Our Board

With over 20 years’ experience and responsibility for over 5 GW of renewables projects, Peter brings a wealth of industry experience as well as past experience on the board of the Clean Energy Council.

Peter has been a key supporter of the Connections Reform Initiative and is keen to ensure a strong collaborative relationship with our industry’s connections stakeholders. Grid connection clarity and new grid rollout will remain the biggest challenges to our transition to renewables and are a key focus for Peter.

Peter is a lawyer by training and a graduate of the AICD.

Karen is committed to renewables advocacy and has had a diverse career in the industry spanning 17 years.

She has extensive governance experience and is a Non-Executive Director on five boards, including the CEC.

She is also an Executive Director of Palisade where her role includes developing, financing and managing large-scale Australian renewables projects.

Karen was previously an Associate Director with Macquarie where she invested in global renewables projects.

Prior to this, she was a renewables and climate lawyer with Baker & McKenzie, a policymaker and UN climate change negotiator with the Australian Government and an engineer with CH2M Hill.

Philip is an experienced regulator and consumer advocate, based in Melbourne. He recently set up Consumer-wise Consulting, working on regulatory strategy, policy, engagement and governance. He is a member of the Boards of Consumer Action and Consumers’ Federation of Australia, the code committee for mutual banks, and the expert panel at the financial ombudsman AFCA.

He was a senior advisor to the Australian Energy Regulator in 2017–2020, focused on strategy, governance and change. Before that, Philip was at the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, on secondment from the UK energy regulator Ofgem, where he was the Consumers and Sustainability Partner. In the UK he also held senior roles at three consumer organisations, worked as an associate partner at Accenture, and was a member of advisory committees in financial services, food safety, aviation and water. He was appointed by the UK Government to its Better Regulation Commission, Risk and Regulation Advisory Council and Regulatory Policy Committee.

Annette has two decades of experience in renewables spanning the UK, Japan and Australia.

As Development Director of RES – the world’s largest independent renewable energy company - Annette leads the development of a +5 GW portfolio of wind, solar and storage.

Commercially astute, she has a track record of delivering renewable projects – bringing +1.2 GW to financial close. Annette also established RES’ growing construction and asset management business, with 1.1 GW managed for range of clients.

Her experience would bring a deep knowledge of the renewables sector to the CEC Board from the point of view of development, investment, construction and operations.

Emma Fagan has been with Tesla since December 2016 and leads Tesla’s Energy Policy and New Business Development team across Australia.

Her key focus areas to date have included energy market reform for utility and distributed battery storage. This includes market development work for utility scale storage, behind the meter storage assets and virtual power plants (VPPs).

Emma has co-chaired/ Chaired the Distributed Energy Directorate since February 2017 and is a member of the CEC Distributed Energy Leadership Forum (DELF). Emma brings a deep knowledge of utility and distributed storage issues and opportunities to the CEC Board.

Dennis brings more than 15 years of Australian energy experience to the board.

He has led the development and M&A of large-scale renewable projects in excess of 2 GW, as well as over $1 billion of contestable transmission assets.

Dennis currently holds the position of Managing Director ANZ at Aquila Capital. Previously, he has held senior energy sector roles at Octopus Investments, AusNet Services and Ampol.

Warwick Johnston is the managing director of SunWiz, a consultancy that services Australia’s solar industry. Warwick has worked in the solar industry since 2005 where he became well-known in the BCSE. Since founding SunWiz in 2009, Warwick has helped hundreds of solar businesses to improve their competitiveness and authored dozens of reports on Australia’s solar industry.

Warwick has been contributing to the solar industry since 2005, through previous roles in ANZSES (Victorian Treasurer), SEIA (NSW President), on the CEC's Distributed Energy Leadership Forum and Chair of the CEC's PV Directorate. Warwick was also Australia's representative to an International Energy Agency PV Task. In 2011, the ASC recognised Warwick's pro-bono contribution to overturning the NSW Government's retrospective feed-in tariff legislation with an Industry Leadership award.

Warwick is a fierce advocate for the role of solar energy in Australia’s energy supply. Warwick combines a passion for solar energy with a love of all renewable energy technologies, and his master’s degree in Renewable Energy provides a framework for considering broader energy policy, energy market operation, and energy economics.

Alex is a customer-focused, professional engineering leader with 20 years’ experience in utilities and a passion for delivering innovative ideas, with the aim of transforming Australia’s energy landscape for a cleaner and smarter future.

Alex is an electrical engineer and currently holds the position of Manager – Network Innovation & Intelligence at Ausgrid, where she is responsible for managing a large program of trials aimed at encouraging the uptake and better integration of customer energy resources. Alex has deep knowledge of the Australian regulatory framework across economic regulation, metering and connections, as well as strong skills in asset and risk management.

Jenny is Managing Director of Suntrix, a solar PV company with head office in South Australia and operating in SA, VIC and NSW. Jenny established Suntrix in 2009 and drives the strategic direction of the company, with a focus on commercial solar, battery storage and solar/energy monitoring. Jenny is a regular speaker at renewable energy conferences, has worked in management roles for over 20 years and is a member of a number of committees and not-for-profit boards.

Jenny was the winner of the National Telstra Business Women’s Entrepreneur Award in 2016 and named in AFR’s 100 women of influence in 2019. Her personal and professional drivers are around renewable energy, women in business and supporting start-up entrepreneurs.

As a member of the Clean Energy Council board, Jenny aims to represent the views and needs of SME solar companies nationally, giving solar companies a voice and providing a point-of-view that reflects their segment of the industry.

Lillian brings a unique offering to the CEC board. As the CEC’s previous market and grid policy director, she has been a strong voice for the renewable energy industry on its most significant matters and has firsthand insights into the CEC’s vision, strategy, programs and operations. She recently moved to AusNet’s commercial arm where she continues to work on the vital enablers for the energy transition – connections, transmission development and batteries.

Lillian’s earlier roles at Origin Energy, the International Energy Agency and in government further highlight her capabilities across the political, regulatory, technical, commercial and strategic spheres of the industry.