Meet our Committee
Peter Newman is the Professor of Sustainability at Curtin University in Perth, Australia. In 2014 he was awarded an Order of Australia for his contributions to urban design and sustainable transport particularly for his work in saving and rebuilding Perth's rail system. Peter served on the Board of Infrastructure Australia from 2010 -14 and in 2018/19 he was recognised as the WA Scientist of the Year.
Colleen has been the CEO with Regional Development Australia Perth since 2013, having led a number of initiatives to drive new business investment and job growth for the State, in particular the Perth region. These include: Driving Change: Perth and Peel an Economic Development Strategy and Infrastructure Priorities Plan (2016); Security and Defence in Western Australia: An Economic Perspective (2017); Lithium Valley: Building the Case for Energy Metals and Battery Manufacturing in WA (2018) and Establishing the Perth DroneHub (2019). Colleen has over 35 years in a number of multi-faceted, composite and challenging roles within the private, government and not-for-profit sectors. Colleen holds an MBA from the University of Western Australia and is on the Board of a number of organisations.
Originally trained as a Chartered Accountant, Cameron has over 20 years’ experience across infrastructure investment, consulting, financial advisory, investment banking, operational and executive management roles both domestically and globally. Cameron focuses on economic infrastructure development, project financing, risk & credit, renewables, water, transport, fuel terminals and ports. Cameron is the Founder and Director of InfraNomics, Bardan Cells, Decarbonology and Committee member of the Australian Microgrid Centre of Excellence.
Michelle is Director/Principal of 360 Environmental Pty Ltd and the Chair of the 360 Environmental Board. Michelle is multi-degree qualified, having completed a Bachelor of Science, Post Graduate Degree in Environmental Impact Assessment, a Masters of Environmental Management. In 2008, Michelle graduated from the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
In 2006, Michelle was awarded the Western Australian Telstra Business Women of the Year award in the Zaffyre Category. In 2008, Michelle was listed in the State’s Edition of Western Australia’s Who’s Who. In 2009, Michelle was listed in the 40Under40 top business leaders. In 2014, Michelle was an Ernst and Young: Entrepreneur of the Year Western Region Finalist.
As a Partner/Principal at Ernst & Young, and from early 2020 a Director of On Point Incentives, Peter has over 22 years’ professional experience working with and assisting companies of all sizes to fund their innovation and R&D. He has experience working across a broad range of industries including manufacturing, engineering, renewable energy, resources and mining, agribusiness, defence, information technology and retail. Peter’s qualifications include a Bachelor of Applied Science and MBA. He has long standing relationships with a broad range of small to medium sized companies, and has managed consulting projects at Executive, CFO and CEO level with large diversified global companies. He has a track record of establishing and managing complex multi-sector, multi-partner relationships throughout the supply chain and delivering quality strategic commercial outcomes including developing, working with, and leading diverse multi-disciplinary teams.
Gwen is a Senior Specialist with Dassault Systèmes covering Business Transformation and has over 20 years of experience in energy and natural resources. Gwen specialises in process engineering, automation, materials processing and cloud based project management platforms. Gwen is a foundation member of the Australian Microgrid Centre of Excellence.
Rohan is a highly experienced Industry professional with over 25 years extensive leadership experience across a wide variety of industry sectors, including mining, infrastructure and defence and provides his skills across a number of organisations.
He is the founding Chairperson of the Henderson Alliance, a SME advocacy group, as well as the founding committee of the Australian Defence Alliance. Rohan currently sits on a number of Boards and committees representing the interests of Western Australian Defence Industry SME’s.
Peter Kasprzak is the co-founder and CEO of Innovate Australia. He is also a co-founder, director and immediate past president of the Hydrogen Society of Australia, past president of Inventors Association of Australia and has been a director of number of companies, ranging from geophysics to manufacturing electric vehicle charging stations. Peter headed the 2010 WA bid group to create the Sustainable Electric Transport Cooperative Research Centre (SET CRC) in Western Australia and was the author of the original proposal for the Australia’s first Electric Highway from Perth to Margaret River.
Peter’s interest in sustainable transport is reflected in him leading Innovate Australia and Hydrogen Society of Australia’s Zero Emission Highway project for heavy transport that is designed to bring together technologies of plug-in battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs).
Martin is an environmental engineer with over 30 years experience in the energy, water and construction sectors since completing a Bachelor of Engineering (Mechanical) degree. After working with consulting engineering firms on large industrial energy projects, he spent 15 years working with remote indigenous communities across Australia and developing countries and completed a PhD during this time. He joined Murdoch University and became Research Manager then Director of the UNEP Environmental Technology Centre, later chairing the Environmental Engineering undergraduate program. Today he manages postgraduate researchers in a group called Environmental Engineering & Living Systems (EELS) on industry focused research projects. He conducts a range of renewable energy, water and waste related projects and teaching across Australia and Indonesia.
Chris has a background in local government and private sector senior management roles and has been the Director of the Kwinana Industries Council since 2007.
Chris holds an Executive MBA from University of Western Australia and has graduated from the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
