2023 AICD Scholarship recipient

From the Women in Renewables program, the Clean Energy Council is absolutely thrilled to officially announce 2023 Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD) Scholarship recipient, Alicia Webb, State Leader Victoria, Neoen.

Alicia started her journey in renewables back in 2004, when she got a graduate position at Vestas, and worked to assist the construction of Yambuk wind farm in Southwest Victoria. Having found her passion, she continued to grow and progress working as a consultant wind engineer, a Policy Director at the Clean Energy Council (2012 to 2017), manager in the Victorian State Government and as a manager at the Australian Energy Market Operator. Today, she is based in Melbourne Victoria and holds the leadership position of reporting directly to the Australian Managing Director of Neoen, Louis de Sambucy.

On Alicia’s ambition to continue making an impact, she said “This AICD scholarship will help me to continue to shape the sector and take the next step in my career. I am ready to leverage this experience to ensure I play a leading role in the Australian energy sector during the years to come.”

Here in Australia’s clean energy sector, just 32 per cent of senior leadership roles are held by women, which drops to 19 per cent when looking at board roles (Ref Empowering Everyone – Diversity in the Australian Clean Energy Sector. As part of a broad range of diversity betterment projects within our Women in Renewables program, the AICD Scholarship was curated to help increase leadership opportunities for women in the sector.

Now in its sixth year, the opportunity continues to attract an impressive cohort of applicants.
Jenny Paradiso, Managing Director, Suntrix and Clean Energy Council Board Member, who sat on the interview panel said “We had an extremely high calibre of finalists this year. The keen interest in the scholarship demonstrates the need for such a program and the quality of applicants shows that the number of incredible women in the renewable energy industry is continuously growing.”

It’s also a joy to be making this announcement the week leading up to International Women’s Day. Aligning with the UN Australia theme ‘Cracking the Code’, Alicia Webb is a perfect example of the importance of equal access to education for women and girls and creating clear pathways and inclusive workplaces for women in STEM.