SA - Hybrid | Hydrogen Economy: Australian Renewable and clean Energy

Verity heads up Flinders University’s New Venture Institute, a centre for innovation and entrepreneurship, creating the next generation of innovators to realise their potential. The New Venture Institute is right in the heart of the Tonsley Innovation precinct and has a well-earned reputation as an engaging thought leader and connector.

Verity has a track record in creating innovative practice, driving collaboration and renewing teams. Rarely content with replicating practices or processes, Verity leads teams to develop and explore innovative approaches to what or how they do what they do, and is now doing the same with the New Venture Institute. Verity has over 20 years in adult learning, employability and leadership.

Tom was raised in the western suburbs. He attended Cowandilla and Netley Primary Schools before attending Adelaide High School and going on to study at Adelaide University.

The son of Greek migrants, Anthony and Dimitra, Tom joined the Australian Labor Party at a young age with the encouragement of Labor stalwart and former SA Deputy Premier, the late Jack Wright. Tom first volunteered in Jack Wright’s office when he was 14.

Tom was elected to the South Australian State Parliament on 11 October 1997, at age 26. Tom was elevated to the Ministry on 3 March 2009 and remained in Cabinet until the 2018 State election. Over this period, he served as Minister for Correctional Services, Youth and Volunteers, Gambling, Small Business, Transport, Planning and Infrastructure, Mining and Energy, State Development and as Treasurer.

He is SA Labor’s longest serving MP.

Philip is a Director at Clifford Chance and heads the Firm's Renewable Energy practice in Asia Pacific. He has over 15 years’ experience advising and representing clients on projects and project financing transactions across a wide range of sectors including renewables, power, mining and oil & gas.

Prior to joining Clifford Chance in Perth, Philip spent 2 very happy years in the Clifford Chance Paris office and 4 years in the Firm's Frankfurt office.

Clifford Chance has a wealth of experience advising in the Hydrogen space. It has established a Clean Hydrogen Taskforce led by one of its senior Paris-based partners, and comprised of Clifford Chance lawyers from around the world across our Corporate, Global Financial Markets, Real Estate and Litigation & Dispute Resolution practices. The Taskforce regularly advises on hydrogen projects in various jurisdictions, drawing from its strengths in the renewable energy, pipelines and industrials sectors. Philip is an active member of the Taskforce.

In 1998 Gunther Andersson completed his PhD applying ion scattering spectroscopy on liquid surfaces at the University of Witten/Herdecke (Germany) under the supervision of Prof Harald Morgner. The following two years he at the Technical University Eindhoven on a project on polymer based light emitting diodes. In 2000 Gunther moved to Leipzig University (Germany) were he developed the method neutral impact collision ion scattering spectroscopy (NICISS) for investigation of soft matter surfaces to its current stage. He completed his Habilitation in 2006. In 2007 he was appointed at Flinders University (Australia). He is now leading as a full Professor and Deputy Director of the Flinders Institute of Nanoscale Science and Technology a research group with activities in photocatalysis for water splitting, colloid surfaces and interfaces and high temperature corrosion resistance.

Rodolfo M. Gomez (RMG) was born in Baguio City, Philippines but grew up in Angeles City near the former Clark Air Base. He was valedictorian in high school at the Holy Angel Academy. He graduated in mechanical engineering at the University of the Philippines and worked for a year as a project engineer for Proctor and Gamble Philippines before taking up extractive metallurgy at the University of Adelaide as a Colombo Plan scholar in 1957.

RMG completed his Master of Science degree in 1960 at the University of Adelaide on the reduction of lead oxide by hydrogen at 700oC in a transport reactor.

RMG spent time carrying out plant R&D and engineering on copper-zinc metallurgy in Canada, engineering design at Foster Wheeler Corporation in New York, copper smelting with Western Knapp Engineering in San Francisco, and copper-zinc roasting and extraction at the Mitsui Smelter in Southern Japan. In 1970, RMG spent a year with AMDEL in Adelaide as Group Leader in Mineral processing.

From 1965 to 1982, RMG designed, engineered, constructed, and commissioned the 12,000 TPD copper-gold plant of Philex Mining Corporation; the 10,000 TPD copper-gold mine of Western Minolco Corporation; and the 15,000 TPD copper-molybdenum mine of the CDCP Mining Corporation.

In South Australia, RMG tried to establish a 10,000 BPD oil refinery in 1982 and a world-class petrochemical plant at Port Bonython near Whyalla. In June 2005, RMG discovered the rich copper-gold-uranium-rare earth Carrapateena deposit in the mid-north of South Australia that was sold to OZ Minerals Limited and is now in production.

RMG continues with his mineral exploration in exploration licences in the Central Gawler Craton of South Australia and western Victoria's gold district.

Megan has more than 10 years of professional experience in the Australian energy sector spanning policy development and project implementation across energy efficiency, renewable generation and battery storage in both private and public organisations.

Megan currently holds the position of Senior Commercial Manager within Neoen—focussing on contracting renewable energy and hydrogen offtake agreements across Neoen’s Australian portfolio. Prior to this, Megan oversaw the development of the company’s South Australian & Western Australia portfolios, as well as Neoen’s investigation of opportunities to include new technologies such as hydrogen.

Prune is a graduate of the Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po) in Paris. Before moving to Melbourne in April this years, she was working on decarbonisation and energy policies for the CEA research and innovation centre at the Embassy of France in Japan.

In Australia, her work aims at developing the French-Australian cooperation in the fields of hydrogen and renewable energy by facilitating connections between relevant stakeholders and fostering collaborations on production and supply chain development projects. Prune is also involved in the French start-up ecosystem, "La French Tech Australia", with a focus on GreenTech.

Kam Ho is the Managing Director of Total Eren Australia, responsible for Total Eren’s development, engineering, investment and operations activities across renewable energy and green hydrogen pipelines in Australia.

Total Eren is a French renewable energy independent power producer with over 3.7 GW in onshore wind, solar PV and ESS assets in construction or operations and has a strategic partnership with TotalEnergies, the world’s 6th largest energy major. Kam has 18 years’ experience in the renewable energy sector having started his career in the UK and prior to joining Total Eren was part of the CWP Renewables and Wind Prospect teams in Australia, developing over 400 MW of wind farms.