NSW-Hybrid | FACCI 2023 Sustainability Forum | French-Australian Chamber of Commerce & Industry on Glue Up

Past Event

The French-Australian Chamber of Commerce & Industry (FACCI) was delighted to welcome you during this 9th Edition of the Business Forum hosted by EY in Sydney.

With the support of our Naming Rights Sponsor Schneider Electric, the event discussed several topics on sustainable economic growth, and the ambition for French and Australian businesses to forge their path as part of an innovative economy in the global sphere.

The topics such as "The Sustainability Investment Dilemma", "The Power of Data and IoT for Net Zero Conversion Journey" and "Scope 3 - 'Driving Change Across Value Chains", along with Schneider Electric's July 2023 report 'Sustainability Index: transforming intention to outcomes', were addressed through panel discussions, keynote addresses, C-level luncheons, workshops and business networking evenings.

This event brought together key speakers from government, senior academic circles and representatives from leading industry partners to start the conversation about how Australia and France can collaborate to progress towards a sustainable commercial industry.

A special thank you to all our partners and sponsors for their support:

Naming Rights Sponsor: Schneider Electric.
Platinum Sponsors: ACCOR, AXA XL, EDF Renewables, Holding Redlich and Natixis.
Diamond Sponsors: BNP Paribas, Manitou Group, Havas and Transdev.
Event Partners: AFBA, French Embassy, Business France, European Australian Business Council, NSW Investment, La French Tech and CCEFS.

And of course, thank you to EY for hosting this brilliant event.

We look forward to seeing you again next year for the 10th edition!

To download Schneider Electric Sustainability Index: transforming intention to outcomes, click here.

Our Speakers

Andrew Price

Managing Partner, Sydney Office and Oceania Audit Partner at EY

Karine Delvallée

Federal President & Director of French Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry

Andrew Lewis

Acting Deputy Secretary Energy, Climate Change and Sustainability at NSW Government - Treasury

Gareth O'Reilly

President, Pacific Zone at Schneider Electric

Huw Bridges

Chief Safety & Assurance Officer at Transdev Australia & New Zealand

Alice Cahill

Director, Clean Economy of Investment NSW

Catherine Carlyon

Country Manager at AXA XL

Michael Cox

APAC Director, Sustainability Consulting of Schneider Electric

Sarah Derry

CEO, Pacific- Premium, Midscale & Economy of ACCOR

Jemma Fastnedge

Chief Sustainability Officer at Big Red Group

Aaron Fleming

Managing Director, Co-Head of Energy Transition & Natural Resources APAC at Natixis Australia Pty Limited

Dominic Hatfield

General Manager Digital & CIO at SYDNEY WATER

Emma Herd

Partner, Climate Change & Sustainability at EY

Melissa Irwin

Chief Data, People & Sustainability Officer at ENDEAVOUR ENERGY

Dave Johnson

Chief Executive Officer at EDF Renewables Australia

Lynette Mayne AM

Executive Chair at The B Team Australasia

Kambiz Mohkam

Head of Regional Economic Department – Australia, New-Zealand and the Pacific at French Embassy in Australia - Ambassade de France

Jeanne Vallade

Special Counsel at Holding Redlich

Bryan Fry

Chairman & Chief Executive Officer at Pernod Ricard Winemakers

Kosala Wickramage

Director, Capital Markets & Low Carbon Transition Group of BNP Paribas

Francesco Pedroni

Senior Manager, Climate Change and Sustainability at EY

Carlos Urbano

Vice President Industry, Pacific at Schneider Electric

Philippe Vincent

NSW Chapter President at French-Australian Chamber of Commerce & Industry

Andrew Lewis is the Acting Deputy Secretary for Energy, Climate Change and Sustainability.

Andrew has almost 20 years' experience working in and around energy in a variety of roles.

Andrew brings perspectives from his time at a number of NSW government agencies, a peak body and private industry. In addition to energy, Andrew has held senior leadership roles in Government across areas including water, resources and industry.

Andrew brings a strong focus and capability on developing and implementing strategies, policies and programs; enhancing consumer-focused outcomes and reforms; delivering effective stakeholder engagement and communication; overseeing technical regulation; supporting net zero transition; and building, leading and motivating teams.

Pacific Zone President, Schneider Electric, Gareth O’Reilly is a global citizen with multinational leadership experience whose international perspective shapes his vision for the technology market. Gareth’s passion is to change how businesses operate, enabling companies to create value to meet the technical, financial and sustainability challenges of the future.

Gareth joined Schneider in 2010 and held the role of Vice President – Buildings where he achieved significant success and was subsequently appointed as Pacific Zone President in 2014. Before Schneider, Gareth held roles with ABB Power-One, Invensys, and Nokia Alcatel-Lucent in the telecommunications, renewable energy, and energy efficiency sectors.

Gareth, Irish by birth and calling Australia home, has lived in Singapore, Hong Kong, and Switzerland with roles in operations, marketing, sales, and general management. Gareth studied electrical engineering at University College Dublin and latterly Business Administration at Macquarie Graduate School of Management.

He is married with three children and a passionate rugby fan.

Huw is a public transport safety, risk and environmental specialist with more than 35 years of public transport experience spanning rail, bus and ferries in Europe, New Zealand and Australia.

He has worked in operations and safety focused roles for some of the world’s largest and well-known transport companies including Eurostar, First Group and National Express Group.

Since August 2019, Huw has overseen the safety and risk profile of Transdev Australia and New Zealand and is also acting head of Asset Management and Maintenance Services.

His team manage all local safety management reporting, compliance and improvement.

Huw led Transdev Australia and New Zealand’s pandemic response coordinating activities across a dozen different business sites from Perth to Auckland and Wellington

He has also introduced an environmental dashboard to better monitor Transdev’s environmental footprint and carbon use in order to help cut emissions.

Huw was previously General Manager, Safety & Assurance at Transdev Sydney Ferries and General Manager, Safety & Assurance with our Auckland rail operations for three years.

Huw is passionate about safe and sustainable public transport delivery and values management systems and processes which support an effective, positive, learning culture.

Alice is an experienced senior executive, sustainability leader and innovator, leading teams who deliver sustainability and net zero programs for industry, local councils and government agencies. Alice is currently leading Investment NSW’s Clean Economy team, attracting investment into NSW with a key focus on renewables, grid infrastructure, energy storage, offshore wind and hydrogen.

Alice seeks roles where she can make a difference to create a more just and environmentally sustainable society. Her experience across both the private and public sectors provides a unique insight into how innovation, collaboration and leadership will be key to seize the opportunities to accelerate the transformation of NSW to a low carbon economy.

Appointed in July 2021 as Country Manager, Catherine leads the overall insurance business in Australia, driving our strategy. Australia is the third largest market by gross written premium for AXA XL’s APAC & Europe business unit.

Prior to her Country Manager role, Catherine was Head of Asia Pacific Claims since 2017, where she was responsible for all aspects of the claims organization across the region. Previous to this, Catherine was Chief of Staff for Global Claims, and worked with in Global Claim Management for 11 years.

Catherine joined AXA XL in the aftermath of the 2005 Hurricanes, and one of her first responsibilities was to establish a more robust catastrophe response across the organization, much of which still exists today.

A qualified Chartered Accountant, Catherine spent 10 years with KPMG, accounting and consulting on organizational, finance and process matters with Insurance Companies during which time she lived and worked in the UK, Australia and US. Catherine holds a BA Hons in Biological Sciences from St. John’s College, Oxford.

Catherine is also passionate about inclusion and helped establish AXA XL’s Inclusion Committee in Australia, focused on promoting an inclusive and diverse workplace.

She is a beekeeper and is based in Sydney with her husband, Simon and two children.

As the APAC Director of Sustainability Consulting for Schneider Electric’s Sustainability Business, Michael Cox is a strategist and engineer advising organisations seeking transformation to address the connected challenges of sustainability, climate change, decarbonisation and resource efficiency.

Michael’s expertise has seen him make decarbonisation accessible to many and varied enterprises by leading them from intention to outcome, through insight, implementation, and action.

His decades-long committed to delivering world-changing sustainability outcomes, has seen him work across key sectors of environmental influence, including technology, property, government, manufacturing, mining, and engineering.

Michael’s passion is supporting organisations to develop their environmental, social, and corporate governance performance and achieve operational and supply chain decarbonisation outcomes.

Sarah Derry is the CEO of Accor Pacific- Premium, Midscale & Economy. She joined Accor in April 2017 to lead Talent and Culture, before her appointment to CEO in February 2022.

Sarah has over 30 years’ experience in hospitality, working for international hotel companies and excelling in her early career in operations. Sarah has an entrepreneurial background, having owned and operated her own successful business for over 10 years before joining Accor.

As Senior Vice President of Talent and Culture, Sarah was responsible for transforming Accor’s people and culture strategies, successfully integrating Accor’s HEARTIST values and culture into operations and guest service across Australia and New Zealand.

Sarah has completed post-graduate studies in Human Resource Management, Training, Executive Coaching and Organisational Development. Sarah is an active Director in companies in Australia and New Zealand.

Sarah is committed to causes and organisations that make a difference to the broader community and tries to find innovative ways to drive positive change in the world, especially in education, wellbeing and social impact. Sarah is an advisor to Two Good Co who support women in crisis through catering, employment and training pathways. Sarah is also an advisor to founder of BETTER Timor who are committed to empowering East Timor through Education.

Sarah is a respected speaker and expert in the areas of strategic business management, organisational behaviour, leadership development, culture transformation and executive coaching.

Jemma is passionate about delivering sustainable growth by creating long-term environmental and social value.

With two decades of experience in the experience industry, Jemma understands how ‘less stuff, more stories’ can play a fundamental role in shifting how and what we consume. As well as the responsibility we have to our country and community.

Jemma joined start-up RedBalloon in 2001 with the remit to drive the expansion of the business across Australia and New Zealand. Jemma became CEO of RedBalloon in 2011, guiding RedBalloon through its fast-growth years. More recently as Big Red Group. Group COO, Jemma led the technology, data, and salesforce divisions, tasked with driving innovation and excellence across product and operational functions.

Dominic Hatfield is Sydney Water’s General Manager Digital and CIO. Dominic is a highly capable senior executive with over 27 years of experience managing enterprise-wide technology requirements and IT portfolio strategy. With a career spanning the Media, Retail and Banking industries and a sharp focus on customer experience, Dominic has an extensive track record of creating business value, delivering strategic transformation programs and building high-performing teams.

Dominic’s influential and energetic leadership style is combined with keen brand awareness and astute business judgement, enabling him to maximise organisational outcomes. Dominic’s significant experience and ability to articulate a clear vision allows for the establishment of innovative technology strategies leading to strong revenue growth, best practice customer experience, business transformation and effective cost management.

Leadership, Portfolio Management & Transformation are the pillars on which Dominic prides himself and are the contributing factors to the many successes that he has achieved.

Dominic is also an active member of his local community, volunteering and supporting local sporting events and organisations.

Melissa is a highly successful human resources executive with more than 20 years’ experience in organisational development, workforce planning, remuneration and benefits, inclusion and diversity and industrial relations.

During Melissa’s career, her strategic yet pragmatic approach has seen her lead workforce optimisation, cultural transformation and employee experience strategies which have resulted in operational efficiencies, cultural change and improved employee engagement.

Melissa’s passion lies in transforming organisations through people and leadership and she is a champion for inclusion and diversity. With a collaborative and inclusive leadership style focused on developing and empowering all team members, her strength lies in her ability to create an environment where people are free to think creatively and challenge and improve the way things are done.

Prior to joining Endeavour Energy, Melissa held numerous consulting roles working with a large variety of organisations and sectors within Australia and New Zealand.

Dave is a mechanical engineer with additional qualifications in finance and agriculture.

He has 30 years experience across the power generation, resources and infrastructure sectors, having worked for Transfield, BHP Billiton, RioTinto, Santos, Origin Energy, AGL Energy.

He is the CEO of EDF Renewables Australia, EDF is the state owned national utility of France which operates the national transmission and distribution networks, the energy market and the majority of the generation based on nuclear and hydro.

EDF has a large renewable business across 26 countries and is globally the second largest renewable energy operator. In Australia EDF is developing a 5 GW portfolio renewable energy projects including offshore wind.

In addition to his role at EDF he is a member of the Great Artesian Basin stakeholder advisory committee with the department water agriculture and the environment, and is a director of Magnium Australia which is commercializing a new low carbon emission process for smelting and refining magnesium, originally developed by the CSIRO.

Lynette has a proven commercial track record as CEO, Chair + Director, and is a successful entrepreneur having established and run globally competitive businesses including a decade in New York.

She is: Executive Chair of Richard Branson’s B Team Australasia working with CEOs to enhance what they do with the people and the planet. Initiatives include Future of Work, Mental Health, AI, Carbon Investment Schemes, Asian Leadership Program and the very successful Climate Leaders Coalition (CLC), with 50+ major company CEOs working on joint projects to decarbonise their businesses, including its Scope 3 playbook, a global first.

Lynette is also a former NED on the Prime Minister’s Australian Infrastructure Financing Facility for the Pacific and Top Shelf International; and currently a NED on Accounting for Nature. She was Owner and Executive Chair of Work Wear World; and a CEO at Lendlease, among other things.

Jeanne is qualified to practise in both Australia (solicitor) and France (avocate). She speaks fluent French and English.

Jeanne has over 15 years' experience advising on complex transactional and regulatory matters, including:
• Renewable energy projects
• Energy transition investment
• Foreign investment in Australia, including investment approvals (FIRB)
• Cross-border and domestic infrastructure and energy mergers & acquisitions
• Corporate governance and regulatory compliance
• Privacy and data law – GDPR and Australian privacy laws

Jeanne has in-depth knowledge of a wide range of industries including innovation & technology, defence, and agribusiness. She has a particular focus on utilities, energy transition and renewables projects.

Jeanne works across the full spectrum of the energy industry, with all major forms of energy production and generation, transport, storage and consumption. She works with investors, operators, off-takers and financiers across the energy value chain, bringing a wealth of experience to their most complex challenges and innovative solutions.

Before joining Holding Redlich, Jeanne held several in-house and legal advisory positions both in Australia and France. She has advised the boards and senior management of private entities (of all sizes) as well as ASX 200 and CAC 40 companies. She recently acted as the outsourced head of legal of a global solar energy company.

With her unique legal, cultural and language capabilities, Jeanne is a trusted advisor to clients from French-speaking markets and from all over the world. She is also renowned for forming close and long-standing relationships with her clients.

Bryan Fry is the Chairman and CEO of Pernod Ricard Winemakers, responsible for the global Pernod
Ricard wine production, sales, marketing and distribution, in addition to the distribution of the
champagne and spirits portfolio across Australia and New Zealand.

Bryan has worked for Pernod Ricard for 28 years, starting in Operations in South Australia before
successfully undertaking various sales, marketing and leadership roles based in the Pacific, Asia,
Brazil and the USA. Prior to returning to his homeland in Australia to lead the Pacific Distribution
business, Bryan was President and CEO of Pernod Ricard USA.

Bryan holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Agricultural Science from the University of Adelaide and a
Graduate Diploma in Economics from the University of New England.

Francesco is a Senior Manager in EY's Climate Change and Sustainability Services (CCaSS) division. Francesco has experience in supporting organisations to develop and manage sustainability, climate change and decarbonisation and busines. strategies. In CCaSS, Francesco is focussing on Climate Change Strategy advisory and has led multiple climate related engagements particularly with regards to scope 1-3 emissions inventory development and decarbonisation strategy, SBTi readiness, financed emissions and strategic support to board members. Prior to joining EY CCasS team in Sydney, Francesco worked in business strategy for Monitor Deloitte in Australia and led a series of engagements both in business and climate-related strategies.

Francesco has multiple experience across several sectors including State Government, Transportation, Pharma and Consumer Healthcare, Electricity, Forestry, Maritime Shipping, Banking, Oil & Gas, Real Estate.

As a key member of Schneider Electric’s Pacific Zone leadership team, Carlos Urbano is responsible for leading the Industrial Automation and Process Automation division. Urbano has held multiple roles within Schneider Electric and joined the Pacific team at the start of 2023 from Brazil, where he was Industry Business Director.

Urbano works closely with Schneider Electric’s partners to accelerate digital transformation and drive innovation in the market. His focus is on delivering sustainability to Schneider Electric’s customers and partners as a business tool that drives efficiency and productivity using software solutions to accelerate digital transformation.

Having started his career with Schneider Electric as an application engineer in technical support for drives, soft-starters, and motion sensors, Urbano brings a wealth of experience and knowledge of the business and industry to the role.

As Urbano takes on new challenges, he always remains committed to fostering growth, harnessing innovation, and cultivating a collaborative work environment. He firmly believes in the power of teamwork and its potential to achieve extraordinary results.

Urbano’s passion for achieving tangible outcomes fuels his confidence in Schneider Electric's future endeavours and the company's commitment to diversity and inclusivity resonates deeply with him. Being part of such a dynamic and forward-thinking organisation is a true honour for Urbano.

Urbano studied engineering in Brazil, where he also attained his Master of Business Administration in addition to his leadership qualifications from INSEAD. He is married with two children and in his free time, Carlos enjoys riding his motorcycle, wakeboarding, and spending time with his wife and two daughters.

Philippe Vincent is the Managing Director of Menard Oceania, and a non-executive Director on the boards of Conetec and SFIT corporations.

Philippe has been with the Soletanche Freyssinet group, a subsidiary of the Vinci group, for 17 years. Over the course of his career he has worked across Soletanche Freyssinet’s businesses including Freyssinet, Bachy Soletanche, Menard Oceania and REMEA.

During the course of his tenure with the SF group Philippe has practiced his geotechnical skills on many substantial infrastructure, energy and commercial/residential projects across the region.
Philippe is a Chartered Engineer in Australia, NZ and with the APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation), he is also a Fellow and Engineering Executive with Engineers Australia.

Documents

Schneider Electric Sustainability Index Report 2023

French-Australian Chamber of Commerce & Industry

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NSW-Hybrid | FACCI 2023 Sustainability Forum