Don't miss this highlight session, where Saul Griffith (online) will officially launch Electrify Boroondara and unveil the big picture of electrification, envisioning a sustainable Australia by 2030. Alan Kohler will provide his perspective on ‘the move to electrify everything’, and then join a panel moderated by Dan Cass, CEO of Rewiring Australia for a deeper understanding of why and how we need to electrify.
Saul Griffith, Co Founder and Chief Scientist, Rewiring Australia. Saul is an engineer and entrepreneur specialising in clean and renewable energy technologies. Saul has founded a dozen technology companies across 20 years in Silicon Valley. Saul is the author of 3 books including `Electrify', and `The Big Switch'. Saul has recently turned his attention from Otherlab, his independent Research and Development lab, to policy work and writing, including founding Rewiring America and Rewiring Australia, non-partisan organisations dedicated to electrification and decarbonization. Saul received his Ph.D. at MIT in the junction between materials science and information theory. Saul has received numerous awards and honours, including National Inventors Hall of Fame National Collegiate Inventors Awards 2001, Time Magazine Top Inventions of 2005, MacArthur Fellows Recipient 2007, World Economic Forum Young Global Leader 2011, Global Australian Advance Award Winner for Advanced Manufacturing 2012, The Tällberg/Eliasson Global Leadership Prize 2019 and multiple more.
Alan Kohler, ABC News Finance Presenter. Alan Kohler has been a financial journalist for 46 years. He began as a cadet on The Australian covering the Poseidon boom and bust; has been a columnist for Chanticleer in the Australian Financial Review and editor of the AFR, and columnist for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. Alan has also served as editor of The Age and for the past 21 years he has been working for the ABC, first as business editor of the 7.30 Report and then host of Inside Business and finance presenter on ABC News. He was the founder of Eureka Report and Business Spectator, now owned by News Corporation, and recently started a new publication – The Constant Investor.
Jessica Hunt, Manager - Gas Reform (Roadmap), Energy Strategy, Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (DEECA). Jessica is a Manager, Gas Reform within the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action, leading the Gas Substitution Roadmap – Victoria’s plan for transitioning the gas sector and driving electrification across the economy. A Chemical Engineer, Jessica has worked across the public and private sectors in diverse roles ranging from Production Superintendent in Titanium Dioxide Manufacture to the Manger Complex Mines, Fire and Emergency for the Earth Resources Regulator. Her strong technical and policy experience, as well as her lived experience as a proud resident of Victoria’s Latrobe Valley, makes her uniquely equipped to be at the forefront of public policy to shepherd Victoria through this critical transition decade.
Bruce Mountain, CEO, Victorian Energy Policy Centre. Bruce is the inaugural Director of the Victoria Energy Policy Centre. He is a well-known Australian energy economist whose research and advisory work has focussed on the economic regulation of network monopolies, the analysis of retail energy markets, and the design of emission reduction and renewable energy policies. Bruce has been a long-standing advisor to governments, regulators, market participants and interest groups in Australia and internationally. His PhD from Victoria University was on the political economy of energy regulation in Australia, and he has a Bachelor and a Masters degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Cape Town and is qualified as a Chartered Management Accountant in England.
Moderated by Dan Cass, Co-Founder and Executive Director, Rewiring Australia. Dan is a leader in the clean energy transition. He has advised investors, wind companies and the rooftop solar sector and worked on energy market reform at The Australia Institute. He has a Bachelor of Science (Hons) in science history from the University of Melbourne, a Graduate Diploma in Energy and Resources Law from Melbourne Law School and is a Research Affiliate at the University of Sydney Business School. In January 2023 Dan was appointed as the first executive director of Rewiring Australia. He first worked on climate in 1991 and says that electrification is the first policy that will win mass support for ending fossil fuels, because it saves consumers money. Dan lives in Naarm (Melbourne) with his partner and their two young boys who love fishing, zoos, beaches and the bush.