
James is well respected and will bring his leadership, technology and community engagement skills to the committee’s activities, which is the basis of his Role at eleXsys Pty Ltd.
Genevieve Mortimer
Co-Champion
Principal, Project KIC
Genevieve has more than 15 years’ experience in community development. As an environmental engineer, she spent the first years of her career consulting with communities to design systems to reduce the environmental impacts of the resources boom, mainly gas projects in southern Queensland. Subsequently, she worked in Europe undertaking projects in the forestry industry. European forestry is recognised as one of the most sustainable and innovative industries in the world. Her work in developing frameworks and methods to address emerging complexities, such as climate change, earned her a PhD from Hamburg University. Since joining Climate KIC Australia, she has taken the lead in a number of complex business sustainability projects including Quilpie Wellspring and UREZ.
Genevieve will bring her community consultation expertise to help with engagement activities as well as using her in-depth knowledge of renewable energy technologies to assist with identifying the solutions that might be required
Rod Arthur
Project Manager
Adjunct Professor, School of Business, University of Queensland Advancing Communities Australia Limited
Rod has worked in Senior levels of the Queensland Government as Deputy Director-General of the Department of Education, Training and the Arts; is a Graduate of the Company Directors Course from AICD and a participant in the ANZSOG Executive Fellows Program on Public Policy. He was CEO of UQ College for 10 years after it commenced in Ipswich and is a director on the Board of Sheldon College which recently won the Queensland Energy Efficiency Project of the Year for its Solar installation which is the largest school installation in Australia.
He brings a wealth of experience in Education, Training, Business Skills, Governance and the impacts of Public Policy and has had an increasing interest in the positive impacts of renewable energies on communities.
Brad Bulow
Entrepreneur Representative
Partner, SBB Partners
Director and major shareholder in top 50 AFR Australian Accounting Firm ‘SBB Partners’ Actively involved in Ipswich Community (socialist entrepreneur)
- Member of number of Advisory Boards, including founder and president Swich On www.swichoninc.org
- Treasurer Ipswich Turf Club Ipswich Turf Club | Brisbane Races | Ipswich Events & Entertainment Centre
- Treasurer Seed Foundation Australia Seed Foundation
- Australia Investment Committee
- Queensland Trust For Nature – Queensland Trust For Nature (qtfn.org.au)
- Joined Sammut Bulow 2005, partner 2007, inspired company through a period of significant growth and change – Group of
Company’s – SBB Partners, SBB Wealth, SBB Books, SBB Lending, SBB Life, Sirius Impact T/As SBB People. SBB Partners Accountants SBB Wealth – SBB Wealth SBB Life SBB Lending: Finance Brokers . - Company’s – SBB Partners, SBB Wealth, SBB Books, SBB Lending, SBB Life, Sirius Impact T/As SBB People. SBB Partners Accountants SBB Wealth – SBB Wealth SBB Life SBB Lending: Finance Brokers .
- Ipswich Chamber of Commercial Business Person of the Year 2016 The A-to-Z Business Survival Guide (Brad Bulow) (sbbpartners.com.au)
Brad has the community interest at the core of his involvement but then brings his financial and business experience to add a sharp edge to the Project team.
Geoff Baldwin
Chamber President, Mt Tamborine Chamber of Commerce
Geoff Baldwin
Tamborine Electrical and Refrigeration
Electrical and Refrigeration contractor
President TMCCI
Geoff has sourced other interested members from major Tourism centres, as well as other members of the Mt Tamborine business community, to work with the Project Team. Two of these are identified below:
Tony Chapman
Shambala Estate Wedding Centre
Business Development Manager
Member TMCCI
Anne Hardy
Attitude Evolution
Business Owner / manager
TMCCI project manager
Dr Aletha Ward
Research / University representative
Lecturer, University of Southern Queensland
Dr Aletha Ward is Founding Chair of a number of large public health reference groups, current Director on ACNC registered charity in the Stroke Recovery Trial Fund; and current Chair of National Policy Board with leading professional organisation in emissions reduction and sustainability. She is a Registered Nurse with 20 years of experience and has completed a Master of Business Administration with extensive experience in senior management positions. Aletha is a graduate of the AICD director course and is also a commissioner of declarations. Aletha has completed a PhD in social health policy. Aletha is also Chair of Climate Action Nurses and has a demonstrated interest in efforts to decarbonize the electricity grid.
Aletha will bring a direct link to the local University in Ipswich and West Moreton being The University of Southern Queensland, which has a significant presence in the regions presented. She is a passionate advocate of renewable energy applications to assist in reducing carbon emissions and has worked on solutions through her Climate Action Nurses Group.
Rod Welford
Adjunct Professor, Department of Business Strategy and Innovation Industry Fellow, Griffith Centre for Sustainable Enterprise Chair, Industry Advisory Board School of Environment & Science
Rod is Progress Partners’ Sustainability Strategy practice leader and specialises in transforming the sustainability of businesses, organisations and governments to deliver better social, economic and shareholder dividends. An international leader in sustainable enterprise and ESG practice, Rod has directly implemented largescale programs for some of the world’s largest and most resource intensive companies. Rod has more than 30 years of experience in public policy leadership and advocacy, and has previously held the roles of Queensland Attorney General, Minister for Justice, Minister for Environment and Heritage, Minister for Natural Resources, Minister for Education and Training, and Minister for the Arts. As an
Adjunct Professor at Griffith University’s Business Strategy and Innovation school, Rod is teaching Australia’s next generation of leaders how to transform conventional business into sustainable business.
Rod brings a broad range of skills associated with sustainability, considerable government policy experience and an educational focus from his role at Griffith University
Anthony Pratt
Corporate Representative
Chief Operating Officer, JBS Australia Pty Ltd
Anthony is Chief Operating Officer – Northern Region of JBS Meat Holdings, having been involved in the protein Industry for 20 years.
He has held various positions including JBS Australia’s – General Manager of Beef Sales, General Manager of JBS’ trading division Swift, and Company Trade Group. He has extensive experience in the sales and marketing of Australian protein to global markets as well as the Australian domestic market.
JBS Australia is Australia’s largest meat processor and feedlot operator with annual revenues of approximately $9.5 billion. The Australian operations are part of JBS S.A., which is the world’s largest animal protein business headquartered in Brazil. Globally, JBS has production operations in six continents and sales to more than 150 countries. The Company employs 265,000 people and has revenues of approximately USD $60 billion.
Specifically for the project, the Dinmore plant is the largest employer in the Ipswich district. He has well developed relationships with the local community and businesses and JBS, locally, would be a “Key Tenant” of the proposed Community Energy Zone.
Anthony would bring significant business experience from his National and International experiences, as well as a commitment to create business efficiencies which the Community Energy Zones would be aiming to achieve.
Rees Banks
Government Representative
Chief Executive Officer, Regional Development Australia Ipswich & West Moreton Inc
The connection with RDA is a strong one and provides the link given the Ipswich and West Moreton RDA Region included both Ipswich City and Mt Tamborine. Rees works across both areas and also represents the link to government activities at a number of levels. Being part of this group would be very beneficial to the group but also to Rees in the role he plays in the region. Rees, as CEO of the local region, has involvement with the significant range of investment activities occurring across the region and is well placed to identify possible opportunities that would support the creation of Community Energy Zones in the locations chosen.
Rees would bring to the project his access to Mayors, elected officials and senior bureaucrats across all governments in the region at a Local, State and Federal level. His networks also span across industries in the relevant areas and his knowledge of future growth opportunities would assist the Community Energy Zones to be successful. This may also lead to the expansion of Community Energy Zones using the RDA network in other locations in Queensland.
Greg Schossow
Principal Economic Development Officer, Department of State Development, Infrastructure, Local Government and Planning
The Ipswich State Development office covers both Ipswich and Mt Tamborine regions. The office, through Greg and the current former regional manager, has identified the project as having potential for the region and beyond.
Richard Romanowski
Risk Capital Representative
Executive Director and Co-Founder, Go-Zero Asset Management Pty Ltd
Richard’s involvement with Go-Zero Asset Management Pty Ltd, a Brisbane-based company established for many years, has spearheaded renewable energy companies such as eleXsys, which is focused on global decarbonisation of the electricity grid. eleXsys has raised $35 Million AUD to date and Richard is actively involved in its current Series B, which is expected to close in October for another $35 M AUD to support its Australian and global expansion.
Richard will have expertise and established networks to support an approach to gaining risk capital to develop the Community Energy Zones and provide the expected returns from a triple bottom line expectations from an investors approach.
David Tuppurainen
Data Rockstar
Energy Analyst Consultant Own Consultancy
Energy Analyst for a Rio Tinto Iron Ore innovation centre, estimating the primary energy input (fuels) for Rio Tinto’s existing and future Iron Ore operations. Analysis included embodied energies, conversion losses, transmission losses and fugitive emissions. Breakdown of unit process energy losses was fine grained and based in physics where possible. For example expansion of explosive gases, which are made from fuels, will only transfer a portion of that chemical energy into useful mechanical work. A more recent role constructed a global model of the iron ore market. A techno-economic agent based approach optimises each customers profit using an iron making furnace model that is responsive to the chemistry of its inputs. Price differentials between competing iron ore products can be determined by solving a simultaneous “auction” of all customer models competing for those products, mimicking a natural market.
David has an outstanding background in modelling energy use and optimising outcomes to minimise costs. His background will be invaluable in this project